Hi all
It has been a while since I updated this blog but I felt the need to fill you in on how it is all going.
I label this blog "the joys of open water swimming in the channel" as recently I have come against a few hick ups. You may remember that after my two weekends of mammoth swims that there may be a chance for my swim to be brought forward to end of August, a full 4 weeks ahead of schedule. This might still happen as I am now on standby, that means, IF AND WHEN the weather in the Channel decides to play ball and my pilot manages a few other swimmers across then I will move up. Alas, the weather is not playing ball and this last tide, which we are currently in is a bit of a blow out and I believe that on one of the longest tides of the year, very few swimmers if any have got across due to uncertain weather. What! In this country, who would have believed it!!!
This now leaves me in a dilemma as to what to do, keep my training distances long as it could be a while before I swim or alternatively start winding them down as I really don't want to be swimming really long swims 2 or 3 days before I do my final swim across the channel. Decisions decisions. This is really playing havoc with my mental preparedness. The best I can hope for is that I am ready anyway no matter what.
Another inconvenience that I have come across is the dreaded tendonitis in both shoulders so I have had to curb my training anyway, I am still not taking any smarties (ibuprofen for the uninitiated) but fear that this may not last all that much longer, I was hoping to get through this without any sort of painkillers or anti-inflamatories.
I did a 4 hour swim in the harbour last weekend and I might as well just have jumped into my washing machine at home and swum as it was so rough, I don't know how there was any water left in the harbour, I thought I had swallowed it all or rather my mouth and stomach believed I had.
Well the training continues albeit slowly and not doing the long distances, I will try a long swim in the lakes this weekend as I find the cold water helps numb the pain in my shoulders, swimming in heated pools is a real pain and I get lethargic very quickly and my shoulders feel like they are on fire after relatively short distances.
Well stay well and look after yourselves.
Remember,
"A dream is all you need, your body and mind will work towards achieving it"
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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