Welcome back to your yearly report on my swimming adventures. I know you’ve been waiting! Before I move to statistics and compare it to the last year, I need to share a bunch of news.
News
Front crawl for the win
In February 2019 I got a serious injury on my lower back. That meant 2 weeks break, but there was more. I visited a physiotherapist who strongly discouraged me from swimming breaststroke, as this style could be dangerous for your lower back.
I’ve started swimming front crawl since. I haven’t ditched the breaststroke completely, still doing 2-4 lengths each training. However, comparing it to average 30-50 lengths a training, it’s neglectable. These 30-50 lengths are today mostly front crawl, also some breaststroke, some on the back, and some other crazy shit.
The time of day no longer matters
As you can remember, last year I was excited about not going swimming late in the evening. The reason was mostly avoiding heating up my body right before sleep. In late 2019 it didn’t really matter, sometimes I go swim in the morning before work, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening.
The reason why I no longer avoid evenings is that the quality of sleep increased dramatically and I don’t need to add no-swimming-policy.
New kid on the block
Prior to July 2019, swimming was my one and only real physical activity. There were some jogging, some biking, some climbing, but nothing really stuck to me.
July 2019 changed everything, oh boy. I started going to gym and I love lifting weights since.
I think I soon might add my yearly report on the gym, similar to this one. Stay tuned!
So the current state is that I conduct two serious activities: gym twice a week and swimming twice a week. I can really feel what my personal trainer and my physiotherapist told me – that the two really go together and support each other.
Two new skills
I’m a self-taught swimmer, never claiming that I can do it any good. Last year I learned two bigger skills.
In the first half of the year, I improved my front crawl by using the opposite leg to a front arm.
In the second half, inspired by the gym sessions, I improved all the styles by not moving my pelvis much. This results in less pain in the lower back (I believe I got closer to a proper technique), but more difficult training in general.
Stats
Here’s my attendance & total distance by month in 2019 (there was more, but I decided to count only serious pieces of training with 20+ lengths):
| Month | Attendance | Total km |
| 1 | 13 | 17,300 |
| 2 | 7 | 8,250 |
| 3 | 8 | 8,975 |
| 4 | 11 | 12,250 |
| 5 | 3 | 2,500 |
| 6 | 7 | 5,800 |
| 7 | 12 | 10,500 |
| 8 | 5 | 5000 |
| 9 | 6 | 4,750 |
| 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | 8 | 5,850 |
| 12 | 10 | 8,050 |
By quarter it looks like this: (note comparison to the last year)
| Quarter | Attendance 2019 | Total km | Attendance 2018 | Delta |
| 1 | 28 | 34,525 | 29 | -1 |
| 2 | 21 | 20,550 | 21 | 0 |
| 3 | 21 | 20,250 | 16 | +5 |
| 4 | 18 | 13,900 | 12 | +6 |
Attendance by quarter in 2019 vs 2018 was kinda shocking to me. I didn’t expect almost identical numbers and trend, given much different circumstances. I might be more predictable than I thought. Thanks to the data I can see it now.
For the record: Total km in the whole of 2019 was 89,225. In 2018 it was 51,450 (but only quarters 2-4, I extrapolate it to 81,900 in total). So in general, another progress 👌.
Previous posts
8 reasons why I love swimming (early 2018)
See you in 2020 review!
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