Wetsuit swimmers needed

It turns out that I’m a glutton for punishment. Not only have I taken on the running of the BLDSA’s Coniston swim, but this afternoon I found myself on Facebook agreeing to help run the Colwick Park swim – my local event and the first BLDSA swim of the year.

I’ve swum it a couple of times and it’s a lovely event and a lovely swim (of course what I’ll find out is that it was so lovely for a swimmer because it was so well organised). As it’s an early one (May 22nd this year) it can be a little chilly, but not too bad and a great way to kick the season off.

What’s different about this one, and actually is new for this year, is that as well as the usual skins swim, there is a wetsuit category too. So no discrimination – all swimmers welcome. And as it’s a circuit swim – 5 laps of a 1km circuit – you don’t need to provide a personal kayak escort, the swim organiser (who I’ve heard is exceedingly handsome!) will organise kayakers to be dotted around the course watching out for all swimmers.

Anyone that’s training up for longer swims in the year, or has a 5km swim on their bucket list, this is a great event for you – however you choose to swim it!

Sign up here – http://www.entrycentral.com/festival/806
Although you need to be a BLDSA member first – http://bldsa.org.uk/swim/membership/

And don’t forget, you can sign up for Coniston too (a gorgeous 5.25m swim) – http://www.entrycentral.com/event/100339

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Running…

Yesterday I went for an actual run. You know, outdoors, along roads, in the fresh air, using my legs to propel me forward and not in a lake!

It may not sound like much to most of you, but it’s my first proper run for probably about three or four months. I occasionally do a couple of kilometres on the treadmill at the end of a gym session, but I’ve not been outside for ages. It was really nice just to be able to set off and see the scenery, say hi to a few cyclists and explore different terrain.

I wanted to run for three main reasons: 1) just because; 2) to try out my new GPS watch – it works!; and 3) to see if I could and therefore whether I could enter a triathlon in a few weeks time.

My running stats

It turns out I can run (in a fashion), so I have now entered the triathlon – only a sprint triathlon and is a pool swim (so no wetsuit needed). It’s two weeks after my Windermere swim, so I’m not expecting to break any records, but it’ll give me a focus immediately following the swim and I may even like running and cycling more.

 

I’m not angry, just disappointed

I went for a truly wonderful early morning swim this morning. The lake I normally train in has changed its opening hours and created more slots for swimming. One of them is from 6:30am on a Tuesday morning, so at 6:15am I was the first car parked in the car park and I was ready to sign in and get swimming.

It was beautiful, the mist was still rising off the lake, the sun was just waking up and starting to warm up the day, while the lake was warm from all the recent great weather. In fact the lake was possibly too warm – my guess is about 21 degrees C.

Yet there were still people getting in today wearing wetsuits. Why?

I’ve nothing against wetsuits per se, it just seems such a shame to “protect” yourself from such beautiful water. Now I understand triathletes who have to train in race conditions, but for casual swimmers, on a day like today…?

I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed

Death to Wetsuits

Saw this swimming cap at Windermere – love it.

Turns out that this guy also came second in the swim and finished in about 4 and a half hours – proof that wetsuits aren’t needed!