Swimming with Billy

Not posted for ages. The last couple of weeks have been pretty grim really - a lot of "stuff" going on at work and I've had (and my girl, and both have had) this "flu" like bug that's been floating around. Each of us has had it for over a month now (me worst - because I'm a "man"!). So the last couple of weeks haven't had anywhere near enough specific training for this Etwall meet. And coming up to last weekend I wasn't sure whether I was going to bother, however I did and it was a good laugh. I have to say, the people you meet at these competitions are lovely, and this meet was no different. I sat between a group of professional trophey hunters and a group of mature ladies just out for a good time...

As for the swimming, well the competition was really stiff. In my age group there were 22 of us and by the end I came 5th which (considering most of those above entered more event, oh yes and were better than me, wasn't too bad). My two biggest gripes about this meet were (1) the warm ups were slightly chaotic. In the morning I have the 50 fly and 100 IM, so after a general loosening swim I wanted some fly-work, but that just wasn't possible - too many people in each lane. And it seemed that whichever lane I picked I always ended up in the wrong one! And (2) for some reason just about every meeting I've been plagued by really bad knotting in my left calf. It first happened in Gloucester and again in Gateshead, and again here. So I spent a lot of time stretching and trying to get rid of it.

It's a bit worrying really and I can't pin it down as to what's causing it. After the warm up, I get out of the pool and shortly afterwards... bang... big knot in calf. And it doesn't go for days. It's not the swimming I don't think because I am only swimming at warm up pace, and I never suffer from it from on other days. It could be the diving practice, but again I've done other more intense diving session with no ill effects... it's just a pain in the (well) calf really. And it mucks up your swimming somewhat. However...

And of those the 50M Free and 100M Fly were both PBs. I wanted a touch quicker in the 50M but a PB by almost 0.5s isn't so bad, and I did win my heat! The 100M Fly was good, again I wanted quicker but as it was 10 minutes after the 50M Free I am happy with that really, it does show that I can/should be able to go quicker.

So that's it for the year, now I need to sort out next year's plan. I really do think I need a 6-beat kick to drop my 50 much further (oh and a spot less knotting would be good!!)