Sea Swimming Blog #35
Day 74 Sea Swimming.
#35 of the blog.
Just like yesterday, 3 was the magic number today…
As part of our training for the English Channel crossing Rhiannon, Simon and myself met up at St Catherines breakwater at 9am… with strong westerly winds, it seemed like the best bet for us to get a decent swim in without battling against extremely rough seas that were likely to be found on the west of the island.
I arrived a bit early and took a few shots of the pier as it was illuminated by the sun which was peeking out of the few clouds that were in the sky - after so many grey days it was nice to feel its warmth and it made me even more keen for our swim.
As Rhiannon had missed out on the last session I hadn’t taken her team photo so that was first on the agenda… following which we all got ready to go in. I held back a bit in order to take a few images of Simon and Rhiannon as they headed down the slip and into a mild swell, then put the camera away and joined them.
We all swam out to the first large white buoy, stopping for a brief chat and all mentioning how nice the water was, fresh but as I said to the others, the perfect slap in the face and the best way to invigorate you in the morning.
We spotted another buoy then headed out towards it… it was nice to swim with other swimmers and though I was more concerned with practising an energy efficient technique that I'd read about in Adam Walker’s ‘Man vs Ocean’, there was also an element of wanting to beat/keep up with/not get left behind the others… there’s definitely some truth to the idea that training with others who are around your own ability lifts your own performance and I think this will prove valuable come the actual Channel swim.
One factor that I’d been aware of - but that was crystallised during this session - was my need for prescription goggles. My eyes are pretty bad (handy for a photographer!) and so I am pretty much swimming blind even when I lift my head out of the water to gauge my position. This was clear as I was zig-zagging from buoy to buoy. The prospect of experiencing this whilst on a night swim in the middle of the Channel doesn’t fill me with glee so I decided to contact my optician, Harry Fosters to see if they were able to get hold of any… I briefly explained the reason why I needed them and they said they’d check and get back to me.
A few minutes later and they returned my call and offered to give me a pair as a contribution towards the swim!
“The only thing worse than being blind
is having sight but no vision”
- Helen Keller