Day 137 – 25th November 2010

Air temp - 1 degree and light snow forecast! Sea temp- dam cold!

I didn’t sea swim yesterday as I had a London meeting at 8am, so I had to leave Brighton at 6.30am. Big meeting about the growth of Seico Group, I talked for 4 hours nonstop, more tiring than swimming! did manage a 90minute pool swim and a 40 minute gym sessions after work though, so I still got some exercise endorphins in to keep that guilt at bay.

This morning the sea was extremely calm and a low tide, which of course meant a cold walk until it was deep enough to swim, and boy could I feel the cold in my feel and my face, really painful by the end of the swim. My body seems to be fine, it basically my feet when I come out and my face when I go in; I’ll try to find a better swimming hat I think and maybe some swimming socks. Bob, Paul Smith (Swim UK Ltd) and I did an around the pier swim, which in terms of calm water was easier than an easy thing, however, in terms of cold it was a challenge. It took Bob and I about 22 minutes to get back; Paul, I think was a few minutes afterwards, but he was very weighed down by swimming socks and gloves. He said afterwards, which is a very good point, that the gloves & hats certainly provide the warmth, but if they slow you down it means you are in the sea longer and therefore get colder; interesting point in terms of using them or not.

By the time we got back to the Arches my feet and hands really hurt quite a lot and it took a hot shower to get them back to acceptable levels again; my feet in fact were still hurting for a good hour after I got back to the office. After we were all dressed we decided to guess the sea temperature; Paul said under 9 degrees, I think Bob guessed somewhere under 10 degrees and I specifically said 9.2 degrees. Seconds later Fiona came in from her swim, having not heard us talking about temperature, and proudly announced that her watch said the temperature in the sea today was ..........Take a guess .........





9.2 degrees!