aninterestingname.co.uk

February 22nd, 2009 by Andy Feltham

This year has already gone too quickly. I’ve had a few years recently where i can look at the end and i’ve been disappointed with the amount i’ve done. Its not a resolution ( especially in Feb ) but it will be different this year. As some of you may know, in December last year i had an operation on my arm to correct a Muscle Hernia which seemed to have been caused by previous injuries. While the surgery has gone well, i’m faced with three months where i’m not allowed to do anything more than lift a half filled kettle! Needless to say i’m not the kind of person that enjoys just sitting around doing nothing.

As fortune would have it, Swimming is about the only thing i am actually allowed to do with my arm and now that working hours are back to normal i’m back into the swimming with a desire to do it properly. I’ve written previously how i would never go to the gym that i had joined, but am clearly eating my words at the moment.

For me, entereing the Swimathon is a personal challenge. Its a 5,000m timed swim, although its not a race. All money raised goes towards the Marie Curie charity and as i mentioned in the previous post its also something that i used to enter on a regular basis about 12+ years ago. When i did it last i completed the 5000 meters ( 200 lengths ) in a time of 66 minutes. For me to be taking this seriously i want to be aiming for a time of around 1hr 15 min, which means 1000 meters every 15 minutes, or 100 meters every 90 seconds. To get there i’ve got an agressive schedule that sees me run twice a week and swim twice a week, and is online for all to see. Some might say that it’s unlikely i will get back to the fitness i used to have before work, before the house, and before everything else but i don’t think like that. I don’t enjoy getting up at 6:20 am to swim before work, but none of that matters because I AM going to do this. There are some amazing people out there who achieve a lot more than this, who fight through cancer and god knows what else and if they can do that when they are fighting against other things, then i can certainly do this where all i’m competing against is myself.

Although i mentioned that this is a personal challenge, Marie Curie is a good charity and as good as any to deserve a bit of your charity. If you’ve got this far, then please sponsor me to go the distance and help to make a difference to peoples lives. Thank you.