Little Update

I’ve been aware for a while that it’s been a long time since I made an entry on here. But that’s not to say that all has been quiet on the swimming front!

I block booked a series of 6 lessons with Swim Now with the hope of sorting out my front crawl positioning and breathing issues, namely my tendency to raise my head up to breathe and then as a result my legs sink. I have been traveling to a hotel pool in Stratford-Upon-Avon for these sessions on Saturdays and I am really pleased with my progress.

What no-one had ever seemed to teach me before this point is that I need to rotate my body to breathe, so that I am almost swimming on my side. As soon as I started to do this everything else fell in to place. I am now very happy with my front crawl. I do still get a bit lazy with my legs but I feel that my positioning in the water is so much better.

Lido life has been amazing this season. I’ve been mainly to early morning 8am sessions or 5pm ones where you have to swim widths of the pool, which equates to 18m. The sessions are more aimed at people who want to swim, rather than families and I get a lot of joy from the fact that I can now attend these as a ‘swimmer’. In fact I was chatting to another lady in the pool yesterday about being a new swimmer and she was totally surprised that I hadn’t been swimming for long. I have also connected with an old friend who only ever knew me as a non swimmer who is equally impressed at the transformation!

So, when I feel disappointed in myself that I haven’t made the cross over into Open Water swimming yet (I bottled on my introduction session in May) I try to remind myself how far I have come, and that I don’t have anything to prove to anybody.

I’m so grateful for swimming. The thing I was not prepared for was the mental well-being impact it has. My initial goals were all about fitness where I could find a way to exercise with increasingly bad arthritis but I wasn’t expecting the mental health benefits. And I have really needed (and continue to need) those.

Today has started with some excellent news that my local lido is extending its season to the end of September. I am so pleased about this as I start working full time next week and was worried about losing my access to the outdoor swimming world but – it will continue for a little while longer.

Happy swimming everyone. I’ll just be over here working on my breast-stroke which is still pretty awful. But it’s good to have goals!

First Outdoor Swim of 2021

Easter Monday is the earliest I’ve ever swum outside. This year my social media timelines were full of outdoor swimmers and lidos from the end of March, due to the beginning of the relaxation of restrictions in the UK. At the time of writing only outdoor pools are currently open, and indoor ones open next Monday.

So I braved an outdoor swim with the lovely Jackie (who’d already tested the waters in the previous week) and yes, it was a bit nippy but the problem wasn’t really the water – it was the icy wind and the air temperature. On my drive across to meet Jackie I drove through snow storms spattering the windscreen – not the kind of weather I have ever swum in before! But, I was determined to get back into the blue despite a bit of discomfort which I knew would be coming.

Things I have read about but hadn’t experienced up until this point: My teeth chattering so much when trying to get dry that I couldn’t talk, my skin going a weird blotchy red (outdoor swimmer’s tan), not being able to feel my hands and feet (thank god for Uggs to change into post swim) and the desperate need for a hot coffee or tea from a flask to get the body heat going from inside.

I really enjoyed my swim – the water wasn’t hugely warm but it was manageable but I didn’t enjoy the battle with the air temperature. It was actually warmer to stick your face in the water and swim crawl than to keep your face out to do breast-stroke! I did manage to brave the deep end at the far end of the 50 metres, and I burned more calories than I’ve ever done in the pool before according to my Apple watch!

But it has taught me that there is an awfully big difference in the warmth of the air temperature between April and May! I normally swim outside between the end of May and the start of September. This year my local Lido will be opening at the start of May – the earliest they have ever opened. I think I will need to build up my tolerance a little but I’d like to be able to swim from early May right through. I think this month is still a bit cold for me so I have got some indoor pool swims booked for next week. Unless there’s a heatwave coming then just try stopping me from getting back in!

Pools Reopen!

New swim spot from May…. watch this space!!

My social media is full today of images of lidos and open air pools, and of smiling selfies in swimming costumes. It’s lovely to see – after so long the outdoor pools can finally open again. For me, that means I still have to wait until May for Droitwich, but the one near my swimming buddy Jackie is now open and so I am booked in next week.

