Its confirmed... Somewhere between 23-28 September 2012 we will be swimming the channel - with good luck and a following wind! Today we completed the contracts and paid the booking fee for our pilot, and it suddenly all seems very real. (Not just my sentiments but those of my team - newly named 'The Sea Breezers!)
Virtually 9 months away from today we will be waiting for the call, doing our final visualisation exercises (girls, we need to start those...) and psyching ourselves up for the journey.
For now we are planning our calendar for 2012, alongside our work and family commitments we will be regular visitors of Dover, and every other sea front we can swim in, as well as a number of open water swims to keep our fitness levels up.
As I said last week, amidst all of this I still need to survive each swim session, It all seems to be tied to the outward breath, the only time in our lives when we have to think about breathing out is when we are in water!
Saying that! In Karate I encourage people to breathe out, rather than try and breathe in quicker, when they are starting to lose breath (usually when we are Sparring and the panic has kicked in...) so that there is full capacity for air coming in.
There's a metaphor there for us in life - noticing what we do subconsciously and seeing whether it is serving us at that moment. For me, breathing out is right up there right now, and perhaps I'll be on the look out for that much more in the future!
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Tuesday 6 December 2011
Gnarly Nutters Swim club
It's Monday night, It's 7.30pm, It's been a long day... Where are you? What's your mood? What are you doing? Where I would like to be is in front of a plate of good food, around the dining room table with John and the kids, and relaxing with that 'end of the day feeling'....
But based on this goal I set for next year, where am I? Well, for the last 4 weeks I have been attending the Gnarly Nutters winter swim sessions run by Mr Frosty himself, a full hour that starts with a gentle 20 lengths of warm up... something I could only watch from afar 6 months ago.
Pete said to me that for my continued development I needed to be with other swimmers to help drive my own performance,he discovered (? is it hidden!) my competitive spirit, and he knows I won't be able to resist the pull of the faster swimmers (mostly everyone in the pool) and trying to match them, he was right! It is interesting though, that the first 10 lengths are still like re-learning over again, every week. One other observation is that amidst the many lengths we swim each Monday there are times when a breath is taking on water not air, and yet we/I cope!
Tomorrow I am working with a leadership team who are driving for massive growth in their business, and have barely time to take a breath, do I tell them that they will cope? not forever, but if we have a big, challenging, hairy goal in mind, we can take a few water logged breaths and survive.
Courage, a fine quality, and we all need it at times.
But based on this goal I set for next year, where am I? Well, for the last 4 weeks I have been attending the Gnarly Nutters winter swim sessions run by Mr Frosty himself, a full hour that starts with a gentle 20 lengths of warm up... something I could only watch from afar 6 months ago.
Pete said to me that for my continued development I needed to be with other swimmers to help drive my own performance,he discovered (? is it hidden!) my competitive spirit, and he knows I won't be able to resist the pull of the faster swimmers (mostly everyone in the pool) and trying to match them, he was right! It is interesting though, that the first 10 lengths are still like re-learning over again, every week. One other observation is that amidst the many lengths we swim each Monday there are times when a breath is taking on water not air, and yet we/I cope!
Tomorrow I am working with a leadership team who are driving for massive growth in their business, and have barely time to take a breath, do I tell them that they will cope? not forever, but if we have a big, challenging, hairy goal in mind, we can take a few water logged breaths and survive.
Courage, a fine quality, and we all need it at times.
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