A different type of sport

Spent my first day off work today snuggling with my boys this morning, then I met my friend Andy for a swim this afternoon.

I haven't seen Andy in ages so it was really nice to catch up. He's been trying to get me into open water swimming for years and so, with yet another ankle injury yesterday, I decided to give the swimming a go.

Sure I've been swimming recently, but I'd say it's been a good 15 years since I've done front crawl. I always used to be a strong swimmer, but I've opted for breast stroke over the years - probably because it's easier.

The thing with open water swimming is that due to the buoyancy of the wet suit, it's actually easier to do front crawl. So I thought I'd give it a go in the pool today.

I didn't do badly at all, in fact I'm rather impressed - I probably did about 25 lengths of front crawl (with extra breast stroke in between for rest lengths) and managed 4 continuous lengths in a row. That doesn't sound like much, but it's tougher than I remembered. Getting my breath took a while and my upper body strength is practically non-existent. In fact, my arms are pretty wrecked now.

For years, I haven't considered swimming as a good cardio workout, but switching back to front crawl, I can see I was wrong. I'm now tired and sore, but in that good sense of achievement kind of way.

I've got to say that Andy helped a lot, I know I wouldn't have pushed myself as much if I'd gone alone - so thanks Andy! Here we are doing a selfie outside the pool!