Getting started

Well...this is my first attempt at blogging, but here goes.

I'm training to swim the English Channel - I'm booked with pilot Paul Foreman to swim on the tide beginning August 17th, 2010; I'm also going to be joining a three person relay in August 2009 with some triathlon colleagues. I've always thought it would be an amazing thing to do, but never even imagined trying it until last summer, when I met several people who'd swum it. One thing led to another, and before I knew where I was, I'd booked a pilot and was actually going to do it! This is the perfect time to try. For the last few years, I've been doing triathlon (which is great fun, even though I'm shockingly bad at it), but in early 2008, a niggly knee injury put me out of running / cycling action, leaving me to focus on swimming, which was always my favourite bit of triathlon anyway.

I'm currently training with several local clubs - Warwick University Triathlon Club, Coventry Triathletes and City of Coventry Swimming Club (Masters) - up to about 25km a week. It's hard to know how much I should be doing, or what else I should be doing, but I'm reading as much as I can and for now, am happy to be learning as I go. Next week, I'm off to Malta with Swimtrek for one of their long-distance training camps, so hopefully I'll learn more there; I'm also hoping to have a go at the 6-hour qualification swim, although given that my longest swim so far has been 3 hours, that's probably a bit optimistic. Still....plenty of time yet; it's a big adventure.