Two weeks have passed since my last entry and it seems like a lot has happened.
Unfortunately the fuel pump inside the fuel tank in my car decided to stop working, leaving me without a car for 10 days. You really don’t realise how much you rely on your car until you don’t have it. So much so, that I had to hire a car for a few days for work. Lack of car also meant I couldn’t drive to the lake to swim, which was a real pain.
Luckily, the local open air pool is only about 2k from me, so I cycled there and back each day, which was actually great exercise, but in this heat was a bit of a killer. Particularly on the way back as it is up a very long steep hill that most people have trouble walking up, let along cycling. The first time I had to get off the bike and walk, but subsequent times I wouldn’t let myself off the bike and just kept going. The result was burning thighs and a feeling like I would never walk again, but having done it once, I was mentally prepared for the subsequent days. I was equally as hard on subsequent days, but I’d done it before so I knew I would do it again.
The other thing spurring me on is that I have signed up to swim 50K in the month of July. It’s a virtual swim where you set a distance you want to achieve and record it yourself and submit the time at the end of the month. Not being able to do long distances in the lake due to lack of car and only being able to do 2k in my lunch hour means I now have some catching up to do.
With my car fixed I went to the lake on Monday and swam five laps(5k) in 1 hour 28 minutes, which I was very happy with, though it felt hard. I did the same on Thursday, and although it was hard at the beginning as I hadn’t slept at all well the night before, it turned out great, and by the last lap, I felt great and like I could have easily continued if I had too. I also knocked a couple of minutes off Mondays time, finishing in 1 hour 26 minutes. So 5k is my new minimum distance for an evening swim.. I think.
I now need to think about pushing myself to see how far I can actually go with my current fitness. I need to reach 10K (the swimming equivalent of a marathon, or so they say) as I have entered the River Dart 10k again this year which is in September and need to know I can do it with ease. Well not ease. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but you know what I mean.