Back to my Wallowing ways.

Wallowing Ways return.

It has now been 10 days since my horrible news and just over a week since I took the very hard decision to defer my double Windermere swim. I am slowly getting used to the fact that I will not be undertaking this swim this year. I must admit, after the original heart wrenching thoughts and final decision - which kept me awake for a few nights, I am getting back into the lakes and also taking on a few small swims.

10 days after my last 9km swim I ventured back to the lakes again, only to realise that I had lost my goggles and my cap. Not a problem. Being the ultra efficient, forward planning, individual that I am.   WHOA boy, did I just say that about myself?? Ignore it all!! Must have got too much sun in the recent heatwave that mud island is experiencing. Quite surprised we are not under hose pipe bans and water rationing - we have had more than 3 days without rain.

Anyway, I digress. fortunately for me- nothing to do with any form of planning, or forethought, I have a spare pair of goggles in the glove compartment of my car. Well I dug them out only to discover that they were broken. Is life conspiring against me NOT to swim? Undeterred, I decided, as it was a lake and not a chlorine infested pool, I would go swim without goggles. Luckily, the Lake where I swim operates a lost property box and then mentioned to me that they had my good old faithful goggles, not that you can miss them being Bright orange. So Saturday, armed with my old faithfuls and kitted all in Orange, I jumped into the tepid (21 Degree Celsius water) I was in heaven. My friend Paul joined me and we did 4 laps and 5 laps for him. It was great to be back in the water again but after 3km I was not really feeling it so I decided to call it a day. not before we annoyed a fair amount of triathletes and tried drowning another Friend of mine. As I was due to do a 10km the following day I thought 3km was not a bad effort and, it was probably a good thing to get out whilst I was still enjoying myself. Without any big goals to aim for I was enjoying my swimming much more and it was great. My times were not bad, the weather was good and the company I was with pushed me a fair amount.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and then met up with friends on Saturday evening. Sunday morning I was up with the birds to get ready for my 10Km at Lakeside. Oddly, as I was not really bothered anymore about my swims and how fast I could do them - or even IF I COULD DO THEM AT ALL.My attitude had changed. This was now for fun. A good night had, I was rested and ready. I arrived at Lakeside and met up with my Old Channel swimming buddy Greg Wood and his brother as they were up from the coast to do the swim. the grudge match forgotten.

 I had a sole groupie pop down to watch me, as it was in the industrial wasteland (east side) of town, I didn't really expect anyone to come and watch me. Thanks Auds for popping down, it was great to see you there. I tried to convince Greg and his brother to lose the rubber and we could race but they declined so, being one of three Non wet suited swimmers, I decided this was for fun and nothing else.We had a briefing and were instructed on what to do, 12.8 laps of a 780m loop. The lake looked stunning and Iwas quite impressed with both,the surroundings and the lake. The one thing that was a bit worrying was, - I have to count 12.8 laps??? I struggle to count 3 laps usually, how the heck and I going to manage to count 12.8?? We all headed to the start and whilst people gingerly lowered their rubberised bodies into the 23 Degree water I decided it more pertinent to take a leap of faith.

LITERALLY!! I dived in and headed to the start which was about 50m away from where we entered the water. at about 8.05am we were off. Surprisingly it was a small group of 10Km swimmers - 18 in total. there was also a 750m, 3.8km and 5km swim happening on the day.I eased into my pace with the faster guys disappearing into the distance. I was with a group of about 4 swimmers that I was tussling with. After the 2nd lap I was leading them and The one guy kept on my feet, drafting me for the next 5 laps. I only managed to lose him and the other 2 swimmers when they decided it was a good idea to take a pit stop and refuel. I was on the no fuel strategy. I kept plodding on and left them behind for a while. It was a big mental challenge trying to keep counting I used to pass the timing mat then for the next 12-14 minutes I would be mentally telling myself what lap I was on about every 3 seconds and even then I would become confused. Fortunately, above the mat they had a big digital clock so I was able to go on my timings as well,  I knew how long it takes me to do 780m. There were many times when I was questioning myself. I would tell my self "Lap 6, Lap 6, Lap 6......." and my brain would chime in "Are you sure?? it could be lap 5. Maybe it could be lap 7. Ca you be certain it is lap 6?"  Oh the joys

On about the 10th lap, the super swimmers started to come past me. One of them being this idiot who thought it might be a good idea to try and pull my trunks off, I felt this hand sliding up my leg and was about to kick the living daylights out of him until I saw it was Greg who was lapping me, a big grin on his face. Cheeky bugger. My lack of wetsuit also gave the compere something different to talk about, when commentating on a bunch of rubberised humans, it can become a bit boring but I do think he needs his eyes tested. apparently my swimming trunks are Peach coloured.

