Jim 1: Channel 0. Now for the return match!

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

Sue, if you think I'm carrying this stuff and then just going to give it up, you've got another think coming!

It'll go very nicely with my Easter meal - which will be the first meat I'll have had since Shrove Tuesday.

 

[pesty]

I dont know how you do it!! The swimming would be an almost impossible thing for me to do but to give up meat for more than a day?? DEFINITLY IMPOSSIBLE!!

You should be so proud of yourself for getting this far then MASSIVELY proud when you finish it all!! xx

 

[fillymum]

Sue, if you think I'm carrying this stuff and then just going to give it up, you've got another think coming!

It'll go very nicely with my Easter meal - which will be the first meat I'll have had since Shrove Tuesday.

Now that is just so mean !!!!

Keep swimming...............nearly home now !!!

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

I'm keeping swimming....

Still not a lot of mojo - but sheer determination is keeping me in there.

Another 72 this morning - so now 9.5 miles from France: just under 13 to go.

 

[PurpleSky]

Wow what an epic challenge How many lengths is it all together jim? You are absolutly nuts but least you be gettting a hell load of body magic for it

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

It's 1,416 each way!

 

[PurpleSky]

Bloody hell that is mental. But best of luck

 

[my_girl]

Im a total newbie but Ive just sat and read this thread from beginning to end and Im in tears.

What you are doing and achieving is absolutely AMAZING and it just goes to show that anyone is capable of achieving their goals and reaching for the stars.

I cant even swim and you've made me want to run to the nearest swimming pool lol!!

Keep going, you're a flipping insperation!!!!!!!!!!!!

xx​

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

Thanks, My Girl.

It was probably a very stupid thing to try and do - but, as a Newbie, you'll soon learn - there's a lot of support on here. A lot of abuse, too...

 

[PurpleSky]

I'm sure you will do fantastically Jim i mean you;ve already swam 9.5 miles oo

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

Good morning, world. I'm surprisingly un-dead this morning, given that I have just swum...

(wait for it...)

2 miles.

Of straight front crawl.

Un-heard-of!!!


In just under an hour and a half.
88 minutes, to be precise.
If anyone's counting.


(And I now know why they call it crawl: I'm sure that by the end I could have been lapped by an arthritic sloth.)

But I did it. I've got the day off today (I need to ferry 4 smelly teenagers to Oxford this afternoon), so I took the opportunity of a longer swim than I can manage before starting work.

I'm definitely getting fitter though.
Well, not by the end of 2 miles. By that stage I'm almost clinically dead. But from how I was doing earlier in the swim, I can tell that my speed & stamina are both improving.

Please tell me this has got to be doing me some good???

 

[fillymum]

Thanks, My Girl.

It was probably a very stupid thing to try and do - but, as a Newbie, you'll soon learn - there's a lot of support on here. A lot of abuse, too...

And who is the abuse thing referring too ???
Caps and fits spring to mind........

Keep going super star. Your tenacity is a lesson to us all.

 

[my_girl]

You're doing brilliantly!!

Has it affected your weight loss massively? Are you losing more a week with all the swimming?

x​

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

And who is the abuse thing referring too ???
Caps and fits spring to mind........

Ok, ok. So it's pretty mutual!

You're doing brilliantly!!​

Has it affected your weight loss massively? Are you losing more a week with all the swimming?​

Well, actually, not really.
To start with, it seemed to slow the losses down. I think I must have started to build some muscle, rather than just toning.
I've definitely been losing inches though.
Really losing size. Which is good.
And I think I've got past the slowed down point now.

But for actually losing weight, suddenly doing heaps more exercise than usual is really not the greatest idea! Little & often. That's better.

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

Hello once again, from a Channel-sodden me.
Sorry I've been pathetic about updating this again over the weekend - but I still haven't drowned!

I didn't manage to fit in a swim on Friday. I knew it was dubious, cos I was having such a busy day. But never mind. And I've just discovered that the pool is closed on Good Friday as well. So I'm now going to be about 3 miles short of getting home for Easter.
I'm not beating myself up about it, though. It was always a long shot. I've done more than I set out to do, and I'm sooooooooooo tired, so I'm actually quite pleased that it's now totally out of the question to achieve it. Otherwise I might be tempted to push it to ridiculous levels to get there. And it's just not worth it.

So I'll carry on at my normal pace this week, and just do it for 3 more days next week, and I'll be home.

(But I'm still going to catch a ferry home for Easter, as I've got MEAT calling me! I'll get it to drop me back where it picked me up, and then I'll finish off the swimming next week.)

Anyway, this morning's tally was 80 lengths. 2 km, or 1 1/4 miles.

I'm now 13 km, or 8 1/8 miles away from the English coast, and I can see the white cliffs really clearly now.

The Château Margaux is still intact, Sue. And, with the time you're having at the moment, I think you deserve some. Shall we split it? One bottle each? I'll wait for you on Shakespeare beach.

 

[fillymum]

That is more than generous of you Sarah. I will forgive you that the vintage is not quite the one I reqested.

You have done amazingly well and deserve a medal. Your dedication is legion.

hugs xxxx

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

I meant to add earlier: I'm definitely getting fitter, and increasing my stamina.

When I first started swimming again as part of my getting healthy plan (not when I started swimming the Channel, in March, but way back in October when I first got back into a pool after goodness knows how long), I measured myself against a colleague, who is one of the "regulars".
At that stage, she was doing about 3 lengths to every 2 of mine! She just seemed to power up & down the pool, and not tire. She does between 40 & 50 lengths most mornings.

But I knew I was improving, because by just before I started the Channel, I was only losing about 2 lengths against her for every 20 we swam, and quite happy with that.

(I'm not racing her, by the way, or adjusting my speed for hers. I just use her speed for pacing purposes!)

Well, a couple of weeks ago, when we happened to get into the water at exactly the same time again, I checked, and was amazed to discover that, over the first 20 lengths, I was actually gaining against her! Then her stamina levels compared to mine kicked in, and she got just ahead after 40 lengths.

Well, this morning, we got into the water together, and started swimming, and - I had done almost 50 lengths when she got out after 44, and I was still inching ahead!

To me, that's abso-flippin-lutely amazing!!!

 

[skinnydawn]

Well Sarah,

You are amazing...and I am quite frankly KNACKERED just reading your diary!!!

Wonderful stuff...well done :superwoman:

 

[skinnydawn]

BTW, I park in the cripps carpark on the days I'm working (in area k) so our paths may well have crossed!

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using MiniMins

 

[Monkey_Monkey_Underpants]

BTW, I park in the cripps carpark on the days I'm working (in area k) so our paths may well have crossed!

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using MiniMins

They may well have done! Where do you actually work, on the days you're working, then?
I work in the oldest bit of the hospital, by the Billing Road entrance.