France

I finished the swim on Sunday. Yes, no surprises that I left it to the last day of the challenge to do the last fifty lengths.

France looked a lot like the Virgin Active Health Club Bromley.

Who knew?

Anyway. It is all over now and we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Many thanks again for supporting me, if you supported me. xxx

PS: Sproglet, you can try and visit the link and sponsor me, if you feel that strongly about it. I'm guessing you don't feel ever so strongly, having left it this long? *Jo sobs quietly at lack of a SprogSponsor.* No, not really and I don't know how long the fundraisining page stays open. Plus, I bet you don't have an appropriate payment card and I can't be frigged handling actual sponsor money at this late stage... I know you were supporting me in your heart! x

Countdown to Calais

So. Week 12! The final week of the challenge. Hoorah. I am so OVER swimming!!

As you might have guessed from previous posts on the topic of swimming and the name of my other blog - 'Better Late Than Never'... Things can get left to the last minute with me. I have generally been a bit behind on this challenge -well pretty much the whole way through. For various reasons, I never quite caught up with the lengths that I missed when I spent a week on a boat instead of a week in the water, back in September (mostly down to too many boozey nights out since then and an incredible ability to talk myself out of going to the pool for the slightest excuse!)

So in true Oglet style, I started this week with 200 lengths still to swim. Oooops. This challenge was meant to be 120 lengths a week on average. So I'd found myself a fair way behind that for the last week.

Panic not. I have turned things around already and France is in sight. I can almost smell the roasted cheval and frites... Mmmmm, nom nom pony steak.

Yes, I swam Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday (today) 50 lengths each and I only have 50 lengths of the challenge left to complete. I plan to go and finish those off on Friday. Watch this space :)

In other news. The pool has been feeling distinctly chilly this week. Today the lifeguard (young zitty one, not the hotty) says to me. "I'm sorry the pool is very cold today, we have trouble with the thermostat. We are doing everything we can to fix it" I said "Yes, it has been chilly all week." Today, things had gone from bad to worse though - they had a hose pumping hot water into the pool and it was only really heating up one corner of my lane. One tiny corner of the whole pool. Seems a bit wasteful, but I daren't even think how much energy it takes for normal pool water maintanence and heating.

I would make a complaint, but I think it adds a pinch of reality to the feeling of "channel swimming". I hope they don't have to close the pool down to fix it and not open it again in time for my final Friday swim. I might have to finish the challenge in a public pool. Oh NO. That will be too close to reality for my liking. Pool Snob? Yes it seems that way. Sorry.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has sponsored me. My latest sponsors were my Mum and Dad. With their generous donation of 50 pounds and if we include GiftAid donations, I've raised nearly 200 quid in total. so that is lovely... Thank you all x

Oh, If you haven't done it yet. You still can. Fank you. No Pressures x

Week 10

I swam 50 lengths yesterday and 50 lengths today.

I'm at 1140 now.

276 left to go in the last two weeks.

Exciting isn't it. No.

Have you sponsored me yet??

In other news, I weigh considerably less on the scales at the gym than I do on my home scales, but I still weigh the same at my house and overall I'd say that doesn't tell us a lot. So technically, my master plan of weight loss has still not materialised...

The lush lifeguard was on his lunch break at the time I was swimming today, but I passed him in the street, just before I got to the gym and he did a little eyebrow raise style "Hello", which I'm almost certain meant, not just Hello, but: "Hey, you are an absolute hottie, would you like to go for a drink sometime?" Yes I'm almost certain that is what it meant. Almost certain. Yes.

OK That is all now. Cheers x

Just a quickie...

Swam 80 lengths today. I'm past 1000 - 1040 to be exact... So 376 remaining now!

80 lengths - took roughly an hour: 2km though, all in one go - my longest swim yet.

Well I'm in Rome until Wednesday of next week, so unlikely to get much swimming done there.

Have a nice week x

The Latest In Swim-Land – Week 9 already.

The 22 miles in 12 weeks Aspire Channel Swim Challenge continues with the overall target of 1416 lengths to cover.

We are in week nine now. Over the last eight and a bit weeks, I have swum* 20 times, covering 960 lengths.

I have three and a bit weeks left until the challenge ends and 456 lengths left to cover. I should be able to do this in about nine more visits to the pool.

Come On People. This is do-able...

If you haven’t sponsored me yet, maybe you’d like to do it now??? Or maybe you would prefer not to sponsor me and I understand that too.

