Here's my day
5.00 Awoken by my husband with a cup of coffee. (yes I know I am unbelievably lucky)
5.15 Banana, two slices of toast with real butter, coffee
Swim in Inniscarra with Paraic
7.30 Hot blackcurrant with maxim
8.15 2 biscuits while waiting for porridge
8.17 Porridge (no. there was no way i could have waited. i needed those biscuits.
10.30 Coffee, Ham and Cheese Sandwich, strawberries and blueberries
13.00 Thai Chicken Curry with buttered rice and naan bread
13.10 Asked for extra naan bread
13.15 Satsuma, 2 biscuits and coffee. I'd be lying if i said it was decaff
16.30 Ham and cheese Sandwich
17.00 Hot maxim
Swim in Garryvoe on my lone-e-ownsome
18.00 Banana
18.46 Steak, mashed potatoes and pepper sauce.
18.47 Extra potatoes and sauce.
It's 20.30, I've made the lunches, played, read stories and am about to go to bed so i can do it all again tomorrow.
But I think I will have a bowl of cereal first...
Showing posts with label Paraic Casey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paraic Casey. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
I'm baaaaaaaaack!!
Yippee!! I am back! Feel like myself again for the first time in about a fortnight. The switch to full time open water swimming was the starting point, but i also finished up in one job and started another, and I sprained my ankle. Actually, a swollen bruised ankle benefits greatly from being repeatedly submerged in cold water, and i barely kick at the best of times, so it's not a bad injury/sport combo. Still not exactly a stressfree environment for a Channel Aspirant.
By the way does anyone else find the word "aspirant" funny. To me, it sounds like a cross between a painkiller and something you inadvertently swallow while swimming and have to cough back up.
Anyhow, two swims of two hours apiece at the weekend gave me a good boost. This morning, I swam 1hr10 in Inniscarra - it was 11deg water, nice, nice but er... 4deg air. Song of choice was "The sun'll come out tomorrow!" Ironic really, as the sun was shining in a perfectly blue sky. There just wasn't any warmth from it! I was swimming with Eddie "Speedy" Irwin and Paraic "Sleepswim" Casey
I actually enjoyed it and can't wait till tomorrow morning. The getting up at 5am to fit the swim in before being at my desk for 8.15 is tough enough. The funniest is using makeup to camoflauge google eyes! I reckon the porter thinks I have a secret street fighting habit. And that I lose. A lot.
By the way does anyone else find the word "aspirant" funny. To me, it sounds like a cross between a painkiller and something you inadvertently swallow while swimming and have to cough back up.
Anyhow, two swims of two hours apiece at the weekend gave me a good boost. This morning, I swam 1hr10 in Inniscarra - it was 11deg water, nice, nice but er... 4deg air. Song of choice was "The sun'll come out tomorrow!" Ironic really, as the sun was shining in a perfectly blue sky. There just wasn't any warmth from it! I was swimming with Eddie "Speedy" Irwin and Paraic "Sleepswim" Casey
I actually enjoyed it and can't wait till tomorrow morning. The getting up at 5am to fit the swim in before being at my desk for 8.15 is tough enough. The funniest is using makeup to camoflauge google eyes! I reckon the porter thinks I have a secret street fighting habit. And that I lose. A lot.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Night Swimming
Last Night was the Source Overnight Charity swim, where 25 odd swimmers raised thousands for charity. Odd in the sense that I didn't count them .... as well as the swimmers being a few sandwiches short of a picnic - seriously who chooses to swim through the night people! Well, we did ... apparently.
It went suprisingly quickly and dare I say I even enjoyed it. The body held up okay, I seem to have the constitution of a mountain goat whilst pool swimming, and had coffee, ham sandwiches, jellies, hot chocolate as well as my 2:1 High 5 drink. It seemed to work in that I had a fairly consistent output of power until my left shoulder got a bit sore around 5am.
I did an overnight swim this time last year so was aware that there would be a mental & physical dip in the middle of the session. Things are also a bit more difficult to comprehend with sometimes funny consequences - I asked a swimmer how they were getting on - their reply of "Fine until the kick in the goolies" made me laugh until my brain processed it to "fine until i ate the blueberries". I also found the ripped togs of another swimmer quite giggle inducing - I revert to the sensibilities of my 4 year olds when tired apparently.
At one stage I just couldn't be arsed swimming any more. So I just let my arms keep turning while I switched off and went for a walk with this pair
It did the trick AND i managed not to swim into a wall ( though I did grope Karen in the land adjoining!)
Paraic and I tend to bandy a few inspirational quotes about - his of last night was from the Rolling Stones. To paraphrase Lucious Lips (Jagger not Paraic) "You can't always get what you want ... but sometimes you get what you need".
