YAY, Open Water Season is Here

Open water season is upon us.

The time has come to get my arse into Gear and rise to the challenge of what I have ahead of me. This post has been a long time coming and quite frankly I have had a pretty rubbish Winter for reasons which could fill an entire blog so lets not go there now. I have been trying over the winter to keep the training up and have failed mostly, but at least I have managed to maintain some fitness over the winter. My goal at the beginning of the year was to be able to comfortably swim 5km before the Open water season started and, miraculously I can still do it in about 1 hour and 18 minutes, not a bad starting point to kick off my open water training.

During the winter, as mentioned I have not really done a lot of swimming, the swimming that I have done has been very sporadic with long gaps. Earlier in the year I was lucky to meet up with a friend of mine, and President of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, to train with him and Some of the Eaton College boys. This went a long way to keeping my spirits up and also focusing my mind on more technique work, rather than endurance. Those boys at Eaton are pretty quick through the water, Mind you they do not have a hippo like frame to float around with. It was a great time swimming with them and I hope to get back there soon.This was a group which really challenged me and put me through my paces and pointed out a few glaringly obvious flaws in my ability to swim and to focus. I have also had a few Friends who have kept me on the straight and narrow, I am sure they have had a hard time trying.Their efforts are amazing.

 I have also been wiling away the time reading a lot and one book that comes to mind is a book called  21 yaks and a speedo, written by Lewis Pugh. An amazing Guy that I have had the privilege of meeting and have a huge amount of respect for. Basically the book is about various pretty intense and record breaking endurance events. A lot of which resonates very well with me. I can recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is interested in completely insane and nutty endurance challenges. Some of the advice in there is priceless. This book, and a facebook page, called DID YOU SWIM TODAY  (DYST) has kept my wavering mind and complete lack of self confidence at bay over the dark and gloomy winter months.

Last night I managed to break free from a lot of those dark and gloomy shackles and brighten up mine, and many other peoples moods with my 2014 Open water swimming kit. There is a costume in that brightness - somewhere.

I headed to Shepperton Open water swim lake to test my ability in the open water again. I got the usual looks from the owners and other wetsuit clad swimmers as I arrived  in the rain in my nice bright orange budgie smugglers with mumbled comments like,  Nutter! Hardcore! You cannot be serious! There is a photo floating around somewhere with me in my smugglers next to a swimmer kitted out in Wetsuit, neoprene cap covered by Silicon cap, neoprene boots and gloves. He looked as if he was about to go diving in the arctic circle  I hammered out 3 km in 45 min and 20 seconds. Water temp was 14 degrees Celsius. I was pretty pleased with my efforts. Slightly off the pace I know I can do, but not a million miles off. 

Now I have to keep that focus and drive going. This will be done by participating in various swim races over the summer, I will be looking for swims primarily 10km and more. Ones that I have been coerced  - by the nutters from DYST into attending - are the Eaton Dorney 10 km on the 26th May. I have two weeks to get my distances from 5km to 10 km. Mmmmm? could be interesting. I am also looking at the 10Km Jubilee river swim on the 8th of June which should be achievable - if I am still in one piece after the Dorney lake one. There will be other swims that I will look at but the focus is definitely geared up for the Zurich swim. Hotels Booked, entrance fee paid up now  just have to get the flights and we will all be set to go.

I will hopefully be wallowing around the lakes at least twice a week and the weekend swims will be longer ones. If there is anyone who wants to come and join me for an hour, the company will be great.let me warn you, I am not very talkative whilst swimming. Have not mastered the art of swimming, breathing and holding a conversation yet - unless you can get inside my head, where the conversation is positively scintillating, most likely only to me. All the same, the company will be good

I am now 6 days away from the 10Km at Dorney lake and have only managed 1 swim over 6km this entire year so it will be a good test of my ability and also where I am in my training. This year is a bit of a highlight year in that a lot of the swims have their own "Wild Swim" Category. Purely for the swimmers like me that cannot afford the money, or the time an effort required to purchase, and then, GET INTO those bloody condoms. It amuses me that it takes some of these guys 15 minutes to get into one. I am going to start a petition for a triathlon that starts with everyone just in budgie smugglers at the start, if you want to wear a wetsuit then that is included in your overall time. Do not know how many takers there would be. I would be finished my swim by the time half the field even got in the water.  Oh well it is good to dream

For anyone who wants to come and watch then it all kicks off at Dorney Lake (Home of the Olympic Rowing venue) at about 9 am on Monday 26th of May.

Here is a quote that I think I, and many people can lear a lot from

Life is really Simple,
but we insist on making it 
complicated.