After the swim this morning Jezz and I phoned Pete to get an update on the situation with the swim. The weather still appeared bad and Pete confirmed that in his Saturday phone call to our skipper that the winds had not abated.
Pete managed to patch through our skipper to the call who stated that things still looked bleak and that he did not see the winds calming down until after this week.
The options were to still wait and be sent out in strong tides which could mean than we did not go until maybe 6 September or wait until the next neap tide which is around 24 September.
We have decided to wait as Jezz had holiday booked which he was unable to start until the swim commenced. Jezz has now gone on holiday and it looks like we will reset to do the swim around 24 September.
We are all absolutely gutted about the delay as we felt ready to give it our all and do a decent time. We are off out for a drink tonight to commiserate (without Jezz who is now in warmer pastures) and then look to refocus on another date.
I can't tell you how frustrating it is to think that you may be going one day and then the weather doesn't play ball. I guess at times like this you just have to look at the positives. We'll be able to get in some extra training which will make us even better prepared.
Let's hope that second time round the weather will be more favourable and we'll be able to finally get going. Until then there will be more training (and blogging) so I'll keep you all up to speed with our progress. Perhaps we could do another night swim to pass the time??
Thanks for all the support so far. It is really encouraging to see how many people are reading this.
We will get across!!!
http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/
Sunday 30 August 2009
Bridge to Bridge
I found out on Friday that a Henley to Marlow 'Bridge to Bridge' swim was taking place at nine on Sunday morning. As I enjoyed the change of scene yesterday so much I thought it would be a good idea to gatecrash this event for the first part of the swim.
This was another swim that I believe was the brainchild of Tom Kean (see earlier posts) and it now appears that Andrew Allum of Wycombe Masters Swimming Club has taken over the reigns in the organisation department. Andrew comes with a distinguished open water track record and is not one to blow his own trumpet but in my view he has achieved some of the most remarkable (and mad) things. Just to give you a flavour Andrew has, swum the length of the Thames, achieved at least two solo Channel crossings, swum in the open water cold swimming championships and countless others! Andrew's most recent achievement is completing the Arch to Arch triathlon event. If you haven't heard of this prepared to be amazed. Start from Marble Arch and run/walk to Dover. Swim the Channel to France then bike down to the Arc De Triomphe in Paris. Bonkers or what?? This makes an ironman challenge look easy. Check out Andrew's report here...
Anyway, I digress. Andrew was this morning leading a swim from Henley bridge to Marlow bridge with abut 8 swimmers (most in wetsuits) and Jezz and I who were gatecrashing for the first hour or so. Jezz and I were to swim from the bridge down to the Flower Pot pub leaving the others to get on with the rest of the c.13 mile swim.
We set off at a healthy pace and the water seemed even colder today than yesterday. Was it really colder or just the fact that everyone around me looked considerably warmer in their wet suits??
Andrew kept the pack together by stopping at around half hourly intervals and inserting some stage sprints into the mix a la Tour de France. Jezz and I were only around for the first sprint of about 200m and we featured in the top 3 for this one thanks to some confusion where the finishing point was. Everybody managed to stop 40m too early and Jezz and I quickly realised this and managed to gain a metre or two on the rest of the pack as we pushed on to cross the line. Much hilarity ensued but as they say 'If you snooze, you lose!'.
Shortly after the sprint section we came upon the first lock which we had to get out for and go around. This is the point where the cold morning air really started to decrease my temperature and I had to resort to some Bear Gryllsesque jogging on the spot to keep warm whilst waiting to get back in on the other side of the lock. Cue much amusement from passengers in a nearby boat who observed that it was much easier to navigate the river in a motor boat. No arguments there!
After the lock it was about 500m to our exit point but still loads of time for us to incur the wrath of the local fisherman. As we rounded the corner I can guarantee the last thing they were expecting to see was a shoal/swarm/pod (insert correct collective noun for group of open water swimmers) of swimmers who promptly managed to get tangled up in their fishing lines. I must admit it was quite funny to see their genuine anger and them lifting their rods high and reeling the lines in superfast as if a prize marlin was on the end of the line. One of us managed to get hooked but fortunately we eventually managed to get untangled and left the fisherman to it.
