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New Year New Stroke

Having found my winter pool it’s been nice to get back to some more regular exercise both before and after Christmas. I’ve just done my second swim in January and it was quite a challenging one mainly due to how busy the pool was.

Up until now my visits to my new pool have been blissfully quiet – there are always two lanes roped off and then the rest of the pool left open (with the equivalent of three lanes left not roped) Often I have been the only person, and I’ve been able to swim up and down quite contentedly, only occasionally worrying if the people on the treadmills gazing down on me are analysing my stroke (they’re not – in the same way that when you’re in the gym they’re not watching you either. All far too busy thinking about themselves)

But today there were two people in each lane and then two swimmers in the open area, at the furthest distance from each other leaving a space in the middle – just room for me. In the past this would have panicked me as it’s not near the side, but this pool is all one depth so no worries on that front. But, the male swimmer on my right was one of those speed freaks and he was really turbulent and splashy. This meant that if I didn’t time it right when pushing off from the end I would get caught in his waves – it made me have to swim much harder which I guess is good in a way? My lovely Apple watch which I acquired in November told me I burnt the most calories swimming today than I have since I started tracking my swims and I believe it.

The chap on my left was interesting as he seemed to swim with reasonable speed but, like me – he lifted up to breathe, and didn’t use his legs that much. I saw some of my poor technique in him. This has made me feel better in some ways in that I’m not alone in my challenges and stumbling blocks but also worried that I look how he looked in the water. And I’m not meaning to be cruel or critical. It’s just that I want to look graceful and streamlined, and he didn’t. It means I have to work harder. I know I slip into bad habits when I swim alone and I need to challenge myself to break them.

But, I’ve decided that the front crawl and I need to take a little break from each other and next time I have a one to one lesson I’m going to ask if we can start breast stroke. I think it’s time to reset my brain with something new in the water. New Year New Stroke.

On a side note – I’m building up stamina. I used to struggle to swim more than 8-10 lengths each visit, now I’m doing 15-16. It’s a small pool but distance is starting to feel manageable and that feels good.

Going Back To Basics

Last weekend I started having lessons with a new coach, returning to one-to-one instruction with the teacher in the pool. Although I’ve been feeling ok as a swimmer and I can definitely swim, up to a point, I’m not quite satisfied.

In front crawl I can’t seem to breathe without lifting up out of the water, I don’t use my legs very efficiently and so they drag in the water and I slowly sink plus I’m still feeling a bit scared in the deep end.

So with various false starts at swimming pools around Worcestershire, including one where they just left me in reception and failed to even show me to the changing rooms and then the teacher didn’t show (yep, I drove past here today after my lesson and felt smug!) I have found a new lovely place to do my winter swims and to learn the basics properly.

I guess I’ve been teaching myself for the best part of 2019 and that doesn’t help you fix things. So last week my new coach asked me to show him how I was swimming – the result highlighted that I hardly use my legs, and I ‘windmill’ my arms. That’s one thing I didn’t know about! Add that to my lifting up to breathe and that’s quite a lot of things to be ironed out.

I’ve had two half hour lessons both of which exhausted me because he makes me kick. I know! And roll on both sides to breathe (I was only doing one before) And now all I can think about is One, Two, Use Three then lie on it! It’s more than my little brain can cope with but at the end of today’s lesson he suggested that once we’ve cracked front crawl he also teach me breast stroke. That must mean he thinks I can do it. I think I’ve found my winter pool and I can’t wait to show the Lido my new skills in May!

The long journey to finding a winter pool

At present I am trying to find somewhere to enjoy swimming through October to May when the Lido opens again. It’s proving a difficult task. So, in the style of the Usborne ‘That’s not my…’ books I have composed a poem.

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That’s not my pool, it’s too warm and small,

That’s not my pool, the changing rooms are too dirty

That’s not my pool, it’s too expensive

That’s not my pool, it doesn’t care about its swimmers.

That’s my pool… it’s got no roof.

Mourning the end of Lido season

So I haven’t blogged about my swimming for quite a while. I spent blissful months from the end of May until the beginning of September swimming regularly in Droitwich Spa Lido, 10 minutes away from home. I’m extremely lucky to have this facility on my doorstep, and I only discovered it in 2018 despite having lived in this area since 2002.

Droitwich Lido is heated, although it doesn’t feel like it when you get in! It has a mixture of brine (the town is famous for salt) and a low level of chlorine so I’m informed, never having done it, that it’s like swimming in the sea. I love it. There is actually no comparison to swimming in an outdoor pool. I swam in the lido come rain or shine this summer, and some of my best swims were in the rain with the pool to myself or as the sun hit the water warming me and the pool together.

