After the debacle of the rechargable counter1, I decided to order a simple mechanical counter. This may not be waterproof but it should be more successful than its predecessor. Obviously it's not going to arrive before the end of this season; maybe I'll try it out in the shower.
Our swimming pool is never open on Sundays, at least not to members. It's probably a day of cleaning, but it's also a day for outside groups to use the pool. As a result, Monday swims are often more vigorous because of the day of rest. As I had been swimming 40 lengths for the past few days, this Monday I felt that I could not only equal that number but even improve on it, swimming 42 lengths. This is a new record!
After I came home and entered the data into my database, I calculated how many lengths I would need to swim in order to have an average swim of 26 lengths for the entire season, assuming that there were three more opportunities to swim. The answer was 100 lengths, but I had forgotten that there were actually four more opportunities to swim before the pool closes (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). Obviously in this case, I needed to swim another 126 lengths, or on average 31.5 lengths per swim.
So on Wednesday I set out to swim at least 32 lengths in order to reduce the target for the remaining swims. I wasn't expecting any trouble as again I had had a day of rest between Monday's record swim and Wednesday. What I hadn't taken into account was the fact that the air temperature had decreased by about 6°C since Monday; the evenings are cool (no more air conditioner) and so the water doesn't warm up during the day. In other words, it was very cold swimming on Wednesday! I forced myself to swim 36 lengths but it was a real struggle from the very beginning. As a result, the target dropped to 90 lengths and 3 swims = 30 lengths/swim. This is definitely possible, even in the cold water. I may forego swimming on one day.
The water wasn't any warmer on Thursday but maybe I was more acclimatised. Without doubt, the cold saps strength from the muscles making it harder to swim. Another 36 lengths, so at this point 1792 lengths have been swum over 69 swims, giving an average of 25.97 lengths/swim.
This left me today (Friday) with a target of 28 lengths. I felt initially as if the swimming were a cricket test match, where 100-150 runs were needed in the fourth innings in order to win the match. Definitely attainable and not too hard. But somewhere between 6 to 10 lenghts, I realised that I still needed to swim those 28 lengths and so I had better apply myself. As I've probably written several times before, swimming is in no small amount a psychological exercise: I had set myself a target of 28 lengths, and when that target had been reached, I had no interest in swimming any more. I am not going to swim tomorrow.
Here is a breakdown of this year's swimming - the average number of lengths swum per month. It's a bit difficult to make out the legends, but basically the average increased every month (except for October which was a bit less than September but more than August). This year I had a slow start which brought down the average.
And now for the annual data
| Year | Number of swims | Total lengths | Average ln/sw |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 16 | 438 | 27.38 |
| 2020 | 24 | 562 | 23.42 |
| 2022 | 29 | 567 | 19.55 |
| 2023 | 31 | 561 | 18.10 |
| 2024 | 34 | 710 | 20.88 |
| 2025 | 33 | 620 | 18.79 |
| 2026 | 70 | 1820 | 26.00 |
This year's data speaks for itself in comparison to previous years.
Internal links
[1] 2147
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 409 | Holiday cooking | Cooking | |
| 1341 | Weight at the beginning of October | Health | |
| 1832 | Apples, honey and missiles | Jewish holidays, Israel, Musical group |