Our time was now up and we exited at the Flower Pot leaving the others to continue onto Marlow. Thanks to Andrew for organising and to the canoe club for supporting us during the swim. I think I'll try to do the whole swim next year as its a fantastic way to take in nature and annoy fisherman!!
Waiting...
Still waiting for good news about the weather. Pete reports that the winds in the Channel are still high and therefore makes it too dangerous to swim as the waves are far too big. We are third in line behind two solo swimmers. No swimmers have gone out yet at all and my thoughts are with an Australian guy who has flown over to do a solo swim. It is not looking good.
Unfortunately, the more time that goes by means that we may miss the neap tide window and may have to reconsider doing the swim during the next neap tide at the end of September. This is something we really don't want to contemplate though and we are praying for good weather!
I've just been out to stock up on loads of food for the swim. This includes the usual mix of high carb stuff; pasta, jaffa cakes etc. Also have got loads of ginger nuts as they help with sea-sickness!
Unfortunately, the more time that goes by means that we may miss the neap tide window and may have to reconsider doing the swim during the next neap tide at the end of September. This is something we really don't want to contemplate though and we are praying for good weather!
I've just been out to stock up on loads of food for the swim. This includes the usual mix of high carb stuff; pasta, jaffa cakes etc. Also have got loads of ginger nuts as they help with sea-sickness!
Saturday 29 August 2009
Flower Pot Swim
In order to mix things up a bit we decided to do a swim from the Flower Pot pub in Henley on Saturday morning. Me and Heath from the team were there together with Matt Baker and Tom Kean. Matt is an ex national rower who regularly trains with us and Tom is also an ex rower and masters swimmer who is one of the creators of the Henley Swim that I wrote about previously. Jezz was due to join us but bailed at the last minute citing alarm clock issues and Pete had other matters to attend to so was never in the running.
Arrived at around 7 and was a good 5-10 mins ahead of the other guys so thought I would snap a few photos on my phone. As you can see it was a glorious misty morning on the river until the four of us ventured into the water disturbing the peace of the numerous Canadian Geese that were resident. These birds are very vocal and were not shy of telling us that our presence was not appreciated. This wasn't enough to deter us and we set off downstream towards Harleyford. The river was a little colder this morning but Tom did his bit to help warm it up for us. After a twenty minute downstream stretch we regrouped to go upstream which took about half an hour. We went at a pretty decent pace; Heath seemed to really have the bit between his teeth this morning and going downstream it was a struggle to get ahead of him. As I've mentioned previously; we are all very competitive so it is no surprise that there are 'no easy overtakes' in the river. Although, slip streaming does work!!
Perhaps the most notable thing about this morning is that it was nice to vary the location as it can get a bit tedious ploughing up and down the same stretch of river. Being highly organised this morning, I remembered to pack a thermos flask of coffee to enjoy after the swim which quickly gets you warm again.
I'm off now to go and buy some food for the swim as expecting the call any day now providing that the weather gets better. The last report said it was still windy so the frustrating wait continues.
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Donations at 100% - Break Out The Pink Trunks!
Wow!!! Got back from Paris and checked my donations page, which I'll admit has become a bit of an addiction these days, and was chuffed to see that I had hit my target of £1,500 and the donations are still rolling in.
Thanks so much to all that have supported me from friend and family to work colleagues, business contacts and the friendly locals of Marlow who have stopped to speak to us and find out what we are doing.
I have purchased the worst pink trunks I could find so be assured that I shall now be wearing them for the swim.
Thanks so much to all that have supported me from friend and family to work colleagues, business contacts and the friendly locals of Marlow who have stopped to speak to us and find out what we are doing.
I have purchased the worst pink trunks I could find so be assured that I shall now be wearing them for the swim.
So, "When Are You Off?"
is the question I am most asked and the answer is that we do not yet know. The window for this neap tide opens on the 26th (today) and we are the 3rd swimmers to go in the group. This means that if the swimmers ahead of us get delayed due to weather this has a knock on effect for us. Pete spoke to our skipper yesterday and bad weather in the channel has already delayed the first swimmer and the earliest we will now be going is Sunday (30th) which is Pete's birthday.
