swimming

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Midge and Pike!!

Another weekend and another long swim, yesterday saw us leaving Luss at 5.20am and setting off on the Balloch route as featured in the next image. It was a stunning morning that gave us another glimpse of the beauty of this part of the world.

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I thought today i would speak about the more negative side of OW swimming as everyone who reads my blogs must think that all i every do is promote my wonderful relationship with the Lady of the Loch. Don’t get me wrong i still believe that the positives totally out weight the negatives but i also prefer to give the other side of the coin with a few of the dangers and annoyances.

Fecking Midges!!! – You arrive at the Loch at 5am on the morning and the second you exhale one breathe as you head to the boot of the car for your wetsuit the midges are attacking you, i even think they have the ability to bite while we are swimming as i only ever get bites on my feet, hands, neck and face. Here’s a picture of my foot from last week, apologies that my pedicure was booked in prior to the photo

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“Surely you must be scared of the fish” – I’m not a specialist on fish, i love to eat them and i have to say in my 4 years of OW swimming i have only ever seen one and i swam into it, it was dead, and yes i needed to empty out the rear of my wetsuit! The only times i have ever heard about these Pikes biting anyone are the fishermen, and i believe i would do the same ALA Saurez if someone had just lanced my cheek with a one way spike. When you see what these Pikes look like they are an ugly creature with huge teeth, the fishermen are always asking us if we want to see the photo of the “one they caught in there last week” i decline graciously – ignorance is bliss

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The Cold – The temperature in the Loch’s varies depending on a few factors, predominantly (and all you geography experts out there please this isn’t a lesson!) depth of the Loch, recent rainfall, winds, currents and the time of the year. We went for a dip on Boxing day and the water temp was in the region of 3-4 degrees, during this weekend the temp was approx 17 degrees which i am hoping will be the temperature for the big swim, anything below 15, for the length of time we will be in the water may be an issue. 

Other water users – For many years us OW swimmers i believe have been quite ignorant about our use in the water and ultimately our own safety. Just because we wear brightly coloured hats doesn’t mean we are instantly visible. Lately we have all been buying these brightly coloured Buoy’s which you pull along behind you and are the size of a beach ball, many Loch users have been complimenting us on these inventions as they state they see us from further away. The only real danger now is the rowers, which i have mentioned previously who haven’t got the foggiest whats behind them.

Please don’t let the above put you off, the slight issues are far outweighed by the stunning scenery, here’s a short video (1 min 36 secs)  taken last weekend of the over riding positive of OW swimming in Loch Lomond

 

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The good, the bad and the Algae

We are now in the middle of what we must call summer, Scotland doesn’t often get the sunshine for any more than a nanosecond but we have been baked in glorious sunshine for the past 10 days and this can have a huge positives for us Open Water Swimmers but also many issues.

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As you can see from the image above the wet suit is still on but once i had banked the 4 miles training swim we ditched the suits and i have to say it was the warmest i have ever felt Loch Lomond for a suites swim, it was the equivalent of the swimming pool on holiday, chilly at first but once swimming for enjoyable.

With the sunshine also brings the negatives, we were swimming in Castle Semple Loch earlier in the week, this is the shallow loch that we used at the start of the year which is a very shallow Loch and holds the temperature well. We went for a swim on tuesday night and the Loch’s water quality had changed, it was like soup, i hadn’t witnessed the Blue Green Algae bloom previously but you just knew it was present. Rightly so, the local parks authority issued the warning the following day.

I mentioned last week that there are dangers and we met a few then with Jet skies, speed boats and even Water Planes. Yesterday we met what i consider to be the biggest danger- the rowers. All other water users no matter how fast they are travelling are facing towards you and we make ourselves as noticeable as possible, rowers are oblivious to what is going on behind and in Loch Lomond there isn’t any rowing lanes so we need to mind read.

I’m always courteous to them all and try to engage in a chat, coaches and younger rowers seem pleasant but we met an older couple on Saturday who were far too superior in their rowing boats, when i asked the question what part of the Loch will they be rowing in so we can stay out of their way the answer was firm “Don’t know”

I need to thank my swimming partner this weekend, Robert Heron, without him i would have been on my own and for safety reasons wouldn’t have managed to get a decent swim in. He’s another fish, we headed out to the green and red buoys without the wetsuits on the way back in he breaks into 50M of Butterfly and flies past my plod of a front crawl. Previously i would have been very annoyed that he was able to pass me so easily, now i just have to watch and admire!

