The most wonderful words I have heard in the past three weeks were uttered on television last Thursday:
"...and Friday will have a high of 29 degrees, with the weekend hot and dry and sunny. We're looking at highs of 30 degrees on Saturday..."
Of course, since the ocean takes a lot longer to warm up, I didn't expect it to be more than 14 degrees celcius. However, after two weeks of 12 degree water, I was quite happy to take 14 degrees. It's all relative: three weekends ago I was dreading 14 degree water... now I welcome it like manna from heaven.
In the end, it was still really numbingly cold in the water, but having clear blue skies and the sun on our backs made the experience profoundly different. It drove home to me just how much your mental attitude makes a difference. The water was barely different from a weekend ago, but I achieved three hours with no problem on Saturday and made it to four on Sunday- more than doubling my previous personal bests.
In the four hours, by my calculation, I swam roughly 16 km. This is almost halfway across the Channel, which is reassuring, in a way. If I can make it out there, I won't have much choice but to keep going forward- it's the same distance either way!
Posted by pj at June 20, 2005 06:50 PMYay, good to hear that things are looking up and you have gone half the distance. It looks like it will get hotter. Was watching Wimbeldon Tennis and everyone was perspiring profusely (I mean speactators and not players!. Hopefully AUG will stay that way.
Posted by: Suh-Ting at June 22, 2005 11:58 PMeh, good luck brother. where are you based now?
i'm leaving tommorrow but will be back in london on 12 of july.
by the way, i had hypothermia when i swam in a 14 deg lake last year, and that was with wetsuit. so i'm glad you're coming early to acclimatize.