Do you know what a dugong is?
Here's a wee clip taken during a recent dive at Marsa Abu Dabab in Egypt.
Posted at 02:40PM Oct 27, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[2]
Beginning to Exercise Again!
Without the incentive of the sponsorship challenge my good intentions of keeping swimming have not been turned into action. In fact I have not been swimming at all since the mega weekend to reach the 70km mark.
But with my next holiday looming I have signed up for some exercise classes which present a different set of challenges. One is a yoga class - an exercise routine where you spend the last 10 minutes of the class practically sleeping sounds good to me and should be beneficial. The second is definitely outside my comfort zone since it involves taking all my weight on my arms and swinging round a pole. After 2 lessons I can safely say that I am not designed for this and will either be toning up my arms and shoulders considerably or developing arms like Popeye to take my weight!
The results will hopefully be obvious at the end of both sets of courses in roughly 2 months time.
Posted at 11:29AM Sep 09, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[1]
70km Target Reached
Today, in my 30th swim since starting the Swimathon SimplySwim challenge in the middle of January, I swam through the 70km target. The challenge was based on swimming an average of 5km per week, but I always knew that there would be weeks where I would not swim at all and this proved to be the case. My first swim was on January the 16th, my last today, April the 20th. The table below summarises the distance swum and the time in the pool by month.
| January | 11,636m | 4 hours 45 mins |
| February | 9,850m | 3 hours 55 mins |
| March | 30,600m | 11 hours 43 mins |
| April | 18.050m | 7 hours 1 min |
| Totals | 70,136m | 27 hours 24 mins |
I had 2 objectives at the beginning:
- Get fitter by going swimming regularly.
- Raise money for charity by signing up for the Swimathon 2008 event.
Both have been met with the current charity total standing at £500 which is way beyond the value I would have expected at the beginning.
Would I have kept going if I was not sponsored? No.
Did I make it easy for myself? No, since Thursday I have been swimming 5 times and have swum 15,550m (622 x 25m lengths). Not exactly in keeping with an average of 5km per week!
Now I have to set myself some other goal to keep the momentum going and avoid losing my current level of swim fitness.
Thanks to everyone who sponsored me and/or took an interest in my progress it made the difference between this being a good idea and a reality.
Posted at 01:22PM Apr 20, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[1]
1 more swim and I reach the target of 70km
I've had to push it at the end of the challenge but will make it after a swimming for longer on Thursday and Friday night and then going swimming twice today.
I now have less than 2,500m to go - fewer than 95 x 25m lengths.
Tomorrow morning is the time to get it done, the pool I usually go to is closed in the afternoon for the main Swimathon event when people swim set distances in 1 off challenges.
I look forward to quoting stats tomorrow covering the whole challenge.
Posted at 06:14PM Apr 19, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Approaching the end - 617 lengths to go
Following a good holiday in Egypt the final lengths have to be completed. While I was away the sponsorship total reached £500 so thanks to everyone who has contributed and raised so much money.
It was back to the chlorinated pool today to swim another 100 lengths (2,500m) after spending a week in the Red Sea (not literally......) That leaves me with 617 lengths to complete or in other meaures - 15,414m which is just under 10 miles.
If you haven't sponsored me yet and would like to there is still time. The majority of the money goes to Marie Curie Cancer Care, with some of it going to the Swimathon Foundation.
Posted at 09:25PM Apr 05, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Less than 1000 lengths left
Tonight was my longest session, completing 3000m in 65 minutes.
I've now completed over 45km leaving 24,914m to go. In 25m lengths that's 997 left, which in comparison with 2800 at the start doesn't sound too bad.
Time to chase up some more sponsorship before I reach the end point!
Posted at 09:52PM Mar 17, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Counting down now - through the 50% mark
Another 100 lengths completed and the half way threshold has been crossed so now I can start to countdown rather than up.
I am now 52.27% of the way through the challenge and have swum 36,586m. For those who would like to see the detail here are the dates and distances for my swims to date:
- 16th January - 1000m
- 17th January - 750m
- 20th January - 1680m
- 21st January - 1600m
- 23rd January - 1400m
- 26th January - 1800m
- 27th January - 1806m
- 28th January - 1600m
- 16th February - 2500m
- 17th February - 2500m
- 23rd February - 2600m
- 28th February - 2250m
- 1st March - 2650m
- 2nd March - 2250m
- 3rd March - 2500m
- 5th March - 2700m
- 8th March - 2500m
- 9th March - 2500m
Posted at 02:43PM Mar 09, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Nearly half way
After a 2.5km swim today I have now completed 34,086m. Today's swim also proved to me how much my fitness has improved since I had to go to the Royal Commonwealth Pool and it was set up in 50m long lanes, which are more tiring than 25m lengths when you lack stamina.
