I know what I want for Christmas this year – an illustrated book about marine wildlife! I made the close acquaintance of a fish the other day – a tuna fish as Paul enlightened me afterwards. Basically, a fish is a fish to me. Same stupid face, different taste on my plate. Whatever its name, this HU-U-U-UGE guy (a mere 40 cm, but I love a bit of drama) came out of nowhere and bumped right into me. Of course my heart skipped a few beats, but judging by the look on its face, I guess the poor thing was more shocked than me. After all I am the misplaced alien in the aquatic world. So maybe I should get to know my playmates in the open water a bit better.

While on the subject of marine wildlife, I managed to take this picture of my very own pool frog before he went back to Denmark yesterday. The apartment is quite empty now without Martin croaking around the place at 6 o’clock in the morning while getting ready for his morning swimming session. I’d never thought I’d feel lonely all of a sudden. But after the excitement of having him around for a whole week, I did. (I may be a bit of a romantic after all… Don’t you dare mention that to anyone!) Anyway, I treated myself with my three favourite courses and a glass of Spanish wine at the best restaurant in town, Amêndoa – and one of the two best restaurants on the whole of Lanzarote if you ask me. The service is beyond perfection and the food is exquisite. After a good laugh with the owner Lucila and Yeray, who was the waiter on duty last night, I’m back on track and have now plenty of time to refocus on myself and my training. No more crying, back to my ego bubble!

So, what about my training? I had my halfway filming done on Thursday. I dread it every time. I always get so nervous and end up being all stressed out and tensed. How stupid is that? At uni, I was always able to get a good night sleep before any exam, but in the pool I can’t control it. Fortunately for me Paul knows how to cheat me, so the shots are good enough to be analyzed afterwards. Despite all the dreading I find it most interesting to get my flaws exposed on a TV screen the size of a parking lot at the local mall. There they are! Right up in my face. They’re not to be denied and it gives me an insight into what to do in order to keep on improving my technique.

This time, the results were even better than usual. Thanks to his bionic eye Paul noticed a slight delay in my breathing on the left side. This delay might (partly) explain a few other details I’ve been struggling with for quite a while now (like this annoying double kicking with my legs every sixth stroke, but I won’t bother you with the technical details).

Now we have an extra focus for the week to come and I’m loving it already! I get to swim alternately in the fish bowl and in open water, so I can try to put my technique training into practice right away. This boosts my motivation and aids to expose my flaws “in real life”. I was so excited to go back to the open water after the filming on Thursday that my first swim was a real disaster from my trainer’s point of view. I had fun all the way, playing with the waves and my new friend the tuna fish, but I had barely any focus on swimming properly. Every trainer has a cross to carry… Sorry, Paul!

So today no more frog, no more tuna fish, no more playing. Only Paul, me and full concentration – as well as a bit of a distance without my wetsuit! I wonder how that’ll feel.