Switch over from pool to sea

I got my sea programme on Friday from my coach. As Lisa Cummins put it "All swims are in the OW - consider your pool membership revoked." Eilis sets the bar high for everyone and as a result has a high success rate. That is fine in theory but the panic that set in when I read my 14week sea programme nearly made me pass out. Thus began the five stages below.

Denial
"She can't honestly expect us to do that"
"You're not the boss of me"
Anger
"It's so unfair!"
"I'm later in the year than the others"
"I bloody well won't do it!"
Bargaining
"Right, if she lets me half the programme, I'll do it."
"I'll do as much as I can"
"I'll do some of it in the wetsuit"

Depression
Right now, I'm going through depression. I am really really down. Dean comes in to find me sitting on the couch with my head in my hands, silently weeping. Okay, that might be a stretch, but seriously I am uber-down. Feeling dejected, not good enough and generally miserable. I am swimming in the OW daily - sometimes twice a day. I am pushing to just before hypothermia each swim. But it just seems overwhelming.

I know, boo hoo, I signed up for this, what else was i expecting, right? But as Captain Webb said "nothing great is easy". I'm not looking for easy, but perhaps something short of insurmountable would be nice?

Acceptance I'm not there yet, but soon I'm sure I will adjust and build my mileage up again, there may even be occasional swims when I am not cold, and hey! That Channel isn't going to swim itself!

My last 5 hour submersion in the chlorine box.

With my travel date to Dover a mere three months away, it's time to tip the balance to open water versus pool. Also, Coach is going to kick me out of the pool very soon, so this way it feels like I’m making a choice! Perhaps yesterday’s 12km pool session will be my last? Thankfully, my buddy Dougie Howlett made an appearance. I think he might be stalking me. I mean there I am sitting in his garden with nightvision goggles, minding my own business and he turns up with his family - #awkard!
Anyhow, there I was starting to flag and Eilis stops me. “You were looking a bit tired so I told Dougie to give you a dig out” It worked. My pace revived, I sucked in my stomach – to be more streamlined don’t you know, nothing to do with vanity! I also swam closer to the middle of the lane – again for streamlining, nothing to do with hoping for a better view…..
After finishing my set, I climbed out for a chat with Eilis. Dougie paused - I tried to look as cool as I could given my 5.30am start, and 5hour goggle eyes. Far less starstruck, Eilis asked Mr. Delectable 2012 had he his set done. The number one all time try scorer for the all blacks replied “ But my pacesetter got out!” I didn’t trust myself not to blurt out “ Oh my god, you’re amazing, you’re so talented” that sort of thing. So my witty comeback was … nothing …. I just giggled.

Just another Saturday morning in Source...

Dean managed to do his long run last night - he's training for Cork City Marathon so I managed to be at Source for 7.30am as it opened. (Amazing how a 7.30 start is a total lie-in nowadays!) I had planned a swim on my lone-e-ownsome, but was delighted to see fellow channel aspirants Carmel Collins and Jennifer Lane and joined in with them for their 12km session. As it turned out we were but three of SIX 2012 aspirants who happenned to be swimming in Source this morning - as well as Ciarán Byrne, part of 2010's "magnificient seven" channel aspirants training with Eilis. It got me wondering - would there be any other pool in the world where you'd randomly bump into so many channel swimmers/ aspirants of a morning?

Mind you Source Pool really is one-in-a-million. Last week, I took a half day as I needed to catch up on metres and knew the pool would be quiet enough. In a serendipitious moment of good timing, I managed to share a lane with the one and only Dougie Howlett - easily the second best looking man to come out of New Zealand! I mostly kept swimming to stop myself from saying anything really stupid. But let's just say I always breathed to Dougies side!!!