Be Excellent To Each Other

I thought I'd create a thread to catalogue my wild swims this year.

A couple of years ago I managed at least 1 wild swim a month. Last year, injury prevented me from doing any wild swims for half the year.

I want to try and make 52 swims this year, and at least one each month.

So, looking at the forecast for the rest of January, I decided that today was the best day to have a swim.

As such:

1) Long Timber Woods - quick swim after work, cut short as it was cloudy and the sun set at 5, so it was pretty dark, however, surprisingly not too cold. I only managed 2 lengths, as it was getting really dark!

This is a good idea Malc, and I hope you are able to complete it!

However, I shall not be joining in.

Heh, i think I might have managed it in 2022, but I didn't really keep proper count. so I can't say for sure.

Yesterday, I walked passed the spot I went swimming on Monday at approx the same time, the difference was, it was mostly clear, rather than cloudy, I took this picture:



Obviously it wasn't quite as dark as my phone made out (eyes are generally better than standard cameras) but it's still quite remarkable how much difference cloud cover makes

2) Long Timber Woods again. Another after work walk and swim rushed to get in before the end of the month. Not too dark this time, but the water was flowing too fast for safe swimming.

I managed to swim on the spot (upstream) for about a minute before resigning myself that I could not make progress.

No photos of me in the water as I could barely stand up straight.

3) Piles Copse



A swim from the other day (March 30th) Once again, sneaking in, just before the end of the month.

A bit more of a proper swim this time, the water was freezing, the river is still flowing far too fast for sensible swimming, but I managed to make it 50m. I am hoping to get more done in April, as the late light will allow me to swim after work.

4) Piles Copse

There are probably going to be a lot of entries with me swimming at Piles Copse, it's my favourite swimming spot.

A much warmer (but by no means warm) swim, and the first proper swim of the year (I managed 300m) despite the water still flowing really fast. I could have gone longer, but my shoulder was feeling tight in the water, so thought it best not to push it (the cold water probably made it feel worse)

No pictures of me in the water (the water is still flowing too fast for me to trust myself holding my phone in the water) but here's one of me in my changing robe straight after

[quote="Malc"
1) Long Timber Woods
2) Long Timber Woods
3) Piles Copse
4) Piles Copse
[/quote]

5) Piles Copse

Hmm, bit of a disaster this one, not the swim mind, the swim was wonderful, if a little cold. I managed 500m, which is probably where the issue lay, my arms were stiff, and I was probably in the water too long.

I felt fine initially afterwards, and quickly dried, changed, and then ate some Jaffa cakes for a quick energy boost. At this point I suddenly felt very cold, and to make matters worse it got cloudier, cooler and windier.

Now, this has happened to me before, I know it's reasonably normal, and I often start my walk home feeling cold, but I quickly warm up (especially as I have a warm hoodie for exactly this purpose). My feet felt like ice blocks, but this too is normalish. I get to my first uphill section and am really struggling up it, it's not too steep, but I often feel out of breath here, and I just felt that perhaps I hadn't fully recovered from Friday, was still a bit unfitter than I thought and struggled onwards.

When I got to the top, I thought that would be the worst over as it's mostly downhill from there, however, 15 minutes later, I noticed I had a bit of a headache and as I concentrated on it, I could feel myself starting to pass out (I am aware of the symptoms as I do occasionally get light headed - as a teenager I passed out maybe a dozen times and had about ten times that number of near misses, - pins and needles around head, metallic taste in mouth, tunnel vision with the blackness increasing). Over the years I've managed to observe these and prevent a full on passing out, and that's what I did here, luckily it was right next to a memorial bench (Thanks Ken Watkin's family) and I took full advantage of it.

After about 10 minutes I carried on, feeling physically exhausted, and with a couple more almost passings out, I got nearly home, and was on my home street, which is steep old hill. Here I had my fourth and most serious nearly passing out, and tbh I'm not sure how I didn't, as it lasted for about 10 seconds.

When I got home, I rested on the sofa and told my wife and youngest sons who proceeded to take the piss out of me, I asked my middle son to cook dinner for me, as I just wanted to rest. I went through to get it and suddenly felt quite nauseous, so I sat down for a couple of minutes.

