Woke up for training with a headache. Not the best start to the day. With a breakfast of soluble paracetomol inside me, I met Heath and Chris at the Marlow Club and trotted off to the river bank with a group of triathletes in tow. Maybe 7 of them, all wet-suited and ready to go. I’m sure I saw eye-liner on one of the ladies….that’s hopeful. I can’t imagine there’s likely to be much talent down the Thames at half-six on a Friday morning that’s on the lookout for a sporty lady, in a full wetsuit, with goggles on. Then again, it does leave a lot to the imagination, which might be what gets some swimmers through a long session.
What is the collective noun for a group of triathletes? Anyone?
As soon as I hit the water this morning I noticed 1) the water was clearer than at any time this week 2) the stream was stronger after all the rain from the last couple of days 3) the water was warmer, which blew me away to be honest and 4) my shoulders are seriously sore. On top of my dusty head, I’m now struggling with two sore shoulders. Took me 20-25 minutes at a speed which can only be described as “old-man-plod” before the aching started to dull. Note to self, need more painkillers.
The plod took us the normal route, upstream to Marlow weir before back down to the next island and boatsheds before turning back into the current for 400-500m at a harder pace to the jetty. The jetty which we now know actually moves away from you the closer you get to it. One of long distance swimming’s little tricks. All up it was an hour's swim today, which is the benchmark minimum. Tomorrow morning we're going to Liquid Leisure to do atleast 90 minutes.
Reality check continues, Chris has bought a thermometer from e-bay (I only say e-bay as a caveat to its technical specifications) which we’d dropped into the river when we left. Coming back to it an hour later, it’s reading 18 degrees. 18 DEGREES!!!???? That’s warm by anyone’s standards. I thought the river was a little warmer, but the channel’s supposed to be 14-15 degrees. This is not good news and we’re all a little concerned now.
Chris did swim to the middle of the stream with the thermo’ to see if it would drop but it stayed steady on 18. Does anyone have any large ice bricks like they do at Bondi Icebergs???
Even so, with a slight breeze in the air we’re all shivering slightly when we get back to the car-park. This is our major concern: the cold. We’re all comfortable with the swimming, even Heath, who now knows he can continue to breath only to the left because Andy King (our pilot – see http://www.louisejane.co.uk/channel_crossing.htm) wants all his swimmers on the starboard bow. But the cold and staying warm, that’s another issue.
I have copied across a lot of my thoughts that have been posted to my Facebook page here just to back up my history of the swim. They go back about a month or so but are pretty short and sweet.
Physically, I have found that in the last few days I have been very hungry. I hope this is on account of my training, but since Tuesday I have been constantly hungry. Now, I’m not saying it’s anything like being in the sudan where people are starving, but I’m always hungry. Must keep a check on my intake, both food and liquids from now on. Less coffee, more water.
Until tomorrow, happy trails.
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Morning Jez, Wow your Channel swim is so impressive; makes Kili look easy. Do they still use lard? I always think of the Victoria Wood sketch of the girl going to swim the Channel on her own with no support boat.. do you know the one I mean? I definitely couldn't jump into a weedy, murky English river at hideous O' clock every morning; good on yer!. Glad to hear you are keeping up the running too. I have to say I do love swiming down at Lyme but haven't done it for a couple of years now, but it does crank up the metabolism and psyche after; very restorative. Keep up the blog. LOL xxx
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