Mine was "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore excellence is not an act but a habit" While Aristotle was not actually present last night, that idea helped when you're doing 21km of 100m on 1.50 - maybe just maybe we'll be able to swim at 3.3km per hour during our English Channel crossing. Now that would be excellent.
Post Script - it's Monday and it's tired I'm getting! Yesterday's sea swim was sore enough and I was frozen after 34mins in 10deg but since the air temp was 14 or so it shouldn't have affected me as much. This morning's pool session was akin to swimming in an old style diving suit through molasses. Here's to tomorrow!
It went suprisingly quickly and dare I say I even enjoyed it. The body held up okay, I seem to have the constitution of a mountain goat whilst pool swimming, and had coffee, ham sandwiches, jellies, hot chocolate as well as my 2:1 High 5 drink. It seemed to work in that I had a fairly consistent output of power until my left shoulder got a bit sore around 5am.
I did an overnight swim this time last year so was aware that there would be a mental & physical dip in the middle of the session. Things are also a bit more difficult to comprehend with sometimes funny consequences - I asked a swimmer how they were getting on - their reply of "Fine until the kick in the goolies" made me laugh until my brain processed it to "fine until i ate the blueberries". I also found the ripped togs of another swimmer quite giggle inducing - I revert to the sensibilities of my 4 year olds when tired apparently.
At one stage I just couldn't be arsed swimming any more. So I just let my arms keep turning while I switched off and went for a walk with this pair
Paraic and I tend to bandy a few inspirational quotes about - his of last night was from the Rolling Stones. To paraphrase Lucious Lips (Jagger not Paraic) "You can't always get what you want ... but sometimes you get what you need".
Mine was "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore excellence is not an act but a habit" While Aristotle was not actually present last night, that idea helped when you're doing 21km of 100m on 1.50 - maybe just maybe we'll be able to swim at 3.3km per hour during our English Channel crossing. Now that would be excellent.
Post Script - it's Monday and it's tired I'm getting! Yesterday's sea swim was sore enough and I was frozen after 34mins in 10deg but since the air temp was 14 or so it shouldn't have affected me as much. This morning's pool session was akin to swimming in an old style diving suit through molasses. Here's to tomorrow!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
So how did you spend your weekend?
Garryvoe was beautiful today - but cold. Air temp was 8deg or so with a biting cold wind and water temp was maybe 9.5deg - Paraic Casey and I swam for 32 minutes.
It's what we all ask our coworkers of a Monday morning - though people normally skip me now as more likely than not I have been swimming. First time queriers tend to be shocked at the notion of swimming in the sea at this time of year concluding, quite rightly, that there is something a bit "off" about someone who does such a thing. I normally shrug this off, but today i looked at my weekend activity of choice with a bit of distance and realised ...
I willing create a situation which results in mild hypothermia. It's not that i enjoy the symptoms but i'm jsut trying to push out my tolerance of the cold water so that ultimately i'll be able to last the 16 to 20 hours in 14deg - 16deg water come August 2012. The "good thing" is that I am only a little bit hypothermic and it only happens after i stop swimming. The bad thing is that, f**k me but do i get cold! Shivers, numbness, aching shoulders, and tiredness that doesn't quite dissipate for the rest of the day. And I am only averaging 40mins at the moment in water ranging from 9deg to 11deg - the latter if and only if you believe Finbarr Hedderman's watch.
So tomorrow if anyone asks? I shall say that I went on the beer and watched the rugby and got a taxi from outside the door cos it was WAY too cold to be outside. Pure lie? Yes - but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
It's what we all ask our coworkers of a Monday morning - though people normally skip me now as more likely than not I have been swimming. First time queriers tend to be shocked at the notion of swimming in the sea at this time of year concluding, quite rightly, that there is something a bit "off" about someone who does such a thing. I normally shrug this off, but today i looked at my weekend activity of choice with a bit of distance and realised ...
I willing create a situation which results in mild hypothermia. It's not that i enjoy the symptoms but i'm jsut trying to push out my tolerance of the cold water so that ultimately i'll be able to last the 16 to 20 hours in 14deg - 16deg water come August 2012. The "good thing" is that I am only a little bit hypothermic and it only happens after i stop swimming. The bad thing is that, f**k me but do i get cold! Shivers, numbness, aching shoulders, and tiredness that doesn't quite dissipate for the rest of the day. And I am only averaging 40mins at the moment in water ranging from 9deg to 11deg - the latter if and only if you believe Finbarr Hedderman's watch.
So tomorrow if anyone asks? I shall say that I went on the beer and watched the rugby and got a taxi from outside the door cos it was WAY too cold to be outside. Pure lie? Yes - but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)