Giles's Swim for Charity
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Feckin Damn…...
Dear swimmers,
Please see below for an update from Anna Wardley:
This morning's weather forecast is in, and I'm sorry to report things haven't improved. Rather than improve as we'd hoped, the forecast for Sunday has deteriorated. Our meteorologist Simon Rowell advises that the low pressure system that he has been keeping a close eye on is now heading south bringing with it stronger winds. "That low is looking to press down to far south, and I reckon you'll get 15-20 knots (17-23 mph) gusting about 5-7 knots (6-8 mph) more during your Sunday morning window," he said this morning.
Unfortunately this is well above the threshold within which we could safely operate the swim, and an average wave height of 1.2 metres is predicted. My team were as keen as you for the swim to go ahead this weekend, but our primary concern is your safety so we have made the decision to postpone to the contingency date in October. The acclimatisation swim will take place on the afternoon of Saturday 4 October, and the swim itself is now scheduled for Sunday 5 October. We'll circulate timings for both days over the next couple of weeks, as they will be slightly different due to the different tide times. We received your feedback that you would like to do the acclimatisation swim a little bit earlier in the afternoon, so we will try to factor this in. One of the reasons it is planned for later in the day is for support crew who are travelling from far and wide time to get down to the coast but I'm sure we can look to move it forward an hour or two.
I know you will all be psyched up to swim this weekend, but you know that there is nothing you can do about the weather so it's time to write a new date in your diary for the swim and think about how you are going to maintain you fitness and focus between now the start of October. My advice would be to do a fairly long swim this weekend, either somewhere safe and sheltered whether that is in an inland body of water or even a pool, and then have a week off and then get back into a training routine with longer swims at the weekend. Set yourself some new training goals whether it is increasing your pace, or swimming for longer periods without a wetsuit. Try to see the postponement as a positive thing – as it gives you a chance to get faster, get over any niggling injuries and to raise some more sponsorship.
We'll continue to give you training advice and support over the next weeks leading up to the swim, and we'll keep everything crossed for good conditions for our contingency date.
Finally, if anyone is still coming to Gosport this weekend we're going to head to Hardy's at Haslar for a drink on Saturday afternoon. It's all very informal so please feel free to join us from 6pm. It's at Haslar Marina and the address is Haslar Road, Gosport, PO12 1NU.
Best wishes,
Anna & the Solent Swim Challenge support team
We would just like to say a huge thank you to all of our swimmers, volunteers, supporters and crew who have dedicated so much time and effort into preparing for this challenge. We are now putting all of our efforts into planning our contingency date the 5th October 2014. We are overwhelmed at how understanding our swimmers have been and would like to thank you for all the hard work you have put in so far.Best wishes,
Clare
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Today, was the day I decided to get back in the water seriously, I've had some issues with my neck and have been reluctant to make matters worse. I chose a 6km A to B swim which I have done before, when I last did it, it took me just under 2 hours. At the 5km mark, 2.5 hours into the swim and having swum in the same spot for about 30 mins (because of the strong tidal current flowing towards me, I decided discretion was the better part of valour (& if I continued, I was going to be seriously late meeting some pals at the bar).
I'm disappointed not to have achieved my goal, but it was my longest (in time) swim to date and considering my lack of serious swimming recently, I was pleased with what I achieved. I'm still not the fastest swimmer in almost any group, but I'll work on my speed after the Solent swim.
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Dylan and I walked the same route along the beach and waited… and waited... we could see the group of swimmers in the distance and they didn't appear to be moving so we were confused. We didn't realise they'd hit a strong current and were trying to swim towards us without success. The plan was to visit a local bar after the swim, we were getting thirsty...
All's well that ends well of course (we got to the bar eventually!)
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This mornings swim. Tide assisted.
3.9 miles 90 minutes…..
@Madame Buttonfly walked the route "with" me
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Madame Buttonfly walked the route "with" me
I was there, ready to jump in at any point and save the day if he got into difficulties…
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Stay strong Nemo
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I'm not sure I could walk that far…
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I also can't figure out how that's only 500 calories burnt for 3:46 swim. I'd guess that should be well into the thousands, like 1200 or something? Have a few beers…
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@mclaincausey I'm totally with you. I can't understand that at all.
And, I do not use my legs, I can concentrate on 2 things at once. So breathing and arms are what get my focus, if I throw in an added complication like leg kicks, everything buggers up.
Trouble is, as my legs are inactive and compressed by the wetsuit, I lose a load of blood from my legs during a long swim. So if I don't kick like shit for the last 200 yards of swim, I can't walk anyway…..
I'm going to continue swimming "my way" until after the charity swim, then I'm going to get some help....
