Post Christmas Swim

So I was supposed to go for my first post Christmas swim yesterday but the wind & the rain had kept me up all night so when the alarm went off at 8am I just rolled over and went back to sleep - casual swim was only open until 9.30am so no opportunity to go later!

When the alarm went off this morning I was determined to get up and go and Hubby came with me! 

My Husband is one of those annoying people who can eat whatever they like and still have a 6 pack and tiny waste, he's naturally athletic and could quite easily run a half marathon with very minimal training (I know this because his friend was training for a marathon, Hubby went out on a training run with him having not done any 'phys', as he calls it, for a number of weeks & pretty much ran 12 miles!). As he is in the RAF everyone is of the misconception that he has a physical job or has compulsory fitness training - nope! He stands in front of a classroom teaching all day and the only compulsory fitness is his annual fitness test which consists of a few sit ups, push ups & the bleep test, so it is not the fact that he is in the RAF or has an active job, he's just one of those annoying people we all wish we could be like! 

Being overweight & generally quite unfit, I have never been better than my Husband at any kind of physical activity - we have tried squash together, running together & he just wipes the floor with me... Until today! After 6 lengths (150m) he was shattered, by this point I was already 2 lengths ahead of him and just getting my rhythm going... "Only 58 more to go" I chimed at him with a big grin! In the end I only did half a mile (32 lengths) as my knee is still a bit sore from my Christmas Eve pub ride (horses) and to tell the truth, last nights Pringles and a few days of indulgence were holding me back!

Hubby says he's really proud of me and how far I can swim and now really appreciates how much hard work I have put in from not being able to swim 2 widths in a row to swimming a mile non-stop! More hard work to come in the new year - I need to push myself harder and get up to at least 80 lengths to compensate for the waves and tide in the open water but I have every confidence I can do it & can't wait for 30th August to come around!

Officially entered!

I have now officially entered The Great London Swim 2014 where I will swim 1 mile to raise funds for St. Mark's hospital:

www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim 

Waiting to Enter

So, The Great North Swim, The Great East Swim, The Great Manchester Swim & The Great Scottish Swim are all open for entry but The Great London Swim is not! I'm registered with them so will get an alert once entry is open but I can't help but check on the website every few days to double check they haven't forgotten me as I'd be gutted if I couldn't enter! 

Training is going well, the mile is comfortable for me to complete and I'm even teaching myself to swim 'proper' breaststroke (where I put my head under water rather than my current chin on the water line approach)!

The date & venue has at least been confirmed: Saturday 30th August at the Docklands Sailing & Watersports Centre (Millwall Dock)

I have printed off the Christmas opening times for my local pool so that I can get in a few cheeky lengths & burn off some of the festive nibbles I'm sure I'll be enjoying but I will really knuckle down with my gym & swim regime in the new year - come August everyone will think I'm a Baywatch extra!

And don't forget, I'm doing all this for a very good cause very close to my heart:

www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim 

Swimming or Pizza? Swimming?? Or Pizza??

After a stressful day at work I'm asking one of life's great questions...

Swimming or pizza? Swimming or pizza?Swimming or pizza?  Swimming or pizza? 

Swimming would be the healthy choice, burn off some calories & let the water wash away the stresses of the day... Except there's a REALLY rediculously slow woman that's usually there on a Wednesday and if she's there tonight it's likely to add to my frustrations rather than ease them!

Pizza on the other hand would be all yummy and cheesy... though it is the more expensive and unhealthy option!

Swimming or pizza? Swimming or pizza?Swimming or pizza?  Swimming or pizza? 

Right - decision made, pool it is! I have miles to swim and funds to raise... Pizza never stood a chance!

Might order one when I get back from the pool 😉 best of both worlds!

Reason to Raise

My sister's journey is the reason I'm raising money for St. Marks, she has been through so much in the last 4 years I really don't know how she does it!  But with the 2 most gorgeous kids to live for, some how she makes it through every obstacle that comes her way - she's a real inspiration!

She's finally set up a blog so you can keep up to date with her progress and be inspired to sponsor my swim knowing what good work St. Marks do - if we can help just 1 person have a smoother journey than my sister has had it will be worth every drop of dirty Thames water I will inevitably drink along the way!

http://morethanjustabaglady.blogspot.co.uk/

Proud owner of a new wetsuit!

1 MILE BABY!

I swam a mile baby!  That's right, I managed all 64 lengths on Friday!  What I was also really proud of was that I had managed 50 of those lengths non-stop!  I was so worn out but determined to get the extra 14 lengths in there!
 
The mini challenge was to hit the mile before my 30th and I've done it with 3 weeks to spare!  I am so proud of myself!  You only have to read this Blog to see how far I have come in such a short space of time - from being unable to link 2 widths together to swimming 50 lengths non-stop is a great achievement...
 
Except, I've topped it tonight!  Not content with hitting my mile, I've gone out and swum 64 lengths again - this time, all of them non-stop!  That's right, I SWAM 1 MILE WITHOUT STOPPING!
 
That's gotta be worth some sponsorship:
 
www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim

Up to 50 lengths!!

Last weeks swimming went really, really well. Not only did I progress to swimming all lengths but I have also managed 12 lengths non stop and 50 in total!

Now I'm only 14 lengths off my full mile and 6 weeks away from my 30th - I'm determined to reach the mile before then!

