Author: Phil Lengthorn

Swimming #6

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Today saw a return to the immensely inviting Bourne Outdoor Pool…..

It was a very hot day in Bourne today so when Marie and I went to experience the delights of the pool we did expect it to be pretty busy. What we didn't expect was that every single person in Bourne AND the surrounding villages to be there. It was packed.

We stayed for about an hour trying to avoid kids wedged into rubber rings and various objects flying through the air – tennis balls, beach balls and the occasional small child. Swimming was nearly impossible far too many people, at one point I managed to collide with a ridiculous old man in his rubber ring that seemed intent on floating wherever we wanted to swim. Therefore not really much to report on the swimming front except to say: do not go to the outdoor pool on a hot day.

Swimming #5

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The fifth swim of August's Project, accompanied by Marie, finds us at Sleaford Swimming Pool, or should I say Sleaford Leisure Centre. My target was to swim front crawl better and faster, and you only have to read past posts to realise that I actually seem to be getting somewhere. Tonight I was hoping to improve further with the front crawl and start swimming lengths.

The first difficult part of the night was actually finding the pool. After doing a couple of laps of the one-way system the only sign we found pointing us to the pool was this one…

So we decided to park in one of the town car parks and walk. This wasn't all bad, we walked along the canal following the signs.

After 5 mins we found the pool, which was, funnily enough, just next to its own massive car park…not quite sure how we missed it…

Marie did say that it all looked rather 'grimmy', which ended up to be a fair comment. It's not the most modern facility, the changing rooms are very old looking, but it was perfect for what we wanted. The water was very clean and we had no stinging eye problems like the last place.

It was only £3.40 admission and for this you get a standard 25m pool. It wasn't very busy tonight, not sure if this is the norm, so we had a really good opportunity to get some some good swimming done without having to avoid kids, floats, babies, and various other obstacles.

On the swimming front, I feel that I'm actually getting somewhere. As advised, I've been trying to relax and keep the stroke strong and long, and I'm definitely getting better. I've changed my breathing pattern and can now manage to swim faster and further. I think Rio 2016 is now in my sights!!!!!

 

Swimming #4

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August’s Project, swimming, continues like Michael Phelps halfway through a world record swim. Today we visited Spalding’s Castle Swimming Pool. Before leaving we had a quick look on the website to find out where it was, it seemed simple enough. However, when we got to the place indicated on the website no swimming pool could be seen. Undetered we had a drive around and eventually found it, in a totally different place from where it should have been…

I was pleasantly surprised with the pool, no wave machine, no flumes, just a standard old-fashioned pool. Only £3.40 entrance, for that you get 3 pools: diving pool, kiddies pool and standard pool. Good for what I wanted to do. Marie had joined me for today’s swimming session which ended up pretty good. My technique is definitely improving, I’m beginning to feel more confident with the breathing element and I can swim further than a couple of weeks ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to make Team GB, but so far so good.

On a negative note….I’m not entirely sure what crap they put in the pool but my eyes have been really sore all afternoon. Too much chlorine me thinks!!!!

I think practice is definitely the answer to this swimming lark.

In the words of Mo Farah….”Hard work and grafting!”

Olympic Experience

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After watching the fabulous opening ceremony and watching some brilliant performances from Team GB from the safety of the sofa, it was finally time to experience the Olympics for real. The date had been on the calendar for about 18 months, Tuesday 7th August, after failing to get various sports in the initial ballot, we ended up with Hockey in the second chance ballot. I have to admit that Hockey was not the first choice event, but we were going, we were going to experience this 'once in a lifetime' visit to a home Olympics. We were all very excited.

Our ticket admitted us to a morning session of Hockey at the Riverside Arena in the Olympic Park, Men's Hockey, two matches: Netherlands vs Korea; and Australia vs Pakistan. First match kicked off sticks away started at 8.30am. Despite staying at my Mums, in South-east London, this meant an early start. Plan was get up at 5am to be sure of leaving at 6am, to ensure we would not miss a kick a whack a hit any of the game.

