A great way to go mad...

I finally made it home after a long, hot drive, and have had a little time to reflect on the the Ireland camp, and to think about where my training is going to go next.


I reckon that I did 33 hours of swimming over the 9 days, covering approximately 100km. This is WAY more than I usually do, and I've found it utterly exhausting, but at the same time, am delighted that I managed to complete every single swim in reasonably good shape. The swimming was absolutely amazing, in a wide range of stunning locations; the company was excellent; the weather was fantastic. I really enjoyed being able to swim and chat with people with so much swimming experience, and who are as lost to the whole Channel swimming thing as I seem to have become. As someone on the camp noted, there is something quite mad about this whole business, but what a great way to go mad. Thanks to everyone for such a great week.

Looking forwards, rather dauntingly, it's two weeks until my Jersey to France swim window opens, and 8 weeks to the start of my Channel swim slot. I'm hoping to go down to Dover next weekend for a long swim, and then to rest a bit before J2F; after that, I'll hopefully be focussing most of my training on the Dover weekends. I feel like my prep has gone well, and I just want to consolidate as much as possible, whilst staying as welll as possible.

This is all starting to get a bit serious now....