jack

Swimming outside at Jesus Green Lido was so lovely.

My very-old-now prescription goggles are doing great service, and swimming underwater still feels magical, seeing the sparkling dapples of sunlight rippling across the top and bottom of the water, and any leaves hanging stationary suspended in infinity.

I swam 16 lengths (nearly 1mi), and pushed myself to actually go faster enough that my heart was racing and I felt tired out, even if it wasn't very fast in actual speed. That was mostly breaststroke but I also practiced crawl, and managed about half a length before running out of puff.

And just sitting in the sun is glorious.

The water temperature was 17c, and it was noticeably colder for longer after I got in than 18c, but I had got better at getting in without cursing, and by half way through the first length it felt lovely. And feeling the sun on my skin felt lovely.

Holy freaking blasphemy, that was cold. The blackboard said 17 degrees, but I've been spoiled by swimming inside for six months, and I almost couldn't force myself in. It was ok after 10 minutes, but before then it seemed burningly cold, all through my limbs.

June is summer, right?

I stuck to my principles and said, even if it's painful, it's much better to go in in a rush and get acclimatised rather than spend ages immersing yourself millimetre by millimetre and going "eek". But I had to nerve myself up a bit first.

The lengths are really long, too! Swimming 100m is fairly easy now, but I had to remind myself to keep going, and I couldn't stop for a break every 25m if I was swimming a bit faster than I could maintain.

Crossposts: http://cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com/842698.html

I find swimming 25m lengths rather than 91m lengths actually quite nice because I can vary my speed for a length without getting exhausted a 1/4 of the way along :)

But it's somewhat harder to count how many you've done because there's a lot more of them :)

Currently my best effort at not losing track is:

1. Count in pairs, naming even lengths only (since you can see which end of the pool you're at).
2. Don't try to remember the number, go from "done 24" at the exact moment when you turn round, to "done 24, coming up to 26" on the out length, and "coming up to 26" on the return length.
3. Repeat several times, so the number is (hopefully) stored in auditory memory.
4. Never anticipate. If you count number, I find myself a few strokes short of the end saying "that's about 26". But once that number is in my head, I forget if that's the number I've done or the number I'm coming up to.
5. At most once, when I'm at least half way to my target, I can reset and count from zero. Counting smaller numbers is definitely easier, but I don't want to do that more than once or I'll get muddled with previous counts.

Crossposts: http://cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com/800757.html

Holy Jesus, that was cold. I shouldn't have questioned people who go in slowly :) On Saturday, it was sunny for the first time in two weeks, and I seized the chance to go swimming again. I went in the late afternoon, thinking it's a great thermal reservoir, it must be warmest late in the day. Well, I think it was but my imagining of its thermal resevroirosity was sadly lacking, and the previous two weeks of cold drizzle had had an impact.

I made the mistake of putting my feet in the water first, and then had to psyche myself up for about five minutes to jump in. It was bracing from then on, but a bit of a shock then.

On Monday I'd learned my lesson, and jumped straight in, which was a lot better.

Of course, it was 15 degrees (16 on Monday), so if it was literally freezing it would be like four times worse¹, and it didn't compare to that, but it was cold enough for me.

Both days I did about ten lengths, on Monday in three-quarters of an hour, because I was going to pizza, which is fairly good going. On the other hand, it's not so much of a workout as it was when I started, I definitely need to brush up my technique.

[1] Warning, not actual maths

Friday

People came over for bridge. It was fun. Though I'm inclined to gripe about not having an opening hand, considering what I did with it when I did, I won't complain.

Saturday Morning

I did a variety of productive and tidying things, making the weekend feel successful before it was over, and being able to relax for the rest of it.

Saturday Evening

I joined Mark in the Carlton, where I met a wide variety of people (including Ben with a surprise voles attack), including several I hadn't seen for a while and it was very nice to see again. Thank you Mark!

I came home quite drunk and late, and played computer games and tidied for a bit.

