Day 212 - Friday 18th March 2011

After yesterdays mammoth Steam Room session I eventually cooled down, probably 2 stone lighter!! I was planning on going back to the Pool again this morning, but Bob and I got our messages all mixed up and he thought we were at the beach then the pool, I thought we were at the pool then the beach and poor Shoichi (who was going to join us) had no idea at all where on earth we were meant to be!!

So eventually after much texting and nonsense we ended up at 6.50am at the Arch with a simple sea swim; which to be honest was much better as I have done 3 pool swims this week already. The air was damp as it was lightly spitting, but the air temp was up to around 8 degrees; the sea of course was still a charming 5.4 degrees. Having dashed about this morning I managed to leave my trusted and now valuable swimming socks at home, so once again I was bare foot (which Bob is every day of course as he is tougher that me!!). As it turned out being bare footed was nice as you do feel so much free-er even though colder. The sea itself was very calm on the surface, not a ripple in sight, but there was still a tide pull to the West, although not as fierce as earlier in the week. After my cramp yesterday I didn’t fancy a big swim out, so instead we went just out as far as the cafe building along the pier, then through it and back around and then onto the donut at the groin and then back again. I am clearly getting stronger now as I found the swimming fairly easy which meant I was able to work harder and keep the speed up the whole time, which meant that instead of being the one at the back, we were actually in a direct line to each other – synchronised swimming but without the costumes!

The rest of today is taken up with meetings (nothing new there) and then tonight straight home. Tomorrow I’ll grab some gym time at home and then Sunday I have a midday 1 ½ hour with Ross at Falmer.

Next week will be slightly different as I am in Gibraltar on work Monday & Tuesday therefore no sea swims; although if at all possible I’ll try to get to the beach in Spain, just not sure if the diary will allow. Either way it does mean that I’ll be having to cram the whole week into the last few days.

Emotionally it’s been a hard week with swimming as I really haven’t at any time felt like I wanted to swim either in the pool or the sea, but I guess that’s simply how it is, one week your hot to trot and another week your simply not. The secret is to make sure that however you feel you still do it and that you always do your best. Your best of course can change from moment to moment depending on how you are at that time, but your best is what you have to give.