Day 238 - Tuesday 26th April 2011

What a beautiful Easter weekend it has been; a magnificent 4 days off work and the sun was as bright as it could possibly have been. The whole weekend was a joy; with visits to Groombridge Park (what a fab place), BBQ’s at home and kids just outside from dawn till dusk – simply brilliant.

As I never swam on Good Friday I hit the beach on Saturday instead. Sharon and the kids came along to sit on the beach whilst I did a 25 minute leisurely swim around the pier. The water temperature was as high as 11.5 degrees around the pier and it averaged 11.2 degrees for the whole swim. I simply had forgotten how warm that feels on the skin. That was all the exercise for the week as I had really done a lot already by then.

Yesterday, being bank holiday Monday, was another family day so I didn’t put any exercise in the diary. I had another amazing family day, including a fab BBQ at home for the family (and some extras – always plenty of food at a Starr BBQ). I did however grab a 45 minute run in the gym at home plus 10 minutes on my Swim machine, so not a total exercise free day.

Today, being Tuesday and a day back at work, started with a sea swim. Unfortunately it was a 6.20am swim as I had a presentation to do at 7.45am to 50 businesses in Brighton, so I had to be done early. The sea was back down to 9.2 degrees, but it was fairly calm and a gentlish tide to the west. I swam on my own as no-one there at that time, so I avoided going into deep water as it’s not a sensible thing to do on your own in all honesty (even though I’ve done it lots of times already of course!) So I headed into the tide and swam towards towards the West Pier, stopping just passed the Brighton Centre and then turning and heading into the tide back to the pier, through and under the pier and around back to my beach. Total swim circa 40 minutes.

After my last work meeting at 4.30pm I headed to Falmer and Ross really put me through my paces in the gym. As it’s getting close to my swim date now he is concentrating on exercises that will strengthen my core as well as building up strength in my shoulders; boy did he work me today!

Tomorrow I’ll have to have another early morning swim as I am then heading off to London, as unfortunately, today my Mum’s Uncle passed away, a fantastic chap who I loved dearly, and tomorrow afternoon is the funeral. Uncle Lew truly was a remarkable man and even though he reached the grand age of 96 it is still too soon for the world to lose such a wonderful positive man. On the plus side it means he can be with Dad and share a large scotch and listen to some fantastic jazz – gonna miss you mate xxx