So it was back to real life last week after our holiday and despite being jet lagged I was determined to get myself up on the Sunday morning and down to the local swimming lake. I donned my wetsuit and managed the required 800 metre lap and got my hat that allows me to swim without being watched by the lifeguards at all times. I am still finding breaststroke in the wet suit more difficult than swimming in a swimming costume so decided to book a one to one lesson for the following Saturday.

On Tuesday it was back to the pool at our new leisure centre. It was quite strange not to be swimming 33.3 yards just the 25 metres in the new pool but was lovely to have 6 wide swimming lanes for morning swim plus lovely new changing rooms and a great new cafe that is open early morning for breakfast. I found that the two weeks away had not made much difference to my speed or stamina so that was good.

Saturday lunchtime, on the hottest day of the year so far, saw me in the lake with Ruth, my teacher for the hour, in a canoe alongside me. This was the most useful hour I have spent. Ruth analysed my stroke and gave me pointers how to change it and make life easier. For 63 years I have been doing my feet incorrectly and am now going to have to practise having penguin feet and also glide. Wow, did it make a difference in how tired I felt. We also talked about starts, how I was feeling a bit intimidated by the triathletes that train there – her wise words were to try not to feel like that as breaststroke is much more technical and I am a stronger swimmer than a lot of them even though it doesn’t feel like that. She feels that the distance should be no problem to me and in the hour I swam 3/4 mile and we stopped to chat every couple of hundred metres and analyse my problems. She also wisely said just go out, swim and enjoy yourself. Just a quick note to myself – sunscreen on your face is essential – I forgot and now have a mark where my hat was and my goggles!

So this week it is to try to swim the full mile outside without stopping and to try to make a decision about costume or wetsuit. I found out last week we can swim in a costume at the TriFarm lake but we must use a tow-float – so thanks to Swim Secure I can try this out – photos to come later.

Also is it wrong for me to want the weather to get a bit cooler so I can use my Dry Robe.