Inchworm, inchworm...

Two and two are four...
Four and four are eight...
Eight and eight are sixteen
Sixteen and sixteen are thirty two
Inchworm, inchworm

So it goes as I measure out my training in 32 length stints (32 lengths = 1600m = near-as-damn-it-a-mile). 32 lengths an hour, and once you have completed your mile you get out and rest - till the next hour starts. 

So how has it being going? Tough. Interesting. 

So far since the start of my training for this swim (sometime in January) I have worked my way up from 3 x 1 mile training in a day to 5 x 1 mile to 7 x 1 mile, 8.33 x 1 mile, 9 x 1 mile and this weekend 3.5 x 1 mile one day and 5 x 1 mile the next. 

What I do know is this from the last couple of training sessions is this:

Mile one is always stiff and horrible. My hands hurt and my breathing is less controlled. I have to shake my hands on recovery to stop them hurting. 

Mile two is generally nice and relaxed. Breathing goes to a steady 4 stroke pattern, nice and even 

Mile three can be nice too. Although first six lengths arms stiffen. Fine after that though. Result! Some

Mile four and beyond always follow more or less the same pattern. Six lengths stiff. 14 lengths fun. Takes me up to 20 lengths. Experiment with technique, changing pull, trying to work on my kick, trying to really relax my breathing consciously trickle breathing on a beat. Length 20 to 26 OK, a bit tired. Lengths 27 and 28 horrible and interminable and stressful as I try to imagine what time I will come in at and stress at the worry of being too slow. End of length 29 I allow myself to look at my watch. I play mind games overestimating how long I will have take so that I will be pleased with myself to come in on the time that I should. If I'm over time I try to pick up the pace in the last 150m somehow thinking that I will 'shave off a minute' in 150m. Stupid. Lengths 30 to 32 fun as I know I'm making OK time.

The last mile is always simultaneously lovely and hideous. Because it's the last one you want it to be over but because it's a mile it takes just as long as all the other ones do. Doh! But it should only take five minutes because it's the last one! And you are nearly there! Oh, it's so confusing. It is H.I.D.E.O.U.S but somehow it gets done. Then it's over. Shower time. LUXURY.

What I also know is this. Although swimming for hours on end is a bore, being able to get out every hour for a while and watch the world and have a cup of tea and sit and recover, makes it bearable. I love swimming and I love people who love swimming.

To be party to the ebbs and flows of the pool - when it's busy or quiet - when the macho tumble-turning-lane-hogging-I'll-push-off-a-nano-second-before-you-do guys get in, when the genteel and irritating Hoxton girls in bikinis get in, when the earnest Outdoor Swimming Society club swimmers get in; when it thins out to a relaxed trickle; is lovely. I know the time that the weird mustachiod stretching man gets in - who swims two lengths then stretches insanely for six; when the french water polo twins get in, when my lovely cheerleading strangers Alex and Laurent get in - just when I'm at my lowest ebb - to give me one last wave of enthusiasm and encouragement. It's all so lovely. Although not at the time, obviously!

I'm nervous about the day. I know it will be really hard. I know that I will not want to swim for hour after hour and that I will be nervous that, because I'm slow, I won't find it easy to have enough rest near the end. I know that I'm really looking forward to swimming overnight - like a little aquatic secret squirrel. 

Two long training swims yet to complete - another 9 hour/9 mile swim this weekend hopefully. And then on 1 April a 12 hour/12 mile training swim. I know that if I can complete that in a relaxed fashion it will give me a bit of encouragement. 

Watch this space. 

Comments

[ida roebken]

Your blog is great!
And the descriptions of the different types of swimmers made my day. I especially enjoyed:" when the macho tumble-turning-lane-hogging-I'll-push-off-a-nano-second-before-you-do " as I started to beleive it is only me who notices this idiotical behaviour...and in "my" pools it is always the guys that swim about 40 lanes in total but stay in the water forever!