…is a long way when you’re under water.

Last night at the gym, I managed - twice - to swim a length under water. I knew before I went down for the first one that this would be it. I knew it, I did.

It’s been a goal of mine pretty much from when I joined H’s gym and started to go swimming twice a week. I’ve worked on a bunch of stuff, from breath-holding capacity to efficiency, and it seems that last night it all came together.

It probably helps that I’ve been exceedingly strict on my gluten-free diet for the whole of September, so my health is pretty tip-top.

The most important points, I think are buoyancy and technique.

Buoyancy

It is absolutely key, once down, to breathe out just the right amount of air such that you float about a foot from the bottom*.

On my first attempts, I would hold my lungs full of air, and have to expend extra energy just to keep myself under the water. Once I learnt about breathing out, I would breathe out too much air and skim the bottom of the pool. This leads to two problems - firstly, the friction wastes energy, and secondly there is an amount of concern which can lead to panic about whether you’ll be able to resurface. If you’re worried, you’ll use more air, and not make it as far.

*This is for a flat, 1.6m pool… if your pool slopes, it may be different.

Technique

I believe technique and form are everything. It’s not about being able to hold your breath for a long time, it’s about being able to cover more distance on the same amount of breath.

I worked on a bunch of styles - firstly gliding. How far can I push from the side. Then breast-stroke. The Olympics helped a lot with this, I watched how they’d take long strokes, using legs and arms alternately, gliding between strokes. Then kicking. I’d do lengths on my back using only my legs in a ‘crawl’ kicking style. Working on form, I found it possible to keep up with H’s breast-stroke with only my legs.

Putting it all together

The pool I swim in has three lights along its length marking quarters of the pool. On my good run, I went under and pushed from the side. I used a glide for the first quarter, and breathed out to adjust my buoyancy. Note that while you’re gliding, you can pretty much stay under water as long as you like - you’re using very little oxygen.

Then before losing momentum, I began kicking. A nice smooth, efficient, but quite rapid kick until the next quarter mark. That’s half the pool covered before I even started using my arms.

By changing muscle groups, you can buy yourself more time - so a switch into an efficient breast-stroke covered almost the rest of the pool. It’s about now, the third light - the three-quarter point - that I would come up gasping with my lungs feeling like they’re going to explode.

One thing I’d read was that rather than panicking at the end, you should surface gradually. You’ll always have a little bit more air, so you can surface over a stroke or two.

I thought about beginning my gentle ascent when I spotted the end of the line. The pool floor has three lines of tiles along its length which finish about a metre from the end in a T shape. I saw the T and knew it could be done… so a couple of breast strokes with the arms, back to ‘crawl’ kicking with the legs and an outstretched finger touched the wall.

I even felt I could have done a few more metres. So after a return length on the surface and a rest, I went for it again and succeeded.

Good feeling, that, you know!

Not very good effort, Cadbury.

Swam my first non-stop 1000m last night. Ow.

On to the mile next.

In other news, I’m usually not one for buying new things, not when the old things are ‘perfectly good’. But this video editing is painful. Because I now have a higher-quality camera, my computer is really struggling to keep up with the editor.

You may have to wait a while for the Ben Nevis video. I do have the first 90 seconds done, though.

I now introduce you the Self-Esteem Weight-Loss Plan.

I started liking myself in July. It seems to have worked. I haven’t even been trying to lose weight…

When I was trying to lose weight, I got the results you see on the left of the graph. However, obsessive weighing, crashing and binging really don’t work. First step, stop the obsessive weighing. Second, stop crashing - if you crash as a punishment for binging, then you’re creating a very vicious circle. Third, stop binging.

But most of all… learn to like yourself.

A story on the BBC News website caught my eye today:

“The Church of England has declared organ donation to be a Christian duty, in keeping with giving oneself and one’s possessions freely.”

For me, organ donation is one of those great moral dilemmas. On the face of it, I think it’s a sound idea - helping others to live after your death, but the selfish side of me says that I would like to go to the grave intact, thankyouverymuch - I especially don’t want things removed if I’m not quite dead yet.

And what if I found myself in the position as a recipient? Would it be hypocritical to receive a donation without having been a donor myself? I’m not sure right now, but I’m erring on the side of no.

There’s an interesting (possibly biased in favour of donation) summary of various religions’ positions at organtransplants.org.

I suppose, even if I come down on the side of not being a donor, it’s better to have thought about it and decided than to be oblivious to the issue in the first place.

Me and gluten have a love-hate relationship. I love it, and it hates me.

It is Very Easy™ to avoid gluten - all I have to do is not put it into my mouth.

