Swimming day 387 - Wednesday 14th December 2011

The pains NOT gone, in fact I would say it’s worse today than yesterday.  They took some 50 biopsies from inside me, so no wonder it’s sore I guess.  The gym is certainly out of the question until next week and if I listened to the women in my life (wife, mother and sister) then so would the sea.  However I don’t listen (some say brave, some say foolish) so I was at the arch at 7am awaiting my swimming buddies for our morning dip.

Not many of us; Big Bob, Little Bob, Mike, Shoichi, Bella, Martina and Charlotte.  The sky was a very ominous colour, threatening not just rain but sinister things to boot.  The wind was not the 100mph of yesterday, but it was still enough to give the sea a hard time.  A relative low tide meant it was safe to go in, but it was more a play than a swim.  The temperature was a shocking 7 degrees and having been out of the sea for four days made it really uncomfortable when I got in; to the point where I almost came straight out.  But Big Bob and my crew went in so who I was to not join them.  From a “pain” point of view, the cold totally numbed my pains and in fact it wasn’t until about an hour afterwards that the pain returned; so once again the sea helped rather than hindered.  Now, being 4pm and after a long day in London, I am about to head home as I need to rest up; otherwise tomorrow will be a hard one for sure and I definitely want to have a swim and I have another long day in London as well. 

I’ve decided that with Christmas just around the corner I am going to cut down on the gym and avoid the pool until January and just stick with my fun in the sea until then.  Come January I’m going to get in the pool a lot and totally work on my speed and strength, but until then I’m going to just enjoy the sea. What I can’t work out is if it is normal or somewhat crazy to enjoy the sea in these temperatures; have I officially joined the crazies at Brighton Swimming Club as one of theirs or is this a temporary blip on my sanity chart?  

I guess once my channel swim is done next year I shall be able to answer that; until then insanity prevails.