Started the week by celebrating my 57th birthday - with a swim needless to say! Another good week of training, with plenty of distance and an interesting experiment conducted with Pedro, our coach - two half hour swims with 1 minutes rest inbetween at different intensities. The results: a 5% increase in distance swum and a 50% increase in fatigue and pain! The lesson learnt: With endurance events pace is everything.
Had a huge number of emails of support over the last week, which are much appreciated - even if there were too many references to sharks (thanks for the reminders of what might be lurking beneath!). Many of the messages were from people who have taken part in my goal setting programmes, pointing out that I hadn't set a reward and a consequence for my goal! Having given it some thought I've decided that my reward for achieving the goal will be a weekend away with my wife without my kids (so, are there any offers to babysit two mildly active, extremely quiet boys for a couple of days?) My consequence for failure will be to continue with the huge levels of training for another year and attempt the swim again in 2013.
Lots of you also suggested that the swim would be an ideal opportunity to raise some money for a charity and I agree so I'm mulling over some interesting options. Watch this space...
Thanks to everyone who is now following me and thanks also for the comments! My two favourite email comments this week were that it was hoped the Cook Strait would not leave me in a Crook State and that the swim should be advertised as Shack vs Shark!!
OK, back to the pool.... - more next week.
Hi John
ReplyDeletehappy to babysit the boys. It will be a whole lot easier than swimming the channel ... I hope!!
Gary Dennis
John, you're mad!
ReplyDeleteBut I know that you will do this, go for it mate :-)
Lindsay Adams
First of all, Happy Birthday! Congratulations on your love for life, adventure, and passion to take on challenges that teach while they keep you healthy.
ReplyDeleteI am also a swimmer. Yes, the sea is soooo different from a pool but she offers such profound wisdom about engagement and collaboration. She IS in control, it is her turf so to speak, so learning to read her and work with her to achieve your goal is part of the journey to make you more fish than human - hehehe -!
Congratulations once again, enjoy the sea!
PS. I heard this odd thing, that sharks love dolphins and respond to that body motion so I would not bob too much! True or false, I know not... My belief is you send out radar info to the sharks in the area and let them know they should stay away!
Just wondering why you have to raise money for a charity - while it might be nice - it could also split your focus - I know you already give lots - do it just for you :-)
ReplyDelete