Once that passed I got up and went to look for some mint sauce, but I must have finally succumbed to a passing out, as I was about to open the fridge next thing I heard was myself collapsing to the floor and feeling pain in my left elbow and knee and finding myself on the floor.

I think this must have scared the shit out of my son, who then guided me back to the living room, and bought my dinner through (chops, boiled new potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage and tinned garden peas) with mint sauce.

Wife and youngest son are suddenly concerned about me and are no longer taking the piss.

I eat the dinner and we watched The Grand Budapest Hotel (we're on a bit of a Wes Anderson kick at the moment)

Both were very enjoyable.

I have decided that four things caused this shit show of an afternoon/evening.

1) low core body temperature
2) low blood sugar
3) not fully recovered from Friday
4) general state of unfitness

Needless to say I will be calling the doctors surgery tomorrow to get a professional opinion on this.

Sorry, most of this probably doesn't belong in this thread, but the swim is probably the primary cause.

Here's a picture of me just after I got out the water, which I will spoiler for those that don't want to see that:




[/quote]

Bloody hell. That is far too eventful for a sunday!

I hope it isn't anything serious and instead just as you describe.

Take care.

Yeah that doesn't sound fun at all Malc! Hope you're ok now. I guess the cold can do pretty crazy things to you!

yeah, I appear totally fine today, other than I have blisters on my left foot that are pretty painful.

I am currently on hold with the doctors though, just in case

After filling in an e-consult on my doctor's surgery's website, they are going to call me back on the 24th of April.

So, they can't think it's that serious.

Please don’t go out swimming alone until you’ve had that appointment, Malc.

I have no desire to repeat Sunday, I will be proceeding with extreme caution for my next swims, and bullying my son's to come with me...

OR, and here’s an idea, just hold out on any more wild swims for the foreseeable, until you’ve been given the all clear by the docs, and *then* get someone to accompany you. You can go for a nice, managed swim at a pool or leisure facility in the meantime, knowing that there are people there to help should you need it. 52 is an arbitrary number, you don’t need to meet a goal, and your new goal should be looking after your health and staying safe. With the best will in the world I don’t want to be arranging any more collections anytime soon. x

You have a lot more faith in my doctor than I do Mimi.

I can't see much coming out of this phone call almost two weeks after the event. I wondered if they would want a blood sample to test for something, or even take my blood pressure. But what good is that so far away?

If they were worried I would have got a call back yesterday or maybe today. (Recently my wife had a rash, they got back to her same day, so it's less serious than a rash in their eyes)

However, saying all that, I have no intention of risking my life over a target. I had a walking target last year and I abandoned it due to calf/knee/foot pain.

I've done some reading up on the affects of low core body temp, and they pretty much match with what happened to me.

However, at no point was I gasping for air, or was my heating beating erratically.

Exhaustion and light headedness were what I had, now I'm not trivialising this, and 10 years ago I would have just shaken it off, but I am a certain age, so I do take more precautions than I used to.

I certainly won't be going for a long swim in water that is that cold. And I'm going to let my blisters heal before going up there again anyway (although my kids are dragging me out for a walk this evening, I think it's mostly flat even ground)

I don’t know who triages the calls at a GP surgery now, but they are in dire straits. Maybe the doctors worried the rash was measles, so it was treated as a possible transmissible emergency? Either way, if you feel your doctor isn’t treating you with the level of attention you need and deserve, ask for a second opinion, or to be referred. If that had happened whilst you were out you could have passed out, hit your head on a rock, been uncontactable and all sorts. Hopefully they’ll get you in for a thorough health check.

Phone Call done

Doctor wants to see an ECG and get standing and lying blood pressure, depending on the results of that he thinks I will be fine to go swimming again.

He suggests someone coming with me for the first couple, just in case.

Fingers crossed for you Malc

Your doctor wants to come swimming with you?

No, he wants someone to accompany Malc to the ECG and the standing blood pressure. Presumably the lying down blood pressure is lower risk, so it's ok to go solo.

Ah yes, I misread it

ECG and ~Blood Pressure taken, and bonus Blood Test

They are concerned that my blood pressure is too high, so they are going to monitor it for a week (they've given me a machine and some paper to record it)

I guess we see what happens

Can you let some out?

well they took a sample, that should lower it by a bit right?