On lap 10  - Maybe lap 11, could be lap 9!! - the demons emerged with a vengeance and all they wanted me to do was to pack in this swimming malarkey and for the next 30 odd minutes I had this epic battle going on in my head. GIVE UP or FINISH. My laps were now slowing to 13 minutes probably due to the fact that when I was coming up to a buoy, I would switch into breaststroke for about 50m while I rounded it then switched back into front crawl. I had to be a bit careful doing this. As I was a non wetsuit swimmer, every time I did this there would be some kayaker racing towards me to haul me out of the lake. It was the ruling that non wetsuit swimmers who get into difficulties would be pulled out the water and not allowed to get back in. I would let them race up to me and at the last minute I would switch back into crawl and carry on. At least I was giving them some exercise.

I finished eventually in 2 hrs 43 minutes. about 13 minutes off the pace I know I can do for a swim of this distance but I had finished and, for me, that was all that mattered. I came 7th overall and was first non wetsuit to finish. I had a fair few people ask why I do not swim in a wetsuit as I would be very quick if I did. Main reason on a day like this is, if I had donned one, I would come out par boiled. But seriously, I love swimming without one and do not think I will be embracing the feel of rubber against my skin anytime soon.

All in all a great day, not nearly as fast as previous 10 kms that I have done earlier this season but I am in a different place now mentally, a place I have never been, a place that scares me a little. The most important thing, it is a place where I am learning about who I am and that is a good place to be in anyones eyes. As long as I keep growing as a person then life will be good - I hope.

Tonight I will be back in the lakes for a bit of a wallow and also just to keep my muscles moving. I also need to book some more swims as I have none planned now so will be looking at what other 5 - 10Km swims remain of the season to book onto.

As usual I will end with a quote

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable,

 but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

 George Bernard Shaw 

PLEASE DO NOT FORGAT MY FUNDRAISING FOR CHARITY. i MAY NOT BE DOING A BIG SWIM BUT WILL BE DOING A FAIR AMOUNT OF SMALLER ONES

Zimhippo charity page 

 

 

 

Lifes events can change a lot

Life's events can change a lot of things

A lot of things have happened in the last week that have forced me to look at my swimming through a different light. 

Looking back over the last couple of days when I learnt of the tragic death of an endurance swimmer in the English Channnel. RIP Susan Taylor. On the cusp of joining a pretty unique club, taken from all of us.This is the 8th death of a channel swimmer


Last Wednesday evening I went for a lovely swim in the lakes, managed 2.5 hours. I got out feeling great. All ready to do a 5 hour swim on Saturday morning. I went to bed very pleased with myself and looking forward to the future.

Thursday My life changed. I was the first of the family over this side of the world to hear of the tragic passing of my mother in law and her sister, under suspicious circumstances. It seems that there had been a house fire and they had both been killed. But subsequently this turned out to be a smoke screen, excuse the pun.

It was up to me to break the news to my wife that her mother and aunt had been killed. Not an easy thingto do and I agonised over the question, How do you break this sort of nes to someone, answer - there is no easy way, you juat have to do it. It was yesterday, after the post mortems that we discovered that there had been other reasons for their demise.

The reaction was expected and, will, I am sure be long lasting. 

The rest of the day was spent sorting out a few things, skyping with family and trying to organise flights out to Africa at short notice. Not a Cheap undertaking, I can assure you. We managed to get a flight the following evening. The rest of the day and the following day were taken up by packing, a trip to the high street to buy some things. I then dropped her at the airport for her flight to Africa. After dropping her, I then texted all our friends to let them know what had happened and to NOT contact my wife until Sunday when she would be with her family.

