Backstroke My Way to Health

Quite the title, don’t you think?

I’m sure some real swimmers will make fun of the backstroke being my favorite as it’s the easiest stroke of all. In my defense, I’m one of those real beginners (not one of those adults who insist they can’t swim but have actually had some instructions as a child, stopped swimming for many decades then claim to have “forgotten” how to swim as an adult) and a very non-athletic one to boot, so cut me some slack.

Anyway, like most days this month I didn’t feel like going to the gym but I somehow made myself go by thinking that I’ll just stay in the pool if I could not manage at all with the machines.

I did manage a round with the machines, adding more weight than usual, and tried out the upright bicycle instead of the treadmill. Then made a beeline for the pool.

Fair Weather Gym-Goers

I’d rather be in the pool.

But the 25m pool was crowded tonight! As I’ve noted before, it must be the nice spring weather. The nicer the weather gets the more people go to the gym.

I’m seeing a lot of new faces here lately. In Japan, April is the start of the school year as well as the fiscal year, so in a sense it’s a time for “new beginnings”. The beautiful cherry blossoms, in all their splendid fresh-faced glory, make a great symbol for this spring wish to start anew.

I suppose everyone is now working on their hot summer body.

I stayed at the 18m pool because it was only half as crowded. First I did some warm-ups with drills (SG, Switch) and then did an 8 x 18m for crawl and 6 x 18m backstroke.

Continuous Backstroke

Miraculously, the practice lane emptied at that time and I was able to do a 180m backstroke, doing open turns.

On the 18m pool there are no marker flags on the ceiling unlike the 25m pool, so I used the beams to time my turn. It’s so nice not to have to worry if there’s someone coming behind you!

But they eventually did. I wanted to do up to a 200m but three other swimmers came along so that put an end to my turning. The 18m practice lane is two-way, but since two of them started doing the butterfly I knew we’d end up getting in each other’s way. I let them have the space and left the 18m to do some balancing/stretching on the 25m walking lane.

I hope to get lucky again this week and have the practice lane all to myself. A person can dream!