Brrr...brrr...brrrr...

Okay...enough with the cold. It's May 17th, and quite frankly, I feel like we're owed some decent weather. You expect the beginning of the open water season to not be particularly warm - frantic lakeside shivering, followed by spilling hot soup all over the inside of the car because you're shaking too much to get it successfully from flask to cup and then cup to mouth is all part of the ritual. But I had to defrost the car windscreen on Tuesday morning before driving to the pool, which is just ridiculous, and Bosworth is still stubbornly hovering around the 11-12 degree mark. But the forecast promises some wate-warming sunshine this week, so I live in hope.

In the mean time, I have recovered from my previous wobble and am now back focussing on the task at hand. I went up to Swan Pool for the first time this year last week and managed an hour in 10 degree water, which felt like good progress on my part... although this also let to the unfortunate soup-in-car incident. Tomato soup too - the car looked a bit like I'd been slaughtering livestock in it. And then I went to Bosworth on Saturday (a balmy 12 degrees) and did the full two hours. I think I probably stayed in a little bit too long and this is probably the coldest I've been; it was only after a couple of hours under the duvets at home that I felt properly warm again...but then again, I was really overtired, so was looking for an excuse to go back to bed anyway. But it felt good to have stuck it out, and it was definitely made easier by the sun poking through half way through the swim.

On a very different note, I managed to set new PBs for 50m and 200m last week, so things feels like they're coming together generally with the swimming. (No need to alert the swimming authorities about the toppling of these PBs - I am still thoroughly mediocre when it comes to any speed-related task).

So, it's all good. I feel focused and enthusiastic, and physically, I'm feeling great with no injuries. And to today is exactly 3 months to the start of my tide!!!! In honour of this, Bob (the campervan) has been hosed down, scrubbed up and stocked with food, ready for my first trip of the year down to Dover this weekend.

Now...all we need is some sunshine....