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So there I was sitting up at some ungodly hour of saturday morning watching the TV whilst waiting on an important business call. Flicked over to channel 4 for the Morning Line which would be starting in about 10 minutes, when I saw something else which caught my interest. People swimming on a lake.

Further viewing informed me that this was the 'great north swim' which had its first outing last year - septermber to be exact. It has a similar ethos to the Great North Run, in that it attracts celebrities, serious athletes, and the 'fun runners/swimmers'.  In simple terms it is a one mile non-stop swimming race in the waters of lake windermere. One mile would be approximately 70 lengths of your local swimming pool, but with a few major differences

- It will be colder
- It will be choppier
- It will be darker
- you have no little rest or respite at the end of each length.

I should say from the off, that swimming is my favourite form of excercise. Actually, it is about my only form of excercise. Since being given the all clear from my heart complaint last May, I have spent a lot of time at my local gym, using their swimming pool. For me aerobically it is an excellent form of excercise since my knees are pretty much shot after taking too much abuse on a Rugby pitch. The low-impact nature of swimming therefore, is a great way to keep the old system ticking over. But that is really all I have been doing.maybe 10 - 15 lengths every 2-3 days.

I needed a goal. and now I have found one - in septermber of this year I will be running head-first into Lake Windermere and completing a mile non-stop.

I have of course given myself plenty of time to prepare for this, which of course will be necessary. Those who know me, will be able to attest my less than athletic shape :) . The advantages that I do have are the a reasonable CV fitness (despite appearances)  and massive scope for self improvement.

I will be updating this diary in line with the detailed training plan which has been helpfully assigned to me from their website. Basically the schedule follows the structure of : technique/endurance/strength/taper - all working towards being able to swim 1 mile non-stop.


so thats it - part of the reason for posting the diary here, is maybe to get some encouragement, and stop me giving up after 1 month :)

I am currently awaiting details of charity/sponsorship options, so you will find out in good time to where you can give your generous dontations to.

Good luck with this big man.

Best of luck with it Laz.  Braver/madder man than me.

I'll sponsor you - but you have to sponsor me!!

Nice one Laz mate, hope you keep it up....no doubt you will now that we are all watching you!! lol

ill sponsor too

hmmm yes thinking about it.

Been thinking about it since a couple of weeks before the first one last year when I realised I was too late to enter that one.

Registered an interest as soon as they this years details up, but I'll probably make an impulsive decision whenever the payment for it goes live.

I won't need sponsorship though - because I'm just not nice enough to do it for charity.

Looks to be a great idea, get it done man.

 ;goodluck; ;flushy; ;flushy; ;flushy;

http://www.greatswim.org/

For anybody who wants to read more, or wants something to distract them from doing any work.

well done Pat, I'm in :)up







sponsorship that is

blimey, gl laz

sounds like a proper challenge, doubt I've done 70 lengths in my life

Flushy has had way more than 70 lengths !!





Very best of luck with the quest Laz ... will be a mightily impressive achievement.

Good luck with this Laz - hoping for a better effort from you than we got from Sofa-King and his 'swimming around Cyprus' challenge.

I'll sponsor you if you can do it all under water :)

Good luck with this Patrick , I'll sponsor you provided there is pictorial evidence..

there is a very useful website which is available to any body who registers for interest to this event which provides a very detailed training plan.

Currently we are in the technique phase. At the moment I am doing my best to put everything I know about swimming out of my mind - of course just about everyone knows how to swim, but in an endurance challenge like this one, it would be sensible to get the technique right instead of just thrashing around in the water. I also had to modify the schedule slightly as my gym only has a 20m pool, and the excercises are all geared towards a 25m pool. today the schedule was for

warm up : 12 x 20m lengths front crawl - 25 seconds rest between 20m

main : 10 x 40m lengths front crawl - 20 seconds between each 40m
(try to take 1 stroke less, each set of 50)

warm down : 10 x 20m lengths feet only - 40 seconds rest between each 20m

I was suprised how well I did. on the main excercise I took 18 strokes per length on the first length and managed to get it down to 15 strokes. It definitely did feel easier at 15 strokes, and dont think it took any longer in terms of time. The warm down was harder than expected (only swimming using your legs/feet) but makes you think about the part the legs play in the whole stroke.

The good news is that this is a total of 840 meters, which is over half a mile....obviously at the moment there is a lot of breaks and stops built in, but i was pleased at being able to complete the first excercise without any drama......

Best of luck with this laz.. I've entered the Reading half marathon which takes place in March purely as wanted some kind of challenge/hobby away from poker and gambling really, although I was quite sporty at school I've done sweet FA for last 10 years so was starting from the beginning... Up to 7miles now and getting alot from it other than improving the fitness obv..

Best advice i can give you is to forget about enormity of your overall task and just set yourself smaller attainable targets which will lead you to your final goal.. I'm going for 10% increase a week which has suited me pretty well..

glgl... will follow with interest

ffs the things people do to justify a diary on here  ::)

I am glad Laz started this diary, i was worried that I might miss out on the title "Diary of a fat, lazy bastard" ... all is good though, i can still use it :)

GLGL I swam a mile when I was at school but as you say a ton easier in a pool.

The very best of luck with this Laz.

training update.

i have now completed 3 of the 49 drills on my training schedule. I am pretty pleased with my progress so far, in as much as I have been able to complete them in the regulated time. To give an example todays schedule consisted of :

Warm Up:
Swim 10 x 25m (10 x 2 Lengths) Frontcrawl or Backstroke with 15 seconds rest after each length. Count your strokes for every length taking a stroke less each time and holding your breath for the first 5 metres.
Easy Effort.

Main Set:
Swim 10 x 50m (10 x 2 Lengths) Frontcrawl with 15 seconds rest after every 50m. Every 2nd length practice the catch-up drill where the hand does not start to swim until the swimming arm catches up and touches the hand of the long stretched arm.
Moderate Effort.

Cool Down:
Kick 6 x 25m (6 x 1 Length) on your front or back (if on your back hold a float above your head with the float on top of the water or hold your arms in a long streamlined position above the head with hands overlapping) with 30 seconds rest after each length).
Easy Effort.

The guide time for being able to complete them is between 30-40 minutes, and I am currently taking around 32 minutes each session. Currently I am doing these sessions every second day with a recovery/rest day in between, although I will change this and throw in the odd extra session as time allows.

I think it will be necessary to do some non-swimming excercise as well , despite swimming being an excellent aerobic workout,i need to address my stamina and strength.as long as it doesnt involve jogging i will be quite happy.

The other area of change is in diet. One of the problems of swimming is that it leaves you feeling hungry afterwards, due to the loweing of the body temperature. The temptation is to eat at this time, but this is a bad thing apparantly. This is the time that your body will be burning up all that stored fat (of which there is plenty). So my plan is to eat well before hand (porridge and bananas ) and then control the hunger pangs until it is at least lunchtime. i will also be avoiding Greggs :)

I don't think you need to do more than 3 swimming sessions a week, so if you're doing something every other day than the week with 4 in could be used as a gym session.

Obviously that only works if you think 1 every other week is enough though.

this sounds like a great event - something i can add to the list of things i would like to but ultimately wont do during my gap year next year.

gl with the training.

Gl with this Laz & Jon (if you do it)

but for those of us that dont know you,  proof is needed of your physical stature.......


And you never know Sofa might join you in it seeing as he will be back......

Yeah sod it. Although if there's a blonde bash that weekend I might rethink.

Laz - sales for entry are now open if you hadn't noticed.