So here i am sat at the computer tapping away with 6 weeks to go until the planned big day. How do i feel? I actually feel good, I am aware that we have only done a few larger swims at 4, 5 and 8 miles but we have certainly trained the strength into our shoulders.

Onwards an upwards!

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The Lady of the Loch – Mood swings

What a morning, after heading to bed in the early hours of the mornings the alarm went off at 5.50, normally this is too early for me especially with only 4 hours kip. However with the sun shining in the windows and my velux it was a pleasure to roll out of bed and head downstairs for my mandatory bowl of porridge and coffee.

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(The image above was from last year but we visited this spot twice today and i wanted to take my iPhone out of the bag and copy the shot, however the waves wouldn’t let me even get my balance to even attempt the selfie)

Big Chris and I had organised to meet at the Car Park at the Maid of the Loch at 6.50 to ensure we were in the water for 7am. What greeted us was one of the mornings we dream of, calm waters, bright blue sky and warm in the air; however what we were about to experience over the next 3 hours was a roller coaster.

We headed into the water and set the ‘Mapmyrun’ on my iPhone (If you are wondering how i swim with my phone – I have one of the water sealed orange buoys which drag behind us when swimming, great for not getting hit by boats!!) and were straight to the first yellow buoy. As stated earlier the water was crystal clear, calm with the sun glistening on every breathe, at this yellow buoy the first mention of Inchmurrin arose and we totally believe “The Lady of the Loch” heard this conversation, as we headed off due North and into the open waters you could feel the air pressure changing and the swell of the water beginning. The land geography in a nutshell is shelter for the first mile then the Loch opens up and at this stage we felt the changes.

Call me a coward, i call it sensible, as soon as we felt the swell and the change in conditions we both made the decision to turn and swim the distance required in more sheltered waters, the lady didn’t think we were ready to bridge the return journey to Inchmurrin (6 miles) so we duly accepted her opinion and turned due west toward Duck Bay. I have taken on the female species for most of my life and usually end up losing the argument. Therefore when the Lady of the Loch informed us that she didn’t want us to proceed we duly obliged.

Once we were back into the more sheltered waters the Loch changed again back into the tranquil place that we all love, however that only lasted for about 30 minutes as what can only be described as a temper tantrum raged through the Loch once again – the swell returned

Now i have to let you know a secret about Big Chris “Shoulders” McGrenary, he is an absolute powerhouse through the water, that is the flat calm swimming pool water but in the chop he struggles and this makes me feel a far better swimmer than i actually am, as he struggles and i feel great! bonus.

2 and a half hours into the swim and about 4.5 miles done we notice another group of swimmers heading back towards us at the well known stopping point “The Witches Hat”. As we hadn’t seen anyone since we left we stopped to have a chat an they were proud to tell us they had been to Cameron House and back and had been in the water for 40 minutes and heading back pretty tired. Its moments like these that have made me embarrassed previously by blurting out our morning achievement, so i decided to keep quiet. However “Shoulders” responded in a way that i may have done a few years ago “we got in at 7am and are approx 4 miles into our swim”

Needless to say both groups headed off in different directions thereafter and later in Costa for cake and coffee, the big man asked if that sounded a bit big headed? “Not at all big man” was my response

So there you have the first long distance LL swim of the year in the bag, 3 hours and 5 minutes with a distance of 4.98 miles. Very pleased with that until you realise only another 19.02 miles to go!!

 

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Stunning Country

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The plan has been simple so far, as many 1-2 miles swims as possible during the month of May.

Now we are at the start of June the distance increases and hopefully by the end of June we will churning our 10km swims weekly.

7am this morning and we were greeted at Castle Semple Loch with these stunning views. There are many days when the weather is rotten and you still pull on the wetsuit because you have committed, today was a pleasure. Big Shoulders and me didn’t want to get out, a stunning way to start the day – 3.54 miles, 0.54 more than expected or planned for but we couldn’t resist.

More of these days please!