A massive thanks to Nicki and Brightlingsea Lido

For the first time that I can remember the Brightlingsea Lido is open during October. I swam my 500 metres this morning with around a dozen fellow cold water enthusiasts. The temperature was 13 degrees and the water in the Lido is almost 3 degrees cooler than the sea, so it is a great opportunity to start acclimatising.

I’m hugely grateful to the trustees of this community facility as well as to Nicki the pool manager. She has done a brilliant job steering the success of the pool this year. I am also personally very grateful to her for the coaching advice she has given me on my front crawl technique. In fact, when she first “took a look at me” I think technique may have been a generous description of my frantic and inept splashing about. Very patiently she has helped to deconstruct my stroke and help me to become slightly more efficient in the water. When I’m in the sea I have the experience of my good friend Akasahrdaya, who swam the Channel in a relay many years ago and was a highly skilled coach of young people with disabilities for many years.

The combined knowledge of Nicki and Akasahrdaya has helped me start to reduce the time I need to be in the water to swim 500m, which will be my aim every time I swim this winter.

I also want to thank all those who have paid £28 for a season ticket for October which means that the Lido will be open four times a week throughout the month. I am planning a total of only 11 swims in October (mostly in the sea) as I will be on retreat for two weeks during the latter part of the month, however for one of those weeks I will be staying very near the sea, so I may be able to get in a few more dips.

So with under a month to go for the start of my challenge, I am feeling pretty good about my preparations.