South West sprint meet.

Well the first swim meet for some time on Sunday. Unfortunatley my birthday was Saturday with a birthday dinner prepared by Mrs Tewson which included too much wine. My birthday present is being used to blog this latest post. (i pad 2). I had entered a 50 back but shoulder has been pretty painful in the last couple of weeks so after trying 15 metres with posts of pain I decided to stick to free style as I am at Sheffield.

Not swam a 50 free since the Gloucester meet in April which was the first meet back from my first shoulder surgery. So not much to beat for a seasons best which I did by 0.8 sec. The problem is I need to reduce the time by another 0.6/0.7 to medal at Sheffield. Just the 5 weeks to get some speed from somewhere. Most of my club colleagues were swimming 4-5 events but my excuse is not being able to swim more than one stroke. Nothing to do with lack of fitness and speed or the 18 lbs I have now put on. The 100 free was bad. I felt tired after 40 metres and finished a second slower than my long course. 100 in June!

I am quite embarrassed that my targets of getting faster (not), Getting Fitter (not) and losing weight (not close) are so much of a failure. I will be training hard (shoulder permitting) to give myself the best chance at Sheffield in 5 weeks. I need to reapply my diet ASAP and plan to keep losing weight during my anticipated 3 month non swimming recovery. I would like to be about to swim at Plymouth in March but this could be a bit quick. If my early recovery last year contributed to the relapse I do not want to repeat the experience. If it takes 6 months to get fit and injury free so be it.

This is Tewson trying to be up beat under a cloud of poor achievement, I am certainly not depressed. Very happy with the i pad.

Nationals Entry, A waste of money????

Trying to write posts which remain semi interesting is a challenge. I have finally realised that my quest to lose weight, get fitter and swim faster is pretty boring to the average person. I have come to understand that my life revolves around my diet and training. Unfortunatly during the last few months the diet has been suspended and the training up and down. I am swimming at a meet this weekend. The results should be interesting as I have not swam any races recently. It should tell me if my entry into the nationals at Sheffield next month is a waste of the entry fees.
Because of the shoulder issue, presently very very sore, I have only entered freestyle events.50,100 and 200 M. I guess I may need to swim a couple of relays as well.
I am inpatient waiting for my surgery date in November. At my age I should not be wishing time away but I need to train and swim all strokes to reach my targets.

NHS What a service ! Happy training times! Upcoming competitions!

I Know, not posted for a couple of weeks but it's only so I don;t bore you all to death. I have been expecting a date for my shoulder surgery to be confirmed for end of August or early Sept. I had heard nothing so a week or so ago I rang the consultants appointments secretary. She said that the time scales were a little behind (As I had guessed). Sept dates had been issued so my date would be 2-3rd week of Sept. Now as you Masters Swimmers know the asa Nationals (Short Course) are at the end of October so... I asked if by asking for a later date whether it would affect my position on the list. She says. No problem if you want November I can give you a date now. Well Nov 8th it is. Now that's what I call service. Of course I would have been happier to have had the surgery in June and not have to wait at all but hey this is the NHS and I am a happy bunny. The new surgery on the same shoulder as 53 weeks before the 8th Nov. Lets hope it is at least 90% this time and I have a winter of full training on all strokes.
mean while training seems good and averaging 8-12K per week. Feeling not bad at all although for obvious reasons still swimming Front Crawl only. I have entered the Gloucester masters this weekend and the Western Counties at the end of the month. Hopefully these will tell me if I have any chance of a medal at Sheffield in October.
I'm really bored with training and competing on one stroke only, but hopefully this will change in the new year. Back in the water in Feb 2012 !!!!!!

Six days swimming, Still no surgery news.

Managed to swim 6 out of the last 7 days. Four club sessions and a couple in public lanes at Leominster. Only swimming front crawl still. Feeling not at all bad. Managed about 40K in the last 3 weeks which for me is pretty much my busiest swimming period as a Master. I have this theory that the fitter I am prior to surgery the quicker I will recover . Still no date yet, I may have to call the consultant's secretary at this rate to push things along a bit. I have the entry forms for the Gloucester County Masters in Sept. Closing date is the 4th so will be sending it off if I hear nothing. Someone said I would be swimming at Sheffield at this rate. I really hope not cause I was planning to be back in the pool post surgery by then !!!!