Some easy changes to make with blood pressure is reducing salt (processed meat a biggy) and drink more water, Malc. Hope you can get back to enjoying your swims soon.

I drink lots of water as is, I've decided to cut out salt (that's one thing I do have lots of) and I don't do ready meals or things like that any way.

I've also decided to go back to the diet that lost me the most amount of weight.

I'm hoping it's just a blip that can be sorted naturally.

Sorry, that reads as ungrateful, thanks for the advice and the well wishes

No, not at all! Good luck with getting yourself on the right track mate.

Punch a dolphin. The beady eyed fucks.

One other thing is bananas (being high in potassium) are good at getting sodium out of your system too.

6) Piles Copse

First swim after "The Incident". I put in quite a few mitigations.

I got a lift 2/3rds of the way there (and back).
The weather was warmer and the water was warmer (but by no means warm).
I limited myself to 10 minutes in the water.
The water level was lower, and the flow rate was slower, so it wasn't a struggle swimming up stream.
I had more food with me.
I waited for 10 minutes after getting dressed before leaving
The sun was out nearly all day and during the swim

I didn't have a hot drink ( don't really like them) and no one would come with me, but I felt that my mental and physical health were not being improved by sitting on my arse watching TV night after night.

I felt fine the whole time, hoodie came off after 1 minute (the first minute is a slope about 30 degrees for about 40m), next time I'll probably try and walk a bit further, and hopefully the water is only going to get warmer for the next 3 months.

7) Piles Copse

Back up there two days later (and I will probably go again today and tomorrow, assuming my legs feel alright)

The weather has been amazing down in Devon for the last few days, and the water was the warmest it's been so far, no need to acclimatise, just a second's worth of "ooh cold" as I stepped in and then it was fine.

I managed 750m (30 lengths) which is the most I've done this year, I wanted to do more, but still being cautious, and my arms were getting tired too) I didn't need a hoodie afterwards, and I felt fine all the way home (if a little too hot and slightly too many blisters)

(I am not sure I gave the distances of my previous swim so Tuesday's was 12 lengths = 300m)

The forecast for next week is for it to get colder and wetter, so I'm trying to get swims in whilst it's nice, and then allow the recovery whilst it's not so nice. (and I might well be hungover on Sunday, as it looks increasingly like I might have my first alcohol since 02:30 on 1/1/2024 - 131 days - as I watch Eurovision. So that's that day out.

forgot the photo

8) Piles Copse
9) Piles Copse

I went back on Friday and managed 300m, as it was a bit cooler and I didn't want to over do it.
Then I went back today, hangover be damned, it was the warmest water yet

I managed 2km in the water (80 lengths) I thought I might struggle given recent exertions, but I could have gone on even more, unfortunately the weather changed during the swim and it looked like it might start raining (it didn't).

Not sure when I'll get back up there again, as the forecast is rain all week.

Very happy to see you are back on it, Malc. I was just in Finland. When I was booking accommodation etc. for a jaunt through the (lower) middle of the country I thought, ooh, look at all those lakes. Be some lovely swimming to punctuate the journey!

It was -1 in the morning on Wednesday. Warmed up a bit, but swimming? No.

Very happy to see you are back on it, Malc. I was just in Finland. When I was booking accommodation etc. for a jaunt through the (lower) middle of the country I thought, ooh, look at all those lakes. Be some lovely swimming to punctuate the journey!

It was -1 in the morning on Wednesday. Warmed up a bit, but swimming? No.

On a related note I saw this on the BBC site this morning : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68989650

Was not expecting to see nipples this morning. Well done, Malc.

-1 sounds a bit chilly to swim in JBR, but I would want to give it a go (with lots of other people around, and a warm place to go into straight after.

Sorry about the unexpected nipples Davpaz

I think I manifested a tic bite yesterday!

I was walking and I felt an itch on my leg (now I get lots of little itches on my legs an arms, and it's usually some fly or spider, or even a stinging nettle or something) and as I did, I thought: "people always mention about tics on Dartmoor, but I've been coming here for 17 years now and never had one.

