Well, the weather in Coxwold was perfect for the open gardens event that is held on the second Sunday of June each year. While my sister was helping with the teas at the village hall, my mum, Janet Fulton, busked on a vibraphone for 3 1/2 hours and shared the £90 generously given between the Coxwold Fundraising and Team Brophy. There were posters, and chat about Ben’s challenge, and lots of people wished him well and every success.
Many thanks to everyone who donated!
The open water season is now here! It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s windy and it’s great for training to swim the Channel!
After a month delay due to the weather to open water season is finally under way. I am now training at Box End Park twice a day, it is a fantastic location to train at and it’s very popular for triathletes as well!
The temperature has been very cold as the latest cold snap refuses to move. I find that this cold weather can really affect you even in a wet suit, and I have seen many swimmers cutting short their training sessions due to the cold temperatures! The last session was about 13 degrees however, if you take into action the cold air temperature and weather conditions of strong winds and rain and even at times hail! It has been a challenge!
5000 meters, 4 swimmers per lane, quickest time wins.
The Swimathon is an indoor national event held every year, and this year I was keen to end my indoor training with a bang. I felt having this indoor race would help push me to keep training hard lap after lap after lap. The hardest thing I found this winter was after swimming in a nice big wide lake, coming back into a small, short, tight indoor pool. Where as I could do two laps in the lake I would have to do 150 lengths in the pool. I was doing this 5/6 times a week minimum for about 2 hour slots. So having this race to aim for, which also happened to be the start of the open water season was great way to keep myself motivated.
Before the race I was unbelievably nervous! I knew the distance was fine, there was no problem there, however thoughts of a slow time and a low place started flying through my head. I have taken the decision not to use tumble turns which greatly help a indoor swimmers time, the reason being that I’m training for life in the outdoor lakes and would never use them. As I found myself in a indoor race I already felt that somehow I had a slight disadvantage to the other swimmers who where using the tumble turns. There were also high expectations, it was home ground the place I train at on a daily basis (although it felt very different), I had trained at this length many times, and local rivals from my training sessions were already impressing in their races.
Welcome to another blog from me!
Today is a big day in the build-up to the big channel swim! Today I race in the national swimathon, 5000 meters and I’m aiming for a time of 1 hour 40 minutes. This means 50 metres a minute for the 1.40 hours. I will also NOT be using tumble turns as a part of my training strategy as I’ve refused to do them as they won’t be used in the channel!
Today also marks the start of the open water season, and as from Monday I will be back out in the lakes and sea. This is the start to the final count down to the two live swims and in 4 months time the big English Channel swim!
As we get closer to the swims we will be putting up more blogs, videos and pictures of the build up to the events (and the events themselves!) as well as kicking up fundraising to the next gear, so make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest information!
Last but definitely not least, please keep donating to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research using the link below, and many thanks to all of you that have donated so far! This is the reason I am doing all this, and I appreciate every penny you can spare.
https://www.justgiving.com/teambrophy/
Thanks!
Welcome to another blog from me, this one focused towards training for the summer ahead!
With spring less than a few weeks away I know that in this final month before the open water season, training will be psychically hard. The feeling of the fresh outdoors less than a month away will really drive me to train day in day out at the top level. This is something that is a real challenge, the mental side of regular and continuous high level training. Being able to motivate myself at 6am in the morning to jump out of bed, grab my swimming gear, head to a morning training session and push myself to the max. Then working 9-5:30 before a gruelling 2 hour swim, before you know it it’s 9:30pm and your body feels exhausted.
During a normal day I will be training and working from 6am till 9:30pm before I get a chance to relax, socialise and catch up on any work/tasks that I may have to do. However, normally come 9:30pm I am straight to bed, drained and ready for an early start on the next day.
On Mondays due to coached training I will not get home before 10:30pm, and will generally go straight to bed due to the demanding session that has just gone by. It’s safe to say that my life has become very un-social and both psychically and mentally demanding. There’s a saying that is used a lot – “living for the weekends” – and this is very true for me.
With open water training so close I really cannot wait! There are many very cold sessions along with the famous training camp that will push me to the max in every way possible. The more short term worry is if my swim wetsuit will still fit me, with all this training I have noticed a big change in body shape which has been terrible for the pocket, having to buy new clothes to fit the new me!
For me, this month signals the start of the count down to one of the greatest challenges known to man and possibly the greatest challenge I will ever face. The route to the channel swim is nearly upon me and the start of something great!
