Day 220 - Wednesday 30th March 2011

This morning I awoke to see a rather dull sky, some spitting rain and what looked like a lot of fog covering the seafront. Luckily today was a planned pool swim, so whilst I would have preferred a warmer air temp it did not matter too much.

Last night I managed to get circa 3 hours sleep, which whilst for most people would be a bad thing, for me 3 hours is plenty enough; in fact I’ve never ever needed more than 3 or 4 hours a night. So a big thank you to my 3 children for only coming into us about 4 times last night!!

I was still a bit achy in the arms this morning as last night Ross put me through a 45 minute upper body workout followed by an hour speed swim in the inside pool, but I figured that this morning a good steady swim and some maxim gel should soon sort that out; if only I had remembered the maxim of course! I was at Falmer in the Outside pool by 7.30am and was swimming for about 30 minutes when it struck me that something was not quite right, something felt like it was missing. Carrying on swimming I thought this through and ticked off the following; Swimming hat firmly on head, goggles snuggly around eyes, swimming trunks (thank god) firmly in place. What could it be. So on I carried until I hit the hour and then pulled to the side for my first feed; water with maxim that I made up before leaving home this morning. Agghhh that what’s missing!! I’d made up 4 hours worth of feeds in the kitchen at home and that is where I left them, along with the peeled banana I was going to eat for breakfast in the car (bet that’s a nice shade of sad brown now). What to do at this point? I was ready for a 4 hour swim and had already completed the first hour, so I didn’t really want to get out, but on the other hand not having any feeds at all, especially no maxim, could cause me muscle damage and fatigue? Decision made, Fiona clearly not going to be happy with me on this, but on I swam. I figured I was here anyway so may as well go for it. So without any more stops at all, no need to stop as nothing to stop for, I swam for a further 4 hours. In total I exceeded my 4 hour plan and did a 5 hour swim, but with no stops at all and no feeds at all. As I would have expected I was not hungry, not fatigued and my muscles felt tired but fine. It is possible of course that later today/tonight I might feel the effects, but at the moment I’m totally fine. Of course it’s not clever, brave, sensible or any these things, but it is still satisfying to know I can do a 5 hour swim with nothing in me at all. Of course I will not plan to do this again, as I never planned it this way in the first place, but sill I did a 5 hour pool swim without stopping and unlike yesterday I never fell asleep once!!

Afterwards I hit the steam room for 30 minutes to warm up, and almost dozed off a couple of times whilst surrounded by 40 degree steam and dreams of lunch. Soon after, all showered and dry, I visited the Esporta cafe and had a very yummy chicken club sandwich & fries and a large cappuccino. Feeling full up, slightly tired but still pleased with my swim I headed to the office (where I am right now) to type up my blog and then make sense of the 137 emails waiting patiently in my inbox – looks like a long night of work now to make up from my morning swim!

Tomorrow it’ll be a gentle sea swim to shake of the aches and then Friday I’ll go back to the Pool for another long swim, this time with breakfast in belly and maxim at the side.