Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

But in a good way.

I’ve been swimming for 6 weeks now. This will in fact be the first week I’ve managed 3 full sessions in the week. I started swimming with the intention of getting fit, and hoping the weight would go of its own accord. You know, without me doing anything like dieting, actual exercise I dislike (I love swimming), and basically, any more effort than getting in the pool.
I hadn’t weighed myself for a few weeks, and was disappointed to find last week I hadn’t lost anything since starting. I hadn’t noticed anything else changing either (silly me didn’t take measurements when I first started - I was too scared). I kept going because I knew I was getting fitter, and that’s the whole point. I’m not much “overweight”. According to various BMI indicators or whatever, something like 3-5kg I could lose and be “healthy”. But everything seems to be coming together.

One of the training drills we do is swimming 50m easily, then swimming back as fast as we can. Our coach times us and we try and beat our previous time. Or at least try not to go any slower. We do this 3-5 times in a row, depending on what else we’ve done. Bear in mind with these times I’m wearing fins, so I basically go twice as fast as I normally would.

Last Friday when we did this, I tried to focus on kicking when I normally would have slowed down (around the 35-40m point). My times were, in order: 51 seconds, 45 seconds, 41 seconds. Wow - 10 seconds off in a session. I was pretty chuffed with myself (especially considering previous times had been around the 50-55 second mark).

Today we did the same thing again, but also counted our strokes and tried to bring those down as well. I didn’t reduce my strokes (43 for a 50m lap for those playing at home), but my times improved again. From 43 seconds, to 38.5, to 37.5.

In the space of one week I’ve gone from being able to swim 50 metres in 51 seconds, to doing it in 37.5 seconds.

And that’s not all.

I weighed myself yesterday. I’ve lost 2kg.  Clothes I bought in early March, that were in need of adjusting to do up, fit, and are even, just slightly, loose (until I eat a big meal). All my pants are looser around the thighs. People have noticed I’ve lost weight, I look healthier and I feel it. I can pick M&M up again (heffalump she is at 21kg). I get through the housework quicker. Hanging up the washing doesn’t hurt my arms. Little things like that.

And to be honest, little things are far more motivating than loosing weight to keep me focused on going to the pool. I have structured my week around it, I buy a 10-pass to give me more incentive, and the social aspect is not to be overlooked with talk of a Christmas in July party for the “swimfit” gang (used to be girls, but we have two guys now, have to be PC and all that).

Stay tuned for more of my fitness endeavours, and let me know if you need some motivation so I can kick your butt into gear give it to you