Training done…countdown begins

Saturday

Hythe was forecast to be well and truly blown out on top of a Spring tide, so The Boss sensibly relocated training to Dover starting at 2pm when piling stopped (or noon if it was too windy for piling).

Not an issue if you are only trying to do 3 hours! In fact, it meant a wonderful lie-in…the first time since the start of the year nearly.

At the start of the season, in the cold water, an hour seems horrendous. Then the “ask” rapidly builds to 3 hours and you can’t believe that 1 hour seemed challenging. Then it goes up again to 6 hours and 3 hours is only the “first half” of your swim. Then it moves up to 10 hours on Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday making you go totally insane with the boredom – but it gets done!

Then you drop back to 3 hours and it seems somehow wrong to only have 1 feed before getting out. The shoulders feel strong, revelling in the brevity of the swim. You pound around the harbour…and then suddenly you begin to crave a longer swim. Maybe that 10+10 has really addled your brain? But that’s where you want to be when you actually do swim…craving the challenge of walking down English beaches and up French ones (and then back!)

The 3 hours slipped by as Emma and I both swam together, bumping into swimmers all over the harbour who had later tides and were still doing long swims. We both felt a little guilty…but a little doggy paddle and some bobbing soon put pay to that! Anyway the Beach Crew theme was hardly the most serious…

Sunday

The wind was forecast to be strong again on Sunday but on arrival it was quite calm. With another 3 hours on the cards, I sneaked in a few minutes early so that I could get out early too. Emma joined again once the briefing was done and we circled the harbour in with periods of fast swimming and slow doggy paddle. Until we bumped into one of the newest channel swimmers, Katherine Chapman and chatted about her swim. We did one final circuit (including swimming, or more accurately scrapping, across the slopey groyne for old times sake) before returning “exhausted” to the Beach.

At home, the “Channel Swimmers Checklist” was back in use with Sarah in charge of “supply chain” purchasing all the treats and essentials like suntan lotion and the hallway was full of bags. Soon they will all be transferred to labelled crates in a truly OCD (but very efficient) fashion.

I also purchased my last Diet Pepsi…in 2014, I suffered from acute stomach cramps early on in my swim which I attributed to caffeine withdrawal from Diet Pepsi…so this time I am not taking any risks and going cold turkey well before the swim. Don’t speak to me tomorrow…or possibly the day afterwards. But I will be fine by Wednesday. Maybe!

In the meantime, I will renew my subscription to WindGuru and try to restrict looking at their wind forecasts to, perhaps, once per hour…not looking great but some hope early in my tide week on Monday/Tuesday…but then… (as at 08:00 on Monday 24th!)