Day 324 - Tuesday 30th August 2011

Squash results from Friday – 2 games a piece (Jamie won first two 10/8 & 9/7 and I won last two 9/7 & 9/2). A great game, totally at the same level and massive exercise. Had to dive into the outside pool for a swim afterwards just to cool down and stop sweating.

This weekend signalled the last of the bank holiday weekends for the year, so summer (wot summer!) truly finished and autumn on its way. No exercise (other than chasing the kids) this weekend or yesterday as it was bank holiday and I am not so obsessed yet to give up a few days rest. This morning, after 3 days off, was once again not easy to get back into it. It seems that if I have more than a weekend off from swimming my mind and body simply want to stay in bed at 6am and not even contemplate anything as crazy as heading for the beach; full on winter will clearly be a challenge again. Despite the wanting "not to" I was up and out the house by 6.45am.

I was at the arch by around 7am and apart from two people it was deathly quiet. I guess a few more days of no school plus a long bank holiday has kept people away. The sea was very far out today; it looked as though the plug had been taken out. I was still only at my ankles by the end of the pier sign and only up to my shoulders near the first buoy. I swam once around the pier and then traced the buoys back, before getting back to the pier sign and walking back in. Apart from being so low, the sea was also very calm and almost opaque. The air temperature was only around 14 degrees, which pretty much reflected the cool and sometimes cold weekend. The sea temperature was down below 16! It hit 15.6 at one point and averaged 15.9 for the whole 30 minute swim. This is the first time it’s dipped below 16 degrees since it warmed up from the winter. Being less than 16 degrees is really silly for this time of year; the fact actually is that the sea has never really warmed up this year. Last year it hit the heady heights of almost 19 degrees at one point; this year it never got passed 17.5 and that was only a few days. It seems likely that the temperature will now start to decrease week by week and it won’t be long until I’ll be wrapped up in hat, gloves and scarf shaking like a blender on full smoothy mode and wondering what the hell I’m doing it for.

As for the rest of today; I’m at the gym after work at 5pm for an hour with Ross followed by a game of squash at 6pm for 40 minutes. At least both of these will warm me up.