As you might have noticed it has been a while since my last blog post; it has been a busy few weeks. I've been fighting off a shoulder injury and I thought that I might have to cancel some of my long swims this year. I'm happy to report that after several sessions having my bones aligned and muscles forcibly relaxed I'm getting back on track.
This weekend was my first big event of the year, the bridge to bridge. This is a 14km swim down the Thames from the bridge in Henley on Thames to Marlow. I swam some of it in a wetsuit last year as I was helping out providing safety cover but this year I left the wetsuit at home.
This weekend was my first big event of the year, the bridge to bridge. This is a 14km swim down the Thames from the bridge in Henley on Thames to Marlow. I swam some of it in a wetsuit last year as I was helping out providing safety cover but this year I left the wetsuit at home.
I wasn't intending to do this swim quickly as I have a few other big swims coming up next week and the week after but there were a lot of people at the start of my wave and as per usual I got carried away. It was rather busy and while I'd found myself a bit of space for the very start it didn't last long and I had to put on the odd spurt of speed so that I didn't get swum over or worse. By the time I got to the first food stop I realised I was swimming faster than normal and I'd settled into a nice rhythm so I just carried on.
I managed to convince my wife to come and be my official photographer and she got some great shots. I must admit I felt a bit guilty, making her walk so far, so slowly and not to mention the 4:30am start.
I managed to convince my wife to come and be my official photographer and she got some great shots. I must admit I felt a bit guilty, making her walk so far, so slowly and not to mention the 4:30am start.
I finished in a great time, much quicker than I was expecting and it turns out from the provisional results that I was the first male non wetsuit finisher and 3rd not wetsuit finisher overall.
On Saturday the 15th of August I'm attempting my longest swim so far, a solo end to end swim of Lake Windermere. 18km of freezing cold water, and it looks like it is probably going to rain as well. Aileen will be pleased as there is no cover for her on the boat...
If you want to follow my progress, I'll get her to update my twitter feed as we go along. I believe that the boat also has a live tracking website so you can see where I am as well. I'll post the link on here on the day. If all goes well and the weather is OK I should be starting at 6am.
If you want to follow my progress, I'll get her to update my twitter feed as we go along. I believe that the boat also has a live tracking website so you can see where I am as well. I'll post the link on here on the day. If all goes well and the weather is OK I should be starting at 6am.