Back in the Pool. Concept 2 challenge

Saturday 4th October
Well after all the outdoor adventure its time to knuckle down and do indoor things. I must say that after all the excitement, my motivation dipped. I have reflected on the big swim and there are a couple of things I have pondered. One thing is that I am amazed at the power of the brain. My back troubled me throughout the swim but even if it hadn't I believe my experience would have been the same. One moment I would feel really strong and comfortable and at one with nature and literally the next second my body and soul would be screaming at me in complete panic! So from 'Yup I could do the channel if I wanted, probably both ways at this rate....' to 'I can't do this, I feel sick and I'm definitely going to faint!' Fighting the demons is surely the biggest challenge.

I also know that I just can't go any faster. I just get there in the end. I can't....I mean it. I'm still just a woman who is the wrong side of middle age and who has historically and hysterically battled with weight and whose motivation and willpower is about as consistant as the stock market. Give me a break I can't go any faster OK?

So back in the pool the consensus is that I need to concentrate on speed. Harry and Linda, the stoic coach of the Stingrays, stood above me on the poolside last Thursday morning chuntering about how I could go faster, I just don't know how.

So here's the plan. I will be doing speed sessions in the pool twice a week concentrating on 500 meter sets. I'll log my times at the risk of boring you senseless. Then a third session in the week will be slower stretchy distance work. I need to buy some new hand paddles which are a better deign than the ones I bought in 1982 apparently. All this will be supplemented with indoor rowing.

I have signed up to the Concept 2 challenge in order to increase my motivation on the rower. This is a series of challenges which you can sign up to on line. Septembers challenge was to row as fast as you can for 4 minutes, and you then log the distance you covered in that time. I managed 982 meters and came 49th out of 64 women in my age group which is the over 40's (just!) Octobers challenge is to row 2000 meters as quickly as possible. This morning I logged 8 minutes 57 seconds and then decided I could do better. So I tried again and did it in 8 minutes 46 seconds. I guess the challenge works then, as normally I would have done it once and then gone to lie down with some chocolate!

Take a look on www.concept2.co.uk/challengeseries

Can I keep this up as a winter plan? What do you think? I'll keep you posted.

By the way we are having a fundraising meeting on Wed 8th Oct at Bar 12 in Stranraer at 5.30pm. I'll do an update on how our summer went and then update plans for some events leading up to the big swim.