Baby swims can be fun, Can't they?

Can small swims be Fun?

As the season progresses and the bigger swims are becoming harder and harder to find, I have switched my focus a bit to coaching a few people who are taking an interest in Open water swimming. Got to get them to lose the black condoms, otherwise get a sprint one that offers a lot less buoyancy. Watching Audra swim, with her legs spending a lot of time flailing in the air is hilarious but pretty useless as a form of propulsion.. I think she enjoyed it as she 

                              1 - Did not drown. 

                              2 - No monsters from the depths came up to eat her.

                              3 - She actually swims in a straight line.  

                              4 - She is actually thinking about coming back!! 

Paul, who has been a training partner of mine for most of the season is already a fairly accomplished swimmer but has asked me to train with him through the winter to work on his speed and it will also help me make the transition from Hippo to Dolphin.

It is always nice to see someone taking up a different sport and enjoying it. All That I can do to promote this is a good thing. I might need the references in the future!

So What have I been up to?

Today was a 3 km race that I had entered. It was in the lovely town of Marlow and was between the two bridges. Marlow is a bit of  a trek from where I live and they do love have obscene start times in this sport. My wave of the all male 3km swimmers was at 8.35am. Registration is 7am. This meant that I had to leave the house at 6am - ON A SUNDAY!! Luckily I do not worry too much about lie ins. In this sport, starts are usually pretty early. So my alarm went off at 5.30am, I woke to the sound of rain outside. I was a bit confused and was thinking, Who the hell set my alarm for 5.30am? I was about to roll over and go back to sleep, when the fog started to lift from my Champagne impaired mind - Champagne and Canapes the evening before is not a particularly good idea, even if I did not drink too much and left at a reasonable time

Well I diligently got out of bed, thinking, why do I do this to myself?   The early morning swims, not the champagne and canapes. The fight of the sofa vs the pool springs to mind. I force fed myself some fruit salad and some cereal - my stomach was not awake- or happy for that matter. I left at 6 and was on my way for the hour trek across to Marlow. I travelled through rain most of the way. Visions of my channel training came flooding back, sitting in the car until the absolute last moment before running down the beach into the water.

By the time I parked, the rain had subsided a bit to render it nearly ineffective at getting me wet.  At least I would not suffer from bad hair. I went and registered for the event and was about to go into the holding area for swimmers when I realised that it was a bit cold out there and there was no way of warming up - unless I jumped into the Thames and swam around for the next hour. The water temperature at that time of the day is a fair bit warmer than the outside air. I headed back to the car to keep warm as I had about an hour till the start. It had also started to rain again.

The Start then got closer so I went to the start and waited until we were called for our briefing. I thought I would be the only nutter out there without  a black condom on but was pleasantly surprised to see that the "Balmy Budgie smuggler brigade" is growing, long may it continue. there was a thought of splitting us up as there were about 180 of us but in the end all the males set off together. We entered into the water and I did a bit of swimming up and down to try and get the old bones and muscles moving.

As per usual, I started at the back and on the edge of the group, not being very fast at starts, I tend to always start like this to avoid getting my face kicked in and losing my goggles. I generally get into a rhythm very quickly which is no good for mass starts but serves me pretty well as the race progresses. This means I generally start to overtake people after about 300m. Staying on the side I do not end up swimming over people. 

There was a break away group that stormed off and then I settled into the middle of second group of swimmers and there were a couple of non wet suited swimmers amongst this. We rounded the first set of buoys and I then started to make my way through this group and finally made my way to the front of it after about 800m. Here I paired up with a wet suited swimmer and we matched each other stroke for stroke for most the race, when I tried to get the upper hand he followed, when he tried to make a break, I followed him and we toyed with each other like this, pulling each other along until we were catching the group in front. As I was taking the inside lane we had a few reprimands from the kayakers trying to keep us from swimming directly into the ladies 3k swimmers who had started later than us.

Me and this swimmer matched each other all the way until the final turn around the buoys where I was on the inside so he had to go a bit wider than me, after negotiating these buoys I came out leading him with him tapping on my feet. At this point I upped my pace a bit and we had now caught the tail enders of the leading group. This is where I thank my lucky stars for my endurance. for the last 4 -500m I just kept edging my pace up and overhauling a few more of the lead group with toe tapper keeping on my heels together we managed to overhaul about three more people and I managed to take it home and lead through the finish line.

the results are are follows

the one thing that that results page does not show is that I was first in the men's non wetsuit category but second in the overall Non wetsuit category, being beaten by a female swimmer. Must be my impeccable manners, always letting the ladies go first - I really have to get over that!!

All in all not the best time I have done for that sort of distance but considering I have not really trained properly for about 3 weeks, I think it was a fair result.

So in answer to the question at the beginning of this Blog, Small Swims can be fun. I am so used to training and swimming on my own and at my own pace, to have someone push me along the way is pretty cool. I must admit, that for future big swims it is unlikely that I will have someone to do big swims with me but someone to push you is very comforting at times. I still struggle with the Starts as I am NOT a fast swimmer so struggle to get up with the big boys. Hopefully this winter I will get to do some LONG OVERDUE  work on my speed, rather than my endurance. Speed has always been my weak point.