Progress

Well, progress has been made tonight! I swam 1075m - yes, that's right I swam over a kilometer! 

That's a lot of widths I hear you cry! Well, yes it would be, except I wouldn't know... Seen as I swam it all in lengths! RESULT! I am now a fully bona fide lane swimmer, it might be the slow lane but it's a lane all the same and I'm so pleased with the progress I've made in just a few short weeks.

The aim now is to keep around that distance and work on linking as many lengths together without stopping... I some how don't think I will be able to put my feet down in the Thames so really need to build up my non-stop-ability :-)

It was also really nice to have some company on my swim tonight too, other than the weird man that always used to try talking to me in the widths area - my sister-in-law is going to try and swim with me once a week as long as it fits around her work.  She really spurred me on tonight, I was ready to stop at 32 lengths (half a mile) but with her encouragement I made it to the 1km mark!! Now just got to twist her arm to do the Great London Swim with me next year... COME ON MEG!!!

Just Keep Swimming

Well tonight I surpassed all my expectations in my swimming adventures so far - I've only gone and swum half a mile!! And to make my smile even bigger, I did it in 60 widths and 2 LENGTHS!

As I swam along I could imagine Dori from Finding Nemo "Just Keep Swimming..." And that's exactly what I did, I just kept swimming :-) And I finished in a blaze of glory by moving on to lengths - yes it was only 2 lengths and yes it was in the slow lane but they were lengths all the same and I swam them!

I wonder what I will achieve on my next swim??

Just call me Adlington

I understand that it is rather amusing to some that I am swimming widths but I'll have you know, the widths section of the pool got extremely busy tonight and there was almost a bit of pool rage as people dared to cross my path! A lot of the people were actually swimming width after width after width and so I don't understand why they didn't just go and do lengths, leaving the widths clear for 'special' swimmers like me who struggle to string 2 lengths together and so would most likely drown mid-length if I attempted it again!

Even so, I'm very pleased of my widths tally tonight - 40 whole widths (it may have even been 42 as I couldn't remember whether I was on 36 or 34 so aired on the side of caution!)! That's 20 lengths, 500m, half a kilometre or 31% of my mile - which ever way I look at it, I'm chuffed and what's more, I think I could have gone further if the casual swim session hadn't been coming to an end! Think of the joy and excitement seen on Becky Adlington's face when she won her gold medals - that was me tonight after reaching the goal I'd set myself!

One of life's most puzzling questions - why is it so much harder to get dry after swimming than it is at home after a shower??

Sweat is Fat Crying

And tonight I made mine sob!

I have a gym programme designed to help me get fitter and build the muscles I will need to do my swim. I was so pleased when I had my session with the trainer to build the programme, he actually listened to me and what my goals are and designed a programme that will start me off in the right direction; too many times have I just been given the bog standard low impact cardio workout, slogging my guts out on the cross-trainer for nothing!

So the plan is to go to the gym on Sundays and Tuesdays and to swim on Mondays and Wednesdays, along with my horse riding on Thursdays that's 5 days of exercise... 4 more than I was doing before! I may even throw in an extra weekend swim as I tend to wake up earlier than my hubby so can go in the morning.

Looking forward to my swim tomorrow as they have now fixed the pool heater!

Don't forget, you can sponsor me at: www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim

Just Giving

I have set up my Just Giving page to raise money for St. Marks Hospital Foundation:

www.justgiving.com/swimkellyswim

How far???

So I've worked out that 1 mile is about 64 lengths in a 25m pool, oh and I've also been told I need to train to swim further as swimming in a pool and swimming in open water are very different!

I may have mentioned before that I'd not done any real swimming since Primary school and as such I'd not experienced the lane system until my first swim last week! Slow, medium or fast lane... Decisions, decisions! Took a gamble and started in the medium lane - this proved to be far too ambitious for my first swim so I moved to the slow lane which was still way above my ability as I am not a very strong swimmer so I have resigned myself to swimming widths; at least until I've built myself up a bit.

Widths in my pool are 12.5m so straight away my 64 lengths becomes 128 widths. Last night I managed 30 widths in a blooming freezing cold pool because the heater was broken. 30 widths sounds pants, 375m sounds even worse but to make myself feel better I've calculated that it was 23% of my mile, that sounds so much more impressive and so from now on I will measure my accomplishments in % of a mile :-)

In my next swim I aim to swim 1/4 mile so watch this space!

Oh and I bought my first pair of goggles today - looking good ;-)

Why I'm Swimming

My sister was supposed to take part in the Great London Swim last Saturday (31 Aug 13) but unfortunately due to complications from her illness (colitis) and a difficult recovery from major surgery, she had to give up her place as she began her 6th consecutive week in hospital :-(

So I had this crazy idea and before my brain could catch up with me I'd already text her saying "let's do it together next year"... Then I realised I haven't actually really been swimming since primary school and that was about *cough* 20 *cough* years ago! And I'm not exactly fit... And 30 is just around the corner!

But anyway, I've decided I'm going to do it, 1 mile in open water, and I have 1 year to train for it! This is my challenge and I accept it! 

It will be hard, there's a strong possibility that I may nearly drown a few times along the way but if the thought of me wading in to the Thames in my wetsuit encourages people to dig deep and I can raise a bit of money so that St. Marks can do more research in to bowel disorders and help more people like my sister it will all be worth it... Every last soggy hair, chlorine stringy eyed, splash, splash, splosh of it!