Always follow your own advice!

I was thinking that if the cold is above the neck its OK to swim but if its below dont . So I havent really got an excuse for my swim on Monday except I was itching to go and just couldnt resist . It was a superb swim and one where the current was moving so fast and strong that the very modest marker that I thought I could swim to took me to the edge of my endurance . Making any headway was hard and going backwards was happening . The sea really raged , more waves than there had been in ages and I was swimming into all of them ...a real fight and one I eventually and euphorically won with a fantastic swoop back to land , where I could feel the cold radiating from my chest , in the shower and after the hot shower it still felt cold and then slowly over the hours the cold I had been harbouring took control of my lungs and I was plunged into a really uncomfortable 48hours ...I am still not over it and can feel the mucoid rattle in my lung telling me to rest up and recover.

Some times a little break is a good thing.

I slept really heavily last night and woke up dissatisfied , feeling sluggish and phlegmy...I had to take my daughter to French in Whitstable for 9.45am and high tide was about 10.16am so I had time to make a decision about swimming . Its been a really blowy day ...but with great sunny spells, as well as torrential rain . I know that cold temperatures will not cause you to have a cold ....but, I also know that your immune system is affected by cold and it does reduce the body's ability to cope with infection , this linked with the way the body produces inflammatory cytokines when you overdo the exercise ...which would impact directly on the respiratory tract ....but , temperature wise, out of the water , I am sure its a lot warmer ....but yesterday the sea was cold ....so... with a tingle in my chest I think the best thing to do is to have a day off!

Now that gives me a chance to think about cycling and sorting out my winter kit!

Swimming against the flow

At the moment temperature is the big issue and psychologically it makes my belief in my ability decrease. For instance trying to swim to the markers I have been swimming to since August at the moment is really hard and I am not sure whether the currents are stronger or if all the people who are saying "your daft to be swimming now" combined with the temperature has dramatically undermined my confidence that the distance is possible ....it has to be said that when I do give up I really fly back to shore and if I am doing butterfly its so fast. While I was trying to make ground against the current it started raining really heavily , my skin felt electric from the cold and my breathing was in perfect rhythm ..when I got back to shore and got out of the water I could feel the heat radiating from the ground which really felt like a living beast ........

Blood flow and cognition

Fantastic sun this morning and the bay was really flat , visibility was very poor (couldn't see the time on my watch holding it almost to my face underwater). Water cold though and after 10 minutes it starts to get a little painful , it makes me reflect about fatigue and the impact it has on my precision and my thinking , my fine motor skills decrease (managing to get my key out and fit it in the keyhole now as I am cold and wet takes noticeably longer to achieve) . I know that blood flow and creative thoughts are related , there is a very specific point on my cycle to work approx 5 miles , that I get really good ideas . Today just before this point I realised I had forgotten my door keys.

Swim before work

I didn't get in until just before 7.00am and only had a short swim , because of some anxiety about a bank of fog sitting a bit too close to my swim route , but even so it was really good and once out, showered, dried, kids fed and taken to school . I had a really good cycle to school . I am trying to dry out my wet suit , boy does it hum, so I can start tomorrow in the same fashion .

No Swim

No swimming today. I have a cold and , despite last weeks apparent curative effect of swimming on my streaming cold , I don't want to risk making it worse . But I don't want to break up my routine , so tomorrow I will be back in . Checking the tide tables the only swimmable high tide is at 5.32am so I will aim to go in at 6.00am or there abouts I think the current will be going out so I should be swimming up towards London , we will see if that's right tomorrow. That time although disgustingly early means that I can get my swim in without anyone else being affected the kids don't leave the house till 8.30 my partner 8.00 and I can still be in work by 9.00. My options for parking are only available to me if I get to my work by 8.30 so I really need to cycle in the swim will affect my speed but my worst time is 45min to cover the 8 miles so I should be in acceptable time. Everything is about being able to work out ways to fit these things in , its not easy for anyone and , I have to admit, my work (being flexible) and where I live (3 minutes to the beach) ,equally I have actively sought a way of organising and activities (Swimming, cycling , Tai Chi , filming) that I can reasonably easily do , so it is about my flexibility and , in different circumstances , I could use the same reasoning to find activities within my environment that offered as much satisfaction . So lets see if I make the 6.00am swim.

Remembrance Sunday Swim

Took the kids to church this morning , I am an atheist , but one is in the Cubs and the other seems to be developing some kind of faith despite me. It was all very nice and did let you think about all the horrors of war , past and present . The Vicar brought one of the people he had married (as a vicar presiding over the ceremony) a young guy who is a Royal Marine and he is about to go to Afghanistan the couple were very young and their daughter, a similar age to mine , his tours last 7 months !! The changes that will happen in that time . The congregation adopted him to focus their prayers on as well as the other people serving there and the people in Afghanistan ...I thought about this a lot as I swam out slowly in the fading light in the bay ...a little melancholy ....the approaching night and the cold of the water , keeping a steady rowing stroke my breathing perfect against the return of larger waves to the bay ...the days thoughts merge and mingle with the metronome stroke and , as the waves got bigger my rhythm let me plough into the attacking wave and cut through into trough again and again , my breathing naturally meeting the play of the water and then as thoughts became less coherent a burst of violent butterfly pitching all of my body at the water in a frantic scramble that produces its own relentless momentum that every part of me is forcing until my shoulders simply wont allow the movement to continue and I return to my calmer pace and slip below the water.