IFS and BUTTS

The Buttermere swim came and went in the usual blink of an eye, I drove across country on Sunday the 15th May in what seemed like constant rain and low cloud. We had arranged to meet at the ideally located Dalegarth Guesthouse situated a matter of yards from the waters edge, half way up the Lake on the east side, most of the other swimmers were already in attendance having spent the night camping, they looked pretty fed up after cold hours of torrential rain. We gathered at lakeside, had a brief safety chat and eased into ourselves into the water. There was about 15 swimmers with me being the only fool without a wetsuit, which was pointed out to me by a horrified bystander as I entered the water! Did he really think I had forgotten!? Here's where we started from, Charlie had told me about this tunnel/cave on our last trip to Buttermere for the GLG Challenge.

As expected the water was somewhat colder than Ellerton, I swam two lengths of the Lake as the mist descended making visibility rather testing in my already fogged up goggles, not quite the hour and half required, however I was still happy with 80 minutes at 53f 11C in poor weather. The arm held up fine for the first hour with just moderate discomfort from this point.

Recovery was going well and I was taking the rest advised by the medical experts, (not swimming everyday) with just the occasional swim in an attempt to maintain some level of acclimatisation, that was until I aggravated the injury dealing with something unexpected at work last Monday, swelling and crepitus returned with a vengeance, causing me to worry about long term impacts. I therefore made an appointment to see Dr Ishtiaq Rehman who had previously helped me with some rotar cuff issues, he is a GP but has made sports injury his specialism. Without going into details he confirmed what we already know but has pointed me in the right direction for some quality treatment at Body2Fit. The future looks bright as they say!

I don't remember if I mentioned Joe Hunter ? he is a local swimmer with a slot booked to attempt the English Channel this September, he lives even closer than Pete Windridge-France, he is an absolutely ideal training partner for the build up to my 2 Way Windermere Swim. We have had three swims at Seaton Carew in the last two weeks in some quite hideous conditions due to the recent high winds, the temperature has dropped at the coast to 50f give or take 1 degree, therefore we have been particularly pleased with ourselves to complete our 60 minute sessions. On the temperature front, the lake has steadied off at 58f (14.4C) Last Saturday I swam there with Joe for 90 minutes. Fingers crossed  I will manage a two hour effort before the end of the month...well, maybe tomorrow.