Ten weeks to go

Well, from today there are 10 weeks left to the start of my swim tide, the 10th - 18th July.  After months of training and hard slog, suddenly it's right there in front of me, only 70 days away.  I am 4th on the list for my pilot, and you never know what the weather will be like, so my actual swim date is still an unknown - nothing to do but hope for good weather and a short wait in Dover.

What will happen in the next 10 weeks?  The transition from pool to the outdoors will increase drastically, even though the weather is terrible at the moment and the sea water temperature about 9 or 10C.  Soon there will be no more pool swims - a great relief to the sinuses and lots more space in the pool for the regulars.  There are some organised swims coming up in the next few weeks - repeats of the Round Spike swim, a 6-hour sea swim in 2 weeks' time, and a 9-day Distance Camp with daily long swims in June, including another 6-hour sea swim.

Preparations for the swim will also start in earnest - booking flights, co-ordinating crew, planning swim feeding schedules, making sure equipment and backups are all ok etc.  This is a busy month for fundraising for me also - two table quizzes to hold, plus a few other ideas as well.

Ten weeks to go.  These are the weeks to hold the nerve, look after the shoulders, keep to the training program, enjoy the long outdoor swims, and hopefully watch the water temperature rise and rise.  In the meantime, as Muhammad Ali says - "Don't count the days, make the days count."