In June after completing the Great North Swim 2014 I said I would never swim again, however since I have the Great North Run in 10 days and since my legs are not well enough to run on I needed to maintain my fitness so I thought swimming would be perfect since it’s less strenuous on the muscles and I’m pretty good at it and will be able to push my fitness levels and form.

Well…. I was pretty good at it although I had no idea how my form would be once I got into the pool. I set myself an hour’s swim and I thought if my pace was terrible I’d push an easy 50 lengths. I got in and BOY it was cold – was it this cold when I used to train here back in May? – 3 months ago!!! Perhaps they’ve decreased the temperature of the pool ever since I ended up being taken to hospital when I attempted the 1,000 length swim challenge due to it being too warm. 

I played about with my goggles for the first 6 lengths trying to get them right and there was a guy in the same lane who was trying to impress with his speed and technique – come on everyone does it! – what just me? I’m so vain!

Finally I got my goggles right and started pushing to see how my fitness and breathing was. I noticed that my technique was good and I felt like I hadn’t been away for 3 months and started getting faster and faster – I was happy to see that I was still by miles the fastest guy in the pool like I used to be at the beginning of summer. The guy I was sharing my lane with was quite impressed that I was catching up to him in the fast lane doing breaststroke whilst he was doing a fast crawl… and having to take regular breaks. I took 1 rest break overall which was only about a couple of minutes when I has done 50 lengths. I wanted to aim for 100 so I pushed myself hard laughing at that I ONLY had to do 100 lengths and not aiming for milestones of 500 or 700 lengths when I used to do the boring monotonous training. 

I noticed a woman swimming in the lane next to mine and she was wearing some basic headphones. I realised that I really missed swimming but damn it got boring and some headphones like these Fenis Neptune underwater MP3 player would be a good investment. We shall have to see!

I managed 100 lengths in the 60 minutes and my pace (0.73 MtPS, 1.76 LPM, 1.63 MPH, 2.64 KPH) is as it was back in May so I’m really chuffed!

Unfortunately for me having a good swimming fitness and form does not mean that I have a good running fitness and form. I shall do what I can in 10 days so I just hope that my legs repair so I can do the small 13 mile run.