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 ...