Gorgeous morning today. Air Temp around 11 degrees so fairly chilly and water temp at the start was just above 16 degrees. It was also pretty dark this morning and quite cool to see the sun rise as you are swimming along with all the colours changing along the way.
At the dock today were myself, Heath and Jezz. We decided to do a fairly short swim 40-45 mins as it was pretty cold and we were not feeling particularly 'up for it' at about half six when we started stripping down to our swimmers.
Went up to Marlow weir and back down again. Was swimming at a pretty good pace this morning and sticking to my routine of warm up, 50 hard, 50 easy and increasing the hard strokes by ten every time through until I hit 100. Then I just kept it at 100 hard/50 easy until I hit the turn around point. Was a little ahead of Jezz and Heath by the time we got to the weir but not by more than 20 seconds so we are still pretty even as a group. At the weir, if you go near enough, you can stand up so that you waist is almost out of the water. When I stood up this morning my back spasmed, probably as a result of standing up yesterday for a couple of hours at the rugby, and I needed a minute or so before I was good to continue. I think a preventative massage is in order!!
Going back the back was fine and I swam at a rhythm of 100 hard/50 easy increasing the strokes by 10 until I hit 200 on the hard strokes.
Heath went off like a rocket but on my second set of hard strokes I managed to reel him in and get past. About halfway back I could feel Jezz on my shoulder, first on my right and then my left (this was either Jezz trying a dummy pass or a result of him swimming in zig-zag fashion) trying to get past. At this stage I was now doing fairly long hard stints and I was able to hold him off until the finish. I don't know how hard Jezz was pushing but I was going at a good pace and when Heath finished, who was trying to catch us, he definitely was breathing hard.
All in all, a good short sharp session - in more ways than one - and I feel a lot better for being back in the water. Last week I only did one session as have been suffering from a virus I think I picked up. Just had no energy so felt it best to listen to my body and stay out of the water. Feeling a lot stronger now, so should be good to do a full week of fitness work this week.
I got some fantastic shots on my phone and the old proverb that surrounds a red sky in the morning does not bode well for us. As I seem to recall it is "Red sky at night; shepherds delight, red sky in the morning; shepherds warning." Let's hope that the weather is good, some swimmers can get across at Dover and that it will be our turn shortly.
The latest news is that we are still waiting to go. The weather down in Dover according to our skipper is still not good as at Friday last week and there are still teams ahead of us in the pecking order. We are all frustrated at the constant waiting game and although we could be called any day to go our skipper is not positive about the weather forecast ahead. We have been thinking about contingency plans if we cannot go but I am keen to remain positive. The last date we can swim is 26 October so still a month to go! Until then, we shall be in the river training.
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