Henley (an abridged version)

So where were you at 8am last Sunday morning? drinking latte and reading the morning papers? taking breakfast in bed, walking the dog, still blissfully asleep?

Well I found myself simultaneously in that rubber suit and the River Thames skulking under Henley Bridge (as you do). I did have company though with about 300 others awaiting the start of the Henley "Bridge to Bridge" swim. A mere 14 kilometres, quite a daunting prospect when the furthest you've ever swum in one go is is 5km (see here)

Now Bob, who of course has been on great Binge Bashing form recently has taken his training very seriously and done any number of 5 and 6 km open water swim, had given this event quite a lot of thought and came up with a cunning plan: Suggested that he was going to avoid the usual scrum at the start by hanging at the back and then just working his way through the field.

I thought this was a smart tactic and would stop me from going out too fast and at an unsustainable pace. So we hovered at the back until things got going, and then tentatively set out. The swim runs 14.1 km from Henley Bridge to Marlow Bridge. The Leander Rowing Club is the race HQ and has quite the poshest pre race bogs I've ever experienced. They still hummed a bit as the old flight, fright or s***e syndrome is seriously in play here

Now I'm still relatively new to these things but thought that the organisation was pretty good. The race has a mass start, and at the first feed station ( 4 km down stream) you are sorted into groups (rather endearingly referred to as pods). By then I'd settled into a comfortable pace and was swimming with people pretty much my speed.

The descent downstream was then controlled as you finish off the swim in your pod, whilst being shepherded down the river by a couple of safety canoeists, (who did a pretty good job of fending off pleasure craft and barges.)

There are 4 feed stations 3 of which are situated at points where you need to exit the river to navigate around a lock. The first feed station came up really quickly just as I was beginning to get into a decent rhythm, working my way nicely through the field. I had lost Bob by this stage and couldn't tell if he was in front or behind me.

By this point I was glad of the lumps of Mars bars, Malt loaf and Boost bars which were on hand in bite sized pieces to refuel. Teenage triathlete was doing a sterling job on the tow path as the support team and I was encouraged by the news that Bob was in the pod behind.

The next stop was at just over half way at Medmenham, and I was quite surprised at how rural the scenery was over this leg (at one point I even saw some sheep).

The third feed station popped up at Hurley Lock, by now we had covered 10k. After a cup of hot chocolate and more Mars bar I discovered some bits of Snickers amongst the offerings, I had no idea how divine the change in texture and saltiness of a peanut could be.

Hurley also presented the biggest challenge of the swim as to avoid the lock we had to swim across the southern most part of the tributary, climb out and then walk across a little island, (very painful on the feet despite the odd bit of matting here and there) and then re enter the water on the northern side below the lock.

The re entry point was very shallow and rocky and there was a tendency to wobble and stagger which of course only enhanced the pain. In the end it was all too much for me and I lay down in the water on my tummy and dragged myself into the deeper part, doing a pretty good impression of a beached whale, (I was a bit worried that Greenpeace might pop up and halt proceedings by slapping "save the whale" stickers on my bum) not a very elegant but an effective solution.

After Temple lock it was a couple of clicks to the finish and the usual spurt to the finish line as Binge discovers her leg kick.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the swim, there wasn't a single spot where I had thoughts of getting out.

I have to say however that by the end my upper arms were beginning to seize up and trying to lift my arms above my head for the next 48 hours was excruciatingly painful.

A great day out and well worth the effort as the natural order of swimming was restored in the Binge household as I watched Bob finish! which makes us all square at two each for the year!

Bored Beyond Belief come back EMSC 1.0: 31st July Last Session before Consett's summer break

After Sundays straight 3.2k swim you would think I would appreciate a bit of variety in Wednesday night's swim.

I dropped into the "joggers" lane and set off, followed by "Madders" probably the one triathlete on the planet that I can stay in front of (but only just!).

It felt really and truly terrible and I very quickly passed my boredom threshold and took on the persona of moaning minnie. I discovered I wasn't the only person being challenged by the session.

Madders came up with the line "this session is so boring, it could've been written by Bob!" Which made me chuckle, as whilst it's entirely untrue I had a great image of an incandescently outraged Bob who would be mortally offended at the suggestion that he could write a non-interesting session and undoubtedly found that comment almost blasphemous.

I kept going till the end so I guess that's a bit of a silver lining.

Warm up 4 x 200 200 swim, 133 pull 66 swim 133 kick 66 swim 200 swim
4 x 200 @ 3:45
3 x 133 @ 2:40
2 x 66 @ 1:35
3 x 200 @ 3:45
3 x 133 @ 2:40
2 x 66 @ 1:35
2 x 200 @ 3:45
1 x 133 @ 2:40
2 x 66
33 swim down
3933

Weather halts first Flog on the Tyne

Saturday evening brought a torrential downpour on Tyneside not quite as bad as the June 2012 flooding, but serious enough to cancel the Tyne River training swim.

I was hoping that I would be able to check off about 11k in my challenge today as we were planning a swim from Newburn to the Quayside.

But the risk of the sewerage systems overflowing with the volume of water resulted in our swim being cancelled on elf and safety grounds. Gross.

Bother, turned up at Consett and "elected" to swim the aerobic set with Clarkie a 3k straight swim. Actually squeezed out 3200 metres in just under an hour which gave me my first green week since April.

It was mind numbingly boring though! but I'm quite relieved I was talked into the swim at Ellerton yesterday.

3200 straight swim
100  swim down

Gentle Paddle around Ellerton

I am allegedly planning a training swim down the Tyne tomorrow, it is reputedly about 11 - 12 k and I'm a bit concerned as the furthest distance I've ever swum is 5k. My plan today was to have a day off and rest up!