I haven’t swum at all – inside or outside, since the beginning of September and since Jackie booked our forthcoming lido visit I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Today has been lovely seeing all those blue water images on my Twitter and Instagram feeds but it’s also making me impatient!!

I am sure that it is because of those images that I have today booked myself an Open Water intro session in May at a lake about half an hour away from home. This is quite a big step and at the moment I am feeling quite relaxed, and rather excited about it. It’s a one to one session so I hopefully will be able to build and gain some confidence in the water but there’s no denying it’s going to be quite different to swimming at the lido. For one thing I think I am going to need a wet-suit. Part of me is nervous about spending money on something like this but I’m hoping that if I do, it might encourage me to swim through winter this year – something I have wanted to do for a while.

So, any tips on entry level wet-suits gratefully received… look out for my post once I’ve been back in the water next week. If you’re lucky enough to get a swim in before me – have a great time. We deserve this!

Another Day, Another Pool

I have recently frozen my gym membership again after briefly releasing it after Lockdown. I had to be realistic about finances (I’m only working part-time right now) so I didn’t feel that I could justify the monthly payment. I’ve frozen until the end of the year and then will probably cancel in the new year. This means that I’m in the position of looking for my winter pool once more.

However, I’ve decided to look at things differently this time around – Lockdown has destroyed any loyalty I had to any particular supermarkets, I now just take whoever can deliver to me when I want my slot so I’ve decided to use this period of time to shop around and try different pools.

On Sunday I swam at Lower Wick indoor swimming pool in Worcester. It’s quite dated, and small (20 metres by 10) and it’s also 31 degrees which was quite weird as I’ve become more used to swimming in colder water. But as a weekend swim it was ok – it’s certainly somewhere I would go again. It’s also cheaper than many of the bigger pools locally linked with leisure centres.

Today I went to Sandford Park Lido in Cheltenham. I had been here before – in May 2019 I visited before I could really swim 25 metres comfortably. It’s a 50 metre outdoor pool so it’s quite daunting for a newbie like me. Last time I went I swam all the way down one side by the wall, stopping occasionally, then got out at the steps and walked back to the start as I couldn’t swim away from the wall to go back the other way!

Today I went in the slow lane (of course) and you have to start by swimming away from the wall so I just went for it. When I was about halfway down (25 metres) I realised that because I was swimming crawl I was rapidly approaching the woman in front of me swimming breast-stroke. I tried to slow down but then realised I couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool and my brain went into panic mode. I had to grab the lane rope and another lovely lady swimmer helped me to swim across to the wall so I could chat with the lifeguard (also lovely). She suggested that I swim 25 metres at a time by going halfway down the lane (away from the wall) then crossing over to the wall and swimming back. I’m so grateful to her for this suggestion as it gave me a way of staying in the water. I think me of 2019 would have got out and retreated to the cafe but I stayed in and kept swimming. Eventually the sun came out too.

So whilst I’m a tiny bit frustrated that my brain got the better of me and I didn’t do the 50 metre stretch, I realised that I could have done – had I not slowed down. I was feeling quite comfortable and actually, swimming 25 metres was easy which I never thought I’d say. I’m so grateful that lido swimmers are so friendly – my rescuer could not have been nicer and did not make me feel at all stupid for panicking.

This morning has reminded me that I’m still on my learning journey but… that in the year since I swam at Cheltenham I have improved. I can now swim 25 metres without stopping and putting my feet down. I can also now swim breast-stroke and this is improving all the time – I did a little today too. It might be a slow journey but there’s no race. I quite like being in the slow lane.

New Swims, New Strokes

I have just swum for 30 mins outside in the wind and rain. I’ve swum in rain before but today felt different. I’ve started to push myself more in the pool – to swim further, try that new stroke, be less bothered about what others think of me. Today I swam 400 metres which is probably not very much to many of you but it feels like an achievement to me – it was a mixture of front crawl and breast-stroke (I’m still learning this with help from best buddy Jackie) and there were only two other people in the pool who were quite serious swimmers by the look of it. I didn’t feel massively out of place and that’s quite a thing for me to say. I still have a tiny bit of anxiety about what the lifeguards think of my stroke, or if I stop mid width/length and change from breast-stroke to crawl but essentially I felt like a proper swimmer.

