I've been struggling to pin down a topic for this blog post, so I've decided that this will be three small updates rather than one big topic.
My swim training over the winter has been mostly very cold outdoor swimming (I've now swum in 2.7 degrees C without a wetsuit) and pool work in the morning before work. I was under the impression that this was enough however it turns out I was wrong. I did a 7km swim on Friday and ran out of energy, some of this was due to not eating before hand (or during) and some was due to lack of training. So the next few weeks will be a little bit more intense with lots more exercise to get me to a good starting point for the year.
My swim training over the winter has been mostly very cold outdoor swimming (I've now swum in 2.7 degrees C without a wetsuit) and pool work in the morning before work. I was under the impression that this was enough however it turns out I was wrong. I did a 7km swim on Friday and ran out of energy, some of this was due to not eating before hand (or during) and some was due to lack of training. So the next few weeks will be a little bit more intense with lots more exercise to get me to a good starting point for the year.
Last weekend was the cold water championships at Tooting Bec Lido, lots of people went from @openwaterclubs and a great time was had by all. There were enough people to field 4 relay teams, so that tells you how popular the event is. There were some fantastic hats in the heads up breaststroke race, have a look at the bbc news story if you are interested in finding out a bit more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-30989780
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-30989780
The "events calendar" is filling up quickly for this year, this year I'll be swimming round Burgh Island again with a friend from work. Last year when we did this swim the weather was so bad the organisers were on the verge of cancelling it. Hopefully this year it will be a nice calm sunny day... I've also just signed up for 10km Jubilee Swim in the Thames in June, near Eton. I can't wait, it should be an exciting year!
Hopefully the next blog post will be a little bit more entertaining...
Hopefully the next blog post will be a little bit more entertaining...