Had 4 pints and half a bottle of wine last night…. had to be done….. United won for the second time in a row and I just needed a beer…. and a spicy curry…. (note to self – no more spicy curries the night before a huge swim).

Even still, I woke up fresh, got my swimming plan done, energy drinks made, loaded up on carbs, shaking with energy ready to go….. get to the Horwich Leisure Centre….. Closed due to the Sports Relief Swimathon???

Luckily, the helpful lady at the desk called all of the leisure centres around and found Farnworth Leisure Centre was open and available for the 4 hours needed to do the distance training.

I went unsure what to expect but Farnworth Leisure Centre is GREAT! It’s clean, the changing rooms are fantastic and the pool had lots of room to swim, even on a “busy day” as they had the Swimathons on too.

I spoke to lots of people who were interested in what I was doing, received a lot of excellent feedback and good lucks 🙂

The swim went really well, my energy wasn’t too terrible as I’m learning to take the energy drinks at the right time, every 10 mins when I was really feeling the drain. I spent a bit more time having breaks between each section including talking to people, taking toilet breaks and making up more drinks. I was still completely exhausted though and can sympathise with Angela with having a quarter of a husband for the rest of the day.

I found the swim a lot easier and it went a lot quicker than the 280 length swim I did last Sunday. It was a bit surreal seeing all of the people doing swimathons and the support they were getting from family and friends who came down to support them.

I celebrated in my head when I went over the 300 and 333 lengths milestones! 420 next week and I’m going to Farnworth again because I was really impressed. Plus I found out that the pool is open 9am to 4pm which is 7 hours, probably enough to do the 600 lengths practice swim but still not enough to do the 800 practice swim.

I’m starting to feel really confident now, actually believing I can do A Thousand Lengths in several weeks!

One thing I’ve come to realise is that a lot of people, including Ang, think that the training I’m doing is “Me Time”… as if it’s exactly what I want to be doing at that moment in time, like I enjoy doing a sickening Insanity Workout every night of the week, two huge swims twice a week, no beers, no treats, simple food etc.
I appreciate from the outside looking in, the view is “well Paul it’s your choice and you are taking it too seriously”. I train so hard and take it seriously because I want to be at the top of my possible fitness. Why push the final killer repetition in a workout to then start eating crap and missing Workouts etc. I have become obsessive at times but that’s me dealing with beating my anxieties of being ready for the challenges.
I HAVE to be at my maximum for the 1,000 swim. Support is so important though and it can be VERY lonely this path sometimes. Sometimes I just think about giving up but that simply is not an option.
I am enjoying seeing the results, feeling fitter and stronger but there are definitely bad days!

I had a personal joke where for some reason my scales kept telling me I was 13st 0.6lbs… then if I had a naughty day I went up and then after solid hard work I went down… to exactly 13st 0.6lbs again. This happened about 4 times… 0.6 of a pound – that’s 272 grams! Only took a powerful swim and an Insanity Workout to do it. Wonder if I’ll be back to 13st 0.6lbs on Sunday?

Headache, drowsy, chesty cough, achy muscles…. yep a virus is absolutely the reason why I’ve been light headed and dizzy the last 2 days and the reason for my sore back and exhaustion last night.

I’m actually QUITE GLAD I have it… OK you’re thinking this ginger guy has lost it… but it gives me a positive reason to justify my energy levels and aches so I can look forward to training once it’s gone. Didn’t do my Insanity last night but it was only a stretch session. I’ll try and do my session tonight.

To further cheer myself up, I made myself a valentines pink protein porridge (OK accident about pinkness)

Maybe I just needed it – muscle/energy recovery plus overfilling myself with green stuff just exhausted me. Got Pure Cardio on Insanity tonight – looking forward to it is not the word.

So I have 4 beers and a glass of wine tonight and I’ve woke up at 5am on a Saturday. It’s definately the alcohol that’s causing it and won’t help this cold at all. Plus Seb’s been up all night so I’ll have to cancel football today. Supposed to be walking to Rivington Pike today lol