A Sense of Perspective

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mentions the "Total Perspective Vortex", which a man invented to annoy his wife who kept on telling him to get a sense of proportion. The wife enters the Vortex and sees how insignificant she is in comparison to the universe and the shock totally destroys her brain. The loss of his wife was tempered by the fact that she had been wrong all along and to get on in life the one thing that you mustn't have is a sense of proportion.

Last week I managed to swim 26 lengths of the 15 metre pool at Bourn Golf Club. But this week I could only manage 8 lengths before having to stop. I only managed to get into the right rhythm by purposively losing count. I then managed to count 26 lengths and I could have done more.

Suddenly a 1500 metre swim doesn't seem so impossible. Providing I don't try and count the 100 lengths.

Buying a Bike Without Wheels

"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving"
Albert Einstein

Today I bought an exercise bike. I fear that there maybe something metaphorical about peddling madly on a bike that goes nowhere.

An England manager once argued that there's no point in practising penalties, as it's not the same as taking a penalty for real. If that were completely true there'd be no point in practising anything. But any runner who has practised on a load bearing treadmill and then has tried to replicate his performance on unforgiving solid ground, knows the truth of the manager's statement.

I assume that cycling at 30 kilometres an hour for 40 kilometres is much easier without the wind resistance, the need to steer and the threat of a puncture.

Building Self-Esteem

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment
Thomas Carlyle

President Kennedy said (I paraphrase) we do not go to the moon because it is easy, but because it is hard. I suppose that I would not have wanted training for a triathlon it to be easy. After more than a month of trying to improve my swimming technique I can only swim 90 metres.

Judging Distance

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Robert Carlyle

Bowlers at a village cricket team were baffled as to why their home form was so poor. They simply coudn't land the ball on a good length. In June their star bowler returned from holiday, took one look at the pitch and solved their problem. The wicket was a yard too long.

I was disheartened to realise that I was finding it far harder to swim lengths at the Bourn Golf and Leisure Club than at the DoubleTree Hotel where I was having lessons. Proof, I thought, of why it is important to train in a structured environment. The equivalent, I thought, of marathon running in front of a crowd of people and jogging on a deserted track. The power of sport's psychology can deceive in so many ways. The Bourn pool is 5 metres longer.

Practicing without a pool

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." Vince Lombardi

In the book "The Inner Game of Tennis", the author Timothy Gallwey explains that it's the verbal instructions that the student finds hardest to follow. He realised that the less he said, the better he coached.

I have never followed instructions well, either as a school child or as an adult, and I am still trying to put into practice what the instructor told me on Friday. This is difficult to do without a pool and so I tried practicing face down on the bed. This reminded me of an episode of Blue Peter when Janel Ellis was learning how to skydive. The team that were jumping tried to practice arranging themselves into formation whilst walking on the ground. Unsurprisingly this proved far easier than moving into formation whilst flying through the air at 120 miles per hour.

I joined Bourn Health and Fitness Club today and I've realised that swimming on a bed is far easier than swimming in a pool. 50 metres is about as far as I can go without stopping. This is a 30th of what I need to do. The equivalent would be running 333 metres when training for a 10k run.

Today I learned that you get nowhere whilst swimming on a bed!

Learning How to Breathe

"You must unlearn what you have learned" - Yoda

Have you heard the one about David Beckham going to the hairdressers and refusing to take his headphones off? Eventually the barber seizes the headphones, puts them on and hears the instructions: "breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out"!

Today I had my first ever one-to-one swimming lesson and whilst I was swallowing my umpteenth mouthful of chlorinated water it struck me how difficult swimming is as an exercise. When running or cycling breathing is not a concern. If I get out of breath I might have to slow down but that's all. When I got tired today in swimming I tried breathing on every stroke and even that was not enough. Trying to remember the instructions that I had been given on top of that proved impossible. How can you remember anything when your body is telling you that you can't breathe?

Learning how to exercise whilst essentially holding my breath is going to be a difficult nut to crack. In the words of the Jedi master I will have much to unlearn.

Tomorrow my two daughters have their swimming lessons. I wonder if the swimming teachers ever swap notes and if they do whether I'm being any more attentative than my kids.

If I Can't Swim, I Sink

"I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan's country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise" Reepicheep
"Please try not to drown." My Supportive Wife

My philosophy when doing a long distance run is to "start off slow and if necessary go slower." During my marathon I had to stop at the 20 mile mark. For the next two miles or so I was like a car that wouldn't start. I could jog for only a few metres and then had to stop. I can't do that when I'm swimming. If I stop, I sink.

The route of my marathon took me through the town of Windermere, where the townsfolk and no doubt a few tourists, lined the route. The thought of having to stop running in front of that support was enough to shame me into keep running. Perhaps the thought of drowning in front my family and well wishers will be enough to inspire me to keep swimming in a triathlon. Failing that I suppose I can always just "sink with my nose to the sunrise."

With the exception of a short jog to and from work, I did no training today.