Day 297 - Wednesday 20th July 2011

Last night the weather held off so I did a 2 hr pool swim at Falmer after work. Even though it’s loads warmer than the sea it still felt cold, especially after 2 hours; probably not helped by the fact that as ever I feel exhausted after no sleep, a hard day at work, a morning swim and then an evening swim.

Back to today. Last night was another restless child night, Mia three times and Asher once; although Sharon did the bulk of it last night as whilst I was awake I couldn’t move much, just too tired; probably a total of 90 minutes sleep in all. Was at the beach by 6.50am, just in time to see Paul F de-heading some mackerel he’d caught, Damien off to work in his nicely pressed suit and Shoichi warming up in the shower; early boys!! Big Bob and I pretty much did the same swim as yesterday, except in reverse (I don’t mean swimming backwards of course). We did the buoys on our beach, then round the pier and onto the two buoys on the other beach and then back under the pier o our beach. Total swim just over a mile and total time just under 30 minutes; so a pretty speed powerful swim. I’m not completely sure how I do it sometimes with no sleep and feeling so tired, but there you have it. In fact coming out of the sea after the swim I was still yawning. The conditions were much the same as yesterday, very flat sea, very little movement and around 15.4 degrees. The sky however is pretty dull and the threat of a thunder storm is certainly there. Tonight after work at 6pm I’m in the gym with Ross training on legs and lower body as I’ve still got skinny little legs and I need to start bulking them a bit.

On the Relay front, I met with Shoichi yesterday and we talked about the swim in general and the training plans I want to set up. He is very much up for it and really excited about it, which is great. I also spoke with Alex and he also is definitely up for it. I’m meeting Lindy later this week and Paul F next week to talk through things, but I believe them both to be on board, so by next week the Starr team will be confirmed. If everyone is happy with the numbers then we may stick with 5 plus 2 back ups; 5 feels like a good number to me; 5 Starrs seems to be a constant in my life.