Swimming Coniston (or some of it).

The idea of swimming Coniston was not my idea.

Coniston looking moody the night before

How many of these blogs start like this? Maybe I should start having my own ideas?
The good news is that this was not one of Chris Webb's delerious thoughts- but rather, someone elses.
Catherine Cleary. That's where the blame lies this time.
There is an organised swim the length of Coniston which costs somewhere in the region of "a lot of money" to do, and so rather than do that, it was decided that, hey, there are at least 2 of us who want to do this (note: I was not one of them)- and a competent safety kayaker (and dog), so let's get a couple more people to swim it, and it'll be grand.

Considering the furthest I've ever swum previously was 3k- which took about 1 hour 20 mins, the idea of swimming the length of Coniston Water- about 8k, was a bit of an ask. Still, not one to back down from a challenge, I said yep, I'm game for that. If necessary, there is a shore and a road, I can get out and run the rest of the way.

Catherine and Phil suiting up

To give you a bit of an idea of my swimming prowess, especially in comparison to those I was about to swim with, when we go swimming in a local lake I'm generally going at full beans while the others are smoothly cruising through the water at "easy" pace. It's like I'm literally fighting against myself as well as the water, thrashing around in a desperate attempt to go forward rather than stay any more stationary in the water.
A fish, I am not.

Even starting I was still very apprehensive of the task ahead of us. The route was to go from south to north, keeping as far to the east bank as possible, visiting Peel island (Wildcat Island, for those in the know) on the way. This was hugely appealing as that is something I'd been longing to do for a very long time. Off we set at about 8:50am on Saturday. Splash.

Within the first km it was clear that I was very much the slowest of the swimmers, with Tom making sure the others didn't let me fall too far behind. I was going as fast as I could, while the other 3 were, as ever, on cruise pace- perhaps even going a bit too slowly and getting cold. There were numerous stops to let me catch up, during which I could tell that I was fatiguing more and more as the others were quite happily mooching along.

By the time we reached Peel Island I was pretty knackered- and that is barely 1/3 into the distance. Still, I had managed to get that far, and was able to get out of the water and have a bit of a wander on the island of Swallows and Amazons fame.
Then, a quick hot drink, and back into the water- which felt even colder than before.

Leaving Fir Island

We (I) toiled on, at one point it seemed like the others had fatigued *just* enough to swim at my speed- even though it still felt like I was going as hard as possible- and we swam in a line for a while, which felt great. I was keeping up! Amazing!

And then my arms stopped working. Impending cramp in my lats and teres major, feeling a bit ill from working way beyond my limit, and I started falling behind again. Stops became more frequent as we made our way towards Fir island where I stumbled onto the shore and decided that was it.
Wetsuit off, running gear on and I attempted to run down the road, but was pretty soon reduced to a walk. Totally knackered.

The decision was made partially as I knew I was totally maxed out in terms of speed, while the others were tempering their speed in order to let me keep up- reducing their efficiency and reducing their ability to keep up body temperature. By being in the water I was reducing their chances of finishing the swim. I might have been able to finish, but it would not have been in any great time... I might have been in there for the rest of the afternoon. Not great.

So I got out, and was very thankful of that fact. I was beyond tired and suspect the effort that I was putting out was way more than I normally put out for any other exercise. As such my immune system must have been fairly compromised- I can say this mainly as I spent the rest of the night up and back from the tent to the toilet block (200m away) with diarrhea and vomiting. Not exactly a restful night- I was exhausted by morning- but the bonus was that I did get to see the stars shifting through the night!

Phil, Dmitri and Catherine- successful

Catherine, Phil and Dmitri finished the swim in just under 5 hours- an epic effort. I got out at about 5km- the most I've managed to swim in a single go. I don't imagine I'll be trying to swim further, but what I am doing, is looking at getting lessons to at least get me ever so slightly more efficient...

