NORTHERN PLANNER

It’s less than a month until the ‘swim a mile in the sea while not looking too stupid next to your nephews’ challenge and it’s going sort of OK, despite the fact it’s distance swimming, which is not something my body likes doing.

The first few weeks were not easy. My body loves doing a hard pace for a medium-ish distance, it’s not used to going for stupidly long distances. So it’s being asked to go well out of it’s comfort zone four or five times a week.

At first I kept hitting a wall (metaphorically). The pain gave way to numbness and I lost rhythm, leaving me thrashing around for a third of each session. Some of that was muscles crying, "Stop". Some was the need for more ‘feel’, but most of it was technique.

For years I’ve been used to quick breathing, meaning my head doesn’t stay long out the water to gulp down oxygen. But longer distances mean you have to take in a lot more air, and taking longer to breathe unbalanced my stroke. You can get away with little imperfections when you’re feeling strong, but when you get tired, they start to magnify into real problems. An adjustment to the head position and coming through with the right arm a bit deeper seems to have sorted it out. It’s coming together.

Then yesterday I did 60 lengths in about 20 minutes. That’s about the distance of the race and the target time. The pool is not the same as the sea, but it’s encouraging. And it felt good, really good. The stroke was silky smooth, it was nice sort of pain that tells you the body’s working, but there’s more to come. A lot more.

That’s the thing about training for something. You need to get a certain level first before you can start to REALLY train. That’s where I seem to be now. I’m not saying I wouldn’t prefer to stay in bed on the odd morning, I can’t pretend it doesn’t hurt still, but that’s the fun. It’s not really worth it if you don’t have to try.

On another note, it’s interesting watching the body adjust. I’m getting noticeably lankier and leaner, the shoulders are growing out of proportion with the rest of my body. No webbed feet yet, but give it time.