Despite being detached down to Lincolnshire, I managed to slot in a quick swim yesterday afternoon. Only 2km but every bit of training helps! I am trying to work on bilateral breathing as I know it will be important when the waves decide to start hitting me in the face on my breathing side! My £250 deposit cheque was popped in the post this morning to Eddie who will hopefully confirm my place over the next week. Hoping to get another training session in on Friday - it is hard once you get out of your own routine but I must keep putting the effort in! Spoke to John, a Sports Masseur at the tri club as I think it will be important for me to have maybe a monthly massage to keep everything loose but hopefully I won't be plagued by the same sort of impact problems I get when I'm running.
Right, back to work!
Thursday 31 January 2008
Donate here!!
My charity pages for Cancer Research UK and the RAF Benevolent fund have now been set up. I am campaigning to get everyone to sponsor me £1/mile - it's only £20 and will make such a huge difference! Please sponsor me!
Monday 28 January 2008
In the beginning.......
Hurray! After a week of documenting my progress in Word I can finally go live! And it is confirmed! Eddie has offered me No.1 spot for the 13th-18th August tides next year so I just need to get the cheque in the post and we are set. How exciting! I have also been offered a spot swimming with a relay team which I have gratefully accepted. I can't think of any better experience to prepare you for the challenge of going solo. Training however may be slack in the next few weeks as I am detached to Scampton/Waddington and it's hard to keep the routine going. It's been such a joy to join up with Alnwick Tri club and get back into it properly. Frances filmed my stroke in the first week and I can't wait to see what bad habits need sorting!
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Mental Training?
I am currently practising mental strength in my battle with online blogging. It is the most frustrating thing and thus I feel it must be good practice for the rigors of Channel swimming. As I have a military computer a lot of stuff is blocked and I am not sure the MOD wants various blog site ‘cookies’ attaching themselves to its system. Thus, for now at least, I am beaten and will stick to trusty Word. However, as part of my resilience training, I will be back!!
Had a response from Michael saying he and his son have two 4th spots available for the summer dates I am interested in and also that other pilots have higher positioned spots. I write back saying I don’t have much of a preference either way and to please just book me in for whichever he thinks best. I just want to have a spot confirmed either way – so that it finally seems real.
Had a response from Michael saying he and his son have two 4th spots available for the summer dates I am interested in and also that other pilots have higher positioned spots. I write back saying I don’t have much of a preference either way and to please just book me in for whichever he thinks best. I just want to have a spot confirmed either way – so that it finally seems real.
Monday 21 January 2008
Alnwick Tri Club Swimming
Tonight I received a message back from both Michael Oram and Alison Streeter, both saying there is some availability for next year. Looks like the Challenge may be on! Michael has asked which set of neap tides I was thinking of swimming on. Had to admit I had no idea what a neap tide was, let alone which one I needed to be swimming on to make this challenge a reality. Is being some kind of moon pull expert a pre-requisite of being a Channel swimmer??
At my aircrew medical today I got chatting to the Doctor who was interested in my fitness profile. On explaining my training he told me that there was another potential Channel swimmer at Alnwick tri club and I should hunt her down. At training tonight I got talking to Frances, who is planning a swim this year and have somehow agreed to train with her. From being a bit of a pipe dream three days ago this is somehow becoming real. I am starting to get the same feeling I first got when I entered the Ironman online. I was sure some unknown filter computer alien would spit out my credit card details with the harsh message, “You? I don’t think so. You are SO not ready!” But again, nothing appears to have happened. People don’t look at me like I’m a fraud (they look at me like I have a screw loose but that’s another story), they seem interested and excited and the excuses as to why I might not be able to do this Challenge (booked pilots, lack of ability etc.) seem to be diminishing by the hour. Frances was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and has left me feeling ridiculously buoyed up about the Challenge. This may be helped by the fact that training tonight was like a dream – another 2.6kms closer to that cold morning in Dover!