The trouble is that now I’m finding it very difficult to swim inside. Something about lido culture hits me deep inside and feels like home. An indoor, chlorinated pool just doesn’t do the same for me at all. I tried yesterday and only managed 4 lengths before I felt the effects of the chlorine at the back of my throat. It worries me as I want to find a way of enjoying my swimming through the winter into spring until the lido reopens. I’m not confident enough for wild or open water swimming yet, although that’s something I’d like to do. I’ve recently watched Sink or Swim on TV about non swimming celebrities training to swim the channel, some of them real athletes like Linford Christie and it’s helped me to see what a big journey I’ve been on. I’ve no aspirations to swim the channel but some day I’d like to try wild swimming (although I can here my friend Jackie saying ‘Duck pooh Luce’ as I type this.)

But for the moment I’m trying to find my pool. This week I’m going back to Chessgrove near Hanbury (again close to home) where I had my first one to one lessons as a terrified adult a couple of years ago. The pool is small but gorgeous, and has a calming atmosphere not unlike the lido. Perhaps this can be my home for the winter. But before then a week in Spain with an outdoor pool beckons…. can’t wait.

Swim 100

Last night I finished my challenge of swimming 100 lengths in May to raise money for Guide Dogs. A cause very close to my heart it seemed the ideal challenge for me to attempt at this stage in my swimming. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for me – before January I couldn’t swim even one length and often I still have to stop when I try. However, what I didn’t bank on was quite how much I would learn about myself and my relationship with swimming during this month.

Firstly, the best and most successful part of the challenge has been during the last week and that is all due to the season starting at Droitwich Lido. I swam here towards the end of last season, always with a float, but fell in love with the setting and the community that use it. This year I decided to take the literal plunge and buy a season ticket. I have been there 5 times in the last week.

What has been interesting about completing Swim 100 in the lido is how much easier I find it to swim there. There is less chlorine and more brine in the pool so I find that the chlorine doesn’t make the back of my nose sting, and it’s not so horrible if I swallow it. Also, there is the joy of swimming outside rather than in a hot environment where the acoustics affect my already annoying tinnitus. I’d much rather hear birds than the muffled jumble of voices where everything feels deadened. I can’t also ignore the big factor that the lido is not as deep as a regular indoor pool so I know that I can still put my feet down – I can’t pretend that I’m not still struggling with deep ends and deep water. I even had a mini drowning panic at the indoor pool during a lesson recently.

I have learned that I’m relatively ok in cold water. Now, the lido is heated but it doesn’t feel like that when you first get in! I’ve watched others get part way down the steps and then hurriedly back out again whereas I force myself down into the water and immediately get my shoulders under. Before I can start shuddering I launch off into a width or length and by this point I’m warm.

However, I have become increasingly aware that I’m very self conscious about my swimming. I don’t know if this is because of 40 odd years of being a non swimmer but I hate the feeling that the life guards might be watching me, thinking how bad my stroke is or how awkward I look. I hadn’t realised how much I felt like this until I focused on this challenge. I guess because I want to be able to swim the lengths without stopping, I feel embarrassed when I have to stop – which happens sometimes.

And more than anything else, I can’t help feeling a fraud. I feel somehow as if I’m still not a proper swimmer, even though I’ve swum these distances! That I’m still not a proper swimmer even though I head down to the pool more often than I head to the shops or out for a drink. I wonder why I still feel like this? I think I will continue to feel like this until I can swim 100 lengths in one go – because I know that people can. I’m still wondering how that is possible!

But, I must remind myself that before January 2019 I couldn’t swim without a float. I couldn’t swim a width without a float without needing to put my feet down. I couldn’t tread water. And then maybe I’ll believe that I am a swimmer.

Into the Water

I’ve left quite a gap without writing on this blog but, as ever, I’ve been working hard in the pool and making some lovely watery connections out of the pool too!

Lessons are going well. According to my regular Thursday lifeguard, I can now swim. This I struggle with in many ways because I’ve had over 40 years of being a non swimmer. I don’t quite feel qualified to say that I can swim. And yet, I do seem (most of the time) to be able to swim a length and am getting more confident with treading water. If I’m in the pool practicing out of lesson time and I see my Thursday lifeguard he practically tells me off if I’m swimming widths, as I can do more.