Thanks so much to Catherine for suggesting the idea and believing that I might be capable of doing such a thing (even if I wasn't) -- and let me make clear, that I'm not actually *blaming* her for anything... she is one of the loveliest and best swimmers I know, who convinced me that this would be a possibility. It is entirely my own fault for not being better trained and prepared for it and am entirely responsible for being utterly broken by physical endevour.  This definitely ranks among the hardest things I have ever attempted.

Skip the sailing dog and safety boater and Tom

Tadpole Round 2019

Wild Swimming. Not really something that I am totally comfortable with, so I've been working on gettting a little more happy with it recently. Having been invited to head up to the Lakes for an attempt at swimming the length of Coniston (which I accepted... more of that in a later blog), we realised that with a bit of work juggling, it would be possible to head up a couple of days earlier and have a go at the Tadpole round.

For the uninitiated, there is a Frog Graham- a version of the Bob Graham, but which involves swimming across 4 of the water courses in the Lakes as well as running a fair old distance. The Tadpole round is a significantly shorter and much more palatable introduction to run/swimming in the Lake district. It's billed as being ok for Kids, so Catherine and I thought it would probably suit us as an afternoon bimble.

The official route starts at the carpark on Crummock water, you swim across Crummock, run down the side to Buttermere water, swim across that, and then run back to the starting point. All good fun.

As we were staying in the campsite in Buttermere we decided to start the run from there and got all the ascent out of the way first. Up and around Low Bank and Rannerdale knots and down to the carpark at Hause point.
The wind was a fairly stiff north-westerly and was kicking up some quite considerable white horses on the lake. As we approached the Hause it was rather spectacularly crashing against the stones under the road and giving the impression of being the sea. The view across to Low Ling Crag was somewhat spectacular with a decent amount of swell on the water.

Having remembered the route from the website, we knew we needed to get in at Hause Point, which on the map is on the promontory into Crummock... so we went there, looked over the road where there was a semi-obvious entry point, down some fairly steep  earth and stone steppy bits with not a whole lot of space for changing. Thinking it would have been a lot easier to get in by the car park, we shrugged, and got on with the challenge of changing into wetsuits (well, I did- Catherine was in just a swim suit) and getting into some fairly exciting water.
(in hindsight we realise that yes, you are meant to get in at the carpark, not off the actual point, but hey, it gave a bit more of an adventurous flavour to the whole thing).

Everything packed into tow-float/bags and we slip-slid down into the water where we bobbed around for a short time getting used to the water before sighting on the crags and with the mantra "well, it's not the sea", cracked on.
With her in a swimsuit and me in a wetsuit we are about the same speed, so we swam side by side through what can only really be described as a bit of a washing machine for the 400m across Crummock water. I've Kayaked in worse, but certainly not swum! There were times when it felt like you were being lifted out of the water by the water, and times when breathing was optional through necessity, but we eventually got across and to Low ling crag.

Getting out onto the promontory it was really really windy and I had a minor scare when my kit nearly disappeared off into the water as I momentarily took a foot off the bag in order to put on some shorts.... A juducious use of speed work ensured that nothing ended up at the wrong end of the lake.
I decided that it really wasn't going to be pleasant to run in a wetsuit, so took the decision to change out of it for the second run, and then back into it for Buttermere. The wet wetsuit and float bag fitted nicely into my OMM rucksack and we bimbled off down the side of the lakes.

The run down Crummock was a little boggy with some slippy stoney bits - once down past Scale force and onto the path around Buttermere it turns into a flat and easy track that leads through the wood for a couple of kilometres or so before you briefly leave the wood and then enter a spinney at Horse Close.
I took a short time to put on the wetsuit again as we looked across the mere. Less wavy than the previous crossing, but certainly a long way from flat calm. A couple of haribo (tangfastics, what else?) A short wade in and then a splash across Buttermere, sighting towards the green field of Kirk Close. No where near the washing machine experience of Crummock, but still a lot more choppy than I've ever really swum in before.

A brief stop on the other side to change back into running gear, and a short jog back to Buttermere
campsite. 2 hours of great and social fun.
Thanks to Catherine for suggesting it, I can highly recommend it as a bit of an adventure. If you're going to stay at the campsite in Buttermere - be warned, the showers only take 50p coins!