Sunday 16 August 2015

You know it's going to hurt!

As promised in my last blog, I was heading back to the pool this week afetr a long lay off.  Despite having done this before and swearing I'd never do that again here I was doing it again.  To make matters worse it was the 50m pool!  Dawn had also had a lay off however she's a good swimmer but we agreed to do 10 x 100m with recovery breaks in between.  After 3 I was knackered but the breaks helped.  Then we were joined by Mark who is getting ready for the 10km swim I did last year so Dawn started chasing him and I was left to bring up the rear.  I decided we should extend the swim session to 15 x 100m and in the end knew I had worked hard.  It was good to have pals in the same lane but my swimming felt terrible and my lungs were burst.  Next day I was hurting in places I haven't in a while but I knew that was going to happen.
3 days later I returned to the pool and this time it was only 25m.  No pals this time so I went at my own pace and worked on technique.  I felt better and started to feel  being "supported by the water" rather than fighting against it.  I've a long way to go but now I've started there is no going back.  The club swim sessions start in a weeks time and I want to turn up without a rubber ring!
Today was the annual Strathaven 50 mile bike event (it's not a race).  450 cyclists turned up and it's a very tough route.  It's helped by 2 cake stops on route and the sun shone.  With so many cyclists on narrow roads the discipline of the cyclists is very important and one rider was weaving in and out of the groups.  It wasn't long before he came to grief and went over the handle bars and landed on his back.  Fortunately it was on a grass verge but he didn't learn from his mistake because I saw him later weaving in and out again.  Two of our guys went down on gravel but lived to tell the tail.  It just underlines how dangerous it can be on the roads.
ATHelite were well represented in our distinctive orange & black and for the finish straight 4 of us had stuck together and came in 4 abreast which was a wonderful feeling.  The running is on the back burner at the moment and I will concentrate on the swimming, cycling and yoga.  I'm feeling good as I make my way back to fitness before the serious training starts - only 321 days to go.