I had possibly the most expensive swim ever last night when I went back to swim club after 6 months off. In my defence, Sunday evening at 6pm is not a natural exercise time for me, and there were also so many Sundays where I had done an event in the morning. I had an ace time though; the over 16s now join the masters and we do the same set, based around where they are in their competition cycle. Last night it was an aerobic set that looked like this:
30 x 100m off 2 minutes. Broken down as:
5 x (50m drill, 50m FC)
5 x (50m kick, 50m FC)
5 x (100m descending)
5 x (100m paddles and pullbuoy)
5 x (100m choice stroke descending)
5 x (100m with fins)
Fab! Owing to a little mix up and having to cut the last one short as we ran out of time I swam 2.85k. The coach said he was impressed with my fitness. Imagine what my fitness would look like if I went every week!!
Onto plans for 2017. I was originally planning to do the Manchester Marathon and nail that good for age time that I'm sure I've got in me. However, the idea hasn't quite sat well with me. Since the knee injury in June last year, I still don't feel back to the sort of strength where training for a marathon would be a good idea. The knee is mostly better but now there's a hamstring niggle on the same sie.
Instead, I've decided to concentrate on building fitness and strength to do the things I have lined up to the best of my ability. This means going to swim club, it means keeping going with PT and my own strength training, it means doing my stretches every day, it means eating better (which is something that I seem to be getting better at in terms of more vegetables and less sugar). I'm going to do some openwater swims and maybe do a half marathon every month.
Here's what I've got booked in so far:
22/1 Farnborough Half
17/2 Thorpe Park Half
19/3 Hastings Half
7/4 and 8/4 Swimathon 5k
20/5 3.8k Mass Start Swim at Box End
9/6 Great North Swim 5k
10/6 Keswick Mountain Festival 25k trail run
11/6 Keswick Mountain Festival 3k swim in Derwentwater
??16/7 Swim Oxford Swim/Run
23/7 3.8k Mass Start Swim at Box End
29/7 Breca SwimRun 13k running, 4k swimming
13/8 Rutland Swim 8k
Plenty to keep me busy!
