Carmen's Plodathon by SuperCaz

I've had a bit of a bleugh week.  Nothing really wrong with me, but lacking energy and enthusiasm.  I know the cause but don't really want to go into it on here.

Monday I organised a Full Moon swim in the sea.  Ten of us turned up to jump into the sea after dark.  It was a bit windy so the waves were significant and we all opted for a splash around in the sea for nearly an hour rather than a proper swim.  In traditional style we finished off with tea, cake and sausage rolls on the beach (one day I am going to get photos working on this computer and then you can get a better idea of what I do).

Then a few quite days to rest before I had a busy weekend  I was attending a training weekend at Dover for my English Channel attempt and on the way up there I had arranged to meet a friend for my first fresh water swim.

I arrived at the lake early and had a chance to walk around and survey the area.  It was beautiful and not at all what I was expecting.  One of the reasons I have put off fresh water swimming for so long is that rivers and lakes tend to be dirtier than the sea - more weed, water quality not as good and overgrown banks to fight through to get in and out, not to mention the occassional abandoned shopping trolley hidden in the depths.  But this lake couldn't be further from what I had imagined - a gentle sandy beach and almost no weed at all.

There was just one problem - blue/green algae.  I've never seen it before so didn't realise that was what it was, but we decided to ask at the information hut.  The water quality was good enough to swim in as the level of algae was considered low, but we decided that it didn't look nice and gave it a miss after only going in up to the knee.

Now before you all go off on one about how irresponsible the authorities were to let us swim in algae, here are a few myth busters.

Blue/green algae generally isn't harmful.  It can cause skin rashes in sensitive people who are in contact for prolonged periods but is harmless to any healthy individual who takes basic precautions such as not going in with open wounds.

Where it is harmful is when it is ingested in significant quantities.  Usually this is in children and todlers who walk through the debris washed up on the banks, and who have a habit of putting things in their mouths.  At this lake they were cleaning the beaches daily to prevent this from being a hazard.

So as long as you know the risks and take sensible precautions (such as washing hands before handling food and showering afterwards) you will be OK.  The reason we didn't want to swim in it was becasue it looked as if someone had thrown grass cuttings into the water and we didn't fancy the feeling of grass cuttings on our faces.

Moving on to Dover.  I hadn't realised how much I had missed the atmoshere of Dover.  To most people it is a run down town that doesn't have much going for it except a castle and a ferry port.  To me it is the centre of the Channel swimming community.

I bumped into friends I hadn't seen for a while and got to rub shoulders with people who have a lot more swimming experience than me.  The weather wasn't the best so there were a lot of swimmers booked into the same hotel as me that were waiting for a change in the conditions before attempting their crossing.

The hotel gets most of its trade from the swimmers so is very accommodating with providing services that most hotels wouldn't consider - like buckets of ice so that you can make your own ice bath, and accommodating specific dietry requirements.

Over two days I had three dips in the sea, with the longest one being about 1 hr 15 min.  Short swims by the standards that I need to reach, but it was more important for me to learn from the more experienced swimmers there than to get the miles in at this stage.

So I have come home full of enthusiam and ideas.  I'm an organiser so I am tempted to get going on a detailed training plan but it really is too early to be thinking about that.  However I do need to give a lot of thought to what events I want to enter next year so that I get a combination of support for some of my long swims, while not compromising my training needs.  I can get a bit carried away with entering every event in sight whether it fits in with my training or not.

This week I really need to get back into the running.  Time off is OK as long as it doesn't go on too long.