Sunday Afternoon

I went to Tim's birthday barbecue at his parents'. They've always been very nice to us, at university we visited a few times, and it was like a breath of home to be received into a proper house :)

Sunday Evening

The lovely Mair stopped over. We didn't get to see anyone else, but we chatted about books until late, and she divested herself of some she was trying to clear out, which I picked a bunch out of, also to be distributed to Cambridge friends at her direction (list of books to follow).

Monday Afternoon

I took a day's holiday and we went swimming and lounging at Jesus Green, and then read until pizza.

Monday Evening

Pizza was a little quieter than normal, so there was discussion including politics and genetics.

I went to bridge. Every bridge evening seems to have some theme, this could probably be best described as "be careful what you wish for, the gods' most savage curses come as responses to your own prayers." If you've got six diamonds, what do you want partner to say? Any other suit, and you're going to have difficulty showing what you have. And then he does, and what do you say then? You've got an eleven card fit, but 5D probably has three losers off the top. (In the most prominent example, we bid it successfully. As did the hand with a 7-6 zero-pointer :))

Eleven or nine lengths. I was lazy and lido'd about with a book, and swam in between, so completely lost count.

Never, ever, stick a toe in the water, unless you're actually going to go back to the changing rooms if you don't like it :) If the water's fine it doesn't matter, and if it's cool, it doesn't matter if you go in quickly. So the only thing hesitating first does is make you shiver before hand :)

I went swimming again. This time I managed my mile, without undue effort. (Though the first thing I did when I got out was to walk into a wall :))

It was nearly choppy when it was windy, but it was beautifully azure where it was sunny. Afterward I just lay down with my book for half an hour and was dry.

I jumped in; it is exhilerating.

I still need to improve my technique a lot, I can tell I'm not just slow but a inefficient. Still, not awfully slow on average, the swimming (rather than resting) took only an hour or so.

I went swimming again. Maybe soon it'll stop being news :)

I'm sure the water was colder than before. I think it was my imagination -- remembering it was a lot better than I'd feared the first time, I'd expected it not the be chill at all. And with no need to be brave lowered in rather than gone in one go, which always has a greater Int feeling cold dt.

I felt a bit silly actually. I got there about ten to seven, and toward the end there were only a couple of people there, and I was sure it was about quarter past closing and and they were going to ask us to leave, and I wanted to get in ten+ lengths before that, and also not be caught short in the middle if someone were going to call last orders. But once I finished and got out of the shower, it was still only about ten to eight. So I was obviously swimming fairly well.

It was nice.

ETA: And afterwards I feel like I've *earned* my dinner, beverages, and bed :)

After two weeks, it was sunny, and I went swimming again. It was easier, though I ached more after. I met the same nice guy coming in. It was colder, though that was probably my imagination. At 6 they emptied us for an event, which sounded nice, but I was already on my way out.

PS#1. What I do need is to recall a little technique. I never *did* like getting water on my eyes or nose, so I tend to revert to inefficient face-out-of-the-water versions :) By far the most pleasant (if not very efficient) was backstroke, being essentially lying down and going at whatever speed I liked.

PS#2. *hugs* Thanks to everyone who pointed out that that I'd actually swum reasonably far. When Dad and I were in practice we used to think 1km (40 lengths) was a decent session and 1m (64 lengths) a good session, and in retrospect I probably never found it easy, so in fact I was actually nearly as good as I ever was. We used to get through it by finding synonyms for each number and calling out as we went past :)

PS#3. I was examining the parkside timetable (here) and gave up in disgust. It's partitioned into "swim for all" "splash happy" "splash fitness" and orthogonally into "(laned)", "()" or "(disco)" with a coloured key, but it doesn't actually *say* what it means. I *infer* that it refers to the sorts of swimming that are permitted/encouraged, but it *sounds* like it means "leisure club members" and "kids". Does anyone know what it *does* mean?

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