So, 6.15am and the short walk to the station, Jill and Craig in good spirits…

Leg one of the journey complete, train to London Bridge. Next up was a quick jump on the tube to Stratford. Didn't quite go to plan. As we entered the platform, we were greeted by the Great British public queuing in an orderly fashion (this would not be the last of today's queues) to the sounds of a tanoy, “We apologise for the delay – we have a signal failure on the Jubilee Line”. We waited for around 15mins, several trains coming and going, all packed solid, allowing very few passengers on board. A few prayers to Lord Coe later and we were on board, like the proverbial sardine. Various announcements, all completely ignored, told us to get off at West Ham if we were travelling to the Olympic Park. We therefore went past West Ham and duly got off at Stratford, with everyone else….

Despite the amount of people, we got into the Olympic Park, including various security checks, quickly and without fuss. A short stroll and we had reached the Riverside Arena, followed by a climb of 1000s of steps and we had reached row 29 of 30 and in position to enjoy the hockey.

The Hockey was actually quite exciting, a very fast and skilful game. The Dutch were too strong for Korea and beat them 4-2, whilst the Aussies whooped Pakistan 7-0.

After the Hockey we went to Park Live to watch the Brownlee boys bring home gold and bronze in the triathlon on the big screen.

Then a stroll to the Velodrome where I re-enacted my celebration at seeing Chris Hoy win another gold….

We passed the biggest McDonalds in the world, apparently, before seeing the biggest queue in the world to get into the London 2012 Megastore. Both we avoided before taking a closer look at the Olympic Stadium…

We ended the day by queuing for fish and chips….it was a really great experience, well done London!!!

 

Swimming #3

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Today, the third effort of August's Project, was a visit to Bourne Outdoor Pool for a spot of swimming. Although I've lived in Bourne a number of years, today was my first ever visit to the outdoor pool. I was pleasantly surprised. The admission price was £4 and this allows you to stay there for the day. I saw a number of families who had obviously been there all day: blankets, chairs, picnics, books and no end of other stuff.

It was a lovely day today, very hot, therefore the place was very busy. At one stage the noise of kids screaming and enjoying themselves was incredible (cue the exaggerated simile), like the Olympic Stadium celebrating ANOTHER Team GB gold medal. I was amazed how big the actual pool was, and deep, you can dive in without fear of a lifeguard whistle.

I went with Amy today, and we had a great time. She even treated me to a cup of tea. She even got herself some curly fries because apparently you can't go to the outdoor pool without buying curly fries…

Overall, the swimming seems to be getting slightly better. I still struggle with the breathing, but my actual technique is a lot smoother and less splashy. So although I'm a fair way off challenging Thorpedo to a race, I feel as if I'm getting somewhere. Actually looking forward to the next session….

 

Swimming #1

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We move into August, which means another monthly project: swimming.

Now I can actually swim, not particularly well, and not particularly fast, but I could survive being dropped into a lake. Therefore the purpose of this month's project is to learn to swim better, maybe with the distant idea of completing a triathlon. My initial plan was to swim 2 or 3 times a week. But I have now decided to also include a 'tour' of the local pools in an attempt to give me more to say in this blog.

So #1 took me to my local pool at Bourne Leisure Centre, swimming is £4.45 a session. It is what they call a 'leisure pool', this means it has various 'fun' stuff going on: flume, wave machine,water spouting out everywhere and 1000s of kids. This makes swimming in a straight line rather tricky, and I use the term 'swimming' quite loosely. Now I can swim a kind of breaststroke, even my backstroke takes me from one end of the pool to the other. The problem I have is trying to do the front crawl, I have trouble breathing, it really knackers me out AND my hair gets in the way!!

A couple of things that have come out of session #1: I maybe need a couple of lessons to sort out my technique and I need to get my hair cut!