Success?

last week I had some setbacks. I had planned to have a swim after a diving session on Thursday evening, but disaster struck on an inward dive from the springboard. I slipped, lost my footing, and then my dodgy right leg gave way, leaving me sliding down the edge of the board on my left shin. Ow! It looked worse than it was (a mere flesh wound!) and there was sufficient blood oozing to get me kicked out of the pool. The local swimming club are called The Leeds Sharks, so it could’ve turned nasty.

Last night, with a thick layer of magic (but oh so painful to apply) spray on skin, I headed back to the Leeds pool. First to get revenge on the springboard, second, to get in a record breaking swim.

The diving went well. No accidents. The swim went ok. I warmed up for 200m at a gentle pace, then set off for a fast 400m. Sadly there were a few more people than usual in the pool, and they seemed to be spread throughout all the lanes. I left a big gap before setting off, but caught a swimmer after 120m. It was an awkward spot for overtaking, and to be honest, I think I’d set off too fast, so I eased off and finished at 200m. After a short rest I decided to go for the 100m sprint, just to see what time I could make on that.

I set off fast, but not really using my legs – just a quick single flutter kick on each arm stroke. The warm up had definitely helped, and I found that I was taking a breath every four strokes, rather than the usual three. I managed to keep plenty of space in the strokes, with a good stretch out on each arm. After the turn though, and especially towards the end, I was getting pretty tired and felt inefficient.

I finished right on 1 min 40 seconds. At the time I had no idea what the men’s 200m world record is, but now, with a bit of wiki research, I know that Phelps set the Olympic record in Beijing 2008 with a 200m freestyle time of 1 min 42.96 seconds. Paul Biederman set the current world record a year later with a time of 1min 42.00 seconds.

Half as Good? I set the challenge for 400m freestyle. I’m not sure if that is going to be harder or easier! Certainly harder in a busy pool! I’ll keep going during May, chasing the 200m and then the 400m, but for now, I’m waiting for the Half as Good challenge for this month to be ratified by the IGFF. (International Group of Facebook Friends)

Wish me luck!