chillin'

A relaxed swim this morning to stretch out. Just a mile. Had a chat with Carol about easy front crawl, Elizabeth about swimming in the Cam and John about Essex swims.

Felixstowe

Biked over to Felixstowe this morning to meet my mate Bryn, who was supporting a colleague of his do a two hour sea swim to qualify for the Channel Relay team. A nice surprise that Dan Martin turned up too. I met Dan last year in Sandycove; and he's still trying to get the sponsorship together to do his Global Triaithlon.

As to swimming...two hours in the sea. Going north was relatively easy as the waves were coming in behind us; going south was swimming into them and a metre or so of swell. Felt good, but worked those muscles.

About 6km.

Seahorse Swim

Spent a lovely couple of days with Kate on the Isle of Purbeck. Much time spent on Studland Beach

but we also had a walk down to Dancing Ledge

and had a little swim there

and on Sunday morning took part in the 3.8km Seahorse Challenge. Here's me discussing the swim with my friend, Sarah

orca

Not the wetsuit brand, but the style of swimming adopted by some old timers at Tooting Bec. At around 8.30, four swimmers got in and swam in a line for a kilometre or so. It would have been challenging if you'd have been coming the other way. It reminded me of a film I saw of Orcas lined up swimming towards their seal prey. Maybe these four were hunting down triathletes?

Had a nice chat with Pip, saw a group of wimmin practice a very bizarre synchronised swimming routine with Ingaland footballs, and swam three kilometres.

Lovely.

33 makes 3

Having failed (un)miserably to swim for an hour yesterday, I took a different tack today. Having not a lot to do ('cept buy paint, dig the garden, watch Italy lose) I took a flask of coffee and some reading to the pool thinking I'd do it bit by bit.

Resolved to start with two km - or 22 lengths of TBL. Took til about 16 before I felt I was in the swing of it. Stopped at 22 for a few minutes of stretching and then thought I might as well do 12 more, but leisurely. So, resisting the temptation to chase wetsuits, I took it easy. And reader...my time was almost the same. 38 minutes for the first two km and 19 for the third.

catch up

Three weeks of updates -

One week in Croatia with Swimtrek (see pics) - 25km over the week. A lovely combination of island crossings, down the coast swims and playful, leisurely swims in the morning, lunch and evening. If you swim and you also want a sun drenched, blissed out holiday - this is the one for you.

One week in Canada at a conference centre just inland from Georgian Bay (a massive offshoot of Lake Huron) - 4km in the hotel outdoor pool. Could have done more, but was working most days from 8am to 6pm; and then drinking with the burly fellas who made up most of the participants.

This week - back in the cool embrace of Tooting Bec lido. A mile on Monday and 2km today. I thought I'd do a two miler, but after 40 minutes I just couldn't be bothered. Nice to have the sun shine down and have a quick catch up with Elizabeth, Alex and Pip though.

I'm in the Seahorse Challenge on Sunday morning (3.8km round Studland Bay in Dorset) and am thinking it will be a leisurely swim.

Croatia Swimtrek

Click on the picture for more

Croatia here I come

Off to Croatia for a week with Swimtrek. I'm so looking forward to it.