I was then talked into doing a "gentle" 3k event at Ellerton Lake in North Yorkshire. On the basis that it was a very low key affair.

I decided beforehand that under no circumstances was I going to be drawn into a race with Bob and also that as it was such a lovely day and the temperature was a very pleasant 22 degrees that I was going to save my neck from any further vicious wet suit rubs and swim in my cossie.

I set off at a fairly steady pace and was happy to let Bob get on with it when he passed me at the first turn. (Happy may be slightly overstating my views about the situation but I wasn't going to chase him down).

A swimmer in a rather fetching pink cap also passed me at this point but managed to go spectacularly off course and started swimming back the way we'd come. My aim then became to stay in front of this navigationally challenged swimmer (believing "it" to be female). I was helped in this aim by a repeat of this error the second time around.

By the third and fourth lap I was beginning to get into my stride and picked up my stroke cadence to make sure I stayed ahead of Pinky and I was also pretty sure that I was catching Bob down the back straight (although I will concede this could simply be my wishful thinking).

So despite it being two-nil according to Bob, (who conveniently forgets about the 20 years worth of defeats I've inflicted upon him) a great morning out, a lovely low key event and I even managed to swim through some weeds without worrying about what was lurking in them! I also discovered that Pinky was a guy called Martin, as we swopped experiences about the race afterwards.

Fantastic morning but will this have completely bu**ered me up for tomorrow? Only one way to find out!

Surfs Up ! (Inspired by a Spire swim)

Talk about "wild swimming", turned up on the boat ramp at Tynemouth at about 7 pm this evening  with a handful of other Tossers. Most of whom eschewed wetsuits!

What a bunch of animals, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and stuck with the rubber suit. We struck out for a swim along the beach to the Spire and back a quick 2k.

It was pretty choppy on the swim out but as we turned and headed for home a pretty big swell sprung up which made swimming hard work but great fun, and really challenged my sense of direction.

It was great fun and I caught a couple of great rides onto the beach body surfing. A fantastic evening I didn't want to get out. All in all well worth leaving the sofa and telly for.

Now there's something you don't do every day!

Bit of an unusual day today, as for some unfathomable reason I was called upon at the invitation of a red Judge (that's a High Court Judge for the non lawyers amongst you) to give a speech of welcome at a swearing in ceremony for a new District Judge on behalf of the Local Law Society. (God when and how did I become so establishment!)

Swearing in ceremony? "easy peasy", my work colleagues will undoubtedly testify that I'm an accomplished master in expressing the most basic and base anglo saxon.

About 9 o clock last night I suddenly panicked about the enormity of this and spent about 4 hours crafting a few coherent and hopefully appropriate sentences, which including looking the Judge up in Debretts and working out how I should address him. My Lord!

Just as well I did because it was a frightfully formal but strangely uplifting experience as Newcastle's newest recruit to the bench swore to uphold the law without fear or favour or ill will to man. Wonderful sentiments; but I have to say it was one of the most intimidating experiences of my life as I stood up to address a room full of judges.

Well I survived this ordeal more or less intact and was rewarded by Bob volunteering to babysit teenage triathlete so I could go swimming. Now it's been about 3 months since I inflicted myself on my team mates at Gateshead and I rocked up this evening to discover the squad had been ravaged by holidays. Quiet Claire and myself sneaked into the guys lane as none of them had turned up.

There was a brief opportunity to catch up on the new babies in the squad, Awesome Emma's daughter and Marie Helene's son and then it was down to business. As you can see in the absence of Fairy Snow Baby, Matt the Cash and Proudy it fell to me to set the session and it has all the hallmarks of a Binge Special.

Synchro dad turned up during the first kick set and then proceeded to hurl abuse at me for the rest of the session, god I've missed these guys!

Warm Up 800 change stroke each 25
8 x 25 kick @ 50 secs
400 pull with paddles @ 7 mins
2 x 200 pull with paddles @ 3:30
4 x 100 pull with paddles @ 1:50
8 x 25 kick @ 55 secs
4 x 100 IM @ 2:15
2 x 200 IM @ 4:30
400 IM
8 x 25 sprint 7 metres strong for remainder of length
200 swim down
4000 metres total

Broken Binge?

Now the trouble with being horribly unfit is that when you do eventually make it back into the water you have completely gone to pot. Your feel for the water is non existent, your timing is off, your breathing sucks (in all the wrong places) and your judgement at turns is woeful.

To add insult to injury I successfully managed to smash my foot off the trough during one turn. At least I hit the wall that time which was something I singularly failed to do in the rest of the session.

I was also periodically suffering from cramp in my toes and ruminating that I should have stayed at home watching the TV.

Evil Mutant Swim Coach 1.0 kept encouraging me that this particular repeat should be "fast," I advised him it was all relative as I tried to hang onto the back spot in the joggers lane. Ah well I've clawed back one lost day in the mile a day challenge.

333 m 6wim, 33 kick, 66 swim, 33 pull, 66 swim
3 x 100 @ 1:45 hard
6 x 100 2 @333 m 66 swim, 66 kick, 66 swim, 66 pull, 66 swim
266 m 66 s 1:45 hard 1 @ 2:00 recovery x 2
9 x 100 1 @ 1:45 hard 2 @ 2:00 recovery x 3
swim down
300 100 kick, 100 pull, 100 swim
266 66 kick, 100 pull, 100 swim
233 66 kick, 66 pull, 100 swim
200 33 kick, 66 pull 100 swim
33 flop to the end
3433