The Theory of Relativity w/c 20/07

7 hours training on saturday and 3 hours on sunday - the taper has now seriously begun!

Weather much better this week and that made a huge difference as it enables you to relax and enjoy the swimming rather than being worried about being cold.

This was my third weekend of doing a 7 hour swim and perhaps unsurprisingly it gets slightly easier every time. During the hours of swimming I was thinking just how relative everything in life is. When we were swimming 2 hours a 3 hour swim was scary, when swimming 4 hours 5 seemed ridiculous; but when you have met / are familiar with these goals they become much less imposing. This is surely the same for most things - i.e. hours worked, acceptable pain threshold etc....

Its made me very interested in just how far you could push the body - if you did 15 hours every week could that become "normal"? Also is it your body adjusting that makes it easier or the fact that you know mentally that you can do it - i.e. no 'fear of the unknown' - I remember someone saying to me that the only people afraid of getting punched on the nose are people who have never been punched on the nose as they cant rationalise the pain - i.e. its never as bad you think it might be.....

Lots of swimmers now going out, including Pete and Kev from the Malta crew who are out at the moment - massive amounts of good luck to both!

Mind Games - w/c 13/07

I thought I was only going to have a 5 hour swim on Saturday, so was pretty surprised when the Channel General gave me 7 hours in choppy waters (what is going on with the wind this summer!?!)

We, the swimmers, never know what swim length we are going to be doing until 5 mins before the swim - this training technique is called Total Body Confusion and is designed to make you more mentally agile to deal with unexpected issues during sport. Although the theory sounds great its pretty demoralising when your standing on the beach with drizzling rain at 8.30am and your told you're going to be in the water until 4pm!

The swim however was okay. I swam the whole way with a partner, Rob - something I've not done before - and it helped make the time go quicker, probably speeded me up a bit and made me realise how important the support swimmer will be on the channel attempt.

Sunday was a bit more leisurely as just did 4 hours, however I actually found that pretty hard as with some of the shorter swims you sometimes don't give them the 'respect' they deserve and are always checking your watch.

However the Channel General said for me the long swims are now done - time to start tapering down (great news......) and start getting things together for the swim on the second week of August.

Split Swim - w/c 07/07

Did the big split swim this weekend.

Before swimming the channel you are meant to spend almost as long in the water over the course of the weekend as the channel swim will take (didn't quite manage this as think the swim will take 15hours+).

On saturday I did 7 hours getting in at 9am and out at 4pm. The weather was chilly, the sea was quite choppy and all in all it was pretty hard work, but got it done. On the sunday I did 6 hours which i was dreading as shoulder muscles were in all sorts of trouble, but the swim was surprisingly okay - I'd almost say enjoyable! It was much warmer and seem to go really quickly. Its amazing how when you are doing long swims you fall into some sort of 'zone' and the time just disappears.

No real interesting happenings this week, although more people have started to start their attempts and the atmosphere is a bit more excited around the beach.

Only 4 weeks to go now, before my turn which i can't wait for. My motivation that I keep thinking of at the moment is to walk into the water one end and walk out the other - that would be brilliant!

Back on Track... w/c 31/05

After the excesses of the past 2 weeks it was good to get back on track with a good weekend of swimming. The warm weather training in Portugal (as per picture) did not turn out quite as expected....

After an earache during the week (swimmers ear!?!) I did 6 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday down in Dover Harbour. It was pretty gusty both days as well which I would estimate makes it approx 30% harder and means and the end of the swim your arms are really tired.

The current was also so strong that it was taking me 20 mins to swim one way and 45 to swim the other - in fact got caught in a strong current for about 20 mins at one point without actually moving which was pretty demoralising!

The first channel swimmers of the year went off last week with the first successful attempt by a German guy in just over 17 hours. Things are starting to get interesting now as the business end of the swimming season rolls on - very exciting and very nerve wracking. Giving up a summer and not completing the challenge is not worth contemplating, but this weekend did highlight just how important in this task, opposed to other events, you are at the mercy of the elements.

Anyway one more weekend in the bag and back on the journey.....





Getting ready to go in on saturday with my sister, Katy