How did it get to be the middle of April? Time flies when you're having fun/training for the Channel. Since my last post training has gone really well - one week of 23k (including a longest swim of 10k), followed by 2 weeks of over 25k. This week I am taking it easy. I decided to put a "rest week" into my training every 4 weeks or so, as I think you start to need a bit of a mental and physical break. At the end of last week I was feeling stiff and sore at the start of every session, which is really unusual for me, and I was finding it very tough to force myself to get through the mileage, so my rest week couldn't arrive fast enough. Having said that, I have no real injuries or dangerous niggles - I get cramps in my feet when I haven't drunk enough (water, just to be clear) during the day, but I can swim through that, and I get a tugging in my side at the end of longer sessions, but it's not actually painful and I can swim through it.
I've been back in the Serpentine on Staurday mornings, and even managed to pick up some silverware (the Bill & Ron Maggs memorial cup) for a handicapped 200m race. Matt was more excited about the Lance Armstrong DVD that came with it. I think I may have been psyched up by the old army songs some of the longer in the tooth members were singing in the changing room ("A new girl, she joined us, and her name was Jane; she only liked it now and again; and again and again and again and again..."). I also managed third in a scratch race last week, and picked up a...mozzarella slicer. Note to self: must buy mozzarella to figure out how this thing works.
People have asked about the temperature in the Serpentine: it reached 10 degrees celcius last week. That really does seem to be a magic number - the week before, it was 8 and still felt awful, but at 10 I suddenly felt like I could stay in and do a mile or more. (I didn't, but I will soon. Really.)
Much more exciting news is that Bug is now walking! He's a proper little toddler now. He likes to carry heavy things along with him, and he is also very intent on filling up the garden parasol stand with gravel, such that we are now unable to get the parasol in there. He has a fairly random collection of favourite items - they change from time to time, but the stalwarts seem to be electric toothbrushes, mummy's wallet and the bedroom phone. The most expensive toy in the world could never compete with any of those. I am hoping to put a video clip of him on here, but by the time I get around to it he will probably be able to upload it for me.
