A frustrating weekend with not as much training as I'd have liked to do.
Saturday...
drive down to Dover hoping for an easy swim as I'm driving to Weymouth in Dorset this afternoon for a race tomorrow. I'm really knackered this morning. Can barely chat to Frank in the car and am aware I could even nod off when driving. How can I swim when I'm so tired? It's grey when I leave London, and quite misty and doesn't get much better as I get closer to Dover. The forecast is for grey skies and a northerly wind. Frank and I arrive at Dover - Freda gives us 6 hours until Frank reminds her that we're racing tomorrow and then she knocks it back to 3 hours. Loads of people on the beach and swimming today. There's quite a buzz because the first people should start their real crossings any day now. It's really going to happen!
The tide is way out - I enter the water at 9.06am, and have to wade out for ages till the water even reaches my waist. I start swimming along and then see Frank to my right, grinning and appearing to do butterfly while looking at me. I double take. Then I realise that he's walking along the sea bed, just moving his arms pretending to do fly. It's hilarious and puts us both in a better mood.
Up and down, up and down. I seem to have problem with my goggles misting up, which is disorientating me. I can't sight properly. After an hour or so of taking them off, cleaning them, readjusting them, they suddenly clear and I realise it was a slight sea mist. Fool. Everyone is quite cold after the glorious weekend last weekend, and there are murmurs of sore shoulders and hands and physio. So far my arms have held up. Make a mental note to see my physio next week.
I'm going through the motions of swimming though today. Tired and sluggish, just want to get it done. Frank and I feed at 2hrs 15 and then swim another circuit of the harbour and get out at 3 hrs 25.
I chat to Freda while getting changed on the beach. She tells me not to completely fix it in my head that I'll be going on the 26 Aug to 4 Sept tide. She says she could bring me forward if there is a slot and if the weather is good. It really cheers me up and refocuses me on what I have to do. I've been training hard, but I must train harder, longer.
Sunday...
Frank and I have travelled all the way to Weymouth to do two open water swim races - a 6k swim and a 3k swim in the sea. Freda warns me as I leave the beach at Dover that the problem with doing these races is that they can get cancelled. I wake up on Sunday morning at the B&B and look out the window - it's glorious sunshine but very windy. Bugger. We arrive at the start of the race. A bad sign - there are no marker buoys in the water, and the race is due to start soon. The swimmers standing around muttering, registering half heartedly. The races are cancelled - all of them. Some of the safety canoeists won't go out in the conditions. It is pretty rough but looks swimmable. Many swimmers decide that they going to have a swim anyway. We all hop in.
Frank and I decide to swim for an hour or so. We swim along the beach into the main tourist beach and back again, dodging body surfers who are delighted with the wind. I'm not in the mood for serious training now. I decide to just enjoy it. The sea is clean, much clearer and sweeter than Dover and very green. It's beautiful. Because it's so windy today there are all sorts of bits of seaweed swirling around in the water. It's like swimming through a garden. It's lovely to recapture swimming for the pleasure of it, rather than swimming with a goal or target in mind. The waves are powerful and toss me around. One breaker almost rips out my earplug and I almost lose my swimming cap and goggles too. We body surf. Frank makes long hair out of seaweed and poses in the shallows. I feel like a kid at the seaside.
I try to convince myself that it's good to have a rest day and it's good to have a day when I really enjoy the swim just for the sake of it. But there isn't that much time for all that. We're off to swim in Torbay next weekend - another race. In the back of my mind I'm hoping that that isn't cancelled as well.
Saturday, 3hrs30, 58F
Sunday, 1 hr, 58F/59F