It has been a long time coming but it is COMING!

Sorry for the Delay in this posting

Hi there all. Firstly let me apologise in not keeping this blog up to date but I have had a fair amount of catch up to do.

About Two and a half weeks ago, things were on track and I was looking in fine form. I had planned a weekend of good longer swims with the anticipation of doing 3 10km swims over three days. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. All was good. On the friday prior to this I had a really sore wrist and was a bit concerned about it, but figured, I can always strap it up and swim with it strapped up. 

We were all set, Get to the lakes early and hammer out a 2 - 3 hour swim. Big dinner then early to bed. Awoke at about 5.30 to have some breakfast and hopefully let it digest itself before I swim. Get in the car an off I go, lovely day, sun shining and time to get some proper training in. Whilst in the car I started to sweat a bit even though I had the air conditioning on. I felt okay, I would not say I was at my best but I felt up to a bit of a swim, Also I had plans in place and my pig headedness was quite overwhelming. I had a task to do and I was going to do it come hell or high water!! Nothing was going to interfere with my plans ---or so I thought!!

Well we booked in and dived into the murky depths of the lake and off we went. 1st lap is usually a warm up lap so took it easy. Time was a bit on the slow side, but, that was warm up. Now onto the next lap and up the pace slightly. Got through it alright then 3rd....4th....5th. Got onto my 6th lap and I felt really drained, about half way through this lap, the proverbial brick wall came up from the depths with one intention, Stop me in my tracks!!  My stroke was flagging and I was starting to struggle a bit. At the end of the 6th lap, I was not feeling that good so my overwhelming desire to take it up to 10km was waning and I decided to call it a day. I got out and sat in the sun for a while, whilst trying to recover. Apart from feeling a bit drained and disappointed that I had not pushed through it, I sat in the sun soaking up the rays and chastising myself for not being man enough to suck it up and jsut keep going.

Then I decided I would head home for a bit of a rest. As soon as I stepped out the sun, into the shade, I got goose bumps all over my body and started shivering, shivering that would not stop the whole of the trip back home. Again, I was sweating, a bit more profusely than before, but freezing at the same time

Well that was the start of 3 days in bed with a cyclical process of bath, sleep, bath, sleep with the occasional effort at eating. Well you can guess, Sundays Swim did not happen, neither did Mondays swim. After the fever subsided and I was getting back to normal, Wednesday night was a real Nightmare, I could not sleep at all, my body wracked by itchiness. Not itchiness from Bug bites in the lakes and Rivers, beleive me I know what they are like and have had my fair share over the years. This was like my entire skin was crawling - and on fire. After systematically going through all the drugs in the house to see if there was anything I could take - the attempt was futile by the way. A late night/ early morning bath and lots of reading and I finally fell into slumberland for about 90min before my alarm went off and I was due to get ready for work.

I went off to the pharmacy and got an antihistamine to take and the following day was a bit more bearable and the night was much better.

It was to be an entire week without swimming and not eating a hell of a lot so my energy levels were very low and even swimmming 3km seemed like a major effort.

So where are we at now??

Well after a pretty big push, we are now back up to 7 - 8km training swims and feeling fine with doing them.Shoulders are a bit tender at the end but recover very quickly. I am very lucky that I have the lake just down the road from my office so can get in very soon after work. My speed - as always is pretty average/slow but I generally am swimming quicker at the end of my 8km swim than I ws at the beginning, much to the dismay of many of the people I swim with. when I pass them on their first lap and I am on my 9th or 10th lap, they get a bit frustrated. But I can now say that I have my rhythm and once I am in it can keep that up for at least 8km. There is only one problem, In 22 days I will not be swimming 8km, but 3 times that distance, provided I can swim in a straight line.I just hope that I can keep that metronomic rhythm going?

We are now 22 days away from my Swim up lake Zurich. To say that I am ready would be a blatant lie. I still have a long way to go but not much time to get there so we are just trying as best we can to get up to a point where I can at least do this swim a bit of justice. My Grandiose thoughts of getting to the end, winning my Age Group, World Records, All gone. I Will jsut be happy to get there and finish. and whilst I am about it enjoy it.

This week My focus is on a bit more distance and also trying a new Energy drink out so that is ordered and I am now in posession of a tub of white powder and two lovely BRIGHT orange bottles. All a bit late in the day to be changing my feeding. I have tried 3 over the years and never really had much of an issue with them, so am hoping that this one is no different. It is a new one that is being used by the channel swimmers with very good results. If it was not for the last minute, nothing would ever get done in my life.

I was hoping to do the Kingston to Hampton court swim on Sunday but it is only 2.25 miles. I real feel that I need to be doing much bigger distance so instead of parting with £38 for a 2,25 mile swim I would rather part with £5 to swim for 5 hours if I feel the desire. So this weekend I will hopefully be putting in a couple of 12 - 15 km swims and we will assess the damage at the end of it.

This weekend is probably my last real training weekend before my parents arrive for a holiday so, I will still swim, but, not the bigger distances as I will be travelling with them for a few days, and generally doing something that I hardly ever get to do, spoil my parents and have them look after me. Don't worry, it will only be for a couple of weeks of their life so I am sure they will not mind.

I would love for them to come over to Switzerland with me but it will be difficult for my Dad in his condition. It would be so nice for them to be on my boat for my swim - they managed to do the Channel on my hired boat so I think they could do it but my mother would be worrying herself sick for 8 - 10 hours and I really want them to have a holiday. Not Fret about their mad Son. They do enough of that already.

Well, roll on the weekend, Weather looks pretty rubbish but it will be warm, I just hope there is not too much thunder and lightning around. If there is, I hope Lightning is attracted to Neoprene rather than human skin. if that is the case i will be fine, just swim next to a triathlete or condom clad swimmer.

Till next week when i will update this blog, Have a great weekend and keep following your dreams.