Day 259 - Tuesday 24th May 2011

Another bumpy ride this morning in the sea; it feels as if we are building up to a stormy one before it calms down again. Listen to me the expert after a year!

I arranged yesterday to do a 2 hour swim with Leo & Shoichi; neither of them usually do such long swims but they are both taking part in a 12k river swim at the weekend which should take about 3 hours and as such they need to get some mileage in. As usual I agreed to join them very quickly but then spent the night wishing I hadn’t. This is not a reflection on either of them as they are both terrific guys, it is a reflection on me once again doubting my abilities to keep up! As it happens I was pleased to swim with them as they are both great fun, good swimmers and it did mean I was having to push myself. Unusually I was the only one in a wetsuit, but I did this not for warmth, but for speed as it certainly increases my pace wearing it. This is borne out by the fact that we all swam in a line the whole way out and then on the way back I was already at the beach having taken off my wetsuit before Shoichi and then Leo surfaced; I think without the wetsuit I would have come in after them.

The original plan was to swim to the Marina and back, but it is such a soulless swim that I persuaded Leo (didn’t take much persuasion to be honest) to swim to the King Alfred Leisure Centre and back instead. We set off at about 7am and reached the West Pier after about 25 minutes. The swim was very hardy as it was a choppy sea, literally bashing you down every time you surfaced and around 30% of the swimming strokes were through waves rather than over them. The tide was going West but the wind pushing East, which gave it a washing machine effect but meant we were not against or with the tide either way. Having gone passed the West Pier a few hundred metres Leo started to get leg cramps and Shoichi started to really feel the cold (it was circa 13 degrees in the sea and cold in the air). They decided to turn back at this stage, which was sensible as it would have been dangerous for both of them to go on feeling as they did. As I was in a wetsuit I wasn’t cold and as I am used to longer swims I wasn’t stretched at all, however I thought it would be best to swim back with them as staying out in those conditions on my own, especially as deep as we were, wouldn’t be wise and also I wanted us all to swim back together.

For me this swim proved two things; firstly how much warmth a wetsuit provides as I was actually overheating slightly and also that whilst in usual times I would be the slowest of us, because I am used to doing hours in the pool and also to a great degree in the sea, I am well placed to just keep going where others start to struggle. I should also point out that last night Jesse was a right royal pain, having come into our bed 5 times during the night and eventually settling in with us at about 2am and then keeping me awake with his constant kicking and coughing. I would guess I had no more than maybe an hours sleep last night; therefore completing this swim in the speed I did does show my fitness levels increasing and that I am still able to do this without the need for sleep.

Tomorrow is my last Brighton swim for a couple of days as Sharon and I are heading to Italy for a few days, leaving the kiddies with my in-laws at my house. We desperately need some time together away from work and kids as the last year has been a rollercoaster. I will be taking my swimming and training stuff as I still expect to do both, but hopefully in warmer climates!