What I’m also noticing is that I must be getting a tiny bit fitter now that I’m not just floating or bobbing about. My Apple watch clocks more exercise minutes and more calories burned when I’m in the pool and today after 40 metres straight I just lay on my back in the water feeling my heart race, with the rain drops falling on my face and felt more alive than I have done for a long time.

What started as something to ease my arthritic knees has become something far bigger for me. I feel like I have become part of a community both at the lido where I swim but also wider on Twitter and Instagram where I am definitely one of those #LidoLovers. I have a shelf of books which is just Swim-Lit, and I’m keen to keep adding to this. I also have swim buddies – my sister and my nephew (we splash about and do little bits of swimming), my best mate Jackie (she pushes me in the best way to improve and do more – incidentally, she’s a fantastic swimmer) So now when I swim I have different kinds of swim experiences.

Today was just me on my own. I only stayed 30 mins – partly because it was rainy and stormy so not very conducive to sitting poolside with a hot drink so I rushed home for a hot shower instead. But my previous swim, at the weekend, was with Jackie where we swam together (this is new to me – swimming alongside and chatting) I’m not that good at the chatting bit yet because I’m desperately still trying to breathe during breast-stroke and not die by holding my breath but I’ll get there!

Swimming is permeating my life – my conversations, my reading, my writing. It’s seeping in around the edges but it’s becoming the buffer which allows me to do everything else. I start a new job next week, returning to education during a pandemic but I know that if I can keep swimming then I’ll be OK.

Back in the Water

Image shows disposable coffee cup in the foreground, and blurred blue lido in the background. — Poolside with an oat-milk latte!

This weekend just gone was opening weekend for Droitwich Spa Lido. No season tickets available this year, and a booking system for slots meant that it all felt quite different leading up to my first post lockdown swim. I’ve never queued for the lido (although many have) because I often avoid sunny days and go when it’s cloudy and quieter. With a booking system and no season ticket it means that this year I have to plan in advance when to swim. This actually made me feel quite anxious leading up to Saturday, along with my fears that I might have forgotten how to swim.

I need not have worried though, once through the queue of pre-bookers everything felt pretty much the same except that it was slightly more chilled out and people were perhaps even more smiley and friendly than normal! I met a lady in the pool who had brought her children and who had NEVER managed to get to the lido before as it was always queuing round the block when she got here with no space to park. She was delighted by the booking system which guaranteed her and her family a slot to swim.

How was my swimming? Slightly encumbered by a sore shoulder which I’ve had for about 6 weeks I probably shouldn’t have swum as much front crawl as I did on Saturday but it was so lovely to be back in the briney water. Yes, still cold on the point of entry but really refreshing to be submerged in something that I’ve thought about so much over the last few months. I did try a little breaststroke which I felt I had just started to get to grips with during my last one to one lesson in March – and I’ll continue to do this rather than push the front crawl while I’m still struggling with my shoulder. It’s bad timing but I’m not about to let something get in the way of me being in the water. Mostly it’s just great to be back somewhere that’s become so familiar – the cold feeling as I slip down the ladder; I tend to step down one step and then do a kind of hop down straight into the water as it gets me over the ‘it’s too cold’ feeling much quicker.

I learned also that the pool itself is longer than 25 metres, and a width is 20 metres so I’m chuffed to realise that I’ve been swimming longer distances than I thought I had. It doesn’t feel overwhelmingly long like some indoor pools feel to me, and that’s possibly because there isn’t a deep end as such. I think back to my visit to the lido in Cheltenham which is 50 metres and how completely daunting that felt!

So although I won’t be able to swim everyday – something I did do when I had my season ticket (at £6 a session I can’t afford to!) I will be plotting in time for several visits a week. A new cafe has opened on site doing takeaway too so it’s really nice to be able to get a hot drink and just sit poolside and relax. I’m not convinced my swimming is going to improve massively this month because of my injury but I know that spending time in my happy place will be of huge benefit mentally.