I had to go there since I was using the bus to get to the pool, Scotland were playing England this afternoon in the Calcutta Cup and Six Nations Rugby International Series, so moving my car was not an option. The game has just finished with Scotland winning 15 - 9. From my house I can hear the fans singing in the stadium and also streaming out of the ground - the smiles on the Scottish fans faces are massive. But, that's because we expected a drubbing.
Back to my swimming and the 34km distance, that I have now reached, is 1km more than the narrowest crossing of the Strait of Dover.
It seems appropriate to mention that since Sport Relief events are taking place at the moment and David Walliams swam the Channel to raise funds for this event in 2006. This year he joined James Cracknell to complete the last leg of a multi-discipline challenge he has completed for the 2008 event - a swim across the Strait of Gibraltar to North Africa. Compared with the 20 mile channel swim the 12 mile distance must have seemed like a sprint to Walliams!
My own sponsorship figure in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care through Swimathon 2008 has now reached £430 which is way beyond my expectations at the beginning of this challenge. However, don't let that stop you from taking it even higher, since I still have 35,914m to go.
Posted at 05:55PM Mar 08, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
1155 lengths completed - only 1645 to go!
If I had been thinking about the headline I could have stopped a bit earlier tonight and had 1664 lengths to go.
But I wasn't thinking about that, instead my objective was to get another 100 lengths completed in an hour and build on my totals. Monday night is ladies night at the pool so my efforts were accompanied by music as the aquarobics class worked out in the pool next to me.
The status is now 28,886m completed against the 70km target. Only 41,114m to go.
Posted at 10:24PM Mar 03, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
15 Miles
I'm in that middle ground now - there are milestones to aim for, but they help to emphasise the distance that I still have to swim in order to complete 70km by the 20th of April.
I'm now through 24km (15 miles) and my next swim will see the 1000 lengths milestone surpassed (based on 25m pools) . However, when you consider that I am looking to complete 2,800 lengths the nature of the challenge I have set myself is obvious.
Sponsorship is very important because it means I must keep going. For those who've sponsored me you can see the sponsorship total. or if you haven't managed to add your sponsorship yet you can use the same link to add to the total.
Posted at 10:25PM Mar 01, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
10 miles completed
It is good to look at challenges in whatever way reflects the most progress so I've calculated the miles completed after another 2.5km swim today.
The good news is that I have swum more than 10 miles now, the bad news is there's more than 33 to go!
Progress in other measures below:
16.6km = 665 * 25m lengths, only 2,135 lengths to go.
Posted at 08:35PM Feb 17, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Falling behind....
After a good start there has been a bit of a gap in my pool sessions.
I know some of my sponsors are checking my progress since they have been asking if they will get their money back after seeing no progress. The answer to that is "NO", I will be completing this challenge.
I blame my daughter, Marina, for having her 21st birthday in February!
The "rest" seems to have done no harm since I completed a 2500m swim in an hour this afternoon AND enjoyed it.
Current status is 14,136m completed - only 80% of the challenge to go.
Posted at 06:15PM Feb 16, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Only 59,964m to go
A swim of 1806m took me through the 10km mark today and has reduced the total outstanding to less than 60km.
Only 2 weeks into the 14 week challenge, so there is still a long way to go. I need to build in some contingency by getting ahead of the 5km per week average to allow for times when I won't manage to get to the pool.
For the Doubting Thomas's amongst you who have asked who will verify that I swim these distances there's a pattern emerging - Musselburgh pool on a Wednesday, the Royal Commonwealth on a Sunday and Ainslie Park when I can fit in swims at other times in the week. In the water time to reach the distance of 10,036m amounts to just over 4 hours of actual swimming time.
Posted at 03:44PM Jan 27, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
Every KM is worth £5
January 25th is when Rabbie Burn's life is remembered with haggis, neeps and tatties the dish of choice, as a result today's swim followed 2 days of haggis eating.
I am beginning to feel more myself in the water and was pleased to complete 1,800m this afternoon. I need to do the same distance tomorrow to be on track and get through the 10km mark this weekend. Right now the total distance completed is 8,230m so only 61,770m to go in terms of the total challenge.
It's great to see the sponsorship value climbing and the figure raised now sits at £350.
Posted at 05:30PM Jan 26, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
The First 5K
My first milestone of 5km has been surpassed!
Tonight with the 4th swim the total stands at 5030m after a 1600m swim at Ainslie Park in Edinburgh.
It's not feeling easy, but I am managing more front crawl - tonight was roughly 50:50 front and back crawl.
Only 13 weeks and 13 times as many lengths to go.
Thanks to those who have already taken the sponsorship to the sum of £250.
Pile on the pressure by sponsoring me in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care in Swimathon 2008.
Posted at 10:19PM Jan 21, 2008 by Ann-Marie Jamieson in Personal | Comments[0]
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