Proper Pool

This morning’s mile for Aspire was wonderful. The fact it was mile 19 and the end is in sight helped. The fact that I swam well and smoothly and completed my lengths with no fuss also helped. But the main reason it was so wonderful was the fact that it was in a proper, old-fashioned pool.

It was the Portland Centre in Nottingham, run by Notts County’s Football in the Community scheme and reminded me of the old pools that my grandad would have taken me to. The changing rooms were cubicles on the side of the pool and there was no chrome or steel, just tiles and water and the chance to swim in a lovely 30m pool.

Post swim smiley face

Mile 17 was also a great swim too. A friend joined me and as he said afterwards, the solitary aspect of swimming is great, but it’s also good to have company once in a while. We swam at the Victoria Leisure Centre pool and after a 1,000m warm-up we did 10 x 100m off 1:50m. It felt like we were pushing things, without killing ourselves and I was comfortably holding 1:40 for each 100m. To finish off we did a timed 100m sprint – Julian managed 1:19 and thrashed my 1:35. It just shows me that I clearly only have one gear / speed. I comfortably held 1:40 in ‘cruise’, but flat out sprint only gains me an extra 5 seconds!

We enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take a photo and instead rushed off for bacon sandwiches!

Yesterday’s mile – mile 18 – was swum in London as I was down there for meetings for the day. It was good, but a bit ‘London’ – you know, a bit too busy and a bit too expensive. But another mile ticked.

I nearly missed mile 16 earlier in the week. I got up later than I intended and so realised that I might not have time to get to the planned pool. So instead I looked for a closer pool and set off for that one – only to arrive and realise that I’d looked at the timetable for the wrong day and it wasn’t open for another hour. I drove back home in a sulk, but it did give me time to have a proper shower and breakfast, two things I’ve missed most mornings.

I went back to the same pool after work, only to act like a cross between a sulky teenager and a diva when I discovered that a) I’d misread the timetable and it wasn’t lane swimming, but ‘general swim’ and b) it was only an 18m pool. I went for it anyway and of course the swim itself was lovely. I did 120 lengths for a total of 2,160m (but only counted the first mile of it towards the Aspire total).

If things go to plan, I’ll finish on Monday in my local pool.

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You can still sponsor me here – www.justgiving.com/patrickJPRaspire

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