Back in the pool

I'm a bit behind on blogging. There's been a holiday and a flying trip that I am yet to write about. But today is just a quick one...

It's been a while since my surgery now and so this morning I headed to the swimming pool for my first proper swim in two months. My general loss of fitness has been quite bad so I knew not to expect the 2km I was managing back in May! I went in with no expectations and did a respectable 700m. I mixed up the strokes, but was very pleased that my front crawl is still in fairly decent shape. Until I started my swimming training back in March I hadn't done much front crawl at all and now it is almost my default stroke. Success!

Here's some other stuff I've been up to recently:

Not this time

Unfortunately, I've had to withdraw my entry to the 5k Open Water Swim that I was meant to be doing in six weeks time. My training has aggravated a pre-existing medical condition which now needs to be treated. No need to worry - it's nothing serious, but it does mean that I'm now on enforced inactivity until treatments are complete.

I'm really disappointed. Training was beginning to go really well and I was cautiously optimistic that I might complete the challenge (5k in 2 hours). I will definitely re-enter this event or a similar one next year.

And when I do, I'll have some experience and tips under my belt:

- three months is enough time to train, but only if I stick to three sessions every week from the start

- my front crawl technique needs some work so kick board and leg buoy workouts need to be in the training every week

- open water training sessions take much more thought and planning than I expected

- breathing every three (or four or five) strokes is good and needs to be practised more

- swimming fast is hard so I need to add speedy lengths in more often

I also need to prepare for the fact that my hair will need to be tied up most of the time (because I won't ever have the energy to blow dry it) and my nails will be permanently breaking after being soaked so much.

In the meantime, I have halved my Fitbit step count and am forcing myself to sit down as much as possible. It feels odd but I'm guessing I'll get used to being sedentary and lazy quite quickly!

Breaking the pattern

There's something both uplifting and depressing about spotting your own behaviour patterns. On the one hand I think, "Great, I've realised that I do that - now I can change it and I won't behave the same again." But on the other hand, "Am I really that predictable? That's such a bad habit to be in, and it's so ingrained. I'll probably always act like that."

After writing about my new challenge of training to swim 5k, I've been a bit ill and run down. Nothing serious, just enough to keep me at work but barely managing anything else. In the last two weeks I've managed precisely one swim and one ballet class, neither of which went particularly well.

That in itself is fine. People get ill. It's best not to train whilst feeling ill, and a week or so off a training schedule doesn't cause failure.

The problem is that it's taken me longer than it should have to get back into training, and I've felt much less motivated to train.

I've seen it before...

When I trained for the marathon, I started well. I researched lots, I ran three times a week and happily logged the times and distances. Then it started getting harder (and quite dull); I realised that I wasn't very good at running and I got lazy. I was full of excuses. And we all know how that ended. (In case you don't, here's the link).

Then there was the half marathon. I did prepare better for this, but I still hit a point around halfway through when I was tired and fed up (and scared of failure) and I let my training slip. This post explains the situation, and is full of excuses. In the end, I pulled it together better. I got out for some decent training in the last few weeks and managed it (just): half marathon post.

I think it's the pause in training, combined with realising exactly how hard it is going to be to train well and the fear of being unprepared, which results in my failure to be prepared for the events.

How am I going to change this?

Quite simply, I have to force myself to keep training. To do each session that is planned. I need to find a way to turn that fear into commitment to train rather than a reason to hide away.

I need to be in the pool three times a week for the next seven weeks.

That's it.

Wish me luck!

My Next Challenge

I'm trying to focus on doing more of the things I enjoy. So, with that in mind I am currently in training for a 5k open water swim!

To put it in perspective, I expect to take around 2 hours (which is the cut off point!), so it's roughly the swimming equivalent of running half marathon.

My haul from Decathlon - all in the name of training!

For the last month I've been in the pool 1-3 times a week (depending on other activities), and from now on it should be three times every week. Other activities (particularly ballet) are going to have to take a back seat.

