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!

Mild Hypothermia in a Sauna

This week I turn thirty five - it feels like a milestone for some reason, I'm now in the "35-39" age category for petes sake! Mid to late thirties - I think it just snuck up on me! Anyhow, my parents spoiled me with a three month membership for Garryvoe Leisure centre. This means I can be from the sea to the sauna in maybe five minutes. It is funny though as no-one expects someone to be recovering from mild hypothermia (shaking limbs, teeth chattering and bloodless feet) whilst in a sauna!

This probably tips me into the wuss section of aspiring channel swimmers, but it really is bliss to be warm and functioning within a half hour of finishing a swim.

Saturday I swam for forty two minutes and Sunday I upped it to fifty, my pb for the year. Really hoping to break into an hour on my actual birthday. I was a bit spoiled this weekend with family support. Dad walked the beach while I swam Saturday. He doesn't normally look like this but it was St. Patricks Day after all!

Sunday Dean swam with me and it was reassuring that he found it cold in his wetsuit! I reckon the first time you swim in the sea in winter/ spring is going to be a shock to system even if you were in a "drysuit"!

Which brings me to discuss Lisa Cummins and Finbarr Hederman. Both accomplished marathon swimmers but still, their 3hours40mins in 10deg water is simply astonishing to me, and totally inspiring!

Two new blogs to add this week! Fellow aspirants training with Eilis are Colm Breathnach and Jennifer Lane, the latter who is training for this challenge on a vegan diet no less!

Finally, Dean reckons there are at least one pair of my togs in each load of laundry. On the plus side it means he's doing laundry! On the downside it means that i'm wearing out my togs. Quite embarrassing when you realise AFTER swimming how threadbare your pair was!

My English Channel Adventure

Sometime in August, I will swim from England to France.

I have always liked setting challenges. For me it's not about being the best at something, I sort of figured that wasn't my lot at community games level circa 1985! It's about doing something to the best of my ability. Admittedly, I tend to win the "Thirty something year old mother of twins civil engineer" section! A channel swim really appeals to me as I'll have to do my very best to have any hope of finishing - and even then i might not make it!

My thoughts were galvanised when Lisa Cummins completed her amazing English Channel double in 2009.

I'd completed the Cork City Marathon and the Tour De Munster and had my eyes firmly set on the Lost Sheep Half Ironman in 2010. Getting advice and a lot of encouragement from Lisa gave me the guts to book a pilot and to approach coach supremo Eilis Burns and so I booked a pilot - Mike Oram - in January 2010.

In August 2011, I took part in an amazing relay channel crossing, a serendipitous event that saw me swim with five strangers, who became friends, and three others from Foireann Snamh Gariabldi are also swimming from England to France this year.


My nominated charity that I'm fundraising for is Down Syndrome Cork and my donation page is Cat's Big Swim - don't worry I cover 100% of my own costs and that of my crew so any donation goes entirely to this worthy cause.

Training is going well, some weeks are harder than others though to be honest there haven't been any easy weeks barring Christmas since I started training in earnest on September 1st! I'm now 6 months into my 11 month training programme and since spring has finally sprung, it is starting to feel oh-so-very real!