Uttoxeter Leisure Centre

Finally went to see the physio about the shoulder issue last week, even though it's all but gone (at the moment!). Got a proper telling off for not doing more gym work or seeking help earlier. They don't think it's anything major, but decide a CT scan should answer that question, so this morning I find myself in a white tube for 15 minutes with chunky medical noise-cancelling headphones listening to a very poor quality feed of Smooth Radio's 80s mix.

Scan done, and seeing as I'm already 15 minutes in that direction, decide to head past Lichfield, over the Blithfield Reservoir and up to Uttoxeter for a swim at the childhood training pool of Adam Peaty.

Arrive at the pool, pay for two hours parking and head in. I've pre-booked on the Everyone Active app, which I used to dislike but now actually quite like. Head over to the changing village.

There are two consecutive lunchtime one-hour lane swim sessions, starting at 12pm and 1pm. Swing the shoulders whilst waiting with the small group congregating by the roller shutters between the changing village and pool deck. Right on the hour, up they go and out onto poolside.

The first thing that stands out is that it's only a five lane pool. It's currently set up with a single fast lane in the middle, surrounded by two double-width lanes and rope dividers.

Not sure what the plan is before jumping in. There's only one week until the Coniston swim, so all time in the pool at the moment needs to be focused towards that. There are two consecutive one-hour sessions over lunchtime and I'm not sure if it's an everyone-out-between-them arrangement. Having arrived a couple of minutes after the hour, decide to swim for an hour to the whistle and get 4km on the watch.

For the first 40 minutes, I have the entire fast lane to myself. The lanes either side are packed! The top of the hour arrives and nobody leaves the pool. I'm now sharing the lane with two others and, oddly, they move the lane rope to make it a double lane. Urrfff!

By this point I'm at the 4km mark, 160 lengths done, but ideally want that number a bit higher before tackling 8.5km at Coniston. Start working through a set of 400s, planning three and seeing how it goes. End up carrying on right through to the end of the next session at 2pm, with seven 400s bringing the total distance to 6.8km.

Garmin reckons that's 1,705 calories burned and gives it a 5/5 aerobic score. The slow pace and long distance means it's only a 0.7/5 on the anaerobic scale.

Swim done and in desperate need of food, so make a quick stop at Waitrose for a sandwich, coffee, gingerbread man and a bag of M&Ms. We're definitely at the training stage where calories burned need replacing quickly - I finished the open water season two years ago almost 5kg heavier!