So far in my training I've managed to switch from breast stroke to front crawl, and swum 2k continuously. Now I've just got to build up my distance, increase my speed, learn to swim in my brand new swimming wetsuit, and cope with the additional challenges that swimming in open water brings.

Not much then!


I am swimming for charity, so please feel free to contact me if you would like the link to my Just Giving page. It also has weekly (ish) updates on my training.

Summer relaxing Part 1

It has finally got to that part of the summer where work stops and relaxing starts, and I am loving it!

So far my favourite moment was swimming in a pond. I've been meaning to give outdoor swimming a go for a while now, but never quite got round to it, so you can imagine my excitement when I had an invitation to visit a "ladies pond".

The Hampstead Heath Ladies' Pond (also called the Kenwood Ladies' Pond) is a beautiful stretch of water surrounded by trees and small grassy areas for sitting and reading/chatting/sunbathing. It is "manned" by lifeguards and is generally idyllic. Swimming is one of my favourite activities, and swimming with a couple of friends and some Canada geese was pretty much perfect. 

It's not the sort of place to take photos, so this is the only one I have:

I hope you can imagine how glorious it was!

Summer round-up

Back at the beginning of the summer, before the sun even bothered to come out, I wrote this year's Summer Ambitions list:

It turns out that organising a wedding, moving to a different city and starting a new job for the first time in seven years takes quite a bit of time and effort! However, all things considered, I don't think I did too badly:

try stand up paddle boarding - I did this one! If you have't already guessed, this fun day out was my hen do (the British equivalent of a Bachelorette party). It was fantastic fun and I definitely plan on going again.

four ballet classes in a week - this one really has fallen by the wayside. Last summer I had plenty of times on my hands and achieved this aim quite easily. This year I think my "record" is a paltry two. But never fear my ballet-loving friends - I will be back and I will be dancing more.

get a facial and massage - half achieved. I had a wonderful, relaxing massage a couple of days before the wedding, which was perfect in every way. I'm sure I'll get round to treating myself to a facial at some point, and in the meantime I continue to enjoy my indulgent face mask every now and again.

clear out more clutter - this is turning into an annual event! I got rid of a whole load of stuff before the move, but I still feel like I have a lot of stuff. I am now the proud "owner" of a shed-sized storage locker which is quite well packed.

drink a fancy cocktail - managed this one a couple of times which is good. I mostly find myself gravitating towards the traditional mojito though - not very fancy but reliable and tasty.

get my skates on  - I know I did this at some point, but I'm failing to remember exactly when. Sometime this summer I was on my skates.

go running - nope. I have finally realised that running is really not my thing. I was listening to MarathonTalk (still one of my favourite podcasts) and they were talking about how they love running. One of the presenters made the point that, even though you don't always enjoy runs, you should still have a positive attitude towards it if it's something you do regularly. It hit a nerve with me: I don't enjoy running and I almost never have. So, running is off the agenda, to be replaced with all sorts of other exercise activities.

sit in the sun with a good book - this one has happened a few times :) Somehow I've actually read quite a few books. I might even manage a blog post about them at some point. To be honest, I haven't enjoyed them all and I'm currently hunting for great books.

make cookies - not quite, but I did make scones one morning.

get my nails done nicely - I got a pretty manicure before the wedding (nothing wild), and I've been painting my nails quite regularly over the summer. Colours have included: electric blue, pinky-beige, pale pink, purple, bluey-turquoise and purpley-grey (the current colour). It's surprising how much painting my nails lifts my mood.

wear a dress "just because" - this is something I'm definitely getting better at. I admit that jeans are still my first point of call, but there have been several weekends or evenings when I've thrown on a dress without an occassion to go to.

go swimming - I don't know how I haven't managed this one. Unless swimming in a lake after falling off a paddle board counts?!