Fingers crossed now for good weather so that we don't get battered too much. Although saying this part of me kind of wants the conditions to be obscene so that we have a real battle on our hands so to be honest I don't mind either way, as long as we complete the swim!!
Fingers crossed now for good weather so that we don't get battered too much. Although saying this part of me kind of wants the conditions to be obscene so that we have a real battle on our hands so to be honest I don't mind either way, as long as we complete the swim!!
Taper Weekend in Paris
After feeling exceedingly rough after the night swim (I think I caught something from the river) I headed off to Paris for a long taper weekend ;-) for my birthday. Had an absolute blast and made sure I kept up my training by numerous bike rides around the city, climbing the Eiffel Tower and lots of walking.
After visiting France around 30 times this was my first time in Paris and what a great city it is. Jay kindly organised the weekend for my birthday so a big thank you for this. I think the highlight was sitting under the Eiffel Tower at midnight on my birthday drinking champagne and watching the tower sparkle. What a way to spend your birthday eh??
The weekend went too quickly though and before I knew it I was back at home getting up at half five, ready to get in the river whilst it drizzled under a grey sky. Welcome Back!
After visiting France around 30 times this was my first time in Paris and what a great city it is. Jay kindly organised the weekend for my birthday so a big thank you for this. I think the highlight was sitting under the Eiffel Tower at midnight on my birthday drinking champagne and watching the tower sparkle. What a way to spend your birthday eh??
The weekend went too quickly though and before I knew it I was back at home getting up at half five, ready to get in the river whilst it drizzled under a grey sky. Welcome Back!
Saturday 22 August 2009
Friday 21 August 2009
Night Swim
It was first suggested to us by Greg Whyte, the coach of David Walliams, that we should try to get in some swimming training at night in case we were required to swim at this time. To be honest, none of us had thought about this and a quick check of YouTube shows that quite a few swims have partially been completed in the dark. It therefore sounded like a very good idea to at least have a practice at this and gave me the excuse to buy lots of glowsticks!!
We met at The Marlow Club at 9pm with our support crew which consisted of my wife Jay, my Mum and Dad, and Jezz's wife Lisa. After a quick safety briefing which basically consisted of "watch out for boats", "don't shine your torches in our eyes" and "keep flashing your torch on and off if there is danger" we were ready to hit the water at our planned start time of 9:30pm.
We attached glow sticks to our behinds so that we could be seen and set for our normal swim which we had slighlty shortened to allow the support team on the bank to follow us. It was a lovely evening, still warm, and with little moonlight available it was pretty dark. When I put my tinted goggles on it got darker still and it felt a little unnatural to be in the river at this time. It also felt quite naughty too; as if we had broken into the hotel pool after opening hours - I'm sure you've all been there and understand where I'm coming from on this.
As soon as we started swimming we all noticed that it was extremely difficult to get our bearings which was evidenced by us bumping into each other all the way down the river. Heath came over to me and 'accidentally' bashed me over the head a few times dislodging my goggles so I had to stop and make some running repairs. I hope that Heath wasn't taking advantage of the dark to go around beating people up - you never know with these South Africans!!
After many mornings in the river not seeing a single motor boat I couldn't believe that we finally saw one in the dark! It crept past us with lights on giving us a wide berth. Pretty unsetttling but it passed without incident so all was well.
We finally made it to the danger sign and regrouped. The glowsticks were not working that well tied to our trunks as they became partially submersed and difficult to see. Jezz took action and altered his glowstick so that it was lodged under his goggle straps behind his head. This made Jezz a stand out beacon and we then all set off downstream following Jezz's orange glow. After about halfway down to the turnaround point we all stopped to regroup and adopted the glowstick on head stance which made things a lot easier.
At the final turnaround point we regrouped again before the final push to the end. When we regrouped we thought we heard a boat engine coming down the river but couldn't see anything so set off along the last stretch. A couple of minutes in and the flashlights on the bank were blinking and we stopped to hear shouts from the river bank of 'watch out for the boat' which was now approaching us. It appeared to be the same boat from earlier and we carefully watched as it went by and then carried on to the end. There was a fairly fast push by the group to the finish which is normal and no doubt caused by our extreme individual competitiveness!
