92........

......days to go.....

Crap!! Forgot to publish Saturday and Sunday's posts; had them all written out too.....honest!!

Still, I can fiddle the published date so it looks like I posted on time.....so it makes YOU feel daft for not noticing the new ones.....!

......and then I go and tell you what I'm doing.......here I sit in all my DOH!-ness.

Nice day today, popped to the pool for a quick 20 lengths, (20 lengths, 25mm pool...that makes..... errrrr.......carry the one......add the number you first thought of......a lot of metres!!). It's the first time I have been swimming for a looooong time, and for the guy who started out in the world of swimming as a snowball does in the world of hell, I don't do too bad. Plus the added bonus was that the water was lurrrrrrvely and warm; the perfect remedy for the sub-zero external temperatures.

Breast (don't be rude) is the usual stroke for me (and indeed for most people I would guess), but I do occasionally break into a front crawl...and no that's not after I get out of the pool on my way back to the changing rooms. All self-taught, and boy does it show! Although rarely attempted I can do a passable backstroke, with legs like mine I'm like a one-man outboard motor......unfortunately there are two major drawbacks when I attempt it....one is that the aforementioned outboard motor is rudderless, I have no sense of direction and can end up crashing into anything or anyone. The other is very technical, and may be a little too scientific for most of the non-swimmers amongst us (if that's the case then please skip this paragraph and move on to simpler concepts). In case you didn't know, with backstroke....YOU GO BACKWARDS AND YOU CAN'T SEE WHERE YOU ARE GOING!!! I am therefore (from about half a length in) constantly flopping around in a state of ruined technique in order to see how near the end of the length I am.....in perpetual fear of klonking head and/or arm and/or hand against concrete at high velocity. All in all, and for the sake and safety of all, a stroke best avoided.

On a more positive note, Butterfly is forward facing, and when I try it I go in a perfect straight line... .......diagonally..........down........

Anyway, it was a nice morning and made a nice change from the rigours of running. I admit I succumbed to a sausage sandwich for breakfast (if I said it was a Marks and Spencer café sausage sandwich, would that make it any more acceptable??), but other than that I was a good boy (at least, as good a boy as I am ever capable of being.....which let's face it.....isn't that good!!

Big run tomorrow, and with conditions being what they are I can't see me doing it on the road. Not been to the gym for a while and it's going to feel weird.

Eight miles or nine miles.........what do you think??