Category: Swimming

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Not bad for a 48 year old

Pic of the week 2/4/17

So Tuesday was my (48th) birthday. I had a great day and I’ve been a busy boy since.

Over the last year it has dawned on me that my mid-life crisis is manifesting itself in the need to do as much exercise as possible.  Perhaps its some subconscious realisation that this body of mine has a finite life and I need to extract every last scrap of usage out of it? Who knows, but it’s got to be better than buying a motorbike, squeezing into some ill fitting leathers and roaring down the road is some forlorn hope to try and recapture ones youth.

I celebrated the day by sneaking off early at 3.15 (free lesson P5!) and heading down to the pool to swim 48 lengths for my 48th birthday – a mile to mark the milestone of another passing year. And then it was home for pressies & my birthday tea of curry, followed by lime jelly and ice cream – a menu not enjoyed or shared by any member of my family.

I was already tee-ed up to referee the girls football tournament on the next day (Wednesday 29th) when I got a phone call asking me to referee Wessex U14s in a game the same evening, 6.30 kick off. I agreed – come 8.30pm on Wednesday I gratefully hopped  (no, not hopped, stumbled perhaps) into the shower, realising I had just refereed for 3 hours!

On Thursday I played for the staff v the U6th leavers – was pleasantly surprised how my legs coped with another onslaught of physical activity. A great game, great fun, and great to come out 3-2 winners.

Friday was, of course, spinning night – with the added euphoria of the end of term. Saturday – a day of rest, before Sunday, more football, this time a Legends game v Castle Cary.

A beautiful Spring day, we took the lead and for a good ten minutes basked in the glory of being ahead as well as the April sunshine. But, alas, it was not to last. A very off-side goal and a missed penalty saw us ultimately lose 3-1, but a great game to end a great season veterans football (all of 4 games!)

And now the holidays begin in earnest, I need the rest, but I’m sure I’ll find the time for a little bit (more) exercise.

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Half Term

Pic of the week 19/2/17

So half term has been and gone. A contradictory week full of exercise and rest, of freezing cold and warm sunshine. The need for sleep was satiated, with lovely lie ins until at least 8.00 am each day.  Not sure how I’ll cope again with the 6.40 rises that start tomorrow.

And I’ve been active, doing something everyday:

Friday spinning, Saturday refereeing, Sunday playing football & swimming, Monday: run & swim, Tuesday spinning, Wednesday, a long swim (72 lengths, 1.5 miles), Thursday swim, 28 lengths (1 mile), Friday refereed at Yeovil Town U16 trial games & spinning, Saturday refereeing (OA), Sunday refereeing (U15)

In amongst all of that, on Thursday I found the time to do some tree surgery, taking a couple of high branches down from the tree by our compost bins.  I was at the full reach of my ladders and used a pole to strap a hand saw to to get extra reach for the upper most branch. A bit brutal, but needed doing.  Will be interesting to see the difference once we start getting some long sunny days.

Six weeks and counting ’til the next hols …

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I’m Jeff. I’m an addict.

Sophie theory test passPic of the week 5/2/17 – Sophie passed her driving test theory yesterday.

I’m Jeff, and I’m an addict.

I’ve suspected for a while, but confirmed my suspicions on Friday.

Late January/early February. Dark, gloomy days of the year. Through in a bit of man flu, still a couple of weeks to half term. Tough times.

Having not been the previous week (due to aforementioned man flu) I trudged down the hill on Friday evening for my spinning class. I worked hard, I sweated, my legs ached, but I came back buzzing. The endorphins were flowing, my mojo was back with a vengeance.

And then I realised – I’m an addict, an exercise addict. And that’s not a bad thing.

Today I’ve run 7K (set new PB for the year) and swam a Km this afternoon and I feel a whole lot better for it.

Exercise and music, the elixir of life.

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Goals, aims and targets – 2017

Goalposts unchangedWith 2017 up and running, its time to write down (and commit to) my goals, aims and targets for the year ahead.  Looks like its going to be a physical year!

