shut the duck up

Someone was holding Quack Quack to ransom. We liberated her. Unbound she regaled us with tales of the Internationalist Swimming Tendency’s (IST) plans to extraordinarily extradite her to Latvia to face trumped up charges of duckery. A large Brazilian sounding man seemed to be the head of the group, along with a dodgy geezer on a bike. Investigations continue.

Meanwhile the temperature in the pool has dropped to 4.5 degrees C and we thought we’d do a few. Kate just kept on turning, so I ended up doing 1200 yards and she did 800. A few of mine were not pretty. My stroke seems to have gone all over the place.

Talking to Stephanie, who told us she was doing 10k a day over the weekend in Crystal Palace, I was reminded of the need to start upping my distance, if I am to survive the mind games of Mr Denison in June. I may have to venture indoors, but it’s been so mild so far, that I enjoy a km at 4.5 degrees C, far more than two or three hours at 29 degrees C. For me swimming is for fun. Not having a Channel swim to look forward to(!), liberates me from a fear of not being fit enough. But I did agree to swim some more lengths with Stephanie once it gets close to double figures again.

There were a host of people enjoying the sunshine today. Tricky, Egg and Batch were over the moon; Inez was shocked by the cold embrace of Johnathon; Annie’s off to Melbourne; Doro was trying out her spangly green swimsuit for Latvia; Giles was chillin’ with Adam in the sunshine and Sally’s got a new swimsuit.

Ape – 1200 yards, Mrs Ape – 800 yards. 20 mins at 4.5 degrees C.

Batch and Egg steamed

Adam and Giles

sun, sun, sun

pics by Mrs Ape

Mrs Ape goes Polar Bear Queen

The temperature was slightly up today. We’d left to a clear sky, but coming over Forest Hill the cloud thickened, the night returned, there was an almighty shattering of lighting and the rain came down. In torrents. Five minutes later at the top of the next ridge, the sun came out, with the moon counterposing the sunrise again. Just in time for our arrival at the lido.

We got to an empty pool. A few souls had signed in before us, but not the ones we were expecting. We wondered (literally) around taking shots in the most luscious of lights. Finally I got changed and got in. It felt marginally warmer, so I clocked up a thousand yards. Meanwhile, Mrs Ape, getting in the water some minutes after me, stays in to do 800 yards. But, she swims at two-thirds of my pace. Reflecting on the impact of water temperature post yesterday (that bust Lone Swimmers stats record and generated a heap of comments), I was thinking that it was not only about distance, but perhaps more importantly time in the water. Mrs Ape did 200 yards less than me, but was in the water for 3 or 4 minutes longer than I. So who is the hardy one? In my book she takes the prize.

And naturally we had a good old chat with Alex (who clocked up 800 yards), Elizabeth, Hilary, Jonathan, Vince, Eamonn, Claire, Ian, Nando and Inez. And Fin and Dylan our life savers for the day. Cheers lads. The Yorkshire Tea Cakes went down well too.

A lovely 4.5 degrees C.

a little chilly

Mrs Ape's delicious Date and Walnut

We were supposed to be down at 8am to swim with mates and share cake, but didn’t wake up til 7.30am. Sorry everyone – we’ll bring Yorkshire Tea Cakes tomorrow. We still managed to feed and chat to a range of regulars who come in later. The lido seems to have also become the South London Sauna Club…the pool is empty, but the wooden hut is crammed. Do some swimming!

Mrs Ape and I decided to take it easy today, so she clocked up 400 yards and I did 700. Temp hovering around 4.5 degrees C. My challenge for this year was to do a mile at 6 degrees C, but then I came across these loons – the International Ice Swimming Association (membership open to those who do a mile at 5 degrees C or less); so might have to up the game. Unfortunately the lido water temperature dropped from 7.5 to 4.5 degrees in the space of six days while I was working up in Cumbria, so I didn’t have the chance to swim a mile at 6.

Meanwhile over at Lone Swimmer, there’s a very funny account of what water temperatures mean.

Ape – 700 yards, Mrs Ape – 400 yards, 4.5 degrees C.

Minus 3

The last time I swam in Tooting (just six days ago) it was a balmy 7.5 degrees C. This week’s weather has seen it drop to 4.5 degrees C – three whole degrees C! I was nervous about getting in, never mind having a swim. I thought I might do two widths, but saw Kate swim off on her first length. So I got in and just about caught up with her when I saw her turn for another two. Please. I was cold. My hands had immediately gone numb in the middle. And whilst I have been getting a cold sensation down my flanks and painful nipples in slightly warmer water, this time there was no sensation; as the transition from warm to cold was too quick. By length four my fingers were beginning to go and my toes…what toes? But I thought I might as well do 600 yards. Perversely I then settled into the cold, so to speak, and determined to go on and reach double figures – 10 lengths or 1000 yards. Thankfully the sun was out.

Me and the missus then had lots of chit, chit, chatter with all and sundry. A wonderful place is Tooting Bec Lido.

Ape – 1000 yards, Mrs Ape 600 yards. 4.5 degrees C.