Alan Murchison's blog by Alan_Murchison

I know there are some mixed feelings out there about London 2012, and some general apathy towards events, but I am very excited about the whole thing. Watching sporting excellence, almost regardless of the event and sport, is timeless and always truly inspirational. Who could forget Jonny Wilkinson scoring a drop-kick in the last seconds of the Rugby World Cup, Liverpool coming from 0-3 down to win the Champions League final, or Nadal vs. Federer in the Wimbledon final in 2008?    

Embracing the Olympic spirit, I have decided that in the next 52 weeks I will try to do a different Olympic event every week. I am a couple of weeks behind schedule so I will double up for a while. Some events will be straight forward which is perfect for someone with my limited capabilities; 1,500m freestyle swimming and 5k track running should be a breeze. However, others will be more challenging I am sure. This will form part of my cross training programme and hopefully keep me in reasonable shape during my time away from running.

This week I am in Majorca, so I have played beach volleyball and attempted a 10k open water swim. Beach volleyball looked like it would be an easy start; stand about in the sand wearing your Speedos looking at pretty girls, how hard can that be?! I didn't get into it at all though and reckon I need to try it with better players, as most of our time was spent retrieving the ball and spitting sand! Not a proper sport in my view, and for posers.

Now for a very tough one; 10k open water swim. I am able to do 1500/1800m no problem in a pool, but to be honest doing 10k was somewhat daunting, especially given I am in Majorca and the only open water is the sea. Could I do 6.2 miles without drowning? I can do 1k in the pool easily in under 20 minutes, so even if I could maintain that pace it was going to be a big ask. I decided to do 10x1km loops as I can do laps of the bay. Oh my God! I thought I was going to die! The first hour was okay, but the second hour was one of the hardest things I have done. I reckon I did 5k in total before having to stop. Afterwards I seriously thought I was going to pass out in the water, which in the sea might not have been a good idea! Britain’s David Davies took silver in the Beijing Olympics with a mind boggling time of 1.51, whereas I managed about 5k in two hours and just about survived to tell the tale. The 10k open water swim is a proper hardcore event, make no bones about it.

Two events down and the next Olympic event still to be decided. In total I want to do 52 different events in the 52 weeks leading up to the start of the Olympics. Any suggestions from realbuzz bloggerists please? This could be a very, very bad idea.