The Channel in four days

(Nederlandse tekst onderaan)

Just back from a late night visit to 'Doctor D.', the very friendly general practitioner of the British High Commission who did the last medical formalities for me to complete my registration with the CS&PF for The Swim. He found that I have a case of 'swimmer's ear' (external ear infection), which is hardly surprising with all the time I spent with my head under water these days. Fortunately it doen't bother me much.

We spent a pleasant and restful Easter holiday in Phuket, Thailand. Milan, Rohan and Tara enjoyed their new snorkeling sets, even if the coral was all bleached and dead due to rising sea temperatures, and perhaps the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami? I spent two days in bed with upset intestines and catching up on sleep, but managed to do a few swims, of which one of 4 hours, appr. 12 kms. The water was almost unpleasantly warm (> 30ºC), which felt like swimming in hot soup. Not very useful for the Channel.

Back in Dhaka, things are infernally busy at work, with an upcoming high level visit and a decision to have a high level meeting with the Government  to discuss bilateral cooperation, all in the third week of June. I try to get as much of the preparations done as I can before I leave for the cold waters of the Netherlands on 20 May: 3 weeks ahead of the family, perfect for a couple of weeks of the train-eat-sleep routine needed at this point in my preparations. First I will do two weeks of much needed cold water acclimatization in the Netherlands proper, mainly in my beloved Maas and the Dode Maasarm near Lithoyen, my favourite training places. I also hope to do some training in the IJsselmeer and in the North Sea with various long distance swimming buddies, not least the IJsselmeerbikkels. Then a long weekend in Dover to experience some really tough training (6-8 hours a day) in really cold water (13-14°C), a few days in Brussels for work, and back to NL to pick up the family from Schiphol airport. While it will be nice to focus 100% on training, I am not looking forward to being away from the family for three weeks. 

In terms of training, the last couple of days were ok, in spite of hectic work: I managed 33 km (Dover-Calais as the crow flies) in four consecutive days:

              Thursday 5 km,

              Friday 10 km,

              Saturday again 10 km,

              today 8 km.

So, the Channel in four days as it were, minus the cold and the waves though. All in all a pretty good training week, with earlier swims of 8 km on the previous Sunday and 4 km on Tuesday. Next weekend I’ll try the Channel in three days.

I’ll be off on a four day field trip in the North of Bangladesh from 10-13 May, which will give my rather sore body a few days of welcome rest. I should have some interesting pictures to share upon my return.

Beste NL lezers,

Zoals jullie zien is de blog een beetje aan het veranderen. Meer en meer Engelstalige vrienden, kennissen en collega’s (en (potentiële sponsors!) willen ook graag mijn project volgen. Ik wil dan ook vanaf nu tot aan de overtocht begin augustus de meeste van mijn stukjes in het Engels schrijven en ook (delen van) de rest van de website in het Engels vertalen. Hopelijk maakt het jullie niet uit.

Teunie, bedankt voor je berichtje. Zoals je ziet word je op je wenken bediend. ;)