Then this morning, I noticed (in a different place to the itch mentioned above) that I had another itch, and there was a "scab" on it, but it looked wrong, I couldn't work out what it was, so I used my camera on my phone to zoom in, and lo and behold it's a tic!

Exciting! Never had one of those before, quick check on NHS website on best way to remove them, and some sterilised tweezer's and I removed it on the 3rd attempt (I get quite squeamish about needles and tweezers and stuff that might cut you, so I was quite proud of myself for doing it with not too much bother):

Now to spend the next 3 months worrying if I've got Lymes disease or not (it was in my leg for about 18 hours)

10) Piles Copse
11) Piles Copse


So, I managed to dodge the showers on Thursday and got a swim in then. Water was much deeper, colder and flowing much faster due to the recent rain, I managed a cautious 20 lengths (500m).

Then I was back up today, I should really have gone up this evening, but I wanted to Watch the Football with my Son, so I went up at midday.

As such the water was the coldest it's been for a while, (whilst the air was the hottest it's been. I nearly always start with a t-shirt on in the water, for an extra bit of protection from the cold, as I did today, but by the time I was walking back it had dried in the sun!) I only managed 12 lengths (300m) as the water really was cold and I didn't want any repeats of last month (also a Sunday afternoon) I had no fear of that, as the day was lovely, I spent sometime just enjoying the riverbank, the sun, the trees, and could have stayed up there much longer, if I had the time)

It stayed nice all day, and going up in the late afternoon would have been amazing, but Foden scored a couple of nice goal, and the West Ham goal just before half time was off the charts. Starting to get really excited about the Euros, and keep on catching myself (how many years of hurt now?). anyway enough of that, this is supposed to be about wild swimming, not football! No Pics (sorry nipple fans)

Have you considered a wetsuit Malc? I know jack all about this but I imagine it would keep you warmer than a tshirt

Yes, but I'm trying to lose weight, so I don't want to buy one now, and then another when I've got down to my target weight.

Also, I always take the t shirt off when I'm used to the temp, as that feeling is part of the reason I enjoy swimming in the river. Be harder to do that with a wet suit. But for the colder months I'd be up for it when I'm more trim.

12) Piles Copse

Back up to my spot, the walk up was full of sunshine and sweat, my calves are still a little tight and I really could have done with a couple more rest days, but once again, the forecast is crap for the rest of the week, so I'm making the most of the good weather.

I expected the water to be warmer than usual, as the sun was out all day, but it was actually quite cold, couple that with a twinge in left pectoral muscle after 12 lengths, I decided to call it a day on the 14th length (I was hoping to get to 40 to make it 1k swim)

The Clouds started coming as I got out of the water, and the temperature dropped, but it was merely slightly uncomfortable rather than anything serious (no need for hoodie or sun hat on the way back down)

Once again, no pictures, however, I did film a couple of short videos on the way up, including one unflattering video selfie, which I have linked below:


https://youtu.be/BfJ-t-I3NZc

Been a bit remiss and have not kept this up-to-date, so here we go:

13) Long Timber Woods A couple of days later than the last post, and my knee started hurting very soon after setting out walking, so stopped in Long Timer woods instead (which is a 20 minute walk away from me instead of 90 minutes, but is much busier, and not as nice to get in/out of the river) It was very cold, and still quite hard to swim upstream, wasn't in long, but there are some nice rocks to dive off, so did manage to do that at least)
14) Long Timber Woods I wanted to try and keep my walking miles up, so despite my knee and foot hurting, I went back to the Woods. I stayed for about twice as long, and got in a couple of dives of the rocks this time.
15) Piles Copse Went back up to the moors towards the end of the month after a lot of rain, the ground was wet, the river was very full and flowing very fast I managed 6 lengths, and then swam upstream at the same speed as the river was flowing downstream for about 10 minutes, as it was just too much to fight against it (it was a bit like swimming on a treadmill if you get what I mean)
16) Piles Copse A couple of days later, and 1st swim in June. The river was still sw0l, managed 14 lengths as the water was cold and fast
17) Piles CopseMonday this week and back up there again, on my way there a jogging couple passed me, and I recognised the guy, and knew they would be heading to the same swimming spot as me, and lo they did indeed. I could see from the path, they were both in the water starkers. No probs I thought, I'd wait a discrete distance away for them to finish and get changed and then go in after them, however, they left stuff about 50m away from the swimming spot on a rock, where I was considering waiting. So I could either wait there and watch them walk 50m naked towards me, or I could piss off for a bit. I chose the latter. When I came back, the river was nice, a little on the slightly too cool side, but no biggy, did my 20 lengths and got out.
18) Piles Copse Went back the next day, no skinny dippers to contend with, but the air was chill, the water was much colder than I expected, and my feet were a little numb when I was done, I was very thankful to have my hoodie with me to warm up afterwards.