For regular followers. I still haven’t lost any weight from this challenge, but the lifeguard did smile, wave and mouth hello at me today… Oh yeah! : )

*swum? That word just doesn’t sound right, but the spell check didn't kick, so it must be fine.

FANX AGAIN.

V Quick update...

7 weeks.
16 Swims
750 lengths.

I should really have got to about 830 lengths by now, but I can't blog any more plans or tactics to make up the defecit, I'm just trying not to drown in the horror of the challenge for now.

Cheers.

Swim Week 6 and still playing catch up.

So... where were we? Well, by the end of week five, I'd made up a fair amount of my ongoing defecit... I got up to 550 lengths after four good swims.

Week 6 began and things slowed down to a halt. I didn't swim at all earlier in the week for reasons I'd rather not share with the whole of the world wide web. Oh ok, what the heck: I had a lot of flea bites about my person, which I acquired last weekend. They are not pleasing on the eye and I didn't fancy looking like a lepper in the pool. The fleas made me very unhappy.

However, the bites were looking and feeling less firey by Friday and I was learning to deal with the shame attached to my getting nibbled. I could wait weeks till the marks are gone entirely and that would have left the challenge completely up the swanny...

Hmmm: It was time to catch up with things. AGAIN...

Well, I've not caught up entirely, but I did swim 40 lengths at Friday lunch time and 60 today at the Virgin pool near my Mum and Dad's house in Bromley. It is nice there - it has natural daylight, which really makes a change from the darkened underground facilities at Islington. Islington is a lovely pool, but the beach picture that you swim towards doesn't compare to a real sky.

By this point I should be at least half way across the channel, but I'm crawling along a bit, finding the biggest challenge getting to the pool at all, rather than what happens once I'm there. So there we have it: six weeks in (half way) and to date, I've managed 650 lengths, which for the mathematicians amidst you is 58 lengths short of halfway from my ultimate goal of 1416 lengths.

For the record, I'm fed up with this challenge. I'm fed up of finding the time to swim. I'm fed up with lagging behind and never quite managing to catch myself up to where I should be. There I said it. I'M FED UP. But... I said I'd do the bl**dy thing and however hateful it gets, I will keep plugging away. I'd be a lot more fed up with myself for not finishing and although I've not noticed any particular physical improvements, it must be doing me some good!

If you haven't done so already - why not sign away some cash here... No pressure ;)

Oh and no need to worry about those fleas. I treated the kitties on Monday and no I've had no new bites since then. PHEW. A complete infestation could have turned out really nasty. Keeping kitties isn't all glamour and giggles! Nor it would seem, is swimming the channel even when it is done over a long time period and in the comfort of a health club pool. x

Now up to 9 swims - 410 lengths to date

That is it really.

Now in week 5 of the challenge. I still have a considerable length defecit. By the end of this week, I should have done 600 lengths.

I'm aiming to get to 550 to close the gap a bit more...

Still no joy with the lifeguard.

No notable weight loss either.

Why am I doing this again?

Swim 7

50 more lengths today. Eat my dust motherlickers.

Being single and lazy, I haven't entirely kept on top of my personal grooming regime. I do however think the hair on my legs is beginning to cause unnecessary drag, so it must be time to get that Epilady fired up once more. Never mind the drag, how am I going to attract the lifeguard looking like a tankini'd woolly mammoth?

NICE! Never say I failed to share all the joy of this swimmy swim with you, my precious reader.

Swim 5 and 6 and a huge length defecit...

Well the swim challenge is really hotting up, or should I say cooling down?

I got led astray last week and only swam twice. Once on Tuesday (ah good, blogged that already), once on Friday. I had a really nice time last week - in my actual life, but by Friday, Swimmy Swim Number 5, I was so wickedly hung over that I only managed 30 lengths and every single one of them hurt my swollen bloated gassy hungover tummy :(

Not cool, not big and certainly not clever. So I begin week 4 of the challenge, 140 lengths behind. Do What?

Panic not. Swim 6 today and I swam 50 lengths. I plan to do the same thing three more times this week. Of course the best laid plans...but do watch this space!

I've done a graph, but I need to save it in a format that blogger will accept before I can show it to you... I probably need to swim a few more lengths to put on the graph too, so all the lovely people who have sponsored me don't go off at the deep end for my slow progress to date.