If you’ve ever tried to give something up, especially something which doesn’t make you come out in spots, or make you feel bad straight away, then you’ll know what a sensible, yet impossibly difficult statement that is.

I have a friend who is doing something much harder than giving up gluten, and he has introduced me to the idea of Operation 365.

I already, generally, do the teeth-cleaning and bathing and getting up in the morning referred to in the linked blog, but I know that the gluten thing is wrong. Why don’t I give myself sufficient credit to not kill myself slowly? So I’m hereby going to stop putting things containing gluten into my mouth. Just for one year. 365 days.

I apologise in advance to anyone for whom this causes difficulty. Believe me, I don’t want to be a pain. If I could get away with it, I would. But I know, deep down, that I can’t.

“It’s in me”.

Thanks Henry.

I was hoping to go back to work on Monday, but the doctor, she say no. But I do get to go from Thursday 16th. Hurrah!

In other news - do you know how hard it is to buy a hoola hoop that doesn’t rattle or flash or do some other gimmicky thing? It’s quite hard, yes it is. I shall continue to search…

A nice little potter in the countryside in great company…

Total elapsed time was around seven hours… but a large portion of that was spent in the two pubs along the way. A lovely way to spend a day in glorious weather.

Distance: 11.1 miles
Calories burned: 2472

Scroll down for pic and stats

I’ve been struggling with a poorly fitting, unsuitable racer I’d received from freecycle, and went on an adventure to find a geocache yesterday. Well, I sort-of lost the bike, then when I found the bike I had lost a crank. At that moment, my mum phoned and so a lift home was arranged. We went via the tip to leave the bike gently at the side so that anyone who wants to buy a crank has a pretty good bike for themselves.

So I went and bought a new bike today. I popped in to the local bike shop around midday and told them I’d like to buy a bike. They told me that I had, fortunately, come to the right place. I told them my budget and they showed me a bike right on the top end of the budget. It was very nice. I had a look at a few more, but they were sadly lacking in things the higher up one had. Not that I was looking for fancy features and suspension… no, I’d rather a competent reliable bike without gimmicks and stuff. So I settled on the nice hybrid - almost like a mountain bike, but with road tyres at mountain bike pressures - suitable for roads, towpaths, easy bridleways, that sort of thing.

I asked if they could do anything with the price (with Dominic Littlewood in my mind’s ear at all times), and they said no, but they could do accessories at half price. I pointed out that since this was at the top of my budget, I had no money for accessories at half price or not. Then the silence. This is the bit where Mr. Littlewood says “KEEP QUIET”. So I did. The silence grew, and the awkwardness with it. Then they said… “Well, we could throw in and fit some mudguards if you’re happy to wait a few hours”. Hurrah!

So a few hours later, 4pm to be precise, I went in to pick my bike up. Very confidence inspiring… solid, responsive, handles beautifully at slow and high speeds alike. So I went for a potter. I made it to where I’d been pottering yesterday and thought… well, I suppose I could go along that nice track that goes over the M1. So I did.

Then since I was there, I thought, well, I suppose I could go into Shepshed. So I did.

Then I thought… well, it’s only a few miles to my mum’s house, so I could see if she’s in for a cuppa. She was. So I did.

After the cuppa, I started out home, and it was all going swimmingly until I rode over a thorn. The tyre was deflating slowly, and although I’d brought tools, I didn’t have a puncture repair kit or pump. When it was too soft to ride without damaging the tyre or rim, I started to push the bike (marked on the map). When it was too soft to push, I carried it. All the way to Halfords where I bought a repair kit and a pump. I figured it was going down slowly enough that I could just reinflate a few times to get me home, which I did… just in time to swap the bike for the car and pick up my friend for badminton.

Total biking stats:

Time: 2h 08m 23s
Calories burned: 1589
Distance: 17.4 miles
Top speed: 25mph

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy cycling - I used to live on bikes in the mid to late 90s (as well as most of the 80s). Damn good way to keep fit… beats the gym any time. I had the heart-rate monitor on the whole time and really had to hold myself back in order to stay within the best fat-burning zone. The temptation to whizz was very strong, but unfortunately unsustainable over long distances.

I set myself a personal challenge some time back, to be able to touch my toes within a year. I’ve always been inflexible, and I think never been able to touch my toes with straight knees. I’ve also been pretty bad at keeping up with my stretching routine and so time is ticking and I’m not progressing.

Through the power of geekdom, though, I noticed today that I have 255 days left. Oh no! I thought… only 8 bits… that’s not very long. Maybe it’ll be just the trigger I need to get on with it.

If only I could find a way to measure and log progress, I think I’d do better at it. But mainly, it’s just remembering to do it that’s the problem.

11111111₂ days to go.