Tag: marie

Swimming #9

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

Deepings Leisure Centre was the destination for today's swimming trip. This is the second attempt to swim here, first time I got slightly confused about the opening hours. It was well worth the wait, this pool is a great place for a swim: local, clean and quiet.

In fact, today it was eerily quiet, at one point the swimmers in the pool were nearly outnumbered by lifeguards. We were slightly worried on arrival that it was closed as there were so few cars in the car park.

Admission is £3.95, and overall it is probably the best pool we have been to this month:

  • Very clean throughout.
  • Nice and local, only a 15 min drive.
  • Very quiet – great for swimming lengths (whether or not this is the norm I'm unsure).
  • Great water – eyes were slightly tender but I put this down to the Peterborough pool plus the amount of times we've been swimming lately.
  • Fantastic showers, hot and powerful. No need to cling to the pipe in an effort to get wet at this place.

As for the swimming, because it was quiet, we were able to do a lot of swimming and the time passed really quickly. Swimming continues to go well, my technique has improved no end since the start of the month. Marie, who I dragged with joined me again for today's session, has also seen a big improvement in her technique.

That makes nine swimming trips this month and three trips in the last three days, hence….

I think maybe a day off tomorrow.

 

Swimming #8

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

The continuation of August's Project brought us to the rather impressive sounding Peterborough Regional Pool.

Admission of £4.40, the most expensive price yet, allows you to experience the slightly strange set-up. There are actually three pools: a standard 25m pool (which goes from shallow at one end to slightly more shallow at the other end!!?); a teaching pool (this is in fact just a really shallow pool for kids); and a diving pool (connected to the main pool which is very, very deep).

We spent most of the time swimming in the diving pool because you were not allowed to use the diving boards today. Although, you were allowed to dive from the side, Marie only did one dive because on this attempt her bikini bottoms feel down and she decided this is 'not a good look'. We did a lot of swimming today, probably due to the fact that you couldn't stop because it was too deep to relax and stand-up.

Another issue with going into Peterborough for swimming is the parking, especially when it coincides with The Posh playing. We timed it all wrong and had to contend with thousands of people all trying to get out of Peterborough at the same time. At one stage we had a scene reminiscent of 'Green Street'…

It was a good swimming session today, I'm not sure if we'll return to The Regional Pool, but I'm glad we visited. Swimming is DEFINITELY improving every time I go. Lovely jubbly!

Next up……Deepings Swimming Pool.

 

Swimming #5

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

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

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

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!”