ZimHippo again
Hi all. Just got back from a fairly tiring weekend in Dover, had two good swims which I managed to finish. Yesterday It was suggested that I went out and did a 5 hour swim so we waded into the Ocean and there was a seal that was mooching about in the harbour, I think it looked at us lot and thought I am getting out of here so it left us to our swims. The weather was fairly good with the wind and the waves being manageable.
I stepped out after 5 hours with my mouth tasting foul, my shoulders feeling like they were on fire and thought there is no way I am doing this tomorrow again.
Anyway after a good nap and then a lovely walk along the white cliffs of dover where you have a great chance to see the Cap Gris Nez (that is the point of France where I will be aiming to set foot after my swim). It looks deceptively close on a clear day but rumour has it that it is about 15 hours of swimming. I then went for a drive and another walk in the country with My ever suffering wife Rachelle, we headed into Dover for the Chinese all you can eat.
Well, you guessed it, Sunday I woke up and ended up at the beach again for another onslaught of swimming. Today i got off lightly as my task for the day was to swim 4 hours. Luckily, I got out just before there was a torrential downpour which I missed as I was stuffing my face at a resturant nearby.
Well, all in all a good weekend, This week back to the Swimming pool to do some set training, Will be there tomorrow with My masters class.
Instructions from the general
I'm the confused one scratching my chin
The Channel Swim "WHY?"
The 1st reason
Last year in September my brother must have been bored at work and got hold of me at the office and asked,
“Hey Graeme, how about doing something interesting next year?”
I said
“okay what is it”
Spencer
“How about we swim the channel!!”
Me
“Are you nuts, what drugs have you been on?”
That was the beginning of a conversation that was to change the way my summer for 2008 panned out, much to the disgust of a few friends and much to the detriment of my socialising but hey looking at the summer so far, I suppose it is not a bad thing.
After this conversation, I started to think about where I was in life and that I was a bit overweight: clinically obese according to my doctors. At that time I was training about 10 km a week and the nurse didn’t quite know how to break the news to me about the above fact.
I was also suffering from lower back trouble and it was really annoying me, thanks to the desk job!!!!!
I am the sort of person who cannot just go to the gym so I figured that if I wanted to tone up a bit and strengthen my body in general, this might be a good plan.
The 2nd reason
The other reason I am doing this is the fact that I will be able to raise some money for the desperate people of a country that has been torn apart by a dictator. With unemployment at about 90% and life expectancy in the mid-thirties, the country has gone from being one of the fastest growing economies in Africa in the 1990s, to having the highest inflation of any country in the world, currently sitting at 1 400 000%.
From breadbasket to basket case all in the space of 10 short years.
This country is
Even for the extremely wealthy, the everyday things like going to the shop to buy milk, bread, meat, eggs, butter, vegetables, fuel. Being able to have a romantic dinner with electric lights as opposed to candles, or just have electricity for more than about 2 hours a day is only a distant memory
Butterfly training
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