Waterblog

I am slow. Really I am not a fast swimmer.  Having learned front crawl as a 60th birthday present to myself I can look  quite stylish but its not much faster than my breast stroke.   I was booked to do this swim in 2022 but woke up with a weird illness, completely knackered and there was just no way.   Chris Sifleet of Inchbaggers loch Lomond swims insisted  on carrying it forward. It was she who helped me get started with front crawl, do get a swim coach if you want to learn!  And I did that 3k in really quite a respectable time for me and had so much fun.  But...the 4k I want to do is an event swim. And I find that the longer the event, the faster the swimmers.   So good swimmy friends have advised and there is no time cut off so I am doing it. Only a month to train but not that long since the 3k.  Cos really, would like to do longer again... Now to think about how to carry water as I might need it given it will take me quite...

 Did you ever feel rubbish one day for no particular reason?  Everything got to you, there were problems everywhere, things were not working out? Then you went for a swim in a beautiful place - or anywhere outside, actually.  You spent an hour deciding whether to go.  You got in and 2 minutes later, felt wonderful.  All things back in perspective, happy as can be.  That of course is why we swim in cold water.  We speak of it resetting the brain.  It does.   If I am out of sorts I will spend a week swimming every day.  I just go, don't spend time deciding if I have time to go, am addicted to swimming or ought to be doing something else.  By the end of the week I feel amazing regardless of what else is going on in my life.  I am thinking well I have this. I can do this.   So here is a little known secret.  I don't like Christmas. I don't like New Year. And I really, really don't like the gap between the two wh...

 It has taken a while for me to post about the Loch Ken 4k.  There were 14 of us doing it.  The other 13 finished in under 2 hours. I took almost 3 hours.  I am not normally that slow, although I am slow.  Usually 1mph/1.6kph minimum and I had been doing 1.3mph before the event.   I had checked beforehand and been assured that being slow didn't matter. And usually I would not bother.  Most events have a larger and more diverse field.  I have entered others such as the Kessock Ferry,  the Great North and the Loch Ken 2k and been in the middle of the field, if thats the right word.   However, at the 2 hour mark I ran out of energy and did the rest on empty.  I had water and a snack with me but couldn't seem to stop and eat them because I was so far behind the others.  I did not enjoy the swim - but no way was I getting out without finishing it.  So I plodded on and well, I did it.    After a couple of day...