So after four months of length after length it is almost time for the first of my outdoor charity swims for Aspire. This Saturday I’ll be up at stupid o’clock to splash about for a mile with 5000 other swimmers as part of the Great London swim. When I started my training back in March I couldn’t even swim a length. Now I’m swimming a mile a session and I feel ready. Training has been exhilarating and challenging but I’m pretty confident that I’m ready.

Over the past two weeks I’ve taken the training outside and have been road-testing the new wetsuit. Who would have thought that water indoors and outdoors could be so different.  I’ve had three sessions in the Serpentine lido in Hyde Park and I’m so glad that I’ve made the time to take the plunge outdoors. The first time I flopped in the water it was like I was back in my first session in March. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t string more than a few strokes together of front crawl.

It wasn’t so much the difference in water temperature as I quite enjoyed the cold water that was making me sink rather than swim but everything else. For starters I couldn’t see anything when I put my face in the water, there was nothing to hold on to, the water tastes different and with the wetsuit on I was super buoyant and couldn’t really move my arms. What’s worse was once I got going I swallowed a twig and got a duck’s feather caught in my hair.

Once I got going though I loved it, especially the swimming outside. Throughout all of my training I’ve got so much emotionally and mentally from being able to leave my chair poolside and just look like any other swimmer. When I’m in the water no one knows that the chair by the pool is mine and I’ve loved just feeling like everybody else. Outdoors I’ve loved this even more as with the wetsuit, hat and goggles on I’ve felt no different to all the cool looking people also training for this Saturday’s swim.

I’m also progressing slowly but surely to my fundraising target of £1000. At the time of writing I’m at £789 so if anyone reading this feels the urge to sponsor me please do so by going to www.justgiving.com/rockupandroll. Your money is going to go to a really superb cause. I’m actually having a cake sale at work tomorrow to have one last fundraising push before the weekend. Although I’m not hopeful of raising too much cash as I’ve just burned my flapjack.

Whilst on the subject of sponsorship I also enjoyed a great lunch at the Greenwich Rotary Club today. I was invited along as their guest speaker to talk about this Saturday’s swim, the three mile one in August and my life in a chair. The aim of going along was to see if they could contribute financially to the equipment that I’ve had to buy myself. I added it up last night and I’ve spent almost £750 so far on getting things like a wetsuit, goggles and worst of all horrendously skimpy Speedos. I’ve never been to a Rotary Club meeting before and had no idea what to expect. I was taken aback though by their hospitality, warmth, interest in what I was doing and most of all the amount of support and encouragement they give to local good causes.

I’ll keep you posted on how I got on in the swim and whether anything comes from my meeting today.