At my aircrew medical today I got chatting to the Doctor who was interested in my fitness profile. On explaining my training he told me that there was another potential Channel swimmer at Alnwick tri club and I should hunt her down. At training tonight I got talking to Frances, who is planning a swim this year and have somehow agreed to train with her. From being a bit of a pipe dream three days ago this is somehow becoming real. I am starting to get the same feeling I first got when I entered the Ironman online. I was sure some unknown filter computer alien would spit out my credit card details with the harsh message, “You? I don’t think so. You are SO not ready!” But again, nothing appears to have happened. People don’t look at me like I’m a fraud (they look at me like I have a screw loose but that’s another story), they seem interested and excited and the excuses as to why I might not be able to do this Challenge (booked pilots, lack of ability etc.) seem to be diminishing by the hour. Frances was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and has left me feeling ridiculously buoyed up about the Challenge. This may be helped by the fact that training tonight was like a dream – another 2.6kms closer to that cold morning in Dover!
Friday 18 January 2008
Blogging...
Two days ago I put out an email to all the boat pilots requesting availability for Summer 2009. I have yet to receive any response which makes me think my military account won’t accept outside emails. Plan for the weekend is to write again from my yahoo account. I feel it is early to be planning your pilotage but I am assured that, even at this early stage, I may be leaving it too late as, since Mr Walliams attempt, it has become de rigeur to the endurance mentalists!
I joined Alnwick Tri club on Monday and completed my first coached swim set for over 18months. It felt good to be getting back into it. This morning the club has an uncoached open swim at Willowburn and I got back into training with a 2k set – that’s 2k closer to my goal! Reading over people’s training diary’s I have been astonished at how long (sometimes months!) it can take for them to reach, in training, the distance they will have to swim in one go (38,000m or there about) – I gues I’m in for the long haul!
Will investigate today setting up a blog so I can chart this story online – probably outside my technical capability but is a job for the day!
Until tomorrow…….
I joined Alnwick Tri club on Monday and completed my first coached swim set for over 18months. It felt good to be getting back into it. This morning the club has an uncoached open swim at Willowburn and I got back into training with a 2k set – that’s 2k closer to my goal! Reading over people’s training diary’s I have been astonished at how long (sometimes months!) it can take for them to reach, in training, the distance they will have to swim in one go (38,000m or there about) – I gues I’m in for the long haul!
Will investigate today setting up a blog so I can chart this story online – probably outside my technical capability but is a job for the day!
Until tomorrow…….
Thursday 17 January 2008
Attempt on the Channel!
The background to this should probably explain that I have now wanted to swim the channel for nearly twenty years. This is not supreme lack of motivation on my part it’s just that for the last ten I figured I was probably too old and it was an ambition that should be put aside.
I’m 26.
After David Walliams’ successful attempt last year and after doing a bit of research which puts the average Channel swimmer’s ago a good decade ahead of mine I’ve decided to bite the bullet and finally put the challenge to bed. I haven’t done much proper swim training over the last few years, especially over the last year where officer training with the RAF pretty much took over everything, but in 2006 I completed Ironman Germany so I figure I must have some predisposition to endurance challenges! Having been built for comfort not for speed, challenges where just to finish is a huge achievement have always been my bag and adventure racing, ultra-marathons and long-distance tri are all part of my repertoire. However, realising that the Channel is pretty much the equivalent of a DECA-Ironman (on a good day!) puts the Challenge in its rightful place, at the top of the list!
Starting early January 2008 in a cold and wet Northumberland here is the diary of my attempt on the Channel which I have scheduled (hopefully) for Summer 2009.
I’m 26.
After David Walliams’ successful attempt last year and after doing a bit of research which puts the average Channel swimmer’s ago a good decade ahead of mine I’ve decided to bite the bullet and finally put the challenge to bed. I haven’t done much proper swim training over the last few years, especially over the last year where officer training with the RAF pretty much took over everything, but in 2006 I completed Ironman Germany so I figure I must have some predisposition to endurance challenges! Having been built for comfort not for speed, challenges where just to finish is a huge achievement have always been my bag and adventure racing, ultra-marathons and long-distance tri are all part of my repertoire. However, realising that the Channel is pretty much the equivalent of a DECA-Ironman (on a good day!) puts the Challenge in its rightful place, at the top of the list!
Starting early January 2008 in a cold and wet Northumberland here is the diary of my attempt on the Channel which I have scheduled (hopefully) for Summer 2009.
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