THIS LAZING AROUND MUST STOP!!!!!

WAKE UP CALL.

It has now been over two weeks since I last ventured into the water at Dorney lake for a 5km swim. yes, I chickened out of the 10km. After just returning from SCAR, I had nothing to prove and also it would have been over budget if I had done the 10km. It was a far cry from last years event where the spectators were about as wet as the swimmers. Cold, grey and raining, not a great way to do a 10 km swim but, this year, the sun came out to play and there was no precipitation in the air. Despite the lack of rain, it was amply made up for by the wind.

I arrived, in my now trademark Crochet shorts, which had nothing but good reviews. Honestly, I really do not know why people think they are so hideous. I had nothing but praise about them and my manufacturer had better watch out, there could be a few orders coming her way. Not only was I getting stopped by various people commenting on them, we also realised that it is a good way to find me in a crowd of wetsuit clad people. even in a huge crowd, you are easily noticeable so my support crew always knows where I am.

it was a great day to catch up with many open water swimmers and even meet new ones. with a good turnout for all the events, there must have been about 1000 swimmers there over the day. On the day, I put in a relatively decent showing of 1 hour 20 min and 2 seconds. I was 5th out of 32 people who opted for the non wetsuit option. Overall, I came 23rd out of 257  5km swimmers. Considering that the last time I had swum prior to that was the 10km swim at SCAR then a 2km swim 2 days before. Not a bad effort. Although the swim was fine, there was a little bit of hard work on the one length due to the wind. Also, what was quite disconcerting, was the fact that all the swimmers that were swimming the 5km without wetsuits had yellow caps. This did cause some frustration along two of the legs. You look up to site and next thing there are 7 yellow hats in front of you. I was thinking,

“Bugger, where did they all come from, I am sure they were not there earlier. I must be catching up so best put my foot down!”

After hammering it out, they are still ahead of me, It was only after about 5 times of trying to catch them did the penny drop, what I had thought were “Yellow Caps” were actually  Yellow BUOYS along the route. On that note, I just decided to put my head down and finish the race at my own pace, and due to the plan of not bothering to site, occasionally swim over a couple of wetsuit clad wallowers. I was not too distressed as I had nearly had a head on collision with one of them earlier. SERIOUSLY!!!! We are all swimming IN THE SAME direction then some person gets SO disorientated that he is swimming against 250 people. I think they need to work on their sighting.

Now, two weeks on from that and the clothes are getting tighter, the food intake has reached epic proportions and the scales are complaining when I jump on them. ENOUGH! So last night it was off to the pool to see if I still had it in me. Small steps but we managed to glide out a very easy 2km, Not bothering about times, techniques, just doing what my body knows how to do and let it go.

It was great to be back in the water. I cannot comment on others but I always find, the first time back in the water after an extended break just seems to be pretty perfect, Stroke feels pretty good, extension during stroke seems way more than normal. I even managed to do a fair bit of butterfly without drowning. it was all good and I really enjoyed the outing.

What is instore for the summer?

Now that we are back in, it is time to think about adventures that I will take on for the rest of the season. First things that I have signed up for is the Champion Of Champions in Dover – with a bit of a twist this year. I willnot be in the water, I will be kayak support, out on the water antagonising all those swimmers and probably issuing some discipline to those who are having a bad day. it will hopefully be a good day for all.

Sadly, the swims that I wanted to sign up to are now fully subscribed in the non wetsuit category. I have been around this game too long. Gone are the days where you could at least phone up a week before and mention that you want to do it without a wetsuit. Many years ago, there was silence at the end of the phone followed by “WITHOUT a wetsuit?? Are you aware of how cold it is in the rivers or lakes?” Now, it seems that there are a lot more people who swim without wetsuits and these places are becoming like  the Gooses Golden eggs. Hard to come by. If I had my way I would be doing an event every weekend as long as it was over 10Km. Sad thing is, this sport can become pretty expensive and When you throw in international events, the Budget gets used up pretty dam quickly. I only really have a budget for one BIG swim a year. I am extremely fortunate to even be able to afford them. I could never do it without the support of ColinsIT.  So I will have to look for small events and just do the big swims on my own.

Never fear though, the one I was aiming for is in October and in Italy. There is a very good chance I will get onto that one – providing a doctor says I am fit enough to swim (that could be a bit of a stumbling block considering I am Clinically obese) I am hoping that my track record MIGHT help to get a doctor to believe that someone like me can actually do a 1.8km swim followed by a 6km swim. But in this day and age, it is still a 50/50 possibility – what, with all this Health and Safety rubbish. At least this swim only requires me to produce a medical certificate. Others that I looked at in Malta, want letters from my coach – don’t have one of them! My governing body – don’t belong to one of them! A swimming CV. Mine just might make the grade. A training plan for the next 10 weeks – I do not even have a training plan for the next week, let alone 10. I have to have taken part in 3 out of the 4 qualifying swims throughout the season. I am CERTAINLY not going to fly to Malta and back 3 times with the accompanying costs of accommodation and staying there for a day or two – just to get an entry into a piddly 11km swim.

As this swim in Italy is a mass start, where we all start on the shore and then rush into the water, a bit like a triathlon start so I might have to do a bit of training to do these starts and I have come up with the perfect training, I am certain Audra, My support staff, will love this. Please click link below

Mass start practice

As I know the people involved in promoting the event, there is a VERY slim chance that I might be able to accompany the lead act on the day on their 18km swim. Slim I know but there is a chance so we will wait to see what materialises. It will be good on two levels, To be able to do an 18km swim and also to swim next to someone whom I admire immensely.

In the interim, I will keep my training up in the hope I can do the 18km. I will also enter some smaller sprint swims locally and see if I can maybe – finally – get some speed into my swimming and get to the top of the bunch instead of always hovering just out of the placings.

Another area that I am toying with is audio podcasts on how it is that someone like me actually tackles these events from a mental aspect rather than a physical one. Also how the likes of me actually get into this game. If anyone followed my physical training they would be lucky to manage a 3km swim let alone a 25 km one. Just a thought at the moment but would be interested to see if people would actually bother to listen to it.

As always, I do all these swims for Charity so if you feel like helping out a really great cause please go and hit the donate here at the top of this page. All donations will be greatly received.