Harlyn Bay, 11th July and Portscatho, 21st

A nice long post to enlighten you guys on what Len brushed over down there...

Our second swim was at Harlyn and this time was just Luce, Sarah and Em, as Nay was in the Scillies (we forgive her because the water there is FREEZING). Lucy and Em christened their waterproof earplugs on this swim to try and get rid of the horrible horrible earache you get from freezing cold sea water churning around your ears!! Luckily, the whole afternoon went much better than the week before.

It's much easier to swim along a beach than across the open water like we had done in Falmouth the previous week, because it's warmer (the sun heats up the sand, which heats the water) and once you get out past the breakers it's a lot less choppy, but the team did well nonetheless! We were in, swimming back and forth across the bay, for about half an hour before getting out to have a run down the length of the beach and back and then back in the water for another half hour. The run actually really tired us out for our second leg of swimming but it did help to warm us up quite a lot before getting back in the freeezing water. Luckily, the verdict on this swim was much more positive from Len as he's already said, with a good pace etc.

Our next swim was another big improvement. We swam from Portscatho Harbour round the headland and towards Carne and Pendower Beaches before the tides changed and the water got ridiculously choppy, so we turned round and swam back the way we'd come. Might I mention it was probably in the top 3 of the coldest I've ever been in my life. Absolutely freezing to the point that I totally couldn't feel my legs which is VERY annoying when you're trying to kick to get yourself back to Portscatho as fast as possible. The difference you feel on coming into the bay and out of the open sea is incredible - suddenly no more winds and waves, and you can actually take a proper breath without having to swallow a mouthful of water! Nay especially had a horrible time with the whole breathing thing and ended up pretty worse for wear after swallowing a few gallons of sea water. The fact that we were in the freezing cold water for an hour and a half meant that we completely went past the phase of being in pain from the cold and went partially, or completely, numb. The shivering didn't stop for ages, even while trying to warm up in the local restaurant with chips afterwards!

We were all really glad we'd managed to spend such a long time in the water though, and the feeling was suddenly a lot more positive. It's obvious how important it is to regularly train together in this way, since the constant need to be looking out for each other (our spacial awareness isn't great yet and within 30 seconds you can suddenly be 40 metres away from everyone else, swimming out to sea... Sarah is particularly good at that) creates a real feeling of being a proper team.

Hopefully it's all up from here!!

LENS Team xxxxxx

P.S. And yes Luce has jetted off to Cyprus which means she'll need to do a lot of extra training when she gets back...but she's an amazing swimmer and we have faith that we'll be able to sort it out in time.