Sea Swimming Blog #44
Day 83 Sea Swimming.
#44 of the blog.
After yesterday’s fairly wild photography antics, today was quite a bit more subdued in that respect although the swimming was pretty full on and once again began with an early start at St Catherines, where members of the Swim Smart Channel team met up for another training session.
Phil, Nicky and myself were joined in the water by Emma who is taking part in the relay swim in 2022 - wearing an ironman hat, she clearly wasn’t here to muck around, and she was putting in the early prep that will no doubt prove beneficial when it comes to her swim in 18 months time.
After some brief introductions I stole a couple of snaps whilst Andy outlined the route he wanted the girls to take… I know she won’t thank me for it, but Nicky’s face was a picture (so I took a picture) when she mistakenly thought Andy wanted them to swim out to a buoy which was pretty much on the horizon… sorry Nicky, but it had to be snapped(!)
Reassured that this wasn’t the case, the girls headed down the slip with Andy before they set off on a triangular path - swimming from buoy to buoy to buoy - both maintaining a good solid pace - and I took a few more pics of them in action whilst I waited for Phil.
Once we were both ready to go, the time for photography was over, so I put the camera to the side and listened to Andy’s instructions, which were to follow the same triangular path, three times over.
I set off with Phil starting slightly behind me and surprisingly made what seemed to be a fairly straight path towards the first large buoy… the swims to the rest of the buoys were a little more wonky… it seems that I struggle to maintain a straight line without having a reference point in the open water… it’s a bit different to lane swimming where you’re constantly aware of the direction and angle you’re swimming at!
With the air temperature significantly lower than yesterday, it was a little less of a pleasant swim and I’d be lying if I said we couldn’t feel the cold… by the 3rd lap I could feel my mouth going a bit numb as I tried to speak with Phil at each check point and the shoulders were once again feeling a bit heavy as the energy was zapped from them. But this is just how it is.
That being said, we kept up a pretty good pace throughout and, upon reaching the penultimate buoy before the final stint of our 3 lap swim, the “it’s the final straight” mentality kicked in and without a word being said between us both Phil and myself went for a sprint finish back in (I know this to be true for both of us as I asked him afterwards - just to be sure that I wasn’t having an imaginary race in my own head!).
There wasn’t a lot in it, but Phil did get to the slip just before me, suddenly changing from a fast, powerful stroke into a cruising glide for what he hoped would appear like a comfortable finish (his words not mine!)… I’m sure we’ll have a few more of these and I hope I’m able to make them less and less comfortable as we go along with our training.
“That’s only 12 minutes” said a voice from the pier… it was Andy, nice and cosy in his warm team Swim Smart hoody.
Bullshit I thought(!)
“Can you get to that pink one and back again?”
Knowing that this is likely to be the kind of comment we’ll hear whenever we think we’ve come to the ‘end’ of each training session, I didn’t even question it, sinking down in the water as I curled my legs into my body, before extending and pushing off the slip and back out for what I hoped was genuinely a final bit of mileage to the pink buoy and back.
Swim complete, Phil checked his watch and confirmed that we’d managed 20 minutes in the water and swum a total distance of 3/4 of a kilometre - with today’s sea temperature approximately 9 degrees Celsius (and water conducting heat away from the body 25x faster than air) - I’d say that’s not a bad start for a Sunday morning!
“Practise things until you can’t get them wrong… not until you get them right.
There’s a big difference”
- Lewis Pugh