I msut say that swimming under the stars on a hot summers night was a really unique way to spend and evening and I would certainly like to do it again. We all learned a fair bit about night swimming and feel a lot more comfortable if we have to swim at night for the actual channel swim.
Not long to go now, hope you like the photos!
We met at The Marlow Club at 9pm with our support crew which consisted of my wife Jay, my Mum and Dad, and Jezz's wife Lisa. After a quick safety briefing which basically consisted of "watch out for boats", "don't shine your torches in our eyes" and "keep flashing your torch on and off if there is danger" we were ready to hit the water at our planned start time of 9:30pm.
We attached glow sticks to our behinds so that we could be seen and set for our normal swim which we had slighlty shortened to allow the support team on the bank to follow us. It was a lovely evening, still warm, and with little moonlight available it was pretty dark. When I put my tinted goggles on it got darker still and it felt a little unnatural to be in the river at this time. It also felt quite naughty too; as if we had broken into the hotel pool after opening hours - I'm sure you've all been there and understand where I'm coming from on this.
As soon as we started swimming we all noticed that it was extremely difficult to get our bearings which was evidenced by us bumping into each other all the way down the river. Heath came over to me and 'accidentally' bashed me over the head a few times dislodging my goggles so I had to stop and make some running repairs. I hope that Heath wasn't taking advantage of the dark to go around beating people up - you never know with these South Africans!!
After many mornings in the river not seeing a single motor boat I couldn't believe that we finally saw one in the dark! It crept past us with lights on giving us a wide berth. Pretty unsetttling but it passed without incident so all was well.
We finally made it to the danger sign and regrouped. The glowsticks were not working that well tied to our trunks as they became partially submersed and difficult to see. Jezz took action and altered his glowstick so that it was lodged under his goggle straps behind his head. This made Jezz a stand out beacon and we then all set off downstream following Jezz's orange glow. After about halfway down to the turnaround point we all stopped to regroup and adopted the glowstick on head stance which made things a lot easier.
At the final turnaround point we regrouped again before the final push to the end. When we regrouped we thought we heard a boat engine coming down the river but couldn't see anything so set off along the last stretch. A couple of minutes in and the flashlights on the bank were blinking and we stopped to hear shouts from the river bank of 'watch out for the boat' which was now approaching us. It appeared to be the same boat from earlier and we carefully watched as it went by and then carried on to the end. There was a fairly fast push by the group to the finish which is normal and no doubt caused by our extreme individual competitiveness!
I msut say that swimming under the stars on a hot summers night was a really unique way to spend and evening and I would certainly like to do it again. We all learned a fair bit about night swimming and feel a lot more comfortable if we have to swim at night for the actual channel swim.
Not long to go now, hope you like the photos!
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Stunning Morning
Absolutely stunning morning today as was Tuesday. The river was calm and as we got in steam was rising up from the water creating a misty effect. As we started swimming the sun started to shine just above the tree line changing the colours on the trees and providing a little extra warmth on your back and six Canadian Geese flew over in arrowhead formation - glorious! Truly felt fortunate to be in the river this morning!
Did a solid hour this morning at a fairly consistent pace. Went right up to the weir where the view is fantastic overlooking the Compleat Angler hotel and the church. I was wondering whether it might be possible to order a croissant and coffee from the hotel as we really are not far at all from the restaurant. Not much room in a pair of speedos for a wallet though! This would be an excellent spot for some photography and may look into getting a waterproof camera so we can take some shots.
We're all set for the night swim today. 9pm meet for 9:30pm start, lets hope that today is the hot one that the forecasters are predicting so that the river is nice and warm for us. Two swims in one day as well - that hasn't happened for a long time either!
Did a solid hour this morning at a fairly consistent pace. Went right up to the weir where the view is fantastic overlooking the Compleat Angler hotel and the church. I was wondering whether it might be possible to order a croissant and coffee from the hotel as we really are not far at all from the restaurant. Not much room in a pair of speedos for a wallet though! This would be an excellent spot for some photography and may look into getting a waterproof camera so we can take some shots.
