LIVE DEEPLY, TREAD LIGHTLY
My second training week has been very different from my first. It started off with me fighting a scratchy throat and high heart rate. By Wednesday I was getting restless and took my morning off to get in the water and swim an easy 1km. I then went to join my training...
This week has been my rest week and it has been good. Work has not played the rest game well with me though with me being fully booked for the last two days of the week with a waiting list. My average heart rate was between 75 & 80ish which is rather high. On one...
So I survived my first ‘official’ training week on my road to full training. I did a total of 3 training sessions and 2 active rest sessions and generally felt ok. I had 3 days of feeling completely exhausted, but managed to get through my daily tasks ok. My final...
Today I did my first proper training session in 7 months. For most people it could hardly be called a training session. But for me, it was the start of an intentional and very specific training plan towards my goal of completing the Kawi channel crossing next year. I...
I have spent the last three days working with the South African national student rowing team in South Korea. I had no idea how technical rowing was. I was wondering what on earth they needed a tool box for, until I arrived at the venue and saw these complex boats all...
I guess it is rather fitting that with 52 weeks to go (give or take a few) I have just spent the last 52 hours travelling. That is 1 hour of travelling per week of my countdown! Or one and a quarter times the swim distance I am planning to swim. Or 4 -5 x the time I...
I have decided to start a 52 week training diary in preparation for my 40km channel crossing next year. 1 year seems a long way away, but when you break it down to just 52 weeks, it seems very close and with me in a position of minimal training, it is easy to want to...
I have just got back from a fun, spontaneous night away. I needed to escape from the regular routine of life I have subtly created for myself. I needed to find myself some space and just rest in a new environment. I picked the south coast, because for me it’s always...
I recently had the privilege of swimming 100km over 6 days from Ponta do ‘Oura in Mozambique to Sodwana in Northern KZN. Being the first swim of its kind for me and my team, we did not know what to expect, and had to rely on our collective experience and the locals...
I was recently away in Zimbabwe for work. We were staying at a local teachers training college which had just built some new prefab buildings to accommodate all of us. It was so recent in fact that some of the roofs were not up yet, the paint was still wet and we had...