Alison Streeter MBE & This week

I briefly mentioned Alison, (The Queen of The Channel) but only very briefly on the previous post having met her at Dover. I thought it only right and proper to give her more of an acknowledgement, she is a lovely person, really down to earth and offers advice at the slightest hint of a question, I believe it is rare to find a person who has reached the sort of heights achieved by Alison yet remain with their feet firmly planted on the ground. She is a diamond. Here is this Wikipedia version of Ali.

"Alison Streeter has conquered the English Channel 43 times, more than anyone in the world. This total includes a triple-channel swim. She also completed seven Channel crossings in one year, a feat made more difficult because she mounted her challenges against this 21 mile body of water one at a time on separate attempts of about one every ten days. Alison is also the fastest woman from France to England (8 hours 48 minutes), a record she established in 1988. She was the first (and so far only) woman to swim the Channel three ways non-stop in 1990 taking 34 h 40 min for the feat. Only 2 other men have succeeded.
The Queen gave her the MBE in 1991 for the above and charity fundraising. To date she has raised over $100,000 for various charities. In May 2006 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale. She worked as a currency trader all her working life in London until earlier this year, and now spends part of her life in Adelaide (Seacliff) and the summers in Dover in her beloved English Channel as a fully qualified Boat Pilot."

On the training front...its been a strange week, what with work and parenting through the summer holidays. Not to mention two days sickness, one of which I was laid up in bed having spent the previous twelve hours projectile vomiting at half hour intervals. Didn't get to the sea as a result of being ill so only pool swims this week, all better now though.. so hoping for better schedule this coming week. the plan is 20km a week consistently now, mainly intervals pyramids etc against the clock, 30km a week by Christmas. Building to 40+ km by the start of the season in May 2008, Well...that's the plan as it stands, but that could all change, we will see.

This week 15,350km. Not so bad in the circumstances