Upwards... Getting to grips with hills.

Tuesday evening I went for a swim, but I forgot my prescription swimming goggles, and as I'm incredibly short-sighted, what little confidence I have at a swimming pool (nb. for new readers, I only learned to swim last year in my mid 30s, over 20 years since I'd last even dipped my toe in a pool) absolutely disintegrated when I couldn't see the ends of the lanes, and so on. I had to ask the lifeguard to tell me how many folk were in each lane, and specifically the ones allocated to slower swimmers. The slow lane had two swimmers in, the 'family swim' double lane had 4 swimmers in, and the medium one had only one swimmer who, he told me, "was taking things leisurely". So we decided the medium lane was best for now, and he would come tell me if the slower lanes emptied.

I tried to swim as I've learned, with my face in the water, but the lack of goggles freaked me out, and I was soon swimming granny-style breast stroke with my head out the water. This slowed me even more than usual, and my utter lack of depth perception with the other swimmer in my lane meant I couldn't tell when I should wait for her at the end to let her go ahead without catching me on a lap, and - cutting a long story short, she was massively intolerant, and tutty, and at a lane end when I asked her if she could please tell me how many people were now in the slow lane, she snapped back "THAT'S the slow lane!" (pointing) - I said, "I know, I can't see how many people are in it." "Just ONE." she snapped again, then immediately swam off. I moved into the slow lane, whereupon I quickly realised the other swimmer was NOT 'slow', and she caught me up within a lap. Mortified, I apologised as she drew level, and she ignored me, cutting back in front of me and splashing me in the face with a kick of her feet as she went. On the verge of tears now, I gave up and got out. So, lesson learned, and I will be buying a second, and maybe third, pair of prescription swimming goggles, to avoid the same thing happening again.

Anyway, I went to bed feeling sorry for myself, but as Wednesday morning arrived, there was no time for any of that, as I had an early morning appointment with my trainer at the gym. So, 6:30am, I'm on a cross-trainer doing my warm up, and feeling out my hamstrings, still a wee bit sore. I asked Craig if we could leave my legs alone, and after a short telling off for my continual lack of stretching or foam-rolling, we started on a great upper body session that included clean and press lifts with a 15kg barbell (first 5 reps were a normal press, the next 10 reps were push-press), cable fly with the cables at increasing weights, dumbbell shoulder press with a twist at the top, lateral raises with dumbbells that I then had to repeat while stood on a Bosu, some Russian twists with a rugby-style throw of the heavy medicine ball, etc etc etc... Great stuff.

After work, I got changed and headed up to Alloa, to go for a wee run in the hills with Helen. We ran up a hill for 3.5 miles, walking the earlier steep bits, running pretty much the whole of the second half except when a gate or stile got in the way, or the highland coos that stood in our path, when we walked. :) It was gorgeous weather; I'd been cautious when I left Edinburgh and layered a vest over a tshirt, but I needn't have bothered. John met us at the top of the hill, and drove us back to their place, where I got cleaned up, and fed a lovely chilli for dinner. All in all, Wednesday was a much improved day.

I was quite pleased with how I dealt with the hills in the second half, despite feeling fairly shattered after a steep climb in the earlier stages. Helen is a good teacher, explains things well, gives me credit for the things I do well, and is very patient with the things I do not quite as well, lol. She was telling me to bring my feet closer together, keep my shoulders loose, and so on. At one point going up an incline, she said to take tiny footsteps 'almost like your knees are tied together', and I visualised that as I ran. Tell you what, the hill didn't feel as difficult that way, and I could keep running for longer!! I still get a wee bit panicky, off-road, with footings and the like, but the more I do, the easier I'll find it... I'm told. ;) I'll stick with it, I guess...........