In crawl, that is. This morning I could do every other length for
about half an hour: crawl one way, breaststroke back, repeat. No need to
rinse as I was in the water already. My legs are doing some of the work as
well now, and I manage not to hit or bump into anyone because I can
actually see other swimmers underwater.
Last week a woman, who had seen me struggling at first, complimented
me on my improved style. I can’t see myself, but I knew I couldn’t be
as messy and splashy as I started out. Still, it’s nice to hear it from
someone else.
With all this I must have overstrained my muscles or depleted my
blood sugar or both, because when I stopped at a traffic light my leg gave
way and all I could do was to fall as gracefully as possible on to the
little bit of grass verge. As I was picking myself and my bike up, a man
who had seen me go down while driving past came up, “are you all right?”
“Oh yes, I can fall,” I said, and when i realised that probably wasn’t
clear, “I know how to fall.” And when he still looked puzzled, “Elegantly.
Thank you, anyway.”
I cured the weakness with chocolate digestive biscuits and aloe-vera
juice (with lemon, which has the fewest additives, only honey and lemon
juice; the variety called ‘natural’ has artificial grape flavour, as if
it’s natural for aloe vera to taste like artificial grapes).
Next: build up enough stamina not to have that happen again. And keep
my right ear in the water at all times, even when taking a
breath.
