Stupid Me!

Yes, I've taken leave of my senses with not being able to run!  

I decided to enter the Dee Mile (a 1 mile swim in the River Dee which can be done wearing a wetsuit or not).  Now, I don't normally swim in the river even when triathlon training as its not very clean and I've had a few sickness bugs in the past from swimming in there.  So entering in itself was something but my thinking was that if I was to get ill from it it wouldn't be that big a deal at the moment as I'm obviously not racing at the moment.

We had a spell of really good weather and as it got nearer I decided to do it non wetsuit.  For those who know me you, you'll know that I get very cold very easily and would be wondering why!  It seemed like a good idea at the time and I think I would have been ok if the race had started on time instead of about half an hour late (its held in the evening and when the sun went down the air temperature got colder very quickly.  Not blaming the organiser as I know he was let down by  several things).  

I got in easily enough and felt that it wasn't as cold as I expected.  Got swimming and feeling ok.  Got to about half way and started to feel cold.  I was swimming close to the bank on the left (after Dan's expert advice).  Then out of what seemed like nowhere another swimming (in a wetsuit) completely swam in front of me knocking into me then stopped.  This forced me to have to stop.  I then felt really disorientated due to being so cold.  I tried to get swimming again about 3 times but was just shivering too much.  I had to get out and some very nice people came to my rescue and got me in a car to warm me up!  I was gutted but feel glad to have given it a go.  I must be mad and I won't be attempting that again!  

Its been 7 weeks now of not being able to run and I'm really getting narky!  Poor Dan having to put up with my bad moods.  I'm fed up with going to the pool to do aqua running sessions and I'm bored of turbo sessions on the bike too.  I just hope the positive of this is that I really appreciate it when can start running again.  

One good thing is that at least the weather has been fairly good so I've really enjoyed going open water swimming at Manley.  I'm probably a better open water swimmer now than I was when I was a triathlete!  I've been swimming 3 steady laps then by the time I get to my 4th lap Dan has caught me up and I do a fast lap hanging on to his toes and really practicing drafting and siting which I was useless at before. I might even enter the Dee Mile at this rate!