Plan your swim and swim your plan.. I've spent the last few days trying to sort out what my thoughts are with the 26.4km swim down the lake.. Getting to Zurich with our transport system is an expedition in itself..
 

The middle section of the lake

 The weather looks to be a little challenging with West winds and also rain-in fact from tomorrow Friday though Sun it is torrential. I was hoping not to tell Frances as she was busy packing her sunscreen and shorts, but with the need for wet gear and the fact that she will be in an open boat I spilled the beans last night.. Expletives were the expected response. It is actually going to be harder for the crews to be hanging about in the rain and wind than the swimmers. For us we have a function, For the crews mixing our food and trying to pass the day in the miserable conditions will be a toughie. But I have bought her a black board, well a white board so she can communicate with me.. things like "looking good Nuala"...hmm or maybe "I'll kill you when we get home"... either way we'll have fun.. Other challenges with the added rain-it will mix up the water & it might make it messy, lumpy-it will reduce the temperature which is not a problem for us..but it might affect the visability.
The air temp is looking at a minimum 16deg, crazy stuff-like a rainy day at home, with wind from the west. Happy days.
The first challenge is to make Meelin by the cut off point. 14.5km..The lake water can lift much quicker in wind than the sea. It's more slapping than the wallop of the sea.


The middle section of the lake-

 I breathe to the left so I will be breathing into the waves all the time, I have tried unilateral breathing but with old neck injuries that is just not going to happen. Once I get to Meilin the pressure will be off and hopefully it will be a just a cruise home to Zurich.
The recommendation for feeding a roughly about 32 fluid oz an hr.. that's just under a litre-swimming 10-12 hrs that's about 12 litres of liquid I'll be ingesting.. The biggest fears are not being adequetely hydrated. It's a mixture of water, maxim and a high electrolyte drink, at alternatives,maybe some warm drinks-throwing in some munchies as well-some chocolate, some sweets, some cake maybe, heck even a ham sandwich-well I suppose it's a good time to admit I'm going for a picnic and i'll swim to my next feeding!!!! I have a plan to follow but once we have everything with us, then we can change as we go along.

Nutrition and hydration is so important, I may not take half of what we bring but bring it we will. Once we leave there is no going back. I will probably feed every 30 mins. Unlike running and biking we can't particularly feed while we exercise, I will try to limit my stops to 30 secs-I won't be any more hurried-I'm not chasing a time so there's no need to stress.

I'll probably chat and enjoy the ride-This is the swim into Zurich.. It is such an enormous honour to get selected for these challenges-They are so exclusive and fun based.
I get a lot of questions re what I think about.. I genuinely can't remember.. I start out with a plan of thoughts but then as time passes I could have the same thoughts over and over and then try to remember the thoughts again-and so the games begin.. I am so looking forward to just having the opportunity to swim the distance without the stress of having to get home or back to work.. Balance with work /life is never easy with the distance training in the summer.
The key to anything is to enjoy it, a lot of people put a lot of pressure on the outcome but I always put my emphasis on the journey. It's been a difficult summer-trying to get in the water, the weather, the wind has been a nightmare. Work has been difficult being self employed in a small business. If i'm not there I don't get paid so justifying taking time to train was tough and then there was personal. So all in all I am over the moon to be part of such a wonderful event and that's my only objective.

Have fun and chalk it down.