Day 312 - Thursday 11th August 2011

After 5 days off from any exercise it was quite daunting getting up at 6.15am and heading to the beach. It’s funny how with just a few days of no swimming your confidence can be knocked; especially in a sea like this morning. It wasn’t raining, however the sky was very dark (it did rain later quite a lot!) and the wind was blowing hard. I slept fitfully, not the kids fault for a change, and getting up at 6.15am was harder than it has been of late. I was at the Arch just after 6.30am and all alone, David and a few others turned up later as I was coming out of the sea. The waves were breaking not only at the shore, but also very far out; way passed the buoys in fact. Also the waves seemed to be very full of water and very strong. I was tempted to not go in, also tempted to wait for someone (probably should have done), but standing there for a couple of minutes I thought “what the hell” just go for it. I went in close by the groin as the tide was clearly shooting to the pier, so it was safer to get in as close to the far groin as possible. I swam out to the first buoy, which actually was quite tough in those conditions and then turned and headed back to shore. I couldn’t’ make it back to the groin as the tide and waves were too strong, so instead I landed about midway along the beach; just as the others were going in together by the groin; Little Bob , bless him, waited by the mid section of the beach to ensure I got in safely. In truth I was fine; it was rough out there, but totally manageable. The tough thing for me was that I had not swam for a few days and my confidence was low and I felt sluggish and slow. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll be back to full power and the sea will have calmed its temper a little.

I certainly now need to up my training again, as the last maybe 6 weeks all I’ve done is a morning swim and a couple of gyms a week. That might sound a lot, but compared to what I was doing it is pretty poor. I am currently feeling slightly overweight (which some would say is daft of course) and certainly not as fit as I was during the winter months. So tonight I will be planning out my new training regime for the rest of the year, which will include much more running (just got some fab new running shoes from Run in Blatchington Road – very exciting) and more core work as well as some 2 & 3 hour swims. Also I’ll be plotting out the Relay meets as I really want to bring my team together now as it’s officially just a year away and I want us to look and feel like a real team.

So today I shall be lazy of mind and sit at my desk and work all day then go home for a lazy night (once the kids are down); but tomorrow, here I come..................