We're all set for the night swim today. 9pm meet for 9:30pm start, lets hope that today is the hot one that the forecasters are predicting so that the river is nice and warm for us. Two swims in one day as well - that hasn't happened for a long time either!
Monday 17 August 2009
Beware Of Floating Logs
Training last week went well, with 3 morning pre work sessions in the river for about an hour each and then a longer lake swim on Saturday morning for 2 hours.
The river swimming this week was pretty steady. Not too much going on in the river but did swim very close to a perching heron on the bank which was pretty cool.
Temperature is now very comfortable and up in the high 18's and the stream has died down to normal levels.
On Friday morning we had just got up to Marlow weir and when we turned back to go downstream I decided to put a bit of a spurt on. All was going well until I got a smack square on the nose. I immediatley stopped and looked up to see what on earth was going on, I thought one of the other swimmers had clocked me one! But no, there floating in front of me was a log which I had swam right into. At least it was a log of the wooden kind!
The lake swim on Saturday was good. We covered around 7.25km in just under 2 hours. I did the first 3.75km in about 55 mins which is around the pace that we want to swim the Channel in. I've been trialling my new open water goggles this week (kindly given to me as a birthday present by Jon Keating) which have been excellent. The only problems I am having is when I wear a hat they tend to leak which is a bit of a pain. I tried the goggles under hat method on Saturday but that didn't work as my hat came off after two laps. I had to swim the rest of the session with my hat tucked down my trunks which must have looked quite amusing when I finally exited the water.
This was the week when we had a team meeting (down the Pub - where else!?) and finalised our team name....'The Marlow River Buoys' (geddit??). When Heath originally came up with this idea I thought he meant 'Marlow River Boyz'. Thankfully he didn't as I think we might have to be "packing some heat" in our trunks in order to carry this name off!
Night swim organised for Wednesday of this week which should be good.
Anyway, will leave with a photo of Jez, Heath and I at the lake. I'll leave you to guess who the idiot in the stupidly big goggles is!!
Sunday 16 August 2009
Thursday 13 August 2009
Night Swim
Night swim coming up next Wednesday, stay tuned for more news on this with some photos. Can't wait. Bring it on!
So, How Busy Is The Channel...
The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping channels. Wouldn't it be cool to see, in real time, just how busy it actually is??
Follow the jump folks...
http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=1&map=folkstone
Follow the jump folks...
http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=1&map=folkstone
Pirates!?
Swimming across the channel people have advised us that we may come across all sorts of things from Jellyfish to French turds but no one mentioned Pirates...
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Casino Night
Wow, what a night Saturday was!! Jay (my lovely wife) organised a casino night party as an early 30th celebration at ours. The house was glammed up with loads of artful decorations and we had roulette and poker tables to gamble on!
The night was also for the reason of raising a bit of money for charity and I am really pleased that we made around £130! I'll be paying this into the Just Giving site very shortly so thanks everyone for coming and for the donations! I really had a great night.
Special thanks must go to Jay for all your hard work in organising this, I'm a lucky man!
http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/
The night was also for the reason of raising a bit of money for charity and I am really pleased that we made around £130! I'll be paying this into the Just Giving site very shortly so thanks everyone for coming and for the donations! I really had a great night.
Special thanks must go to Jay for all your hard work in organising this, I'm a lucky man!
http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell/
Another Early Saturday Morning
Had a great swim with Heath on Saturday morning over at Liquid Leisure in Datchet. In the water for 6:30 so early start required. Sun was shining which was a real pick me up especially after all the rain of the past week. Did 4 laps of 1.3km so 5.2k in total which took about 80 minutes. Lake pretty busy with triathletes and only got overtaken by one whilst going round ;-)
Avoided the dodgy bacon sarnie afterwards and Jay very kindly made me one when I got home.
Avoided the dodgy bacon sarnie afterwards and Jay very kindly made me one when I got home.
We Made The Paper
Got an article last week in the Maidenhead Advertiser which is great. Hoping to get in the Bucks Free Press this week. All good!
Friday 7 August 2009
The Force Was Strong This Morning
Amazing swim this morning. The rain last night meant that the river level had risen by a good 1-2 feet and the current was the strongest it has ever been. The water was dirty with mud which you could taste and there was a lot of foam in the water from it being churned up with the rain. The foam congregates into large clumps which look a lot like mini icebergs. I try and avoid these like the plague as have no idea what else might be in there.