I still prefer my marathon swims and I will always focus on them above the small swims but it is nice to have a bit of a change along the way.

This is the first swim that I have ever done where I just went on my own, not one supporter and I must admit I felt a bit out of sorts not having my friends around. But i cannot ask anyone to join me at 8.30am on a Sunday, in the rain just to watch 500 silly swimmers float around the thames.

So where to Now? 

Another month or so of the season and there are a few small swims that I will be taking on, to add to the Poole one and maybe one in oxford, I may do a 3km swim at the Vachery 3km. This is not one that I have done before and one of my training partners is asking me if I can do it with him to help pace him - I honestly do not think I need to as he is a faster than me but we do swim at a similar pace and I think my endurance bodes well for a faster finish that he can pace with.

Well that is about all for the moment People, sorry I do not have anything more worthwhile to write about but keep the faith,

My saying for this week is:-

Action trumps inaction every time. 

So, as long as you are moving, 

know that you are moving forward.

 

Inspirational speakers live inspirationally

Not only do Inspirational Speakers

Speak Inspirationally they also 

live it!

Today I have the very pleasurable surprise to end a pretty hectic day. Let me explain. For a while now I have been following Lewis Pugh and his adventures. A truly Inspirational who came to my attention for his pioneering swim in the Arctic circle. He has also achieved many other ground breaking and utterly awe inspiring goals in his life. One of his latest goals was to assist Dr Otto Thaning in becoming the oldest person to swim the English Channel at the Age of 72. Just another swim to add to his already impressive Open water career.

I have been commenting on many of Lewis's Facebook posts over the last couple of months. Oddly I did not really follow him at all until sometime ago, Facebook decided that it was a good idea for me to start following him, and his posts started apearing in my newsfeed. I had Known about Lewis and listened to some of his talks in the past.

Well, Last weekend they were in Dover for Dr Otto to undertake this record breaking swim. I knew of this and causally mentioned to Lewis that I would pop down for the afternoon and HOPEFULLY meet up with him, if he was not too busy. He has also just written a book that I was hoping to get my hands on. As he only mentioned that they had become available on the Internet in the UK, the day before, there was not enough time for me to purchase one before I went down to Dover.

So Saturday arrived and I went for a swim at Shepperton with a Audra, A newbie to Open water swimming and was wanting to try it out in a safe environment. I then headed down to Dover to meet up with the Channel Swimming Crew and have a bit of a catch up with them. I asked them where I could find Lewis and Otto? They mentioned to me that he was staying in the Best Western on the Harbour promenade. So in the afternoon I headed over there. I was just going to ask at reception as to the whereabouts of these guys. Luckily I did not have to as they were having a coffee with a group of People. I Waltzed up and introduced myself and Lewis very politely told me he was busy and would come and see me later. My response to him was "honestly, only if you have the time" I disappeared into the foyer and ordered a beer and read the paper whilst I waited.

About 40 minutes later I saw Lewis and Otto Leave and then come back. Later, I saw Otto leave. it was then that Lewis came over and sat down with me and told me the sad news that Otto was thinking about pulling out of this Record breaking attempt and He was gutted and had been trying to convince him, with the help of other high level Channel swimming advocates. They had been waiting in Dover for 6 days with very little change in the weather and I thing Ottos just cracked under the stress of it all. Lewis and I chatted about this briefly but he was more interested in the Goals that I had in mind. Sadly we did not spend too much time together then or later.I did ask for a book but he was very apologetic saying that he had been a a book signing in the morning and had gotten rid of them all. Not really an issue for me.I was going to get one anyway.

I left Dover late in the evening after dinner and came home without giving it much thought.

Today, I got a facebook message from Lewis asking me to contact him urgently on email. Luckily, I did happen upon this request, not spending much time on facebook and all!! Very shortly after that I got a response from him asking for my telephone number.as he wanted to talk to me. I sent him my telephone number and I immediately got a call from Lewis.

The conversation went along the lines of he was very upset in the way we had left things on Saturday and that he had been under a lot of pressure with things that were happening on Saturday. I honestly was not too bothered and expressed this to him in no uncertain terms and that he did not need to apologise to me. I had just popped down on the off chance that I might get to meet up with him. I was not bothered either way, just the fact that he had acknowledged that I was there and came to meet me was enough.

He then asked if I still wanted a signed copy of his book. My response was "You Bet!" He then asked, "Do I ever go into London?" He would leave one for me at his hotel - as he was soon heading to Singapore, later in the evening - that I could pick up when I was next in London.

Fortuitously, I was actually in London and currently waiting for a Train at Victoria Station. I mentioned this to him. His first response was, "Can you get up to Marble Arch"

I Said, "I am on my way."

He then texted me the address of his hotel and told me he would be there for the next 45 minutes until he would be heading to the airport.

I arrived at his hotel and he was down in a flash with a couple of books for me. We sat down and chatted for a while about Dr Otto's Swim and other adventures whilst he signed a book for me and gave me a synopsis of what it was about.

He was then off again to another place in the world.

