Lots of love for the Harlem Shake memes doing the rounds at the mo… but these underwater / changing room / poolside versions have to be my favourites!

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Like most people, I’m kicking off 2013 with some new years resolutions and aspirations of improving myself both inside and out.

Starting with a well needed dry January, a bit of a healthy easting / detox [that pretty much consists of reducing consumption down from excessive December standards to 'regular' portions and mealtimes], signing up to my new local swimming pool, and getting back into my swim training routine…

Oh, and clearing out my wardrobe – my swimming wardrobe that is.

Having put this swim suit through its paces – to the point of near transparency –  I decided it was time to replace it!

Also on my New Years’ resolution hit list:

• Signing up for another individual 5k Swimathon swim in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care – with the aim of beating my previous time and fund raising total
• Getting into open water swimming
• Drawing up a bucket list of places to swim around the world – and try to tick them off this year – Round the world in 80 swims!
• To build up my self-confidence, keeping as happy and healthy in body and mind as possible

Oh, and keeping you updated on my resolutions progress…

So what are your resolutions…?

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They say ‘you never forget your first love’ – perhaps because your first real experience of love-lost is so raw that it teaches you to not take love for granted[?]

What they don’t tell you is that life has a habit of getting in the way, and it’s often easy to lose sight of those things we love! Not because you don’t care, or have lost interest; but just because other stuff has ‘taken over’ or been the priority at the time.

Recently I’ve been guilty of letting life get in the way of what’s important to me… [so please forgive my radio silence, lack of tweets, blog updates etc]

…but now realise it’s time to sort it out and get on! So I’m reprioritising ”stuff’ and

Putting the things that I love in life back to the top of the pile!

• I’m going to get back into my swimming routine!
• I’m going to train hard, so that I can do another distance swim!
• I’m going to try and do my first open water swim this year! [Suggestions please]
• I’m going to make sure I keep in touch with swim buddies and try out new pools!
• I’m going to save up so I can swim in more amazing locations around the world!
• I’m going to update my swim blog more frequently - so you can see what I’m up to, and so that I keep motivated!

And finally… I’m going to just keep swimming! Because sometimes in life, that’s all you can do!

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One of the best life skills my parents equipped me with was the ability to swim.

I wasn’t taught for the the sheer pleasure of it though, but for the practical reason that knowing how to swim made me safer!

It meant that the time I fell in the pond was a drama, rather than a crisis, because I knew how to keep myself afloat!

In addition to infant swimming lessons my parents funded, the county primary school I attended fortunately had budget enough to ensure that me and my classmates were comfortable in, and capable of holding our own treading water…

And my god do I count myself extremelly lucky for those opportunities! Especially when I read recent shocking stats that revealed “every year 200,000 children leave school unable to swim” [that's 1 in 3 kids leaving primary school, and an astonishing 2 million children over the next 10 years!]

I think we’d all agree with John Glenn, Head of Youth & Community at ASA, who says that “by not teaching children how to swim we are putting their lives in danger”.

And with drowning as the third biggest cause of accidental death among children in England, and 57 deaths from drowning in 2010 alone,  taking action and addressing this matter really can’t happen soon enough.

But thankfully Kelloggs has teamed up with the Amateur Swimming Association to do just that! Together they’re tackling the issue by leading an awesome awareness campaign that highlights the importance of being able to swim and encourages more kids to learn – in order to save future lives.

The project endeavours to break down the barriers people have that prevent them from participating in swimming in the first place and cites how it’s important you get your child used to the water from a very young age so they don’t grow up with a fear of water.

In addition to free kids swims from Kelloggs,  the ASA Awards Scheme aims to help children learn to swim and plays an important role in the teaching of swimming in Britain. To support this millions of badges and certificates are awarded each year ranging from National Swim Awards which test swimmers on all strokes and aquatic sports, to toddlers swimming their first five metres.

The importance of this campaign really hits home when you watch this video, highlighting many great reasons for this campaign, whilst telling about a young eight-year-old boy called Matthew who never learnt, and sadly drowned.