  • Run 300Km – a much lower target than I set myself last year, but not a target I met, completing 296 Km in 2016.  Should be do-able despite the demands on my time from other physical pursuits (swimming, spinning, referee-ing and who knows what for 2017)
  • Run up the Tor. In the summer of 2016, when I was regularly running, I set myself this goal for 2017: to run from home to the tor, run all the way up the tor, and then run back again. This is a tough ask, particularly as I am not running as much as I did last year. Would be a real achievement to do so. If I don’t write it down, it wont happen.  Think I’ll have to target the summer hols to do it, if I’m going to do it.
  • Swim 150Km (4,500) lengths.  Toyed with putting in a higher total – I did 200Km, 6000 lengths in 2016, but don’t think I’ll be swimming as much this year as last, so have given myself a very achievable target to ensure that I do make it.
  • Gardening: 2016 was all about the structure of the garden, this year I hope to focus more on the planting. So this year I want to: plant raspberry canes & rhubarb, grow and eat runner beans, peas, courgette and onions and grow some sweet peas and sunflowers.
  • Refereeing – enter the promotion programme from Level 7 to Level 6.  Promotion year runs from March to Feb so won’t be able to clinch promotion in 2017, but hopefully will be a significant way down the track.
  • Weight: before the Christmas excesses, I would say that my “normal” weight was 12 stone 7 (today its up around 12 stone 12).  I aim to be back at 12 stone 7 within 3 weeks and establish 12 stone 6 as my “normal” weight (normal weight: allows a swing of 3 lbs each way, so range between 12 3 and 12 9 following a festival of feasting)
  • My maths blog: this was an aim I failed last year, and want to rectify again.  Write at least twice a month on my maths blog – A Maths Teacher Writes
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Swimming 2016

swimming-pool-At the start of the year, I challenged myself to swim the channel. Not, of course, in the sea, in one go – that would be far too cold/difficult/dangerous/unachievable (and a whole host of other reasons), but over the course of the year in Strode Pool. I calculated I would need to swim 960 lengths, and I achieved this goal by mid March.

Today I completed my 6,000th length, which equates to 200km, and I’m rather proud of that. A knee injury in January forced me off the road and into the pool more, and no plumbing in February half term meant that I visited the pool every day to keep clean – swimming was a useful by product – but there have been other times when the going has got tough: the latter half of November, for example, found me somewhat of a stranger to the water (reports, refereeing, life, getting in the way).

The start of my Christmas holidays saw me needing to get in another 436 lengths – a significant number, but one that could be done. So I’ve put in a few big swims since then – 3 x 72’s, 2 x 60’s, 1 x 48 and 2 x 30’s to hit my goal today, with eight extra lengths for  good measure!

With “odd” opening times for lanes next week (between Christmas & New Year) today may have been my last swim of the year, so the stats for 2016 are:

Lengths: 6008

Distance: 200.27 Km

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3K

3kWednesday 6th July 2016 – Swam 3K in 1 hour 5 min 25 secs

It just felt right. Pool was relatively empty, time was on my side and I just decided to keep plodding on for 90 lengths.

Took over an hour – am amazed that I can swim (front crawl) constantly for more than an hour.  The hardest thing is just copping with the time in the pool (i.e. not getting bored!) than the physical. Will do it again sometime. Chuffed that I’ve done it.

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72

72I have a new distance – 72 lengths, or 1.5 miles. First swam it on Wednesday 29 June ’16, was ploughing up and down the lanes and I felt on fire (if you can be on fire in a swimming pool!) so did a bit of mental maths to determine what was a sensible extension to 6o lengths and came up with 72 lengths, or 1.5 miles.

Have swum it three times now, time about 51 ish minutes. Once you get to the sixty lengths of 2K, adding another 12 is no big deal, and that’s the mindset that has seen me hit this target.  Last summer, I’d do twenty lengths, soon added another 4 to make it half a mile.  I think it was the start of the Christmas hols that I pushed myself to 30 length – 1K – and I was chuffed with that. 30 lengths now just seems like a walk in the park. Small increments every time.

So what next? The logical next step would be 90 lengths – 3K. That would involve swimming for over an hour – quite a big physiological step, but a goal to aim for before the end of the summer hols …

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Half term

summerhouse montage (722x720)Pick of the week 5/6/16

What a manly half term:

I built a new shed:

new shedI knocked down the summerhouse, fixed the car when it wouldn’t start, ran 6k twice, swam 2K twice, a mile once and totaled 288 lengths of the pool, chopped down the tops of two hefty trees in the hedge … and all of this in one week.

I’ve got 4 weeks back at school now, before the long eight week summer holiday – not sure how I’ll survive it, I’ll be a physical wreck come September!

The rain stayed away most of the time and sun shone on occasion, a great, fulfilling and productive week.

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2K

2KSaturday 28th May 2106 – Swam 2Km, 43 min 41 secs

Furthest I’ve ever swum. Back in July/August (2015) when I started swimming regularly, I would do 20, or perhaps 24, lengths.  I since “upped the norm” (what a great phrase!) to 30 lengths (1 Km) and a couple of months ago (end of March) swam a mile (48 lengths) for the first time, and a mile has since become a regular distance when I’m on my own.

On Saturday, I was cruising through the water and, at around 30 lengths, decided to go for the 2K – sixty lengths. It wasn’t actually difficult, just keep on keeping on ’till you hit the goal.  Rather chuffed with myself though.

Not sure what goals that leaves me: 3K – 90 lengths – is probably the next step, but that is a way off. Going from 48 (mile) to 60 (2k) lengths was not a big leap, 60 to 90 lengths is.  Perhaps 72 lengths (1.5 miles) … now, that’s got me thinking.