How was your summer? What did you get up to?
Any good reads that you can recommend?

Fitness shake up

I'm sure I've read multiple times that changing your workout every now and again is a good idea. Something to do with challenging your muscles to work in different ways... ?

Currently, my main focus is ballet classes (which I'm sure everyone reading this blog is sick of hearing about!). It inspires, motivates and pushes me to work harder.

However, to develop in my ballet I need to do other work: cardio, strength and stretching. Luckily I've recently gained access to a gym. It doesn't have a swimming pool (I do enjoy swimming) but the range of equipment has inspired me. I *might* even start running on the treadmill once my IT band has been stretched out (slightly overdid it with nearly seven hours of ballet classes last week!).

On top of generally working out and having a go on the machines (my current favourites being the cross-trainer and rowing machine), I have one specific goal in mind: to work on my core strength and upper back muscles.

If I'm feeling brave then I might start having a go at pull ups, encouraged by a recent post by Janetha at Meals and Moves blog. She demonstrates a progression of moves to build up to a full pull up:

I've got a long way to go!

Questionnaire-y type post

Whilst I was off on my jaunts (which I will be blogging about over the next few days), two of my blogging friends (Elle at eat run sail and Mrs DiscoBows at Disco & Bows) nominated me for a Liebster Award. It's not my normal type of post, but here goes...

Liebster is a German word that means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

Rules for receiving this award:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Then answer the questions the tagger sent for them, plus create 11 questions for the people they’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Notify the people you have tagged.
5. No tag backs.

Things about me:
1) I love the sea.
2) I love flying.
3) I'm very good at starting projects and not very good at finishing them. Hopefully, as I age I'm starting to buck this trend.
4) Gardening is a particular example of the above - I love gardening and always start with lots of good intentions and end up not giving the plants enough care and attention.
5) I'm much too worried about what other people think of me and I hate thinking that someone might be laughing at me.
6) If I could do everything I want to, I would need to be a superhero! My ideal weekly activities would be: 2-3 ballet lessons, karate lesson, homegroup, swimming, 1-2 runs, Spanish and/or French lessons, meeting with friends and one quiet night in.
7) I roller skated a LOT as a child (think artistic skating, like ice dancing). I was never great at it but got to the point of landing the odd double jump, which is pretty cool. I am, consequently, quite at home on eight wheels.
8) I have big feet (due to being tall). The other day, a shop assistant in a Spanish department store almost laughed when I asked for a shoe in my size (and it wasn't because of my awful Spanish pronunciation!).
9) I do both ends of the spectrum - tomboy-one-of-the-lads rigging (e.g. for fireworks) and lady-what-lunches (dressing up and enjoying dining out).
10) The fact that I've worked on about 30 fireworks shows does not dull my excitement when I see a show. Sometimes I even jump up and down when watching.
11) Pandas :)

From one extreme to the other

I don't do those "weekly exercise round-ups". That's mostly because, compared to most of the blogs that I read, I'm actually pretty inactive most of the time - maybe two proper workouts in the average week? Not enough to blog about.

This week, however, I finally had a bit more time on my hands. So what did I do?! Overdo it :) Doh

Sun: swim 40 lengths (1km)
Mon: run 1.5 miles, walk 3.5 miles
Tue: full on ballet class
Tue night: tweet about how tired I am and how my ballet wasn't up to scratch because of my tiredness
Wed: no planned workout but end up having to carry things up and down the stairs at work a lot
Wed evening: a bath and an early night!

I was so determined not to do any proper exercise today that I even donned inappropriate-for-running-on footwear:

Lessons I have learnt this week

A phone call to a utilities company is never quick.

I own way too much cooking and baking equipment to fit in a small but well-planned kitchen.

Occasionally I actually choose to tidy and do housework.

It's sensible to check the swimming pool's showers are working before embarking on a trip there.

A few special pictures and trinkets help make a new place feel like home.

There is no substitute for great friends.