I feel for those who are desperate to get back in the water but have not been able to yet. If you’re not too far from Droitwich I do urge you to try our lovely lido. I’m the one in the deeply fetching black swimming hat (I hate my long hair in my face when I swim) – come and say hello!

When Will We Swim Again?

So with the easing of Lockdown many of us are wondering when our pools might open again. I had an email from the gym where I’m a member giving a tantalising virtual tour of what the club might look like when it reopens in terms of measures for social distancing – this involved arriving at the club ‘swim ready’ and not using their showers and of course, strict lane discipline.

With the hot weather currently every day feels like a Lido day, and frustratingly I have had some spare time too when I could have paid many a trip to that happy place. I have a feeling that this season might not happen which will be such a shame as it’s something so many of us look forward to from its seasonal closing in September. But there’s still a tiny bit of hope residing in my brain that I might get a few briny lengths in before September 2020.

My shoulder and neck are currently playing me up. Tightness and compressed nerves and its not clear what the cause is – it could be new ways of moving with the support work I’m doing combined with all the different types of workout I’ve been doing at home (Hello Les Mills – you’re quite fun!) but anyway, whatever has caused it has meant that my physical action has dropped off for the last fortnight and that doesn’t make me feel good. I’m more sluggish because I’m not moving enough – I’ve only realised this year that the more you move, the more energy you have. And I’m also less happy. I need to get moving again, and after today’s home visit from the chiropractor hopefully I’ll be able to.

Next week will be about getting back to Les Mills, and Yoga and hoping that one of my two regular pools will open soon – although I suspect it might be a bit tricky to get a lane due to over subscription!

If you’re one of the lucky ones who’s managed to get back in the water – do a length or two for me. I’ll pay you back as soon as I’m back in.

Lockdown Life not Lido Life

Before starting to write today I checked my diary to see when I had last been in the pool. My last swimming lesson was the 8th March. 7 weeks this weekend since I’ve been able to get my fix of water, and all the benefits that come with that. It’s very nearly Lido season – except that it isn’t. By now Sandford Lido in Cheltenham would have been open – I made my first visit there last season, alone and slightly scared by the huge 50 metre pool when I wasn’t even comfortable swimming away from the edge at that point and had only managed to swim a 25m length once but, I had a fabulous morning just soaking in the atmosphere of a spot unknown to me before I somewhat reluctantly learned to swim. End of May would be opening season for my beloved Droitwich Lido, but it won’t be and I’m beginning to feel the loss of that quite powerfully.

I associate many of my best days with Droitwich Lido – early morning swims and then finding a message on my answer machine to find out I’d got the job I wanted, blissfully quiet afternoons when I’d pop in for a cheeky dip when working from home and all those little snatches of conversations with new acquaintances made when dropping in to the chilly waters or drying my hair at the 20p wall mounted dryers. It is a haven for me, and not knowing when I’ll be able to have that again feels worrying.

Swimming has also brought a new level of fitness for me – although it’s been gradual as you don’t get terribly fit or burn many calories just floating around but I suspect that once my technique is better I will become even fitter, yet it has also brought a bigger sense of calm and well-being. What is unexpected about those latter feelings is that I do feel them now, during lockdown. I’m probably more calm and less anxious than I normally am which is to do with a removal of some of the things that bring me daily anxiety such as busy city commutes, being an introvert in an extroverts’ world and feeling constantly on edge due to the ‘on demand’ nature of our society. When I swim I am no longer on demand, my immediate concerns are still very much about not drowning, and making sure I can breathe. When concentrating on these things it’s very hard to also be worrying about the tone of that email from your boss, or whether you’ll be able to make it through the rest of your work week without crying or collapsing. So in someways I’m grateful for lockdown (in many ways even) as life is slower, more thoughtful and more meaningful. The trouble with that is – that’s how I feel about life when I swim so to not be swimming during this period of beautiful weather and calm feels wrong.