I was looking to go again today, but my legs are still feeling it, which is annoying, as I'll probably be watching the T20 World Cup tomorrow and the Euros the day after (and I am on call over the weekend, which makes that harder)

No pictures for this lot

19) Piles Copse
20) Piles Copse
21) Piles Copse
22) Piles Copse
23) Piles Copse


Been so poor at keeping this up to date, checking Strava I've added all my previous swims.

24) Pam Flete Beach Attempted to walk to Mothecombe Beach for a swim there. However, I didn't recon with the Flete Estate owning so much land and preventing people walking on paths that appear on Strava. Couldn't skirt round the rocks as the tide was too high, ended up a km away, in the River Erme, which appeared to be suffering from Sewage overspill, as I could see tissues, wipes and some suspicious brown stuff in the water. I really wanted the swim, but after wading out to knee depth, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So not sure if this should count. (No wet head no swim?)

Don't think I can count the Pam Flete Beach one, as I didn't even get my swimming shorts wet!

So...

24) Piles Copse

On Monday, I asked my boss for the next three days off (the weather was set very nice) and he said yes, I wanted to have another try on Mothecombe, but my son was still feeling under the weather. So instead back up to the old faithful Piles Copse.

There was a young German Family there (parents in early 30s, daughter about 8 or 9), so I waited for them to finish, and then had a nice long swim. It was a midday swim, so the water was a bit cooler than it would have been had I gone later, but we were watching Deadpool 3 at 17:15, if it wasn't for that I would have stayed up their longer, it was so nice.

I had a bit of a scab on the part of my left foot where the little toe joins, so I was protecting it with some sporting tape. This fell off on the way up, so on the way back down, I perhaps went too far. And actually caused the little toe to rub against its neighbout, and then got blood blister on it (it looked like a slug had wrapped around the toe). This leads to yesterday

25) Mothecombe Beach

Its 14k to the beach from my house, and on the way back it's mostly up hill, and it's also the Summer Holidays, so I didn't want to go too late (busy and then walking in the hot sun) So we (my eldest son came with me, but didn't swim) left at 04:40 (about an hour before sun rise) Stars were visible, but the sky was just starting to lighten. I was worried about the blister, so I wrapped that toe and it's neighbour in tape (which is quite hard to do) and we left. I had to stop twice to redo the tape as at that time of day the grass was wet with dew, but we got there in about 3 hours. There were 3 middle aged ladies in the sea, and a couple were just getting in to the water when I arrived.



It was gorgeous, I was in the water for about 20 minutes, swimming out to just beyond standing depth, did a few obligatory hand stands, then swim the width of the bay (about 175m), before swimming back out for a bit and then back in. I would have stayed in longer if my son wasn't there (but I could sense he was getting a bit bored on the beach, and I knew I had a 14k walk back in the increasingly warming day).

The walk is not nice as the walk up to Piles Copse, and is quite the commitment (6 hours of your day at least) so I am not sure if I'll be doing that many more times, but I am very glad that I have done it

26) Bigbury Beach
27) Bigbury Beach

Wife's birthday yesterday, so few more days off. Nice meal yesterday, followed by a trip to Bigbury today.

Weather was mixed, (although just starting to get nice when we left)

Had 2 sessions in Sea, with my youngest and eldest kids (second eldest was working, second youngest thought it was too cold. Wife and sisters in law also didn't go in)

It was a tad on the cool side, but we were in for a good 30-45 minutes both times. Waves were pretty good, but we mostly played frisbie.



Warning topless shot

I'm heading to bigbury in a couple of days. Lovely part of the world