No two open water swimming seasons are the same.

After an amazing winter season in the pool, including an odd dip in the lake (get me!), I was expecting that the transition to open water this season would be seamless, not enough to be able to give Keri-anne Payne a run for her money (there's the two hundred year age gap for starters...), but enough to see noticeable improvements. It wasn’t, and I don’t mind sharing with you the fact that I found it difficult, frustrating, uncomfortable and slow going, and what made it difficult to understand was that this is my fourth year of open water swimming, and every year before this I have had no problems at all, and there was no obvious reason as to why this year would be so different.

And so as things haven’t gone according to plan, and with Great North Swim just around the corner, time is not on my side, I started to look at what might be going wrong. I really needed to get to the bottom of it, and quickly (and potentially something to blame). 

Sadly holding something accountable proved to be more difficult than I thought. I thought of blaming the weather, but officially we've had the sunniest and warmest May since records began in 1910 (and you can't argue with the experts, can you?), which in turn meant that the water temperatures have been warmer too. My first swim at the beginning of May this year was a balmy 13.9oc compared to the same week last year where it was a life affirming 10.1oc. I can’t blame my wetsuit either, as I wore it all of last season without problem, and whilst I know you’re wondering if I’d piled on some timber over the winter, the answer is no (although I thoroughly deserve to, I ate so much cake). I’d followed my pre swim routine diligently, and so knew getting into the lake I was warm enough, and so couldn’t blame being cold either. I’d even wondered if there was a way in which I could legitimately blame the fish, or actually any wildlife in general (specifically my Stalker Swan) for my poor performance, but sadly my lack of love for fishes and is not enough reason to blame them either, although I would dearly love it to be.

Step in my diligent swim buddy. It was very obvious from our very many conversations that I am not one bit happy, and so she suggests that rather than moaning about it constantly, that I perhaps look a little closer to home for the actual issue. Her delivery of  “just get your sh*t together” was as blunt as it gets, but sometimes all you need is a swift metaphorical kick to galvanise you into action. 

And it did. As I don't have the luxury of time to get this sorted I needed to do as I was told, and so I contacted Leon at one of the lakes I swim at, to ask for his thoughts, opinions and some help. The following day I went to the lake, where he had arranged for one of his coaches to spend a couple of hours with me, for which I am very grateful. She watched me swimming from the side, and from the elevated position of the jetty. She then got in the water with me offering me feedback as we went. I was also videoed by my friend Karen, and so I could see for myself what was happening. They were able to identify straight away what was going on, meaning that I will have enough time before the Great North Swim to put the tweaks into practice and have a more enjoyable swim than was possible before. 

After my session at the lake, swim bud Shark and I were putting the swim world right (over post swim chip shop chips of course) and discussing a plan moving forwards when it suddenly dawned on me that whilst I have been so busy over the last few weeks concentrating on my poor performance, and then focusing on “getting my sh*t together,” one thing that I haven’t had time to focus on is any aquatic livestock that live in the lake (or swans for that matter). I have literally spent the whole month not giving them any thoughts whatsoever, and whilst I am not convinced that I am cured of my lack of love, due to the fact that I am not entirely sure how I will respond when I do come face to face with an actual real life moving fish, but I suppose one could argue that it could loosely be considered an unexpected silver lining on the back of my terrible 2018 open water season so far! 

For those of you that enjoy my blogs, my book Open Water Woman Swims Windermere is now available in paperback and electronically on Amazon.

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Open Water Woman