This weekend was the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation's annual dinner. 180 solo and relay Channel swimmers - young and old, Channel pilots, Dover landladies, support crews, trainers, and Channel hopefuls mingle with the mayor and mayoress of Dover, coastguard representatives and members of the press celebrating the end of the 2005 season and the start of the 2006 one.
It's great to see old friends from the harbour from 2005, and to relax and unwind. Also to get geared up for the new season. Many swimmers from last year, who made it across successfully, wistfully tell me that they kind of wish that they were in my position. I tell them that they only wish that because they aren't in my position. We swap stories of swimming, and of life outside Dover harbour and I like to learn of the plans of others who have completed their swims and are looking to pastures new, other places to swim. I'm constantly bemused by the people who tell me they've done no swimming since their crossing and intend never to swim again. For them the Channel is a once in a lifetime thing - a brief fling with the sea. A pragmatic relationship with swimming for the purposes of fulfilling an ambition to be part of the history of Channel swimming. For others, like me, and Anna, and Annette - the slower swimmers - we'll keep on and on and on swimming for the love of it. I hope to god that is the case anyway.
I'm really enjoying training in the pool at the moment in preparation for the summer season. Speed work in the pool is very important over the winter. It's good to have a really good base of fitness and speed before hitting the open water in the early summer.
I had some interesting flaws in the way I approach my training pointed out to me recently. This has had a result in focussing my training and making me work harder.
I've come to realise that one of the things I always say is that I'm an endurance athlete and that I 'don't do' sprinting. I use this to let myself off the hook when it comes to really working hard in the pool, I convince myself that I just can't sprint, and that there is therefore no point in really pushing it.
At the dinner on Saturday night Paddy, another 2005 Channel swimmer, pointed out to me that this was 'a cop out' and that I wouldn't have any truck with sprinters who said that they couldn't swim for more than a few metres because they weren't endurance athletes. He's right. I wouldn't. God dammit. Hoisted by my own petard.
I hope that this realisation and refoccusing has a tangible effect on my training. I am feeling strong and up for it. Enjoying pushing myself harder. Hope this continues into the open water. And I hope that I begin to feel more confident in my ability to push hard. That is the key I think.
Freda has told us that the first swim of the season in Dover is the weekend beginning 29 April. Only a few weeks to go now. It's all going to kick off pretty soon.