Day 345 - Tuesday 27th Septmeber 2011 (Dad's Birthday)

Today would have been my Dad’s 66^th birthday; 5 years on and I miss him more today than I think I have ever done.  Time heals apparently!  I don’t know who said that but they were wrong! What heals is a large glass of Jack Daniels with plenty of ice and remembering what a lucky lucky boy I am to have been born to Edward & Trish Starr; I was blessed the moment I was born - I even got a fantastic sister as well; being a Starr aint so bad!  Sure as hell miss him though.

I didn’t sea swim today.  Instead I had my first TI training – TI stands for “Total Immersion” and is an alternative swimming training.  I found this system whilst trawling the internet for some help on bettering my swimming in both technique and speed.  I am so very fed up with not getting faster and my technique not looking or feeling better that I need a radical change.  It seems that the more I swim and the harder I push myself through the water the only thing that changes is that I get more exhausted; my speed, whilst quicker than 18 months ago, is still only marginally quicker.  Something has to change and it seems to me that traditional swimming training of “working harder” and “pushing the muscle” is counter productive.  It seems to me that more efficient swimming and better slower more controlled strokes has to be better than brute force.  Looking at TI is seems that this is the way forward for me.

I met Toby, my TI instructor, at the Queens Hotel opposite the pier and we talked me through how TI works and what I can expect.  It seems that it will be a lot of mental preparation and me totally having to undo all the swimming skills (or lack of them) I have built up over the last 18 months.  Once again here I am realising that if I had not rushed head long into the traffic I could have done this first and been a decent swimmer by now!  As ever more lessons for me on being impetuous. The lesson was interesting as it was an hour in the pool and little swimming in the traditional sense.  It was all about how I lay in the water, my bodyline, my kick, my head position.  I will certainly stick at it and give it as much a go as I can. 

I have absolute believe that by my channel swim “I will” be a swimmer.