お疲れ様です
This is Gui. 今日は僕がブログを書かせていただきますが……なんと、ここから先は英語です。
ご了承ください！🙏 (I tried to translate it to japanese so I hope it's ok)
Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell everyone how I’m feeling since I can’t speak Japanese and I get shy, so I will use the blog post today to talk about this. I hope everyone enjoys looking a little bit inside my head and what I usually think about. 😆
① Today’s practice
Today was my first practice this week since the competition on the weekend. I was feeling really tired and had a lot of university work so I ended up resting on Monday and Tuesday.
Today’s practice was hard for me. We did a 8x50m Fr kick set at 50 seconds rest which was pretty hard. My legs have been feeling really tired because I have been cycling so much from home to class and to other places, and the weather is becoming very hot for me (I’m not used to it). So I ended up only managing 4x50 at 50 seconds and then had to do the other 4x50 at 55 seconds, which was pretty disappointing for me. But I still feel like I tried my best, until my legs couldn’t kick anymore, so I can’t be mad at myself.
For the main set, I was pretty happy with my performance. I wanted to do every 100m Br below 1:20:00 and I did it, even finishing with a 1:18:00 on the last one. Even though I still feel like I am slow, I am progressing slowly each practice so I will keep trying my best.
Today I also went to do workout in Toyonaka. It was so hot during workout that I had to dump my water bottle on my head to cool down 😵💫. Like I said before, I’m really not used to this heat so I’m struggling a little bit to adapt to it. After practice, Shunya took a photo of us, so I will post it here.
➁ Weekend competition
I also wanted to talk about the competition this weekend. The first thing I want to say is congratulations to everyone for the amazing competition this weekend. Seeing everyone trying their best and cheering for each other, reminds me of why I love to swim. The second thing is that I was really proud and happy to be able to swim with everyone. Since I came to Japan, the best decision I made was to join the swimming team because everyone is so kind to me and treats me so well, so I always feel happy when I am with everyone. ❤️
However I must admit that I was a little disappointed with myself and my times, since I felt I could have done better. Maybe a lot of you don’t know, but the last time I did my best times in a 50m pool was in 2023 (for 100Br) and 2021 (for 200Br). Event though in 25m pool I have been improving every year (which I am happy about), in 50m pool it’s been more than 4 years when I did my best time so this always made me frustrated.
But don’t worry, I am a very positive person and I always like to smile and be happy no matter what happens, so I will use this frustration to practice even harder and swim really fast in the next competitions. The times I did 2 weeks ago and also this weekend have been improving compared to my times in these last years in Portugal, so I feel that I am getting close and that I will be able to do my best times here in Japan.
I’ve reflected on what I can improve from the competition. I noticed that I can start pretty fast, but at the end of the race I always feel very tired and my legs get weaker so I’ll work on improving that. I think that all the cycling I’ve been doing has been having an effect on that, because even though my legs feel tired, I noticed that my kick is stronger. So I believe that when I properly rest I will be able to swim very fast, so I am looking forward to it.
After the competition I joined some teammates for dinner and it was really fun, it was the best way to end an amazing weekend. Me, Aoi-san and Kanon-san ate some delicious hamburgers. Hayato-san thought I couldn’t use chopsticks, so that was pretty funny. 😊
③ Tokyo trip
Earlier in June I took a trip to Tokyo with some of my friends from the Global Village (my dorm). We stayed around 5 days and it was an amazing experience. There are so many things that I enjoyed doing there with my friends and I will definitely remember those memories even when I go back to Portugal.
I stayed for the first time in a capsule hotel, which was pretty weird but also fun. We visited a lot of places like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, we went to see some temples, had picnics at the park, did some shopping, went to the arcade to play some games, had some amazing food and met a lot of amazing people. We also spent a lot of nights in the karaoke but the videos of us singing are pretty embarrassing so I won’t post them here. 😅
④ Future plans
After the Tokyo trip, I had some busy weeks with university work so I ended up not visiting any more places. Just this week, I had 2 presentations already which I think I did good. But now I’ll have more free time so I wanted to visit more places that are not too far, so if anyone has some suggestions for me, I would love to hear them.
I am also really excited to go to Hokkaido this month. It will be my first time there. I heard that there are a lot of good foods there, so I want to try them all. 🤩
I have a lot to share with everyone but I don’t want to make this blog too long, so I’ll finish here.
Let’s keep trying our bests, and I look forward to spending more time with everyone.
Gui ^^