So here’s to supporting this campaign and getting kids into Swimming – the only sport that is a survival skill, offers safety, fun and confidence!

“Save your child’s life today and get involved.”

Follow #WaterSafety on Twitter for more updates and tips:

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The sun is shining, it’s hot outside and summer looks like it’s finally made an appearance, I’d say you couldn’t want for more perfect conditions than these to enjoy a refreshing, revitalising dip in your local lido!

Here’s to swimming en plein air and making the most of the sunshine this weekend!

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Whoot! I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finally put an end to my swimming drought this week and am back in the pool

And having remembered how great it feels to swim, I thought I’d share this photo of my local pool as it looked just before my last epic swim session – looking totally inviting and ready for me to make a splash!

What more could you want, than an empty swimming pool all to yourself? *sigh*

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OMG! I have serious water withdrawals and am desperate to get back in the pool ASAP!

Following my epic Swimathon a couple of weeks ago I was naturally ready to give my body a little rest and decided to take a week off from the pool… but since then, since wanting to get back on in there, I’ve been struck down by an evil bug that’s rendered me ‘landlocked’ and sadly uneligaible for the pool

And more than ever I’m acutely aware of why it was I got back into swimming again!

I’m missing my me-time, need to unwind from the day job / general craziness of city living, and my body’s screaming out for a damn good stretch!

I just can’t wait to shake off the ‘fish-out-of-water feeling’ and get back into my stride!

I know I’ve posted about the benefits of swimming before; but I never realised or perhaps stressed just how important-a-part of my life-balance swimming has become and is.

Check out these tweets from #swimming pals and twitterati, expressing more reasons why swimming is awesome and why I really can’t wait to jump back in:

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I was pretty excited to test out these “lightweight goggles designed for competition and swim training” – they sounded just the type of thing I was looking for. Plus, I’d never tried any Maru swim kit before so was keen to give them a go.

First up, here’s the spec:

I thought googles looked pretty good in their packaging; the design and colours were quite cool.

But, I’m not going to lie, it did take me a couple of minutes [a blonde moment] before I realised how to get the packet open – erm.. by unclipping the sides.

Randomly though the packaging didn’t just contain goggles, but a pretty strong smell, that reminded me of TCP!

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Ignoring the smell, and taking a look at the goggles themselves:

First impressions on appearance were pretty good. I liked the fact that the lenses weren’t too big and the colour of mirrored-effect in the lenses was pretty cool too.

But, I thought the strap was a bit on the thin and rubbery side. I was also a bit worried about the length of it and how much give there was in terms of fitting… after a bit of adjusting, via the traditional ‘over-and-under-style clasp” I got them to  fit my head, but I think someone with a bigger head might want to see if there are any larger strap sizes available. [NB: My noggin isn't that big after all]

Here’s a close up of the goggles and strap:

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The goggles also come with a few interchangeable nose bridges in different sizes, which is great, but just as well I opted for the ‘as-standard’ medium size since it looked a bit tricky to change.

I then checked out what those funky looking mirrored-effect lenses looked like… and as you can see from the pics, everything was pretty rosy! I’d not worn any red lensed goggles before (even when I was little) so I was quite intrigued to see what affect they would have on my vision when swimming…

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And here’s what the Maru goggles look like on and how much lee-way there was left on the strap once I’d gotten it to fit properly:

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And so, post test-drive, here’s my sink or swim’ rating based on the following factors:

Function

They were certainly watertight and didn’t fog up, so I would have awarded full points for them doing what they were meant to if it weren’t for the fact I had to take them off after 25 minutes due to discomfort. These goggles are described as suitable for training, but sadly I don’t think they’re for long distance. So I’m giving 4/5

Comfort

Oh my goodness ‘frog eyes’ ahoy! I know the lenses are meant to fit the eye sockets, and am sure some people might like a snug fit around the eyes, but I found the harder plastic lens rims/seals really dug in and were quite painful [despite loosening the fit]. So I’m giving 1/5