I talk to a lot of people about my journey and sometimes I wonder if that’s boring but people do seem genuinely interested. In the last couple of weeks I’ve found out that a work colleague is a non swimmer (and can’t ride a bike either – neither can I.) I’ve talked to fellow creatives about my desire to write a performance piece about swimming which could be performed at my local lido – I have actually applied for funding but been rejected for now so need to rework the application.

Today I’ve actually seen a wonderful piece of theatre at Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham, about a 20 minute walk from where I work. It’s a gorgeous Edwardian Grade II listed building which I’ve been desperate to poke around in since I found out about it 6 months ago. ‘Into the Water’ – the play I saw today explored the relationship between women and water and brought the local community together to tell their stories – in the pool. The audience didn’t get wet but boy did I want to leap in with them!

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I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on my emotional connection with swimming. Last night I wasn’t sure whether to go to the pool or not and my fiance gently urged me to go- I think he sees how beneficial it is for me, and that it’s so much more than relief from my arthritis. When I look at an image of a pool such as Moseley Road, or sit by the edge I feel such calm and happiness that I never thought I would feel if I cast my mind back to school swimming lessons.

There seems to be a lot in the media about swimming and mental health, as well as a surge in interest in lido culture. I love a lido as you’ve probably worked out but again, this would have been almost alien to me a few years ago. I feel like I’ve been given a present, almost a super power which brings me calm and freedom (even when I do still swallow water or have to stop to put my feet on the bottom) I can’t go back now, an I wonder where this new found love will take me? One place I know I’ll be heading is back to Moseley Road baths, with my cossie!

Making a splash

So the last week or so has been quite a big week in the small world of my swimming journey. I decided to take out a swimming membership at the leisure centre where I’m having my lessons to give me an opportunity to get to the pool whenever possible to practice. Believe it or not I now have 2 sports centre memberships – if you know me personally you’ll realise how laughable this is as I’m not remotely sporty but my lovely man works for an independent school with sports centre attached so I swim there – usually at weekends, and nearly always with a pull buoy (soon to change) and now I also pay to swim at Droitwich Leisure Centre.

This week I had a late work start on Tuesday so I went to the pool to practice – hoping I’d be able to swim widths as I’ve now conquered my rather annoying habit of stopping and putting my feet down part way across normally due to swallowing water. But, when I got there (at about 8.45 am) I saw that everyone was swimming lengths so I had no choice. I didn’t manage to swim a whole one without stopping but I did feel like I was getting a bit more co-ordinated with breathing and swim strokes. Lots of people who I talk to about my swim journey are amazed that I’m learning front crawl rather than breast stroke as it seems that the whole putting your face in the water thing is a massive issue for people – even people who can swim! I honestly don’t mind this, as long as I’m wearing goggles, but I am struggling to get my breathing right.

I did meet another learner swimmer that morning and we chatted about feeling like the dunce in the pool – it was good to be able to share those thoughts with someone! I always feel vaguely embarrassed about not being able to swim at my age and it was good to hear someone else saying they also felt like this. He couldn’t swim a whole length either so I instantly felt better!

Then Thursday came around which is lesson day. I was really looking forward to the session – it’s very motivating being with other learners as we drive each other to do more each week and there’s a lot of laughter in the pool too. I did a couple of widths and then thought I’d just go for a length and see what happened. I nearly did it – but swallowed water just by the steps at the deep end and had to stop. So near though! However, that evening I worked with the life guard who stood by the side and walked along with me as I swam and finally I did manage to do a whole length. My goggles had filled up with water by the time I got there but I felt exhilarated. This was something I thought I would never do – and certainly never without floats. I managed to do this twice during the half hour lesson and felt so pleased with myself. It’s gradually coming together, the strokes and the breathing. Sometimes I have to just stick my head up rather than to the side to breathe but I’m really trying just to keep going.

Also this week I’ve been in touch with David Spencer, a sports journalist who learned to swim at the same age that I am now and released a podcast about his journey. I’ve been listening to this quite regularly along my journey and am finding the points of similarity very comforting and the podcast is motivating me to keep going.

You can listen to the first episode here:

David and I are going to chat on the phone this week about my own swimming journey and he’s hoping to release a podcast extra about it so I’ll keep you posted. I’m amazed at how swimming is something that opens so many interesting doors, and I genuinely think that other swimmers are the nicest people.

Lazy Legs

I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working on my swimming. I’ve been to my weekly lessons and also done at least one swim each weekend. I’m gradually learning to ditch those floats.

