Oh'la!!
'K so I've been away for a week to the sun for ouddles of swimming... and I mean A LOT... reckon did just over 14miles... YES 14miles.. now this may not sound much to you pro's out there but for little old me who had done about 14miles from June to Oct (I kid you not) and that is added together.. this was A LOT!
.... lucky then that I'm 5-6kilo's over "race weight" and thus had a good man-made buoyancy aid of my own to help me ;o)
I haven't any pics yet - got a couple on my phone but I'm awaiting a certain Mr Rose to load his photo's up so I can steal them!!
There were 14 of us altogether on the course with one coach. Certainly some people got more attention then others but overall I thought we all got out of it what we could. My front crawl stroke has certainly changed, hopefully for the better... the only "problem" with the new stroke is I'm catching that much water now that I have realised I am completely feeble in the upper body!! Still once stronger with this stroke I should indeed go faster - let's hope so or it would it be a real, ahem, well waste of money!! ...... I'm sure I'm better already but it's going to take some time and practice!
I met tri buddies Julian and Anita once more on the course. The three of us shared a flat in la Santa earlier this year - in fact Jules was in that same flat but with other roomies (the shame of it!)... Anita and I had a 1.5mile walk each day to the complex - which was as good as a wake-me-up as I was going to muster.
Being in an outdoor 50m pool is FAB and something you just wouldn't get over in the UK. Lovely blue skies and nice water. Never too cold and never too warm. Perfect conditions... apart from the gale force winds, which did, if you can believe it, cause a bit of chop on the water but nothing too significant.
One of the good things about doing this sort of things with friends is you quickly identify your fellow classmates... occasionally with no reference to their real name. The class of 2009 thus contained characters such as;
"Hillingdon" - that's what was on his swim hat. Later found out his name was Julian
- "Protugues lady who's not Portuguese" - So named as we orginially thought she was from Portugal but later found out she was actually Persian living in Ireland (no where near Portugal then)
- "French lady who's not French" - I'm not sure why or who thought this lady was French. Maybe because she looked like she could be.....
- Thelma and Louise - who were in fact sisters, Clare and Louise... we just needed something to help remind us on one name.
- Richard the I and Richard the II... yes there were two Richards on the course..... alas who Anita and I thought was Richard the first was in fact Jule's Richard the II..... so more confusion... Anita and I thus renamed Richard the Older and Richard the younger
- The man who wore clothes. Nice guy who we assumed had a problem with sun burn as he had full length skins/ rashy on both legs and body throughout all lessons.
- Billy the stretchy man. So named as he was often used by the coach to demonstrate some stretch or other.
Mikey the float - there was no one actually called Mick or Mickey on the course but we did see a float with this name on so there was someone at the pool at least with that name!
There were others too on the course ...... suffice to say the whole crowd were lovely people. Everyone went there to learn something and get better at swimming. Compared to a tri camp there was a distinctly different atmosphere.... I didn't think people were so competitive with one another, which was refreshing and nice actually.
We ended the week with a course meal on Tuesday night, where I consumed a brandy too much ..... followed by a smaller gathering on final night for pizza and one last (and actually first in my case) ice cream from the pool bar.
An excellent week :o)
Now I've done all that I've got three weeks to consolidate my learning before heading off on a South American adventure for three weeks! WHOOP!
