Swimming In The Great Outdoors
We’re around a month into our Aspire Channel Swim and I’m absolutely loving it. Our challenge, if you haven’t read my previous post, is to swim the distance of the English Channel. At a whopping 22 miles, it’s not to be taken lightly! Last year Paul and I took part in a relay team of ten to complete the challenge but this year we’ve decided to go it alone as a family.
Getting the kids involved has been a master stroke in terms of encouraging them to practise their swimming without even realising it. They’re so focussed on clocking up the lengths to log on our tracker, that they don’t even realise they’ve been swimming rather than just jumping in and out of the pool repeatedly. Of course, we always let them have time at the end to do that because a trip to our David Lloyd Club isn’t complete without them having to absolutely soak us with a bomb into the pool, ha!
If you would like to sponsor us and we’d really appreciate it, you can do so by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/the-stainthorpes-channel-swim-2018
The other thing we’re doing differently this year is we’re doing the full challenge in the outdoor pool. You might think, so what? I think I would have thought the same thing or maybe, it’s blooming freezing outside, are you mad? Swimming in the outdoor pool feels so different to swimming indoors, it’s almost like there’s a current to fight against. The slightest breeze and the pool can create little waves that I can only compare to swimming in the sea. As we’re full steam ahead into Autumn, the wind has definitely picked up and some days it can feel as though you’re swimming and getting absolutely nowhere. So why not move indoors is a question that springs to mind, but do you know what, we’re loving the extra resistance training it’s giving us.
It has definitely made me think about how great open water swimming must be both in terms of resistance and subsequently fat loss. I’ve read some articles and whilst the David Lloyd pool is heated, open water swimming in cold water can increase your body’s ability to burn fat as it is working harder to warm up. Makes perfect sense to me. We’re lucky enough to live close to a beautiful coastline and I think open water swimming is something I’m keen to try out in the future. For now, I’m going to continue loving the outdoor pool and working together as a family to complete the Aspire Channel Swim. It’s all for such a great cause. Every eight hours someone is paralysed by a spinal cord injury. I find this fact astonishing every time I read it. Aspire received no government funding and campaigns like this one are fundamental for them to raise the funds to be able to support those with spinal cord injuries and give people the quality of life and independence they deserve.
If you’d like to support Aspire, why not join the challenge? If you’d rather show your support in another way then perhaps you’d consider sponsoring our family as we swim 22 miles for those supported by Aspire.
Thanks,
