More Training 22

Since committing to the Channel on December 31, and following a two month ramp-up, I now swim 30-35km a week, six or even seven-days a week, often twice a day, and finding a pool when travelling has become a thing.  The laps are now my quiet place.

A staple of the training is a Monday morning set of 8x400m freestyle intervals on a 6:15 clock with a serious crew at the Richmond pool (NB three completed an Ironman on Saturday each finishing top-10 in their age group after the 2.4 mile swim with over 2,000 competitors). 

In January, I was unable to make the 400 repeats. By February I finished but under extreme duress. By March I was averaging maybe 10-seconds recovery between intervals and now I can hold 5:45s.

Ron here usually leads the morning sets while I sit at the caboose of the five to seven of us doing the 400s set.  

As a wise man once told me, "you always want to feel like you are on an upward slope" which swimming at 56 has certainly been.