A spluttering start

Woke early, about six, and found another dry but cloudy morning outside. Made a pot of black coffee and then a full English breakfast, by the time I have ferried Louis to school and taken the dogs for their walk, four hours will have passed before my swim. I feel OK again, but this is the last of my seven days of antibiotics, and whilst there is still some phlegm and congestion the sputum is clear. I will have a better idea of how I am once in the water. The morning passes uneventfully, and arrive poolside for 10:40, there are no schools in but the pool is quite busy. In the last three lanes people are swimming laps, probably, like me, preparing for the Swimathon. One leaves and I replace him in the lane and push off immediately before someone else seizes the opportunity. Decide as I swim down the first length to adopt the same pace and style that I plan to use for Sunday's swim and see how it goes. Swimming front crawl and breathing bilaterally, (every three strokes), is normally my most efficient technique. Taking 13 strokes to the length means that my last breath of the length occurs on the twelfth stroke, one stroke before my tumble turn. At first, feel short of breath and tight in the chest, but hope that this will ease as the warm up phase progresses. It does, a little, but the effects of ten days illness and lack of exercise are also apparent. Using meditation techniques I consciously relax and focus on the stroke and decide to swim forty lengths before stopping for a drink. The swimmer to my right is causing some problems as she is wandering into my lane from time to time and my concentration keeps being broken by this. However, it's likely that I will be sharing a lane with several other swimmers on Sunday, so it's something I shall have to live with. The good news is that after twenty lengths my chest and airways have loosened but the bad news is that my stroke count has climbed to fourteen. My muscles have weakened whilst I've been laid up and I try to maintain the same breathing pattern but the extra stroke plus the tumble turn, dolphin kick and glide, mean that I'm gasping for air by the time I surface. Eventually I'm forced to adjust by taking an extra breath before the turn and this means increasing the stroke count to fifteen. After thirty lengths have to stop, as a coughing fit is brought on as some deep phlegm is loosened off. Take advantage of the break to take on water, then resume swimming for another thirty lengths of freestyle. It's OK but not fluent, after another drink swim ten lengths easy backstroke and feel better and then finish on ten lengths front crawl. Eighty lengths in total in just under the hour, thirty years ago that would have been under the half hour. Still, can't complain, whilst it wasn't smooth, I wasn't particularly tired either. If my health holds, and I swim every day, rather than running alternate days, it should be OK come Sunday.