Every little helps

There’s a useful sign in the swimming pool that I noticed while I was dashing to get dressed after my latest amazing swimming session. It said that 64 lengths of the pool was the equivalent of one mile. Now tonight, I swam 64 lengths of the pool. Coincidence? No, not this time! I’ve been building up on the number of lengths I have swam each day, since I started last Monday. My intention is to get back to swimming one hundred lengths in thirty minutes, but  I don’t want to rush that, and at the moment there is absolutely no way I can reach that target! It isn’t unachievable though, and I have done it before, although I was a bit younger then. Age is not going to stop me, however, and I will do my utmost to reach that target once again. I swam my sixty-four lengths today in just over forty-five minutes, which means that I am definitely getting quicker. And if I continue to go a little further every day, I’ll soon be swimming my one hundred lengths. Once that is achieved, I must swim quicker, to get the one hundred lengths swam in the shortest time possible.

Sometimes, I may not have the time to do the full one hundred lengths, possibly due to the pool I visit or the length of time it takes me to get there – but in these cases I must try to swim as far as I can in the time allocated.

Up to now, I haven’t really been keeping an eye on the time it takes to swim the lengths I do, as I am concentrating on the distance, and as I have just said, I’ll continue to do this until I reach one hundred.

Over the past week or so, the distance I have swam is 386 lengths combined, which is just over six miles. I’ve only been swimming for seven days, at the present time I allow myself the weekends off, but may start to go then as well soon. I am really pleased with my progress so far, and I do feel differently within myself. I may not look different from the outside, but it really is important to feel good within first – there’s no point doing anything if you don’t feel good doing it.

So, starting from last Monday, I swam 30 lengths (which seems nothing now compared to the 64 I have swam today!) and I felt impressed with myself for doing that! Tuesday, I increased my length number to 32. It’s not a large increase, I know, but it was only my second time of going, and I had a bit of hassle getting to the pool on the Tuesday (to say the least!) On Wednesday, I swam 42 lengths, Thursday 50 and Friday 52. I didn’t swim on Saturday or Sunday, and was a bit concerned as to how I would do on the Monday after the ‘little break’. I didn’t need to worry though, as I swam 56 lengths. OK, it’s only an increase of four lengths, but it is still further, and to quote a certain supermarket’s slogan ‘every little helps’. Yesterday, I swam 60 lengths, and today my magic 64 lengths.

Keeping with this trend, I should swim 68 lengths tomorrow – but I’ll just have to wait and see. If I do 68 I may as well do 70. But tomorrow is another day.

I’m going to rest now, and think of all the goodness that this wonderful form of exercise is doing for me.