Solent "dry" run

So - 13 days to go till the 13th. Too many 13s for my liking. Si and I had our first actual training swim in the Solent today, accompanied by Si's brother in law, Ed, in his RIB. Discovered some good and some bad things.

The bad - it's busy out there, luckily it's pretty easy to spot a couple of swimmers all in black, in a big sea, from a super tanker; current's quite strong and you don't make much progress when you have to swim against it; with an easterly wind, the sea was pretty big and that makes it slightly tougher than the local pool; wetsuit chafing - may have to use some vaseline next time, pretty sure I've got some.

The good - warmer than expected. Amazing what a difference 2 degrees makes; we both left the water feeling we could rise to the challenge on the day, and we both look great in rubber, as you can see; no sharks, this time, but quite a lot of seaweed.

Tomorrow the plan is to swim round the Old Fort which I guess is about 2k, which should be a good run. I gather Si's cousin did it when she was 8, which is somewhat emasculating. Let's hope we make it.

Training update

Well with only a couple of weeks left, thought I would let you know how training is going...and somewhat surprisingly - pretty well!

Always a sucker for a bit of technical kit, I splashed out (clever - see what i've done there?) a quite frankly ludicous amount of money on a swimming wetsuit and whist it has severe competition, it could possibly be the greatest technical fibre I have bought to date.

Road tested in the Isle of Wight over Easter (the coldest time of the year for the Solent and my god was it cold) it did me proud. Unfortunately the lack of any headware prevented me from sticking my head in the water for more than about 10 strokes so it was a pretty short roadtest mostly involving breaststroke...

However, only a couple of weeks later and we were back in action in Galicia, Spain. 15 degrees water temp held no barriers as it sorted me out no end for a few training swims. The only issue that I did have was a slightly dsconcerting realisation that I don't actully like swimming in the open sea... Something about an over-active imagination and too many Jaws films as a child make me fear the sea-beasties that don't exist and make me convinced that I am about to be shark bait. Usually this is a temporary feeling so hopefully (fingers crossed) I should be ok...bit of a bugger if not...oh well, here's hoping...

Dom & I also have started training in a gravel pit outside Heathrow (glamorous I know). Quite scary - lots of fairly grown up Triathletes looking very serious. What with my general co-ordination and Dom's immense physicaly presnce we look right at home...

We have also done some last minute logistics (re)organisation so we are nearly there - another post to follow shortly with our final plans

If you've got any advice for me about how to overcome my Jaws fears then I am all ears - just click on the link below to give me your toptips...