No more pictures yet I'm afraid, which is a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because I am currently very pink along the back of my shoulders, my calves (and behind my knees - super ouch) and my face is bright red. A bad thing because I had a lovely sea swim this morning whilst the sun was coming up.
Yesterday afternoon we had a good fitness swim in the 50m pool. The sun was shining and I really should have put my suncream in my bag, but I didn't. Nor my tinted goggles. Unsurprisingly I got burnt... I really enjoyed the fitness swim as it showed that the endurance was definitely there; whilst some of the other ladies had been swimming faster than me in the technique sessions, once we were doing longer reps, I was doing a bit better relatively.
For our main-set we swam:
1 length, 10s rest, 2 lengths, 10s rest, 3 lengths, 10s rest, 4 lengths, 10s rest, 5 lengths
5 lengths easy, focusing on technique
1 length, 10s rest, 2 lengths, 10s rest, 3 lengths, 10s rest, 4 lengths
4 lengths easy, focusing on technique
1 length, 10s rest, 2 lengths, 10s rest, 3 lengths
4 lengths easy, focusing on technique
1 length, 10s rest, 2 lengths
3 lengths easy
1 length strong, 10s rest, 1 length strong.
It doesn't sound much but we did do it in a 50m pool! We think the session probably worked out at about 3.5k, so at least 5k for the day yesterday.
For our warm down, we used our different "toys" - snorkel, fins, paddles to help us reestablish good technique ahead of our next swim
After the swim we had a lecture and then looked at some of our videos from the morning. Dan said that I had already improved in the afternoon from the morning. I still need to watch my right arm, and my head is still very high. Same feedback as last year really :( I also asked him to film my backstroke because I've been working on that by myself and it's a bit tricky without a coach or even knowing how I am looking in the water. He said that my legs weren't too sinky, but that I am very flat. So I need to work on transferring the rotation that I have in my front crawl to my backstroke.
This morning's swim was lovely. I reckon the water was about 20C, Martin thought about 18C. Unfortunately the wind/current was too strong for us to swim back along the shore but we had a good swim in the lagoon. The group stayed in for about 45 minutes and just as I was about to get out to reunite myself with my Dry Robe, Martin told me that he'd stay in on the paddle board so that I could do more swimming "because you need to get the miles in". Thanks. I swam across the lagoon and back, and then he got in for a swim, and we did the same again. I was quite grateful for my tow float, not only because I knew that this would make me nice and visible, but because it was nice to hold onto in the group situation when we waited for other people to catch up.
I do feel quite anxious about the Mallorca swimming camp coming up where the water will be far colder and I will be expected to stay in for much longer. I am definitely struggling mentally with convincing myself that I can do that. But I will have my wetsuit to hand and I guess the time in the water is not wasted even if I ended up swimming in it.
In terms of self-care, I'm doing well and not so well. The forgotten suncream was obviously a big fail. I managed to eat a good mixture of veggies and protein at dinner last night as well as my beloved carbs and cheese. And although I couldn't manage to get any breakfast down this morning, I did have two cups of peppermint tea and a hot chocolate to get some recovery in. I think I probably am still full from dinner last night (three plates of main courses, some dessert, and a powerbar back in my room...!). I'm also going to book a sports massage today as my shoulder is niggly. I've got nearly 3 hours until we leave for our afternoon swim, so I'm going to try not to spend the whole time on the computer, but finish my third book of the holidays, and maybe have a little sleep. I was invited to go for a walk which would have been nice but I am aware that my body needs to rest and luckily I have a fantastic view of the sea from my room :) Oh, and I've only cried briefly once since leaving Mr W at Gatwick airport and have managed to sleep for two nights without any medication so I think that deserves a gold star too.
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