Bad day at the office

Saturday

In 13 years of training, I can’t recall ever getting out early…ever! Until today that is…when I was back home in the green before my time was officially up in the blue.

I was very proud of that record…but today it wasn’t going to happen. Today I was planning to do 7 hours or 6 at a minimum if the wind came up as expected. I had a new strategy with a fully loaded waterproof MP3 player that meant the first 2 hours went by easily as I listened to a couple of radio plays and some randomly selected music.

But the wind was getting up again in Hythe and I was doing more rolling than swimming. In hour #3, I headed down the coast with the tide…in 15 minutes, I was beyond the groyne, beyond the hotel, beyond even the steps…so I headed on for another 5 minutes to the next set of steps. Surely 40 minutes should be enough time to get back for the feed? It had always been in the past…

1 hour 40 minutes later I finally made it back for the hour #4 feed! I had completely missed a feed (another first!) and the feed of banana didn’t really “float my boat”. But I headed out for hour #5 determined to finish the 6 hours despite the rolling waves.

The tide was still flowing ridiculously fast…15 minutes and I was down to the groyne ahead of the hotel. I nearly flew by it the tide was flowing so fast and struggled just to stay up with it. 45 minute of crawling inch by inch along the shore and I was finally back. I wasn’t swimming so much as rolling and sunbathing…great for the tan; useless for my stroke efficiency.

I was done. This was pointless…and I didn’t care what the beach crew said: I was getting out and not coming back tomorrow.

As I dressed, Annette reminded me of when in past years I used to ask Freda for more each session…that was another lifetime ago. Clearly.

Sunday

After doing chores on Saturday afternoon like mowing the lawn, some balance returned and I decided to go down on Sunday. But I couldn’t face swimming from 9am until 3pm, not least because the best of the day was predicted to be between 7-9am (sun and limited wind). So instead I decided to “punish” myself for getting out by going down at 6am to start at 7am!

5:30am start and I was on the road just after 6am; parked by 7:10am; and changed on the beach by 7:15. All valuables were left in the car after the thefts the previous week – and the car key buried. The rest of my kit was sealed in the waterproof bag and left lonely on the shore.

Applying suntan lotion to my back and grease to the usual friction points was an experience and I missed the help of the Beach Crew. But by 7:24, I was entering Dover harbour…the tide completely out and the waters relatively still. I had also hidden a Bounce protein ball down my “budgie-smugglers” sealed in a waterproof bag and secured by the Speedo cord. It had to survive until 9am for the “2 hour” feed (although since I was late it was only 1 hour 36 minutes!) without getting salt water in otherwise it was going to be foul.

The first two hours were a breeze. Sun on my back. Able to swim again properly and work on my stroke without the waves. I pounded at speed around the harbour and soon was having my first feed watching the swimmers prepare to enter the water. Another hour and I sneaked in for a (specially arranged – thank you Beach Crew) 10am feed as my “3 hour” feed. By 11am when everyone else came into feed, I was at “4 hours” (strictly it was 3:36 but I was motivating myself by lying to myself!).

And so it continued until 1pm when I had my “6 hour” feed and only needed to finish 24 minutes “extra” to be done. By then the clouds were covering the sun and the wind was well and truly blowing, so I was glad to do a big circle at the west end of the harbour (where it was least lumpy) and exit. 6 hours done.

I probably should have done longer. But after Saturday it felt good to set a target again and complete it. No wimping out. And all the psychological trickery – starting early; feeding on the “hour” and keeping back the 24 minutes for the end – had helped me complete it.

Not quite back on plan…but certainly less far behind than I was on Saturday! And with an every swim a more ridiculous suntan: