"Just to give you all a quick update on how my training is progressing for my English Channel Relay. I am currently 8 months into the training plan and for the most part I have been sticking with the plan. I am still trying to swim 6 times a week, which includes one long swim and 5 smaller (2 – 3 km) swim sessions. I have increased the distance of the long weekly swim from 4 to 12 km over the last 8 months. I just completed my first 12 km last Friday. As all my training is still being performed in the pool I had the pleasure of completing 600 lengths of the Clarion (20m pool). I broke the 12km swim up into two sessions; doing 6km in 2 hours before work and then finished off with 6km in 2 hours 5 minutes after work. This replicates how the relay swim will go on the day with us taking turns swimming two hours on and two hours off. Lots of people have been asking me how I keep track of the number of lengths I’ve done and what I think about as I’m swimming and the same answer covers both!! I count …. In my head I break the swim up into 1km (50 lengths) segments and just focus on completing each 1km at a time. Although I try not count down the number of km’s I’ve left to do I do get a big push knowing I’ve reached the half way mark of a long swim. I’m hoping to brave the open water at some stage in March and will slowly acclimatize to the cold water (with no wet suit) over the next few weeks, which should be fun! So to date I am happy with the way the training is progressing and really excited about getting back into the sea. Lap swimming in the pool can get a bit monotonous although all the support I have been getting from the club members in the pool has been great. I’ll keep you posted on how the cold water acclimatization is going and if you like you can keep track of our progress through our facebook page and website:
www.ourchannelswim.com and http://www.facebook.com/ourchannelswim
Lynsey Dunne
