Swimming update

I’ve managed to haul myself out of bed for the last two Tuesday mornings at 5:30am to go lake swimming. It’s clear that summer is over as the water was freezing cold. I was so grateful that I bought myself a new hat in London:

It’s lovely and cosy, but I’m not sure I like the crackling sound as the water touches the merino wool!

The pictures below make the lake seem picturesque, but these were taken after my last swim when the fog/mist had started to clear. There were lots of swans joining in with the lake swimming as well as a few Canada geese and huge amounts of natural debris. It’s quite unnerving to suddenly find a large leaf in front of your face!!!

I also came to the end of my planned swimming lessons… or so I thought. I was intending to join swimfit, but after discussing it with Chris, my swimming instructor, I’ve signed up for one more set of swimming lessons. We’ve spent a lot of time on butterfly recently, and I can now do vaguely recognisable tumble turns. I’ve still not learned how to dive in, so that’s another goal, and hopefully, I’ll continue to build on my front crawl.

I need to carefully decide what my long-term strategy will be. I’ve been dithering about joining a tri club, as it seems like an expensive option. There are quite a few choices, including:

• Southampton Tri Club
• Tri Team Wessex
• Southampton Uni Tri Club

I think I’m going to reassess where I am in October after I’ve done both of my triathlons.

My swimming goal for this year was to do an 800m swim, so I’ve smashed that goal. My goal for 2014 is to do a 1600m race. I’ve managed to swim that far in training, so I’ll have to find an event to do. Depending on the cost and my commitments, I might go for something like the Great London Swim, the Windsor swim or the Dorney Lake Women Only swim.

Does anyone have any UK-based recommendations (preferably in the South!)?

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