RIP 

MILLIE COHEN

VENA SCHULZE 

Some Serious time for reflection Needed

I now had the opportunity to concentrate on my life, in amongst dealing with the phone calls and texts from friends, and try to fathom out a few answers to some serious questions.that were floating round in my head.

the first one was: - The following day I was due to do a 5 hour swim, starting at 6 am. Mentally I was treading on very shaky ground and emotionally I was a bit of a train wreck. I wrestled long and hard with the decision, as to whether or not I go and do it?

If this swim was not done, the Dream and goal of swimming Up and down Lake Windermere would be gone for this year!! It was a simple yet agonising question which, no-one but I, would know the answer to. I got advice from a few people very close to me, some who had done endurance events and others who had not.There had already been concerns expressed that I was taking on too much with other stuff that was going on in my life, and now this.There was a worry that if failure was the outcome it would knock me really badly.

With the looming prospect of a trip to Africa ahead of me, my training would have been badly affected.The finances would also be seriously affected.

How did I feel in all of this?

My initial response to the concerns was, you have to be on the start line to have ANY chance of success. If you are not even there, then the only outcome is to fail. (not a bad thing), not something I blatantly want to do but you at least have to try.

Well Physically I was relatively confident that I would be able to swim 35Km (21 Miles) I did not have a problem with that. Currently my mental fortitude was on very shaky ground, but manageable. Emotionally I was a train wreck.

I have been around this game of endurance swimming long enough to realise that Mental robustness is a far superior factor than Physical robustness, when it comes to success in these dalliances. You can be in the best physical shape of your Life - if statements by ALL my friends and family worldwide are to be believed, that is where I am right now. I am leaner and fitter and in far better physical shape than I was when I swam the English Channel.

The Factor that was seriously lacking right now in my life is my mental toughness. THIS IS, I BELIEVE, what will get you through any endurance event. Any gremlins that are hatched in your mind are going to - at some point - manifest themselves in your physical being. This is where the Mental toughness comes in. to fight with every fibre in your body to quash the overwhelming desire to give up. It is a desire that overcomes you pretty quickly and permeates your entire being.

For anyone who has found themselves in this predicament, you will understand what I am saying and you might also, like me, having experienced it before. It is not fun trying to find reason to carry on when your whole being is just urging you to throw in the towel.

After two days of agonising thoughts I decided to not take part in this event this year but rather defer it to next year, when, I will hopefully, be in a much better place to give me a far better chance to succeed.

It is with a lot of regret that I am doing this but I have, sort of, been able to rationalise it with the statement that Windermere is not going anywhere.

So where to Now?

I am not going to be giving up my swimming any time soon. As stated earlier in this communication, a habit in which I find solitude. I am still booked into doing a 10Km this weekend and will continue to do other 10km and lower swims during the remaining part of the summer. I have done a fair amount of work to Lose 25 kg (3.9 St --55 pounds) since the beginning of the year and I am not in a hurry to put it back on again by falling back into a pit of laziness and depression

My focus will now switch to the shorter races and my training will now be more geared towards increasing my speed rather than my endurance. Sadly this might entail jumping back into the ocean Blaaagh!! but we will give it a try.With the weather in Britain as it currently is, it would be rude not to take advantage of the sunshine to get out and do some wild swimming.These swims are still good for me with regards to increasing my speed, which has always been a pet bugbear of mine, that I have wanted to increase it for a fairly long time now,

Colins IT, My sponsors have been very understanding and have agreed that If I still want help with the remaining swims I have ahead they will be willing to support me. Very admirable and i am unable to thank them enough

I will still be swimming for the rest of this summer. I feel now more than ever that you have to take control of lyour life and embrace every moment as if it was your last. You never know when that will be.

Thank you for all the support so far and this is by no means an end to this blog, rather a chapter in it which I will be able to look back on one day and maybe make sense of the emotions and feelings that I am experiencing .

My charity page is still open and taking donations. the elderly in Africa Really need our help. Please spare any amount you can to help me to help others.

ZimHippos' Charity Page

As always I end with a quote

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell

Planning, What is that?

My meticulous Planning 

out the Window!