To give you an idea of how strong it was, it normally takes us 23 minutes to reach the weir. This morning it took us 45 minutes to get there. We swim up to a boat as a marker and the current was so strong we were hardly moving forward at all, it was like swimming on a treadmill which was quite surreal.
Of course, the flipside of this is that swimming back with the current was amazingly fast. It was very nice to cruise back in double quick time, though at this point we were all pretty tired from our earlier efforts!
To give you an idea of how strong it was, it normally takes us 23 minutes to reach the weir. This morning it took us 45 minutes to get there. We swim up to a boat as a marker and the current was so strong we were hardly moving forward at all, it was like swimming on a treadmill which was quite surreal.
Of course, the flipside of this is that swimming back with the current was amazingly fast. It was very nice to cruise back in double quick time, though at this point we were all pretty tired from our earlier efforts!
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Me and the Drunken Mermaid
Just me and Jezz this morning in the river this morning. Lovely morning, clear skies, sun shining. Had one of those "it's good to be up at this time of the morning" moments which doesn't happen every morning.
Split todays swim up into 6 parts alternating easy/hard over the hour. Hard swimming pace is now classified as "must beat that oil tanker pace" which I think will serve as a big incentive for all of us to push that little bit harder when we need to come the big day.
I likened Jezz's swimming this morning to that of a drunken mermaid today. Whenever he swims hard I think the radar is switched off and he zig zags down the river in all sorts of directions. At one point he got so close to me I thought he was going to plant a kiss on my cheek! I was laughing to myself for a little while about that and Jezz seemed quite amused when I told him I thought he was acting like a drunken mermaid.
We saw a few regular dog walkers on the bank today who said that they had checked out this page! Always good to see you and give us a wave next time!!
Got the disco glowsticks today...ordered to work...I think reception now think that I am a serious raver. Might give me some street cred so I'll keep quiet what they are really for. Still planning logistics for the night swim, we'll need a few people on the bank for safety but can't wait!
Split todays swim up into 6 parts alternating easy/hard over the hour. Hard swimming pace is now classified as "must beat that oil tanker pace" which I think will serve as a big incentive for all of us to push that little bit harder when we need to come the big day.
I likened Jezz's swimming this morning to that of a drunken mermaid today. Whenever he swims hard I think the radar is switched off and he zig zags down the river in all sorts of directions. At one point he got so close to me I thought he was going to plant a kiss on my cheek! I was laughing to myself for a little while about that and Jezz seemed quite amused when I told him I thought he was acting like a drunken mermaid.
We saw a few regular dog walkers on the bank today who said that they had checked out this page! Always good to see you and give us a wave next time!!
Got the disco glowsticks today...ordered to work...I think reception now think that I am a serious raver. Might give me some street cred so I'll keep quiet what they are really for. Still planning logistics for the night swim, we'll need a few people on the bank for safety but can't wait!
Especially for the kind lady we saw this morning...
...here is a link to the Just Giving page for the charity I am raising some money for...
www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell
www.justgiving.com/Chris-Newell
Monday 3 August 2009
It's Starting to Come Together
First proper training session for the whole team this morning which was great. Took some pictures before and after. Water 18 degrees, current strong misty morning. Swam up to Marlow weir and back - around 50 minutes this morning - steady going. No real action on the river today although two very nice ladies walking their dogs stopped to say hi when we were done and I also recall passing two young lads when we went past the scout camp who seemed interested enough in us to actually get out of bed.
After the swim, Pete organised for us to have a chat with Greg Whyte (the guy that trained David Walliams) over breakfast after the swim. Greg has some serious sporting pedigree and has been involved in channel swims for a number of years. A number of points came out of the talk which I'll briefly summarise in no particular order:
1) Cold is the biggest enemy. We'll need loads of clothes including hats and gloves straight after we swim despite the fact that we'll be doing the swim in August.
2) We'll need plenty of food. We could be on the boat for 16-20 hours.
3) We may be swimming at night or very early in the morning in the dark. We should practice swimming in the dark so we are ready for this.
