I had been chastened by my first experience of open water swimming. I knew where I’d gone wrong though. The whole event, from getting changed into my wetsuit, to actually attempting to swim, had been overshadowed by a sense of panic. I knew that I needed to get back into the open water again at the earliest opportunity, except this time, I needed to relax. The water had been cold, but it wasn’t that cold!
Having said this, I still had a degree of panic about me. I decided that I needed to get as much swimming in as possible before the event if I was to have a hope in hell of covering a mile. In fact, the following day, I set my alarm clock for 5am, in order for me to get up and go to the pool before work.
Fortunately, the following Monday presented the first opportunity for me to jump back into Salford Quays. This time, I was more confident about what I was doing. I was going to relax. I was going to get in the water as I had done last time; sit on the side of the pontoon, dip my feet in, then just slide in! However, this time, rather than heading off to start doing circuits like everyone else did, I stayed near the pontoon for a couple of minutes, treading water and sculling. I dipped my head under a couple of times until I was comfortable doing that. I also had a bit of help in that I’d met my friend Mike in the queue for the swim, which I think also helped me to relax a bit.
So I set off. I did alright! OK, I had a habit of swimming to the left a lot, so that I would end up heading straight for the wall of the Quay or even down a separate canal at one point; I was overtaken by pretty much everyone else who was swimming, but I did alright! In fact, it actually became quite enjoyable! So much so, that I did a second lap. And a third. And then I thought I might as well do a fourth and prove I could do a mile! So, I did! I don’t know how long it took me, I’m sure my technique was rubbish, but it was good just to know “Hey, I can do this!” Of course, the best thing was that I didn’t have to get up at 5am again to go and practice!
In the weeks that followed, I tried to work on improving my technique. I read various blog posts on how best to swim, including this one, which made reference to the Total Immersion style of swimming. I tried to remember some of the points that were made when I was out in the Quays and incorporate them into my technique. Now, I haven’t completed the Total Immersion course, I’ve just tried to gleam a few points from it – and I have to say, swimming got a lot easier for me! In fact, on one occasion I swam three laps of the 750-metre course in Dock 9 – I wasn’t breaking any records, but for me, this was a revelation!
Yes! I was ready for the main event!