So - A bit sh!t right now, but please bear with me. I've done this sort of thing before and I know I can do it again. I won't let you down.

Someone suggested I train for a 10 k run too. I was taken with the idea at first, but I'm undecided on that. If I can't keep on top of one athletic challenge, I don't want to rush into entering into a whole new one at the same time ...

Week 3 (Swim 4)

So, I didn't blog Swim #3, but it did happen on Thursday 17th September. (50 lengths).

Last week I spent a lovely week on the River Wey and Godalming Navigations, but the aim was to stay out of the water, not end up in it. Thankfully I managed to stay on board the boat and today I resumed my swimming endeavours...

I went at lunch today and swam 50 more lengths. Oh yes I did & Now you guessed it some swimming sums : I've done 190 lengths (4,750 metres) now. By the end of this week, if I hadn't been on my hollibobbins last week, I'd have hoped to be at 360 lengths. I'm now aiming for something more in the region of 300. I know I said I'd make up the defecit by the end of this week, but I'm going to have to spread that out a bit.

That is it. It is only a sponsored swim after all. Even if it is a very long drawn out one (I'm feeling that already and it is only week 3...So I don't want to over-egg the omelette in terms of writing this sh*t up.

Fank U - Gd Nite. :)

Swim 2.

Second Swim today. Did 50 lengths. Yeah... 50 lengths. I've improved in a day. Ha ha. It took about 45 minutes and wasn't too hard going. I did three or four lengths back stroke just to stop me from drowing in boredom.

I rustled up a spreadsheet to keep track of progress. It has formulae and everything: It calculates lengths and distance remaining. Distance is in metres - I've only got 33,150 metres left to France :) Maybe I should try and calculate miles too...

There were no hilarious anecdotes today. Sorry.

Hmm, Maybe I won't update for every single swim. This could get uber-dull. I'm sure weekly updates will keep you keen and informed, unless some pool magic occurs, I think that is what I'll aim for.

SWIM 1 - A Brief Introduction & The Swimming Begins...

Rather than clog up my other blog with swim updates here is a brand new Oggy Blog, just about the swimming... Swimming updates probably won't be funny, although I'm sure in the course of swimming 120 lengths per week for the next twelve weeks, there will be some hilarious poolside anecdotes (or not...) Sod it, I've never let a lack of amusing tit bits prevent my other blog from struggling along, so here goes...

Anyway, this is all very specific: I'm doing this you see and fundraising here. Sponsor me if you are so inclined, but the main aim of taking part is to improve my fitness.

The challenge of swimming 22 miles (35.4 km) over 12 weeks equates to a grand total of 1416 lengths of a 25 metre pool. It started today and as above I need to swim roughly 120 lengths every week to complete the challenge. . Except, oh yeah, hmmm... all next week, I'm on holiday on a narrowboat and I don't fancy swimming in the canal any more than I fancy getting in the actual channel, so I either need to catch up with those 120 over the first few weeks or do more each week as the challenge progresses. I'm going to try and swim an extra 60 this week and an extra 60 the week after I get back, because I don't want to get behind with this early on. It is a pretty big commitment each week as it is.

My masterplan is to swim 40 lengths, 3 times a week, but I did this same challenge a few years back and that will probably change over the weeks depending on time commitments and how often I can get to the pool etc. I'm already realising I need to be a lot more organised in day to day life and probably drink less midweek to facilitate my ability to swim as regularly as I need to without drowning.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a walk in the park for me. I'm not the strongest swimmer you've ever met. I almost entirely swim breaststroke, because crawl gives me cramp and the breathing confuses me, but I'm hoping I'll try out crawl and backstroke too over the course of the challenge, for a bit of variety and to try and improve all three of the strokes a little bit, as I go along....

So Today - Swim One.
I swam 40 lengths (1 km) today and it was a bit of a struggle (all breaststroke, head above water and no goggles...) and it took almost 40 minutes. I am fairly certain that had I attempted even that 1km in the waters of the channel, I'd probably have drowned. Thankfully, I was at the Virgin Active pool and there were no tidal issues to contend with, so I plodded through it and am glad that things are underway. 1376 lengths left to go...I was quite conscious of feeling like a bit of a tubster in my cozzie and am hoping that will improve too over the weeks to come.

That is all for now. I need to swim tomorrow, Wednessday and Thursday too, if I'm going to make a bit of headway before the boat trip begins on Friday... So watch this space...