4) We'll need sunscreen as we'll get burnt spending that amount of time in and around the water.
5) Depending on how fast we swim will affect where we land due to tides.
6) As a relay we are just going to try and blast the swim as fast as possible.
7) Goose fat isn't that useful for us. We'l probably use a bit of vaseline to stop the chafing...that's all.
8) Not to bother with seasickness tablets. I will try to have some ginger the week before as this is supposed to help.
I've today bought some glowsticks for night swimming. They will help you be seen and I hope will not attract too much wildlife at the same time. To be honest I am quite excited about doing a practice nightswim. There is something so wrong about it which really appeals to me!?
Trying to get some press to help with the sponsorship and am pleased that I am now over 50% which is an important barrier. Thank you everyone!
It feels like it is starting to come together now.
Longest Training Swim
I completed our longest training swim yet over at Liquid Leisure early on Saturday morning. Myself, Heath and Jeremy made it over for a 6:30am start and we managed a respectable 1 hour and fifty minutes in the water. We were doing 1k circuits of the lake and I managed 6 in that time. In an hour I'm swimming about 3-4k's which isn't too bad and on par with the other guys in the team.
There weren't too many other people in the lake (say 50-60) all triathletes suited and booted in nice warm and fast wetsuits whilst we were in our trunks. I must say that it was a nice feeling to pick them off going around the laps. Competitor that I am, only two people overtook me so pretty pleasing stuff.
You'd think that doing circuits of a lake on Saturday morning is a pretty boring and monotonous thing to do; and you'd be right. It gives you a lot of time to reflect with your own thoughts and more often that not I keep myself going thinking about the food I'm going to eat when I get out. Before the swim I had spied a hut which was producing cooked food and it wasn't long into the swim before I was fantasising about a bacon sarnie afterwards. I'm talking lightly toasted brown bread, lots of bacon maybe some cheese and a dollop of ketchup to round off. Sounds good right? Well swim finished we got out and warmed in the jacuzzi for five minutes (nice touch eh?) and got changed in readiness for my welle earned breakfast. I ordered a bacon bap (£2.50) paid my money and was handed the biggest disappointment ever. The bap was the cheapest thing out there, you know, one of those baps that are almost yellow and just look totally wrong. I got one bit of bacon with my artifically coloured bap. One! It wasn't even nicely cooked as it was charred black and was obviously the cheapest, fattiest bacon they could get. To make things worse they didn't even have proper Heinz ketchup instead offering up supermarket own brand stuff! I mean, I'm not a snob but you've got to have some standards right?? I was pretty annoyed at this point so went to buy a coffee to try and get warm which was at least good and strong. I'll be taking a packed lunch next time.
There weren't too many other people in the lake (say 50-60) all triathletes suited and booted in nice warm and fast wetsuits whilst we were in our trunks. I must say that it was a nice feeling to pick them off going around the laps. Competitor that I am, only two people overtook me so pretty pleasing stuff.
You'd think that doing circuits of a lake on Saturday morning is a pretty boring and monotonous thing to do; and you'd be right. It gives you a lot of time to reflect with your own thoughts and more often that not I keep myself going thinking about the food I'm going to eat when I get out. Before the swim I had spied a hut which was producing cooked food and it wasn't long into the swim before I was fantasising about a bacon sarnie afterwards. I'm talking lightly toasted brown bread, lots of bacon maybe some cheese and a dollop of ketchup to round off. Sounds good right? Well swim finished we got out and warmed in the jacuzzi for five minutes (nice touch eh?) and got changed in readiness for my welle earned breakfast. I ordered a bacon bap (£2.50) paid my money and was handed the biggest disappointment ever. The bap was the cheapest thing out there, you know, one of those baps that are almost yellow and just look totally wrong. I got one bit of bacon with my artifically coloured bap. One! It wasn't even nicely cooked as it was charred black and was obviously the cheapest, fattiest bacon they could get. To make things worse they didn't even have proper Heinz ketchup instead offering up supermarket own brand stuff! I mean, I'm not a snob but you've got to have some standards right?? I was pretty annoyed at this point so went to buy a coffee to try and get warm which was at least good and strong. I'll be taking a packed lunch next time.
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