220 lengths

Last night I swam in a coached endurance session for 220 lengths of a 25m pool. Just over 2 hours of swimming front crawl and quite high level of intensity. I didn't have my buoyant wetsuit or salty sea water that I have become so accustomed to help me out. This was raw swimming monotony.

When I finished I was ravenous, sore and my back was killing me. This back trouble is starting to worry me. My Chiro and Physio say that I developing very tight hamstrings from the swimming and this is pulling on my lower back. I need to work on this fast as swim intensity increases next month. I went out for a pizza and 2 beers afterwards to chat with a friend, lots of carbo's but probably the wrong kind for recovery.

Pool swimming has become somewhat of an anathema, a sacrifice I make to the Atlantic swim Gods, I hate pool swimming, too many people, the turning after each 25m, the cramps I get in my calves from pushing off the wall to quickly, the monotony - it is so much more difficult to switch off and zone out, which is what I can do when in the sea, it is this mental displacement that enables me to swim for so long without getting bored - this is practically impossible to do in a pool.

There is only one comfort though - no sharks.