For anyone who doesn't know, just over 4 1/2 years ago I was in Papworth Hospital having a pulmonary endarterectomy operation (removal of lung lining) to get rid of stubborn bilateral PEs which did not want to go away, their favourite game being trying to stop me breathing!
Anyway with that and covid, I hadn't swam properly for a few years until about a month ago. I went and was pleased that I managed 32 lengths in about 50 minutes. Not long after I saw the Diabetes Swim22 challenge advertised and decided to sign up. It would give me something to motivate me and work towards whilst raising money for a very worthwhile charity. My sister is a specialist diabetes nurse and I have a few friends who behave diabetes so it's nice to be able to do something to help, even if only in a small way.
Having only managed 32 lengths in a hour I signed up to complete 11 miles in the duration of the challenge, meaning I need to complete around a mile a week to achieve this. A mile is around 64 lengths aoni would still need to double up what I'm doing or find time to go twice a week, which would be difficult around the kids, work and times the pool is open for general swimming!
Tuesday nights are perfect as the kids are at cubs, the pool is only 5 minutes away so I have time to get there, swim for an hour and get about the same time as them 😊
Last week was my first training swim since signing up for the challenge and I managed 36 lengths in an hour. Speed-wise that was probably about the same as my first trip a few weeks before but on that occasion I physically couldn't have swam for another 10 minutes so I took that as a slight improvement! I'm sure I could add on another couple of lengths for all the zigzagging around other people and kids in the pool too! Especially avoiding 'The Shark' whizzing up and down the pool with complete disregard for everyone else, according to the 'ladies that lunch'! You know who you are!! 🤣😂 Anyway, I doubt if the ladies that lunch will ever acknowledge me again after seeing me talking to the shark, which I am sure was seen as me colluding with the enemy.........oops!
So tonight my aim was to try and stop less for, less time, and swim 40 lengths in the hour.
I have to say, after completing 600m (24 lengths) in half an hour I was feeling fairly confident! I find myself using strange distraction methods in the pool to stop thinking about how many lengths I've done, from people watching, inventing stories about the other swimmers, singing along to the music playing for the aqua aerobics class (only in my head don't worry! Although it could be a way of clearing the pool a bit.....🤔). Tonight it was singing the alphabet (again only in my head!), seeing what letter I got to at each end.... usually between V and Y on the second time through if you're interested!
I managed less breaks and didn't stop for as long when I did break, apart from the times I had to stop because I was choking from swallowing water, something my lungs aren't very good at coping with!!
I was really pleased to see I'd matched last week's 36 lengths in 45 minutes, which spurred me on and I complete 1200m, 48 lengths in just second under an hour!
How chuffed am I!! I was grinning like an idiot to myself when I finished so any other people watchers in the pool have probably now labelled me 'the crazy grinny woman' 🤣 Do I care? Nooooo!!
If I can improve at the same rate over the next 2 weeks (although I'm not under any false illusions that is actually possible!) I could be just up to mile a week in time for the start of the challenge!! I really hope so as that would be such a great personal achievement too!
Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far, your donations really are greatly appreciated!
https://swim22.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/teresa187
No comments:
Post a Comment