Well, luckily I have been doing some planning. Seems it is a good thing and a bad thing. Yesterday I was going through my time line and seeing what I still needed to accomplish before I get to my bigger swim. Well I was very proud of myself and set up a time line of events leading up to this swim and it was all good. BUT, I seem to have overlooked something fairly critical -- THE FINE PRINT!! Yip It is going to screw you over if you do not take the time to have a look at all of it.

It seems that entries to this event close next week Wednesday and I have to have done a 10.5 mile swim before the closing date. So Time line now buggered and I have to bring my little qualifying swim forward by two weeks so it seems my Saturday morning will be taken up Swimming for 4 -5 hours. if anyone is keen please feel free to pop along to Shepperton Open water and join me for a few laps. I will be doing about 24 laps. the company would be most appreciated on this occasion. If you are going to pop along for a paddle, just ask the organisers where I am on the course and I am sure they will be able to point me out. Bright orange budgie smugglers, yellow cap and orange goggles, not easily miss able.

Hope that you all have a great week and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

As Always I will end with a quote and this one is just designed for this post

the 6 "P's"

Perfect

Planning

Prevents

Piss

Poor

Performance

Next Swim Booked

Next swim Booked

Time waits for no man. I am learning this fast. Today I have finally got off my fat backside and booked my next small challenge. It is a 10 Km swim in Lakeside, on the East side of London. You might be asking, "What is someone, who normally swims on the west side of London going to the dark side for?" Don't you need a passport to get over there? Is there anything over that side apart from car factories and industrial wasteland?

Well this is a bit of my on going challenge with a very good and old friend of mine that swam the English Channel about 2 weeks before I did and then was support crew on my boat. Yes I beat him in the channel, by 6 minutes, he has a faster 10Km time than me so we need to settle this once and for all. Who is the better swimmer? Sssshhhh, Don't let him know, I think he is. Sadly he has turned to the dark side -black rubber!! and now swims as a rubberised human. I am hoping that he will shed the rubber for this challenge, if he does not then he has to give me a handicap.

My training has been very erratic for about a week now and I seriously need to find some "Get up and Go" before the summer Gets up and goes. I have swum a few times but I have been focused on stroke technique and drill work in favour of the endurance and distance side of things. I hope to change that this week by starting off tomorrow with at least 10Km in the lakes. I was going to go this morning but my bone idleness got the better of me and I did not make it so have not swum now for 3 days. Diabolical!! Today I also went to fetch some maxim juice (energy drink) from a friend who swum the English channel last week. A huge congratulations to Eleanor Thomson who crossed over to France after 13 hrs 46 minutes. Welcome to a very Unique Club Eleanor, Glad to have you in it, even if you are South African and made me look like a complete amateur at this game in Dover 2 weeks ago.

So now I have some energy juice, I can start pushing up the distances so I just hope I have the mental fortitude to do it. Two of the best days this year and one of them I was working and the other my Mojo got up and walked out the door without me. Very disappointed in myself right now. Lets hope that the weather holds out and I can catch up with my Mojo very SOON.

A few things that have been very interesting this week. I have been doing a bit of research about Nutrition for these little swims. Never ever thought I would become so focused on it AT ALL! I came across a few very interesting articles about:-

1 - Why I have managed to lose so much weight over the last 6 months

2 - How it is that I manage to get by on so little sleep for very long periods (3-4 hours a night)

3 - Why are a lot of the modern Diets very much Protein based?

The article I came across was passed on to me by a very good friend and "Gumps Groupie" regular. Protein V sugars   

It is an interesting article and goes a small way to explain why I am what I am. I do like my proteins and I eat loads of them.

I have also been doing a bit of Research about Maxi Carbs powder, which I have just picked up from Eleanor. When I did the Channel, I used Maxim Energy Mix. Both very high in Maltodextrin. Upon reading up on this ingredient, it also goes a way to help me understand why I have lost so much weight. When I was swimming bigger distances in the past, I used to use Maxim. All very good for high endurance sports. But not good if you are not going to use it as it gets laid down in the blood stream as fat. So, I used to use it regularly, this year I have not started using it at all, as most my swims have been less than 10Km. 