Let’s talk about the pull buoy. I love to swim with one because it rests my arthritic knees and helps me to feel the position I should be holding in the water. It also helps me to work on my arm strokes, but recently I’ve discovered that it’s given me lazy legs! Now that I’m regularly swimming without a pull buoy after maybe a year or so of swimming with one I find that I forget to kick so I’m really working on this at the moment. My arm stroke is good from lots of practice but my legs are lagging behind, quite literally!

I can now swim a width with no floats though quite comfortably, although sometimes I do seem to either inhale at the wrong time and get water up my nose or I swallow half the pool. I don’t do this when I’m swimming with a float so just need to transfer the skills. I’m just happy that after 6 weeks I can swim on my own whereas before I had reached a dead end by stifling myself with flotation devices. I’m learning that its hard work to kick but at least I’m finally doing it.

Tonight I swam a width in the deep end. This was a first for me – my brain still makes me panic by reminding me that I can’t touch the bottom but I am also learning to tread water so hopefully in time the fear will go. The more time I spend up the deep end the easier it should be. When I first started going to the pool on my own to practice it took a few weeks before I could brave the deep end with a float so I’ve definitely made progress.

I can’t make my lesson next week as I’m working late but I’m intending to get some extra practice swims in instead.

Braving the Deep End

If I ignore the rather embarrassing fact that I forgot my towel this evening and by the time I realised, it was too late to go back for it. I ended up taking an old tea towel that I keep in the car into the sports centre so that I could dry myself on that! But, if I ignore all that then I had a rather good lesson.

I’d managed to get some practice in this weekend in my regular pool without floats as now that I’ve started to wean myself off them I’m actually doing quite well. The problem has been the breathing – which I can do really well with a float but recently every time I try to breathe to the side I end up swallowing half the pool and have to stop. So, this weekend I tried to practice co-ordinating it all. I swam a few lengths with pull buoy and float (my old faithfuls!) to remind myself how the positioning in the water feels, and then tried half a length or just under without anything to try and get the breathing right. I felt like I was getting there a little. I had to do all this during a family swim session as I didn’t want to be doing it during a lane swim session where I’d be getting in everyone’s way so I had fun trying to dodge giant inflatable teddy bears and little kids swimming like fish. One day that’ll be me.

So tonight because I’d practiced, I managed to swim further and get my breaths in. It’s starting to make sense. Then, the instructor got us all up the deep end with woggles to have a play. Eventually she suggested I try swimming from the deep end as far as I could – she offered to walk along the side with a stick for me to grab hold of if I needed to stop. I was quite scared but this is exactly what I’m trying to conquer so I went for it. I had to start by holding the stick as I couldn’t work out how to push off from the wall if my feet don’t touch the bottom but then I was able to break free, and keep swimming. It felt so good! I did have to stop about halfway as I breathed in and water went up my nose but… I did it! And hopefully next time it won’t be as scary.

Take a breath

In 2016 I took the plunge and began having private swimming lessons. Arthritis in my knees that wasn’t improving meant that exercise became really difficult – running was out and even some exercises in yoga and Pilates made my knees feel unstable. So, the best form of exercise was to be swimming.

Private lessons were amazing. A warm pool all one depth and an instructor in the water with me. I surprised myself at how quickly I began to recover from a fear of water and develop a liking, maybe even the beginnings of a love for water.

However, private lessons cost money and as I made a career change and took a big salary cut I could no longer afford them. Plus two knee operations got in the way of any form of exercise. So, once cleared to go in the pool again I just began going by myself to practice. Making sure the lifeguards knew I was a newbie I would swim in the lane closest to the side with my floats.

Gradually I built up the confidence to head for the deep end, with a float. Then I was swimming lengths with a float and a pull buoy. But, without instruction and someone pushing me there it stopped.

So, recently I’ve decided I need to quit my pull buoy addiction and learn to swim without aids. Tonight I went to the first of a set of drop in lessons at my local pool. Cheaper than private, and with the instructor at the side. I explained my predicament to the instructor and she told me it was probably in my mind – I just didn’t think I could swim without aids but she knew I could.

During the half hour she told me how great my positioning in the water was, how good it was that I could breathe to the side and gradually I grew in confidence a bit. I managed a few strokes (about half a width) without any floats. Before tonight I could do two arm strokes and then I would always put my feet down. Tonight, I did two arm strokes, took a breath, and carried on. Next week I hope to do more. My pull buoy stayed at the side, unused.

At the end I had a little float on my back, in what I think of as Eeyore pose – although I do keep my arms and legs in the water! I’m already looking forward to next week!

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