Mrs Tewson managed to get the scales working this week.? The results were no surprise to me. I have had a really bad diet period and not weighing regularly has not helped. From my low this year of 16.03 I have managed to creep (OK shoot) back up to 17.02. So back to the grind stone to get it all off again. My problem was that I kept thinking it does not matter as I am just ticking over until the surgery. Of course my state of mind is just an excuse to pig out for a month or so and the result is almost a stone of fat added to my body. Will I ever learn ?

Just returned from a short interlude, had to collect my car and pop to Post office and doctors.. Bloody garage decided to close early ! Car ready but on the street locked up so cant get to it. No spare key and two taxi rides to and from. can't work tomorrow now cause the bloody place is not open until 0800 and I should be working 0660-1400. I cant get to Gloucester tonight NO BLOODY CAR so no training. And another taxi in the morning to pick the thing up. I AM NOT A HAPPY BEAR.

I am going to eat now to cheer my self up. !!!!!!!!!

A week away ! Training at Sunderland. (And a wedding)

After the previous excellent training week I was always going to struggle to match it. Swam at Gloucester masters on Sunday followed by a public lane session at Leominster on Monday. Then off to Sunderland for family wedding and normal house to house family visits. Managed to swim at the aquatic centre for the next 3 days. The more I use this great pool the more I like it. I am always amazed that whatever time I choose to swim there it is always quiet. I guess 70% of my lane swimming I had a lane to myself. Wednesday was 50 M lane swimming .(10 lanes between 3.30 and 8pm. ) Width lane swimming other days with up to 12 lanes available .

This trip we were a mile or so from the pool so I could pick and choose when to swim.. Fun (swimming) had to stop after Thurs as I had wedding taxi service to do collecting people and taking family to shops ect. Oh well still nearly 12000M for the week and also made the yearly total up to and over 200,000 M

The wedding went well and I managed my monthly alcohol allowance in one evening at the reception/party.

Now back to the normal routine, swam at Leominster yesterday and back to Masters session tonight.

Still no date for my shoulder surgery, I may as well enter another Masters Meet for early Sept. Not using ibuprofen for training now. OK if I only swim f/s so any competition will also be f/s only.

Trained in 4 pools. Record weekly total and a couple of days in Dover.

Well I managed 6 days training out of 7 this week only missing Tuesday when I drove to Dover to visit my Son , Matt. A total of 14550 metres so I am more than happy. Also managed these with either no ibuprofen or just a couple. Mind you I am only swimming Freestyle apart from a little one arm back/fly drills or back kicking. While in Dover I joined some nice female triathletes in a couple of sets which kept me on my toes and stopped me falling into plod mode after a day on the beach. I did consider joining the open water swimmers who were swimming in the harbour each day but the sunshine kept me firmly on my towel lazing in the sun. Because of the travelling I started the week with a club session at Gloucester followed by a public lane swim at Leominster. Two more sessions at Dover pool followed by a return session in Leominster and finished off with an outdoor 50m lido session with the club at Cheltenham today.

I will be at Gloucester tomorrow and Leominster on Monday before popping off to Sunderland for the week. (Family wedding next Saturday) Sunderland Aqua Centre here we come. Normally quiet lane swimming in the mornings and we have a Hotel only a mile or so away.

Positive Thoughts. Two days training. Should I just swim Freestyle?

Have now swum three days running and as my records of training run from Sunday to Saturday I have already managed 5450Mtrs over 2 sessions this week. Didn't really enjoy the session at Gloucester on Sunday, not sure why but found it hard to work as hard as I should. Today however swimming in an adult public lane I worked my balls off for 75 mins and I felt really positive..

I don't do many solo training sessions these days as I try to attend Gloucester Club sessions as often as possible. Today I felt positive and managed to work hard for the whole session. It helped that there were only 3 of us for the first 20 minutes and two after that so I wasn't held up much. All free style as I still can't do fly or back without upsetting my shoulder. The good thing is the shoulder seems to be OK after freestyle sessions. I am almost tempted to scrap the new surgery and just swim free in competitions! Trouble is I just won't feel like a complete swimmer if I can't swim medley and 100 fly. I still think I could maybe swim a 200 fly one day if I can just get fitter. Oh well no date yet so at this rate I might even be swimming at Sheffield. The news is full of stories saying the NHS are not rushing ops for older people so they may die before the need is there. ??????   This must be a record two blogs in two days. Hope I don't bore you all to death. Off to Dover tomorrow to see Matt (My son) perhaps a swim in the harbour ? Or may just stay with lane sessions at Dover Pool.