Vision

The close socketed lenses weren’t too restrictive to vision, but did have a kind of ‘blinkered’ effect whilst swimming – the clearest line of sight was straight forward. But with the red lenses everything kind of looked a bit 3D-ish too…it was a weird novelty at first, what with the air bubbles and everything, but to be honest it’s not for me and I think after swimming a long way they’d give me a headache. I’m scoring 2.5/5

The vanity factor

The mirror-effect was pretty cool, they didn’t swamp my face and my boyfriend didn’t laught too much. I’d give them a good 4/5

Value for money

You get what you pay for with these goggles. In my opinion they’re pretty average in terms of quality vs price, 3/5

So, I’m giving these goggles an overall score of 14.5/25

Thank you to Simply Swim for suggesting I try these goggles, and for letting me give them a test drive in my search for the perfect pair…

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It’s the night before the biggest swim of my life, and I’ve got butterflies! They started to flutter from the 1-week-to-go point, but now on the eve of the big 5K Swimathon they’re rife! So I’ve decided to sit here and bosh out this post, in an effort to rationalise any heebie geebies before re-charging my batteries with a decent night’s sleep. So, here goes…

When I found out that I’d be swimming in a lane with 8 other ‘super-charged’ swimmers likely to complete the 200 lengths in 2hours – I have to admit my initial reaction was OMG [seriously!?] – the nerves started jangling, and I worried that my PB of 2hours 8mins simply wouldn’t be good enough :S

I was told by the organiser lady that I shouldn’t worry, since “everyone swims faster on the day though” and “when the adrenaline kicks in, [I]‘ll be flying too” - but this revelation about my lane placement did prompt me to fit in one last epic post-work training session last night to check if I’d really be able to hack the pace…

So I decided to swim flat out for an hour, and thankfully I managed to do 100 lengths in pretty much bang-on 1hour, which was great for setting my mind at rest in terms of time/speed.

And in terms of my physical stamina?

Thinking back  to Janaury, and how unfit I was when I started and looking at my physique now, I’m pretty sure [or so my boyfriend informs me] that my arms are now up to pulling me through the water for a couple of hours and my legs are about prepped to propel me to the finish.

Having read-up on possible ‘burn-out’, I’ve been careful this past week or so to make the most of last minute training opportunities without pushing my body too hard too.

I’ve also been reading up on as many last-minute training tips out there on Facebook and Twitter…and in regards to food I’ve even asked the pro-nutritionist Alex Popple for advice on what to eat and when in advance of my race:

 

So I shouldn’t be sat here worrying right!?

Right! I know that whatever time I do tomorrow, however ‘prunified’ I get, or knackered I am at the end, I will have done over and above what I set out to do…

Not only will I have raised an awesome amount of money for a fantastic Charity – Marie Curie Cancer Care, but I will have completed a personal challenge that only 4.5 months ago I’d have never thought physically possible!

So, bring it on! I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, am looking forward to letting you know how I do, and all I need to do now is remember to just keep swimming!*

*I’d also like to thank all of those people nearest and dearest who’ve had to put up with my constant swim-chat recently, and who’ve helped to encourage and motivate me too!

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When I was little I loved the little Mermaid! I used to dream of being a mermaid, and like any other girl of my age at the time, would mess about in the pool pretend that I was in fact a mermaid – in the hope that one day I might actually be one!

I suppose you could say that I wouldn’t have minded trading places with Ariel for a bit… [obviously minus the terribly high sacrifice involved] since long flowing red hair, blue eyes, a greenish-blue tail, a purple seashell bikini, and a fish top kind of appealed to me at the time. *sigh* the innocence of youth!

Now I’m older, [*cough*] wiser, and fully aware of the dark connotations behind [the legendary] Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the magic’s kind of worn off a bit…

That was until I came across some awesome graphic prints by Rowan Stocks-Moore; which included this awesome movie poster for the film The Little Mermaid:

Rowan Stocks-Moore is a graphic design graduate from Liverpool, “with a passion for book and film covers, as well as a love for design in general!” – and you can check out some of his other work here

Anyway, I felt inspired to share this with you… now I’m off to the pool to relive my youth ‘mermaid’ style

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