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."

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.