From Little Manly to Big St Paddy's Celebrations

This was a great week - I covered my weekly target distance for the first time and hope to continue to build on that. Hopefully the body will react well and my shoulders won’t fall off!

So as you all well know, it is challenging getting a good weeks work in along with covering your desired training sessions/distance, so this was my first real week of being serious. My main episode of any day is getting up @ 5:17am (I have it down to a Tee to stay in bed until that last minute to get as much sleep in as possible!). There are some dramatic discussions that go on in my head before I even put my feet on the carpet, as there are a pack of wee ****ers persuading me to lie on, close my heavy eye lids, saying things like 'GO ON sleep on / cuddle in'... and then there is one wee poor voice on his own, the only one speaking some kind of sense – “WELL… if you don’t get up this morning, you’ll still need to cover the mileage at some stage this week” and then that’s when I stamp my feet on the ground like a 5yr old looking ice-cream! After that it's basically all downhill from there and the best part of it is joining all my fellow swimmers that are just as insane as I am to be swimming at that time of the morning with VLAD swim squad down @ ABC pool.

My Saturday morning swim was in Little Manly; it was my first time there and it’s a lovely hidden cove on the north shore surrounded by extremely large houses. Kick off was 7am and 1 lap was c.3.2km – I was planning to do 3 laps in around 10km to hit my weekly quota. We begun swimming in packs of 3 – 4 of similar speeds which is priceless when you are swimming for a couple of hours as it keeps you motivated and also reduces your chances of getting eaten by a shark! I felt good, waving to all the fish and STINGRAYS with the sun beating down on the back - wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in the world – absolute MAGIC! Anyways the laps were going down nicely, I tried some different types of feeding as I am still searching for my fuel for the channel; but it’s a process of elimination and i\m getting close to the right combination I reckon!

After the swim was completed I met with the guys from ZOGGs swim gear; coincidently they were launching their new wetsuits at the same beach and the marketing manager asked me to come down and maybe get a few underwater shots wearing them - I was delighted to be involved. So there was a range of wetsuits and very attractive male and female models……… and THEN ME! Oh dear...Anyways, I didn’t mind I was interested in making contacts and having fun - which is exactly what I did! Ben Hornett (Zoggs' International marketing manager) was a very passionate and excitable character, keen to get a perfect shot. We did a few fancy drills like diving in off the shark cage, having mini races in packs of 2’s and 3’s with camera men under the water and then there was a few land shots (and let’s just say I wasn’t involved in those ones as I was too tall and too skinny - NOT! BAHAHA!). I thankfully got new Zogg’s goggles (which I swear by, best open water swimming googles out there, polarised and the vision on a bright day is perfect) so THANKS Zoggs! I will continue to have an ongoing relationship with them as I progress through my training and do my channel swim, and I am stoked that someone like me can receive the support of such a large international company!

So let’s just say the week was wrapped up with sore shoulders on the Sunday ,a massive appetite and WAYYYYY to many St.Patrick’s day celebrations (see photo of me keeping up my training outside the pub). HERE’S to a great week for you all!

#just4dacraic