I have found ways to help me though. I have spent lots of time with the wonderful book, The Lido Guide which allows you, with the help of beautiful photos and practical advice, to plot your lido swims across the country. There are, thankfully, so many lidos still to explore – I’ve only been to three in the book so once we can go out again, I’ve got such delights in store for me.

I’ve also been keeping up my fitness levels in other ways – I’m doing more yoga at home but have also started to do ballet and dance inspired work-outs in the privacy of my front room. I was never a sporty teenager growing up so there are only particular types of physical activity that interest me and it becomes clear from this list that they are all about strength and grace. There’s a definite link there with swimming although you wouldn’t know it from my swimming style right now, but in my head I’m a graceful swimmer and one day I’ll be one in reality too. I love the idea of being strong with a swimmer/dancer’s body so if I can’t currently swim I’ll have to get my ballet shoes out.

Twitter proves a good source of companionship for those who are missing the pool. My timeline is often full of swimmers commenting on how much they long to throw themselves into water, or footage of people’s ingenious paddling pool-esque back garden pools which at least allow them to get their face in the water. There are beautiful photos on Twitter and Instagram of bodies of water, looking invitingly empty. I’m wondering when I’ll start to dream about them. Right now the slightly brown water of the pond a few fields across from home where the geese live is looking inviting.

I’m not a wild swimmer – but the recent documentary film The Ponds, about swimming in the Mixed Ponds at Hampstead Heath, shares many of the views I’ve expressed in this post. I’ve watched it twice and even though I’ve never chucked myself into freezing water I can identify with so many of the swimmers when they talk about what they gain from swimming in nature. The sense that you can cope with pretty much anything if you’ve swum that day makes sense – I can see how you would feel like that and on Lido days I do feel like that. It’s also then easy to see how, when swimming is taken away, there is perhaps a feeling of not being able to cope.

Thankfully, not for me right now – I miss it dreadfully but, I’m using the time to keep my fitness levels up, plot my adventures for the future and hopefully that time will be here before we know it. I only hope I haven’t forgotten how to breast-stroke when it does.

No swimming for the foreseeable

I wasn’t going to write today but I haven’t been in the pool for 11 days, since my success with breast stroke and today, because of Covid-19, all pools are now closed.

It’s kind of bitter sweet as I’ve just received my membership card and details for Historic Pools of Britain including some discount vouchers to try out other pools across the country and also to attend an event at my very own Droitwich Lido in May. I’ve seen other lidos on social media state they are delaying opening or having to close and it worries me.

Swimming has become my thing. The thing that makes the noise in my head stop, and I don’t know when I can do it again. I’m currently ill so I can’t really do exercise of any form which is also frustrating as I’d just got into a rhythm with it all but to not know when I can swim again is tough.

None of us really knew what was coming or how things are going to be over the next few months but to be able to get through, I’m going to need to be able to swim. Send help.

Getting to know you… breaststroke

At the start of 2020 I planned to get to know a new stroke in the pool after a long time being spent alone with front crawl. I had always shied away from breast-stroke as I wondered whether it would be bad for my knees but, feeling much stronger in my joints these days I was keen to try.

My first leg attempts were a bit disappointing – I felt wobbly in the water at my core, didn’t seem to be moving very far and felt really awkward with the movements as a whole. But, since putting both arms and legs together things really seemed to have improved.

Two weeks ago I managed a length at my winter pool (always waiting for May when the Lido opens) using a woggle. My teacher has been helping me to breathe correctly by putting my face in the water as part of the arms-legs routine and I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Today, I did two lengths woggle free! It really feels like I’m starting to get the routine – I have to concentrate and make sure that I’m not rushing the movements but it’s working, and I love how it feels. I am very grateful that putting my face in the water is not an issue for me, as it is for other learners.

There are two things I’m looking forward to with being able to swim breaststroke: one, trying it out at the Lido, and being able to look around me more as I swim and two: swimming in the pool in Spain with Jackie later this year and being able to talk at the same time – hopefully, once I’ve got my breathing sorted fully!