This really blew my mind and getting to know him, albeit briefly, it became more and more apparent what a fantastic Guy he is. I am just a guy that thinks he is Very inspirational but to go out of his way the way he did, just to give me a signed copy of his book and not accept any money for it, to take the time to meet up with me, A truly amazing way to the end of what was a pretty hectic day.

Thank you Lewis, I look forward to our next meeting.

So where am I in my life?

Well, just plodding along at the moment to be honest. Not really doing anything right now, I have a 3km Swim coming up this weekend in Marlow if anyone wants to come and watch. I then have 2 more swims before the end of the season But Next year I am desperate to get back into my Marathon swimming again. I also have a few other long term Goals that I hope to be able to bring to fruition. My goal setting ability seems to have been restored since my chance meeting with Mr Pugh, lets just hope that I can actually go ahead and do some of them?

What was meant to be my big swim sweekend

This was to be my big weekend

As I sit here at home on the eve of what was meant to be my big swim for this year, I am a bit sad that I will not be in Windermere tomorrow night. Something I had been looking forward too and working towards for the last 7 months. It also has other ramifications in relation to other swims I was planning next year. Both the MIMS (round Manhattan Island Marathon swim) and the Lake Zurich swim are ballots and to put yourself in a better position to be selected, you have to have done some pretty major swims the season before. All I have managed to do is 3 piddly 10km swims and a smattering of smaller swims. The longest swim that I have done this year, in training is 15km. I can only wait and see if I make the cut for Zurich at least, for next year. If all else fails I will do a double Windermere next year.

So what have I been up to?

Not a lot really. After the issues I have experienced over the last 4 weeks, mentally I have had a lot of turmoil going on in my head. The decision to cancel my Windermere swim was a  bit draining to say the least, but it was made and there is nothing I can do about that now. I had been booked onto some other swims, a 10 Km and a 3km swim so I went and did them anyway, on not a lot of training. I surprised myself, I managed to do the 10km in a fairly respectable time. I think the attitude that I had done very little training and the fact that I was not mentally prepared for it all helped. I approached it with the attitude of, I am just going to do it for fun. It seemed to work.I enjoyed it (albeit the last 1.5km) where I just wanted to get out. All in all a good swim for someone without a wetsuit.

Since then I have been getting back into my training, nothing big, 5km is the maximum I have done in my training and to be honest, I have loved it. My last training session, 3.7km was fabulous, water temperature about 22 degrees Celsius and I felt great, my last lap was faster than all the other laps. My attitude, that I have nothing to train for is fine right now but, knowing myself well enough, I think I will be losing focus very soon. For me, training without a goal can become very tedious. I have been looking for a few more swims to do before the end of the season and have come up with a few small ones to do. Between 3km and 5km. I have not been able to find anything bigger that I can afford over the next 2 - 3 months.

I have targeted a 3km swim in the Thames on the 25th of this month, near Marlow, Marlow Swim and then a 5 km at Queenford lakes for the  Queenford half on the 15th of next month (September) and finally a 3km in Poole on the 28th of September .So my training continues and I will have to adjust my training to take in the fact that the swims that I am planning on doing are A LOT shorter than what I am used to. My training that has gone before will not be wasted, my endurance will at least be there, so I am not too worried about that side of things. I just need to try and get a bit of speed happening in my swimming. I have not focused on that very much recently and there is a big difference in swimming 3km and 35 km. I have mainly - till now been concentrating on getting ready for 35km.That dream has gone for this year so I will focus on smaller.

Although this does not really fit well with who I am, I normally make up my mind and am then very impatient to get it done. I came across a very interesting article about a mutual acquaintance's English Channel swim. Her name is Sally Goble. From starting to swim at the age of 30 it took her about 5 years to get to a point where she succeeded in swimming to France, her story is pretty inspirational and a far cry from my approach. I respect her immensely for that approach, I think my impatience would not let me go that route. Sally Goble Channel swim 

Whichever way you look at it, She got there and her account is a very good account of how a lot of marathon swimmers start out.

This week I also came across another account of marathon swimming, this time about the current English Channel world record holder Trent Grimsey. Not only did he break the world record by 2 minutes an 50 seconds,in September 2012, it was the first time that he had swum the Channel. An amazing guy who dreams bigger than I do and goes out and gets it. his approach was the more conventional way, booking three years in advance of his swim then focusing entirely on this goal.It is a  phenomenal swim. Here is a video of his efforts World Record English Channel swim

Both of the above accounts are very inspirational and by two people with totally different attitudes towards marathon swimming. They both have two things in common. 1 - They both are part of the very unique club of Channel swimmers. 2 - They are both passionate about, and have fallen in love with the sport of marathon swimming. I can vouch for the addictiveness of it as well

So that is the rest of the season laid out for me, Just need to put in some proper training so I do not look like a complete novice when I swim in these events.

If anyone can make it to watch, that will be great, I always love having the support and believe me, this year I would never have been able to get to where I am without the support of my amazing Friends and Family. Without you I would never have got this far.

On that note I will End with a quote

"Stop competing with others and

 start competing with your yourself."