At the end of August, Karen and I headed off for 3 days camping, trekking and swimming across Crummock and Buttermere in the Lake District with Swimtrek. This was more for the benefit of getting used to the cold water (14 degrees), rather than distance training. The highlight of the weekend had to be when Karen decided to wear a wet suit after hypothermia almost settled in on the first day! About 400metres out, she realised she was extremely uncomfortable and needed to get it off quick. I had the opportunity to swim on this day, rather than be my usual ‘human kayak’, swimming beside her with all her little luxuries, so I had moved on ahead. Just as well I took a sneaky check on her because way, way back in the distance was this little hat bobbing around, not swimming. I quickly realised she was in trouble; so a quick dash back to the rescue and a quick unzip of the suit was called for. This wasn’t sufficient though. She was still uncomfortable and the panic attack kicked in! She couldn’t breath and needed to get it off. Our safety kayak whizzed over and insisted that she held onto the side, while I doggy kicked backwards as hard as I could whilst tugging at her wet suit. I almost disappeared under the kayak myself a couple of times. Any of you regular wetsuit users will know how difficult they are to remove, let alone trying to do it in a 14 degree lake!
Having already achieved a continuous 5.2mile (8.4k) swim in 3 hours at Dover harbour in September, things are looking good. The 5 mile stage was not scheduled to be attempted until October so Karen is doing real good. Freda Streeter (mother of Alison Streeter who has swam the English Channel 43 times!) has welcomed Karen to her channel group of swimmers that regularly meet at Dover on Saturday mornings and we have been enjoying their company for the last few weekends. So we are on the road to gaining open-water experience. And from my own point of view, I am loving it and wish I had started open-water swimmng earlier. I have just read Penny Lee Dean's Open Water Swimming. She is a holder of no fewer than 13 world open water records to her name, and certainly offers good advice. And also just read Gordon Lewis Pugh - Achieving the Impossible - Another good read all about, if you train your mind properly, you can achieve anything you want to. I often refer back to this book when I'm bobbing about in the open water and losing focus. It really does have a lasting impact on how you approach things when you mind is wandering.
No comments:
Post a Comment