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!

Cold is not that bad!

This week I had a rewarding 3 hour swim in the Peterborough Lido. This is one of my favourite pools as it is a 50.25m, cold, 1930's old fashioned decent swimming pool. I have used this in my build ups for several years and wonder each year if it will carry on operating as often there are very few people swimming. This week I swam for an hour with the early morning regulars, but then had the whole pool to myself for 2 hours. 4 lifeguards had to be on duty just for me.
Had my best swimgym swim this week, 30 minutes with the jets pretty much on full, doing 2000 strokes. This is a great place for developing fitness levels. Check it out.

www.swimgym-harborough.com/

One week left at school. Yahoo. Big swims to come!

Rock on

Opportunityisnowhere

Interesting dear reader. How do you read the title? Opportunity is nowhere, or Opportunity is now here. Admit it, you read the former, it's your brain you see. Well, this week I have been speaking to people who book swims. I am looking at 2014 with the opportunity to do Ireland to Scotland and/or Spain to Morocco . I want to do both but I really fancy adding Europe to Africa to my Europe to Asia. You see, opportunity is now here and I am going for it.
Another good week in the pool, lots of speed work,  2 x 3200m sessions with 3 x 5000m sessions. Feel really strong at the moment. I am ready for my first channel crossing from Jersey and I am looking forward to Chesapeake Bay. I am off to Peterborough Lido next week, cold, cold, cold.
A message for the leavers.
Well done ya'all. whatever happens in life, never forget this.
Meat should be thick, music should be loud!

15th Channel Crossing!

There are websites that you can use that plot your progress across the channel based on the training swims you do. Well dear reader, as I am about to notch up 500,000 meters for the year, I am just about to start my 15th channel crossing. It has only taken me 152 hours so far. By the end of this week I will be starting the 16th crossing. Easy peasy.
Another good week training as I am now swimming up to 3.20k per hour as I start to work up to August. I will be swimming across Chesapeake Bay in the US at the beginning of August, jellyfish permitting, then the Jersey/France crossing. It is all getting very real now with only 3 weeks left at school. Happy days!
Rock on.

Cold Water. She No Go Bro!

Picture my week. Drove through teeming rain for 6 hours to get to Cornwall to get in some cold water sessions. Got to said Duchy to be faced with gale force winds, mountainous seas, 10C water, 12C air and fishing boats sinking. Unseasonal storms they called them! Not even a hardy soul like me could swim in those seas, it was too dangerous. So dear reader, I thought I could swim in the Lido in Plymouth. Sadly no. Not open yet. Well it is only June after all. There was nothing else for it but to head to the indoor pool at Saltash. One of my favourite pools as it is a great pool to swim in. Had 2 great sessions. Great to see Vicci and Roger. We said that we would come back in the summer.
Remember
Meat should be thick, music should be loud.

4 Hour Sponsored Swim

On Saturday my school had a sponsored swimming event to raise money for our charity of the year, Mountain Rescue. I was amazed with the commitment of the children as over half of them swam over 100 lengths their hour long slots. I swam for the whole 4 hours and covered 12,000 metres. This was pretty mind blowing as the school pool is only15 metres long. That means 800 lengths and turns in 4 hours. Now I know how gold fish feel in small bowls. Yes I know they are all called Bob.
I felt fine afterwards and celebrated with a huge apple turnover that Lizzie had bought for me.
This has been a good week which included another 2 hour swim on Thursday followed by a session in the swimgym. I feel great and am very pleased with my training so far. Next week I will get into the cold water and do some serious open water sessions. Interesting to see how it feels as I am 10k lighter than I was this time last year.
I will update charity news regarding my summer swim soon. Waiting for a few details.
Keep on rocking in the free world.