24th June 2007: Dover Training

I was feeling pretty good about this week, until Saturday.  Speed was picking up, I was happy with the hours that I'd managed to get in the pool.  We had been warned that the weekend would be tough, and with forecasts of thundery showers on Saturday and light rain for Sunday, a tough weekend was about to become really tough.  I was mentally prepared and 'up for' six hours and seven hours respectively.

Unfortunately Saturday was not to be.  I woke up with a sore throat, earache and a splitting headache.  The drive would be a challenge, the swim impossible.  I had been absolutely shattered all week, so I guess I was either coming down with something, or was suffering from exhaustion.  Either way, rest was the only option, and it did me the world of good.  Having spoken to others, the July soloists did a 7 hour swim, I don't know if everyone did this, but I was surprised how gutted I was to have missed it.

Sunday was better, just the remnants of a headache.  So I headed off for Dover psyched up for 7 hours.  It was only 6.  I did feel like a bit of a cheat.  The water felt warm, but the conditions were very tough with rain and very choppy water.  Despite that I felt like I was flying for the first 4 hours.  At 3 hours, I asked 'Barry the Shingle Stomper' if I could do 7, but was told 6 was enough, I was disappointed for a while, but once I hit the wall at 4 hours and kept head-butting it for the rest of the swim I was very glad with the response!

Barrie Wakeham - the 'Shingle Stomper'