Woe... I'm Going to Ibiza

It’s been a few days since my last post and I feel I should apologise to the loyal fan(s) of Texswims for my lack of blogging… sorry Mum.

The reason for my absence is due to the fact that I have been to San Antonio, Ibiza, on a stag do. Not the ideal preparation for a Channel swim you might think, but a stag do that I wanted to attend nevertheless. This island is not the sort of destination I would advise you to visit if you are anything like myself. I hate club music, clubs and clubbers, specifically drunk ‘Brits abroad’. Nothing about this trip changed this view, in fact it massively cemented it. Despite this slight disadvantage I still had an excellent time, due to fantastic company and terrible jokes.

I managed to get to Ibiza despite thinking I was departing on a different day, and having no idea what time the outbound or return flight was. I had been informed by the best man with plenty of time to spare, but had chosen not to write it down anywhere and instead rely on memory. This is a strategy I wouldn’t recommend when flying. I am usually quite good when it comes to being organised for things like this, however this time I didn’t appear to have a clue and was packed and ready to go 2 days early.

Every thought I have in my head revolves around swimming, so I don’t appear to be able to take in any other information. This could have actually been a good reason to get away for a couple of days, just to get myself refocused and ready to make the final push.

How my wrist looked on Thursday, worrying

The break also turned out to be reasonably good timing, as injury seems to have taken its toll on me. My right wrist and forearm have been playing up recently, forcing me to cut short a pool session for the first time last Thursday. It’s probably just a strain, but it is not particularly welcome at the moment as I am starting to move onto my longer swim sessions, and want to feel as comfortable as is possible. I have experienced a similar pain before as I used to play a lot of guitar (hero) and felt something along the same lines then.

When embarking on this Channel challenge I knew I would feel a lot of aches and pains, however they have not been where they were expected to be at all. I always assumed that my shoulders would be the biggest problem area during my training, but they have never even felt remotely tired. They have been fatigued obviously, but never painful. The biggest problems I have had have been completely unexpected.

Tom demonstrating classic swimmers tongue in Gozo

I came back from my Swimtrek excursion feeling fine apart from my tongue, which had swollen to about double it’s original size. I couldn’t eat or swallow anything and struggled to shut my mouth at all. This was never a worry for me beforehand as I had never even heard of the issue, but it is just another example of all the factors involved in sea swimming.

The only other real pain I have experienced was my core muscles after the Lake Windermere swim, I have genuinely never known pain like it. To be fair I was fine, as long as I didn’t breath or move. There are so many little things that you don’t really account for in swimming, until it happens to you. This is one of the reasons I think it is such a challenge compared to all the other endurance challenges there are out there. You can aim off in a lot of sports and make pretty educated guesses what is going to be hurting you during your event, swimming seems to be different all the time.

I will be back in the pool tomorrow morning to hopefully get around 6km done, ideally without any more pain in my wrist than is absolutely necessary. Then I foresee a big weekend in Dover, possibly involving a 7 hour swim or two. I only have around 5 weekends left now before my Channel attempt. I cannot believe how fast the time is passing…