Turning up the Pace

In my second swim coaching session with Pete he gave me his precious book, the story of Des Renford, the King of the channel, an Aussie with a wonderful journey of channel swimming. I am 75% of the way through the book, he is 63, has had open heart surgery after a series of setbacks trying to get to his 20th crossing, and is already back in the water, but is also coaching Phil Rush to do a '3 way' I kid you not...who does it in 28 hours, 21 minutes and his stroke count is 77 per minute.

I raise it because at my lesson yesterday Peter introduced the concept of increased pace, what is interesting about that, is that he is talking to someone who lives their life in a whirlwind of pace and yet, while swimming, it is (for the first time), enough to be efficient, with a smooth stroke, no splashing around, no wasting energy. The thought of getting faster was hard, I didn't get the maths, he counted my stroke and reckoned I was doing 56 strokes per minute. (I reckon it is often lower than this...), and had to increase it to add 4, 8, 12 strokes per minute.

As always my brain tells me why that would be hard, (more strokes, more energy, surely less oxygen left...) an ongoing battle between body, brain and lungs. When I was leading a team, a very wise man once said to me,"get a life" (i did have one, but he was referring to the over demanding pace I lived at), and I never even thought about how hard changing pace is for people.

I realise now, that the faster pace is often in response to running away from the stillness that is required to really reflect on the life we are living (well it was for me), and that running out of energy, oxygen, strokes, or roughly translated, exhaustion, was a state of being that I headed into regularly, and being fully aware of it now, I am working to create a life of flow.

BUT in order to get into flow, we do actually need to go through the increases and decreases in pace, to find out what is sustainable for us.

Well, that's what Pete says, and he is, for now, the boss, the King of the water that i listen to...

The Power of the mind

After a hard session at Karate this morning I pondered the question "Is it better to be kicked in the head by a talented 2nd Dan, or to swim repeatedly for an hour at a time in jelly fish infested, choppy seas?", If you needed it..the answer is neither and both!

I reflected that without putting ourselves in the way of new challenges, how can we truly test our spirit, or defeat our inner voices that make us feel small. There is not necessarily peace in this philosophy of life, but there is immense joy in living each day to the full, and whilst I still can, I will.

Our Body and our Mind are connected powerfully, when I have been 'stuck' with swimming (I can't go any further/ I can't breathe/ I wish I could swim for longer - or whatever negative beliefs come up), it is now definitely in my mind, and having great friends and supporters around me to help me unblock that has been, and will continue to be invaluable.

I don't believe 'no pain, no gain', but i do believe 'one stroke at a time' which unfortunately has a different meaning as my dad had a stroke 10 years ago, and I know, that if he hadn't he would be living by a similar philosophy, so lets do it, for those who can't and especially for ourselves when we "can't" either.

I can I can I know I can...

Our First Dover Swim

OMG, What a fantastic 24 hours, a 4 hour drive to Dover last night, and eventually dinner with Niki and Sarah and 2 bottles of wine to celebrate our first sea swim in preparation for the channel next year.

Freda was waiting for us on the beach (well, she is there every day from May 1 to Sept 30th), there were some raised eyebrows at our wetsuits (wimpsuits, in her words...), and then we stuck it out for one hour 10 mins. I confess we didn't swim the whole time, chatting about the weather, chatting with the yellow hats who've 'done it many times', and getting into the flow of it. Fortunately for me my team mates kept an eye on my progress, and once my brain had slowed down, we swam together, a real team!

45 minutes in, in a moment of madness we decided to 'go native', and dropped the wetsuits, 16 degrees is NOT warm :), but the last 25 minutes was swimming free in a way you can't explain.
What a privilege to swim with Niki and Sarah, and thankfully the universe conspired to create an extraordinary sunny day to aide our first team sea swim, and how, whatever the weather in a years time, we need to create the sunshine for ourselves...

The Journey So Far..

My First Blog which I am inspired to finally write having signed up at the end of 2010 to swim the Channel with Niki Lemon and Sarah Moralee (and hopefully roped in one other Bridget Gisby) in a relay in 2012 when our athletes will be putting themselves through the enormous challenges at the Olympics.  We are doing it to raise money for charity, and also to remind ourselves of that wonderful saying: 'Today is a gift, that's why we call it The Present".

My Journey so far: On 22nd March 2011, I met Pete Frost my swim coach, and as a very weak swimmer (I had a fear of sinking, breathing in water, and don't like a wet face..), have spent a gruelling 6 months learning to float, breathe, kick, and finally swim the crawl, Pete has been an incredible coach throughout and I continue to learn sooo much from him!. Ear infections have blighted my training taking me out of action for about 5 weeks, and I am still trying out new ideas to prevent them, currently waiting for an olive oil spray which I have historically only used for cooking...

Key Milestones:
28th May saw my first 20 lengths of crawl (2 at a time).
20th June - my first Mile - 64 lengths of a 25m pool
4 July - my first open water swim at Princes Club - 2 loops of 400m and a face full of algae!
3 August - squeeze into a wetsuit for my first sea swim with my wonderful son Ben - 50 minutes in the waves!
24 August - 60 lengths in 10's and then 16 lengths straight off - am still struggling with keeping going
2nd September - Swim in Hillingdon outdoor pool in a swimsuit in the rain, 14 degrees - sooo cold

22nd September - Tomorrow Niki, Sarah and I go to Dover to do a practice swim early on Saturday morning, having watched Ronan Keating and the celebrities swim from Dublin to Ireland tonight, I was inspired, Jason from the Gadget show was incredible, and I know now, that whatever happens we can do it.

Roll on Saturday 24th September 2011.... Roll on August/September 2012