I know, it’s a running blog, and this post is going to be about swimming. But hey, it’s my blog so I can write what I like surely 😉
I like running and I like swimming, but I am not a triathlete, let’s just clear that up. Though I am a second claim member of the Leeds and Bradford Triathlon club (LBT), and they are a great bunch of people to run and swim with! I am just not into cycling, despite being Dutch. I love riding a bike when I am in the Netherlands, where the roads are flat and we have dedicated and safe cycle paths, with proper separation of traffic, and you don’t have to get changed into lycra to get on your bike. But cycling as a sport does not appeal to me. And even if it did, I truly don’t have time to take up another discipline, especially not one that takes as much time as cycling.
So, let’s talk about swimming then. I don’t have a swimming background at all. I learnt to swim, as a basic skill, aged 6. In the Netherlands you don’t learn all 4 strokes unless you go on to take swimming more seriously. But you do learn to swim a good breaststroke, and to pass the basic exam you even have to swim a length wearing all your clothes, including shoes and socks, so I was a capable breaststroke swimmer but no more. In my 30s I took some lessons at the Kirkstall pool in Leeds to try and learn front crawl, and it was a disaster. The teacher pushed me so hard that I was seriously worried I was going to faint in the pool, and I gave up after a few sessions convinced it wasn’t for me. But then in my 50s I decided to have another go, in 2015. I was working at the University of Leeds and booked in for lessons at their sports centre The Edge.
I was lucky to be assigned to the brilliant teacher Jake Harrison who literally changed my life. Learning a new stroke is not easy for the majority of people, and I was no exception. In fact I think I was pretty slow in getting the technique together, generally only being able to concentrate on one aspect at a time. There is so much to think about: body position, kicking, hand entry, catch, pull, recovery, and most crucially, breathing. But with Jake’s endless patience and my perseverance we got there eventually, and like with my running, once I got the hang of it I found I could go on for a long time, and I managed to swim the 5k pool Swimathon a couple of times. More importantly, I just loved everything about swimming and became quite obsessed with it. I took part in several pool aquathlons, these events generally involve swimming 400m in a pool followed by running anything up to 10k outside. In 2017 I joined the Ilkley Swimming Club and swam in their ‘triathlon lane’, where I was generally the slowest or thereabouts 😂, but was made very welcome nevertheless, and I loved swimming there.
By 2018 I decided to give open water swimming a go. The concept did not hugely appeal, but I thought I should try it anyway and went on an excellent introductory workshop held by Evolve Endurance at the Blue Lagoon near Pontefract. It was brilliant and that experience opened up a whole new avenue of swimming adventures. I swam regularly at the Blue Lagoon for a while and took part in a few open water swimming events: I swam the Dee Mile at Chester and did some swims in Ullswater and Lake Coniston.
In May 2018 I did the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification (NPLQ) course to become a pool lifeguard. It felt like a good way to be involved with swimming without needing to swim at Masters swimmer level, which I cannot, though there is a minimum standard as you would expect, which is regularly assessed with timed swims 😬 To my delight I managed to get a zero hours contract as a lifeguard at The Edge in January 2019, next to my substantive position at the University, a situation which had required considerable discussion with the HR department! And now that I have retired from the main job it is a very nice way to keep active, be around younger people, and earn some extra money.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 of course everything ground to a crashing halt where swimming is concerned. I missed it so much. But when we could return to activities I found that I did not want to return to the Ilkley Swimming Club, I had come to appreciate my free evenings too much. But not going to fixed sessions meant that soon I was barely swimming at all, forever putting it off until the next day, the next week…..
Now, on the verge of 2023, I am not sure where I am with my swimming. I did not swim in open water all summer. I do occasionally swim in the pool, recently I have been to a few coached sessions with LBT which I enjoyed, I do my lifeguard training every month which of course involves swimming too. I am very aware I need to keep some speed up to enable me to pass the renewal of my qualification in a year’s time. Otherwise I will be working on the reception desk I guess! At the moment I seem to be getting slower which definitely needs addressing. But I know all too well that to improve my swimming it will take much more than the occasional swim. Just as in running, perhaps even more so, volume is key. Unlike running, swimming is heavily technique based. Three or four sessions in a week are recommended to have any chance of improvement. Now, I am not short of time, being retired, I just need to find my swimming mojo which I appear to have mislaid during the pandemic. Will 2023 be the year where I find it again?