Tuesday 28 August 2012

What do you think about?

I have decided after my whinge about assemblies on my last post, that I will be using  a power point, but it will only have a few pictures on it. However, it occurred to me yesterday, what exactly do you think about when swimming?

I mean it wouldn't usually bother me, but I am going to be swimming for a long time, will I be repeating the famous phrase from Finding Nemo 'Just keep swimming' or will I be imagining my coach/PE teacher being barbecued on a spit? I have no idea, I have not really swum for long enough for it to bother me, but now it is playing on my little mind.

I suppose I shall have to stop moaning now. I can't do a blog about moaning can I? Well, it's never stopped me in the past

March is so close! Too close!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Word of Mouth unfortunately it's mine

It's been on my mind since the first assembly I did at my school about my Comic Relief challenge, however now it must become a reality. I have to start planning my next 3 assemblies to the 900 odd pupils I have to tell. Soon I'm going to be trying to get sponsorship, but even that is feeling like an impossibility.

The first assembly I did, didn't go to plan (as I wrote on an earlier post) I got great support from it but at the end I was shaking such a lot. It was terrible! How could I have been such a coward in front of my peers? What a disgrace. However, I must do my bit and tell the masses about my challenge...oh who am I kidding?

This has to work, I really need the support and soon I'll be needing sponsors, I'm thinking of doing £1 per length so people can choose which length(s) they want to sponsor.

I mean, it's not exactly like they're limited on choice!

I'm not sure if I should use a power point or not, my feedback says that it was more personal without, but filling 15 minutes with just me at the front is terrifying. What should I do? Anyone can comment, so please, tell me, what shall I do?

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Jogging...oh dear

So I woke up this morning and decided "hey, I know what I'll do today, I'll jog to keep my fitness up for the challenge!" So I went and did just that, I mean how bad could it be?

I have heard many people say that jogging is fun and refreshing, was this really what they were talking about? It was hell. Seriously, I think I nearly died! I went down to some local woods to do the jog, I don't really like woods, there are far too many trees for people to hide behind but I thought it would be far more scenic then jogging alongside a main road. So as I jogged I listened to my ipod, and after a while, the tunes that had once kept me at a certain pace were almost mocking me, the lyrics to 'The Climb' became ironic and the lovely sounds of Adele became quite unbearable as she sang songs that sounded so familiar to each other they sounded like they never ended.

I met a few dog walkers along the way, some said a quick good morning and at the start, these cheery greetings were pleasant, but after the jog I was sweating like a pig, dragging my feet, almost killing the earphones that kept falling out, and after the 80th good morning I was very wound up. In fact I was so wound up I think I growled at the last person to say good morning (I know I should be a better neighbour but they were so cheerful and I was so tired...)

So the next time anyone says "you should try jogging" I am going to reply "I would rather eat my trainers then jog in them again"

Friday 10 August 2012

A holiday of training

Ah, hello again world, I am back from my holiday! I know it's not a Tuesday, which is when I usually update this blog, sorry for the break in routine. This holiday was not much of a break in routine for me though.

The hotel was amazing, it had three different pools, I was usually in the main one. I trained mostly in the first week of the holiday, trying to pick up my stamina; it was basically endurance swimming. But the training that stretched me the most was in the sea believe it or not. You see, there was this rusty old boat anchored out in the sea, it was about 80 or so metres away from the shore so I decided it would be a good idea to go and swim to it. Bad idea. The wind had  picked up a bit so the waves became quite tough to swim against, there was also an underlying current which kept trying to tug me back. All my friends that I had met on holiday (Daniel 14, Ellie 9, Ruth 11, Occan 13, Jonathon 16 and not-really-called-Derek 13) and my little brother swam to the boat too, most of them had a float or snorkeling fins to help them swim out, apart from me and not-really-called-Derek (he was Turkish and I couldn't say or spell his real name)

I was struggling, gasping for breath at the side of the boat that was rocking quite a bit at this point, it had no ladder as well so I had to try get onto the boat because, well, I was running out of energy and the sea was quite deep. Thankfully not-really-called-Derek swam over to me, I couldn't get into the boat so I was just clinging onto it desperately; Derek was amazing, he was 13 and just pulled himself onto the boat. Then along came Jonathon who Derek helped up because Jon was stronger then me and could help pull everyone up. So Jon reached down and picked me out of the water like I was a speck of dust, he wasn't out of breath much due to the float that had helped him get there (CHEAT)

We all ended up on the boat eventually though and lay there for quite a while in the sun. Then Derek realised he had cut himself while climbing onto the boat. It was like Casualty on sea. And because the boat was rusty, we were all worried the cut was going to get infected, so we did the only thing that seemed right, we washed the wound...with salt water. Poor Derek. The salt water made the cut hurt quite a lot, however Derek was brave, Jon however just sat there talking about tetanus which was not very helpful.

Probably the most stressful and exhausting training ever. So far anyway.