Great Salford Swim

Sunday saw my first proper swim at Salford Quays it was a miserable day weather wise, but I truly enjoyed the whole event. I’d had my feet up since Thursday when I did about 30 lengths in the pool.  I was in the last wave of the day so watched some of the start on telly had some lunch before shooting over to the Quays. We parked up easily and walked around some of the quays, Nathan and I followed the elite men’s race around the course and then I went on to get changed.

I was a bit nervous about not finishing although I knew I could do the distance in the pool and I’ve done a fair amount of swimming in Windermere last year, this was not the pool and wasn’t a leisurely summer dip in a lake a lot of the talk was about how cold the water was. I checked in donned hat and gogs and then had a quick dunk in the water prior to starting.

Well it turned out that the water was around 14c, the wave got started and I must admit it never bothered me at all I was quite comfortable with the temperature. I think maybe braving Windermere previously may have helped and getting regular soakings kayaking.

Bernie and Nathan followed me around; another great attribute to the venue is that it’s great for spectators they can virtually stay in contact with the swimmers all the way around. The water quality was also better than I was expecting. In hindsight I don’t think that anybody who entered would fail as long as they took their time with all the backup facilities and encouragement from the crowd, finishing should be guaranteed.

This is one venue I would recommend if like me you were doing it for the first time. Anyway I finished in 45.46mins so I’m more than happy with that for a first attempt. It’s definitely one up from my 25 yards badge achieved a few years back in junior school.

Two Tandem Trips

Another year older 44 (if I was a celeb it would be 41), last weekend was a nice long one thanks to a certain couple. I had a twenty mile hilly bike ride on Wednesday evening a good half mile swim on Thursday and talked Nathan into a tandem ride on Friday morning before the royal wedding of course.

We did a bit of a loop around Edgeworth Bromley Cross Hawkshaw and Greenmount just a tad over 14 miles averaging 13mph we did hit a new top speed of 42.3mph (more can be achieved ). However we have now made a joint decision not to take corners at more than 28mph as we nearly came a cropper attempting a sharp bend at 36.5mph. It’s a shame because the faster you go downhill determines how far up the next climb you can get before too much effort.  

Still no cycling photos yet its difficult taking snaps at speed of yourself, I need a volunteer

I have my first swim coming up in a couple of weeks so I really need to make an effort. I am doing the Salford quays 1 mile swim it’s part of the great swim series. With this in mind Nathan and I went up to Windermere on Saturday we borrowed a tandem kayak from the club it’s the one on the photo scrolling across the blog (you can see us shooting the weir on the Irwell at burrs.

Anyway the plan was to have a paddle from the slipway near the car ferry towards Belle Island and from there take it in turns to have a swim while the other kept watch in the Kayak. Such a nice day clear blue sunny sky with a not to cold breeze, 3 mins later as we cleared the bay that breeze was not very friendly it was a different  ball game altogether  and took a lot of effort just to get around the top of the island about a mile. Anyhow Nathan had a short swim of about 400-500 metres and I did about 1200-1400 ish so I am quite happy with that.

Be warned anyone thinking of having a swim In Windermere shouldn’t do so unless they have the experience or proper gear the water temp can change dramatically in just a short distance.

My birthday was on Sunday so had a lie in followed by cards and prezzies. Later in the morning I got out on my bike and we still had the wind. Because of the late start I cut the ride a lot shorter than I wanted, 25 miles in total including Holcombe village, Helmshore, Haslingden Grane, and Bromley Cross it seemed at lot nearer 40 miles with the wind which was pretty hairy on the tops. It also gave views of the moorland fires over Belmont.