After a day off on Saturday - a couple of glasses of wine may have slipped in there somewhere - the family drop me off at the pool on Sunday morning and disappear off for a walk. The pool is busy, but one lane is cordoned off for elite athletes like me.
I concentrate yet again on correctly rolling my body when breathing, and breathing into the dip behind the bow wave, which prevents you having to raise your head too high to breathe. In a short period of time the swimming has become a lot more comfortable, even if my technique does start to disintegrate after a few lengths.
Something is odd, however, aside from the distraction of constantly fogging goggles. In one direction I seem to fly. In the other it feels a lot tougher, almost as if I'm swimming uphill. I can't determine if there's some sort of current from the shallow end to the deep end, or if it's because the "anti-clockwise" convention means that the uphill leg is next to the wall, in the turbulence of echoing waves. Either way, it's annoying, but a slight taste of what conditions will be like in open water.
All in all, I enjoy the swim. Still not fast; approximately 75% old lady speed (hereby 0.75OL) judging from the woman next to me. Also still not the prettiest, but a marked improvement.
The practicality of getting home again after the swim means I add a run straight after. It's about 1.6 miles from the pool to home, and I cover it in about 15 minutes. At one point, I nearly enjoy it. Strange.
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