Another weekend closer

Roughly two weeks to go now until our window for the channel. The British weather seems to be brightening up and it's been a lovely weekend, warming the water a little. If this holds up, it might be a good end to the summer and potentially a good crossing.

So, a good friday morning session then a longer swim at Liquid Leisure Saturday morning. I could only spend an hour and a half in the water but still managed 5.6km in 1hr 24mins, leaving the guys to crack on to 2hrs. I'm still thinking that the distance itself; each hour's stint; each hard push against the tide; is not the issue, it's going to be the cold. The cold, as it always seems to be in channel attempts.

I'm managing my shoulders a little every night now. Too much front-crawl strengthens the muscles on the front of your chest more than those on your back, making you unbalanced and pulling arms into an unnatural position. The ligaments don't stretch too much to accomodate, instead they just rub over bones and joints with a nagging, aggravating pain. It's happened to me before when me and the guys were training hard at North Sydney Pool for the ocean-swimming season. Two options, 1) more backstroke 2) a series of exercises. My physios would be rolling their eyes given my lax attitude to self-balancing. I promise i'll concentrate on backstroke when i'm back in the pool; i promise.

I think Lisa, my good Lady, is reaching the point where she's over the whiff of pond-weed and the swimming chat. Roll-on the long weekend in August, she says, after this date we go on vacation and the muddy waters of the Thames and algae-laden waters of Liquid Leisure will be replaced with the crystal clear, shimmering blue mediterranean waters of crete and santorini. Muddy apples and clean, waxed oranges indeed. My lovely Lady has been wonderful throughout this whole effort, kicking me to get organised, checking the kit lists to see if there's anything she can help with, accepting the potential for sea-sickness and being my support person on the boat, putting up with greenish swimmers and generally being brilliant. Thank you, my Lady!!!
Happy trails!