Day 147 – 15th December 2010

Having arrived at the Arches slightly earlier than the others I decided to go in straight away rather that have the old agonising anticipation waiting game; or AWG as I refer to it loudly when talking to myself between the car and Arches. I figure walking to the beach in the dark in the middle of winter allows me the eccentricity of talking to myself! The air temperature was around 1 degrees, the sea temperature (as told to me later on was around 4.5 degrees) and the sea was once again flat. I got changed, popped on my swimming socks and headed down to the sea; this time with swimming gloves also at the ready. I could see a lone swimmer already in there and assumed (correctly) this was Soweichi, as he is always in there before anyone. He was basically finishing his swim, just coming back from the silver ball, so I decided to follow his line out and then back; which I basically did as quickly as I could, just in time to follow him up the beach. The water, obviously, was extremely cold, and this was no relief to the aching in my legs that was a result of Ross (my new trainer) putting me through my paces last night at the gym plus an hour pool swim afterwards. By the time I came out of the sea, probably around 10 minutes after I got in, I was extremely cold, but not as cold as after my 13 minutes swims with Bob; those extra few minutes make a huge difference it seems. After my shower all my usual friends turned up ready for their swim and whilst it was a shame not to swim with them, I was very pleased to be drying out and warming up. Tomorrow I am aiming for a pool swim in the morning rather than the sea, however, dependent on how I feel in terms of aching from the gym, I may end up just doing a sea swim; we shall see!! As for the gym, my next session is Friday and I am sure Ross will be cranking it up again; which all in all is a good thing, even though my 41 year old bones may think otherwise!