Swimming day 501 - Tuesday 19th June 2012

7.50am sitting in a Starbucks in the heart of the City of London in a suit sipping a tepid coffee is seriously not the way I like to start my days anymore. Not that I ever much like it, but since starting my sea swimming and since selling a big part of my business (and hitting my 40's) my need for starting and ending the day the way I want has become a necessity. Quality of life and an inner peace are vital nowadays and whilst I haven’t guite got there yet, my morning swims go a long way towards it.

The plan today (and the next two days in fact as I have early London starts Wednesday and Thursday as well) is to get back to Brighton by 5pm ish and get an afternoon end if day swim instead.  Also I'm really now getting into using my VASA swim trainer every night for 15minutes - in fact did it yesterday at 10pm after I had finished my ironing !! It's a great machine and really starting to improve my swimming; why oh why didn’t I start using it properly when I brought it a year ago. Better late than never I guess.

On a positive note about today, I might be in London but the sun is shining, I have an hour between meetings and am outside The Globe by the Millennium bridge sitting on a bench soaking up the rays and the atmosphere; see even a working day in London can be a positive experience if you look beyond the surface.   

4.00pm – Back in Brighton, extremely hot from a very warm day.  Straight to the arch and within minutes was walking down a fairly crowded beach in my speedos and swim cap getting a few odd looks – which is exactly why I like my private early morning swims from an empty beach!  The sea was completely flat and still and the sun was beating down; Mediterranean afternoon if ever there was one.  The afternoon sea temperature was naturally warmer than the morning would have been; probably about 14 degrees; still a chill, but very warm patches around.  I did twice around the pier  in a decent regular pace and enjoyed every stroke of it.  Walking back up the beach, cap & goggles in hand trying to look a little more normal, I was called over to the lifeguard tent.  Wondering what on earth I might have done wrong, it was a nice surprise to see Alex sitting there (Alex from my relay team and BSC member).  In all his life guard refinery he looked every bit the Baywatch boy! 

A lovely end to an OK day.

Tomorrow is another day when I have a very early start (up at 5am), so no chance to get a morning swim; such a shame.  So will try again to head to the beach after meetings and then onto the VASA in the evening.