I have never really got to involved about the mumbo jumbo regarding nutrition and endurance in the past, but that was a long time ago. My whole physiology and mind set were VERY different. Now with the simultaneous exercising more and losing weight. On that note, I seem to have stabilised with my weight and am currently sitting at about 96KG - down 24 KG on what I was 7 months ago. I am now very interested in it as I feel that this is about the lowest I can go without having BIG issues with the cold. Ideally I would like to put on 5 kg before the end of the month.

New Week. New Outlook!

So this week will be a telling week. Hopefully my mojo only popped out for a couple of hours and will return to me ready to focus and put the effort in again. I will be looking forward to planning my trip to Windermere and although my swim is playing on my mind, I am looking forward to the break as I need a break as well. Silly hey, lets go on holiday and whilst there, lets go and swim 35km over one of the nights? Well, I have never ever been accused of being conventional - and am not about to start now. Sorry Guys.

I also have a run to do next week - suffice to say, I am not worried about it at all, if you have done NO training, you do not have the right to get upset or worried about it. Luckily only a 5km run/waddle so I am hoping I can wing it. I suspect it will be a little bit more walking than running. The run that I am doing is the "Colour Run" Happiest 5km on the planet .From what I have read about it, I suspect that there will be a lot of paint powder involved and I will probably, - like 20000 other runners, be covered in it. The things I let my friends get me into. Honestly! This will be on the 14th of July so I suspect I will not be able to get any swimming done that day, unless i am awake pretty early.

So once I get this out the way i can then - hopefully focus on my end goal for the summer. The journey to 21. I am hoping to travel up on the 8th/9th August and stay up there and drive back on the 12th August. I am looking for B&B's or hotels in the area and need to get them booked this week.

As it is a fair trek from London to Cumbria, I suspect that I will not be lucky enough to have my usual "Gumps Goupies" around and I can't expect them all the trek up to Windermere to sit in a pub and drink whilst I swim 2 lengths of the lake, as much as i would love all my friends to be there.

Training schedule ahead.

Well this week I am planning on doing 2 x 2 hour swims minimum which would be 8km each.

On Saturday I am looking to do a 3 to 3 and a half hour swim in the lakes which should be about 12 - 15km swim. On the weekend of the 20th-21st I anticipate doing a 5 hour swim which should be approximately 18 - 19km swim, I am hoping that a few people might come and keep me company whilst I do 25 laps of the lake. At my current stamina level, I basically do a lap in 11 min 30 seconds with a 30 second rest before I start the next lap so each lap effectively takes me 12 minutes.

Lately I have been getting a lot quicker with my lap time.At the beginning of the season, being closer to 13 minutes. I can put this down to a few things but I suspect the main reason is that I am a lot lighter so there is a lot less of me to drag through the water. Fortunately, so far, the cold has not come back to haunt me, if anything, I am cold for the first few laps and then seem to warm up as I get into my stride. Long may this continue and Long may this warm spell continue so that the lake warms up a fair bit. I Also suspect that I will not be doing a lot of pool training as the temperature of the pool is just too hot for me to train in it.

Still Loving my Pilate's and I think that this has played a huge part in how I am able to maintain my posture whilst swimming. I will say that the mental strength that I so desire for the longer swims really becomes necessary the longer I go. I can feel my Stroke going to hell n a handcart, I can feel the water becoming like syrup, I can feel that I am no longer gliding but, fighting with the water, it takes all my mental effort to concentrate on maintaining a stroke, which is as perfect as I can possibly get it.

There is a lot happening in my life right now and I am struggling with the mental aspect of it but I am trying to take it back to basics for my swimming and focus on those - then the bigger picture becomes less opaque. I am loving the swimming though. which is great. A couple of months ago I do not even love that. Time and training, encouragement from friends has given me my focus back on that front and I think this is the biggest challenge. If you you do not love what you do, DON'T DO IT!!  That is my take on it.

Well As I said I will be down at lakeside on the 21st of this month so may see some of you there.

Stay well and enjoy this Lovely British Summer. This country is Awesome when the sun Shines.

In life, you can’t go back to the

     beginning and make a new start ...

   but you can begin now and

    make a new ending.