JUST GIVING SITE FOR CLDF

As you aware, I am swimming the Jersey/France leg of my double Channel crossing for Children's Liver Disease Foundation. http://www.childliverdisease.org/

I can now announce that the justgiving site is now set up.



Please give generously for this worthy cause.

I have just had a great swim in the River Nene at Transor. Lizzie and I had a great afternoon in the sun. A great find!

Children's Liver Disease Foundation

I am pleased to announce that I will be swimming the first leg of my Channel challenge, Jersey/France, for Children's Liver Disease Foundation. http://www.childliverdisease.org/
This is a fantastic organisation that has the vision that childhood liver diseases will be understood, prevented and treated effectively.
Please take time to check out the website as it is a moving education for all. Regarding donations, I have sponsorship sheets so please contact me. There will be a just giving site. I will let you know about this. Please keep reading!

North Sea delights!

Lizzie and I went over to Aldeburgh today so I could put some time in the open water. For once, it was a perfect day, 26C with the water about 16C.
The North Sea is a hard place to swim. The water is very silty, you really can't see your hand in front of your face! Not only that, there was a strong wind today that produced a big, choppy swell, BUT the current was in the opposite direction so I swam with the waves but against the current and then I turned around with the current but into the choppy waves. A true workout!
A reasonable jelly fish hit list, stung on both arms and across my chest, all in the same location on the beach. You could hear the language in Northampton! Still 8k done, felt great. Ready for Jersey. Made full use of Aldeburgh cafes. A great place to spend the day. Back to the pool now for a few days, mainly the Lido at Peterborough.
Don't forget.
Rock is king.

PS. I have just spent the night scratching like a monkey at a flea circus! Revenge of the jelly fish, welts over both arms. The things we do!

Welcome to my world!

It amazes me to see the number of people from around the world reading my humble views. This week there have been hits from, the UK, USA, NZ, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Ireland, Germany and Russia. Amazing. I hope you like what you see and don't get too bored!
I have had a very hard training week as I have had 2 big speed sessions as well as 4 big mileage swims. In all, nearly 50k this week.  Feeling really fit although I want to go to sleep at 9 o'clock every night.
Lizzie and I are off to sample the North Sea for a day, so I will do do some long cold hours there. We are both looking forward to seeing Kate, Doug and Tabitha soon and staying on the boat in the warm sun.
Good news this week. I have discovered a NZ shop in the UK. This is particularly important as the old NZ shop closed this year. This morning a parcel of Kiwi goodies arrived. Hurrah! Peanut Slabs, Pineapple Chunks, Milk Shakes, Minties, Milk Bottles and Macadamia Nut Chockie. Don' worry dear readers, I won't eat all this at once, it will take at least 2 days!
Don't forget.
If God was a DJ, he'd rock!

Flat out again!

As I am now on holiday, you may be thinking that I am resting, as suggested in today's title. Well dear reader, the opposite is true as I have had 2 very hard speed sessions this week. Swimming, flat out, get it? The first one was spread over 6400m (4 miles in old money) with a fast 3200m in the middle. This all felt surprisingly good and smooth. The second day I covered 5300m, made up of shorter sprints over 100m and 50m with short gaps in between. This was hard yakka as my arms were still a bit blown out from the day before. Still, I got the job done and felt good afterwards. Back to Peterborough tomorrow for a long easy 10k.
I am now a month away from Jersey/France. It can't come quick enough as I am jumping out of my skin. The paper today says that the weather is on the improve as the jet stream is finally moving north. Hurrah! Open water swimming is at the mercy of the weather so here's hoping August will be better than July.
At the moment I am listening to Hawkwind's Hurry on Sundown. Check it out, awesome!
Don't forget to rock before you roll.

Breakfast of Champions!

Huge week so far, averaging over 6k per swim and working hard. I am swimming 3.2K per hour and will increase this in the coming weeks and push up the average swim to over 10ks.
I have been asked a lot about what I eat before and on my swims. If I swim early, I won't have anything, but I will drink SIS energy drink during the swim and have energy gels as well. Disaster today as I discovered that my favourite gel shop in Peterborough has gone. Internet, here I come.
 If I start later in the morning I will have porridge, beetroot juice and a banana if I am swimming long. I do feel better swimming light so I don't eat huge amounts. The fuelling is done the day before. A word of warning. If you drink beetroot juice for energy, DON'T wee in the pool as it comes out bright pink!
 On the long cold open water swims I will also have water based hot chocolate from a baby's feeding cup.
It is a scientific fact that when you swim long distance you get starving hungry when you have finished. Peterborough has a great bacon roll cafe which is a welcome sight after swimming for hours on end! Breakfast of champions.
Don't forget.
God made rock and roll for you.

The Big Week!

This is my mega week to put in the miles as I approach my August swims. This morning I swam for 3 hours at Peterborough Lido. I will do a 6 hour stint later in the week and get over to the beautiful North Sea soon. I know that I have said this before, but Peterborough is my favourite pool as it just feels so good swimming outside in the cold water and being able to swim 50 m. It is a shame that is an 80 mile round trip to swim, but it is the closest open air cold pool that I have access to. It was great for me as for a long time I had the pool to myself so I could swim around the walls without having to stop. The sky this morning had to be seen to be believed as I have never seen so black a sky. Amazingly, the heavens didn't open although it is a buzz swimming in the rain. Love it.
As the legend Alice said, School's out for summer, so 62 sleep ins before the next work day. What a great job.
Don't forget.
Keep rocking the casbah.

It's the final countdown!

Well, here we go. I can now say that my Channel swim from Jersey to France is next month. There have been all sorts of problems with these swims this year as the summer (ha, ha) has been terrible and the weather has prevented attempts thus far. Surely it has to improve for August!
I have a couple of big mileage weeks ahead before I taper down for Jersey. I feel that I am ready to go now but the extra weeks will round off things nicely. This morning I was the lightest weight that I have been for 10 years but I can't afford to shed any more weight as the cold water will hurt if I do.
Lizzie and I are looking forward to America and Chesapeake Bay swims in the sunshine. It will be good to get away from the rain and the gloom!
Don't forget the immortal words of Planet Rock.
Turn it up!