# 500 miles in 2022 swim challenge.



## Chris Hobson (Aug 4, 2021)

I have mentioned in an earlier post that I have been contemplating an attempt to swim 500 miles in a year. The odds that this is actually going to happen have just shortened as the local Guide Dogs charity have replied to my email offering to do it as a fundraiser for them. To get a feel of what I will be taking on, I am attempting to swim 10 miles during the first week in August, actually 16k because the pool and my watch are working in metric. So far I have managed to swim 12k having done 4k on the 1st, 2nd and 4th. I'm finding the 4k swims a little hard at the moment but I'm very far from being fully swim fit. The thinking behind doing 4k swims is so that I won't have to swim absolutely every day. At present the 4k is taking just over two hours and I would expect the times to improve. The problem at the moment is that it then leaves me shagged out for the rest of the day. Anyway, I'm getting close to the point when I will have commit, watch this space!

Edit
I've just completed another 4k swim and therefore have completed 16k or ten miles in five days. I was seriously running out of steam towards the end of this one but I managed it. Now, do I reward myself with curry and beer?

Edit #2
Yes of course I do. I have been on the wagon for a while but I thought that I deserved a psychological boost after my ten mile swim. I am now happily full of rogan josh curry and drinking Tiger beer while watching the women's 100 ball cricket.


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## Grannylorraine (Aug 6, 2021)

Well done, hope you succeed with your goal for next year.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 7, 2021)

Thanks Lorraine. I am having fun mixing imperial and metric units. I picked 500 miles as a round number that I felt was within my abilities but now realise that it would have been simpler to use metric. My sports watch is set up sort of half and half so some interesting numbers have popped up. I did four 4k swims last week and, because the watch is sometimes registering the lengths a little in arrears, I have sometimes recorded 4025 having done an extra lap to bring the score up to 4k. Despite this the weekly score was recorded as 17,580 yards. A mile is 1,760 yards so I'm actually 20 yards short of ten miles.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 9, 2021)

I have now been in communication with a representative from the local guide dogs fundraising wing and have been discussing support with publicity, just giving pages, and all the stuff that goes into making this kind of thing a success. So I am pretty  much commited to doing it.


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## Grannylorraine (Aug 10, 2021)

Wow, well done you, let me have the just giving page as I would like to support you.  I understand the mixture of imperial and metric as I have that, my Garmin is set up for miles, yet my run keeper is set for kilometers, no idea why I don't just change them to both be the same.  But I am one of those people who was caught between the two systems in school, I started learning imperial and then was changed to metric.

Looking forward to following your progress.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 10, 2021)

I'm not planning to start until January so it will be a while yet. In the meantime I'm working on getting swim fit, I did a load of drills this morning. I'm of an age where I am familiar with both metric and imperial measurements so I'm happy to have my watch mixing the two together.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 13, 2021)

I have now filled in the online form to register as a fundraiser for the guide dogs so there is no backing out now. I haven't set up the just giving page for the time being because I'm not going to be starting the challenge until 01/01/2022.


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## Grannylorraine (Aug 14, 2021)

Getting closer, but please keep us updated, so we can support you on this challenge.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 21, 2021)

I'm glad that I've got you Lorraine because the rest of the diabetic community seem to be completely ignoring me. I try not to get too dependent on the internet for my validation but I thought that doing such a challenge for a worthy cause would have gained a bit more attention. Still, once I get underway and start posting about my progress people will start to notice and start to send money. Meanwhile I'm swimming regularly doing my drills and ogling the lifeguards.


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## Kitty W (Aug 21, 2021)

Wow, good luck with your challenge. I was a regular swimmer but covid has really messed up my routine. I still try to go once or twice a week though but it's hard work. Committing to swim 500 miles would be a real challenge so I wish you all the best.


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## Kitty W (Aug 21, 2021)

Just worked it out (I think, it's late and I've had a drink!). If my  maths is right is it about 88 lengths every day for a year of a 25m pool? Wow, if so that's an amazing challenge and I wish you all the very best ‍♀️‍♂️


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 22, 2021)

I'm planning on making sure that I cover ten miles or sixteen kilometres a week. The first week in August I did a trial run, 4k on Sunday and Monday, Tuesday off and then 4k on Wednesday and Thursday. 4k is 160 lengths and initially took me two hours. On day four it took about two and a half hours as I wasn't really swim fit and was a bit knackered by then. If I swim every day I can reduce the distance to about 2.5k which is 100 lengths.


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## Grannylorraine (Aug 22, 2021)

Doing amazing, and as you know from your running some days are better than others, plus some days you just don't want to do it and have to fight the mind as well as the body.

Even if you aren't getting many replies, keep posting as I am interested in your updates and you were one of the people who gave me hints and tips when I took up my couch to 5k challenge.

So same time same place next week for an update.


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## Chris Hobson (Aug 25, 2021)

The guide dog people have now sent me a fundraising pack and tee shirt. The colours are dark blue and yellow. I have bought some dark blue bath towels, with the plan being to get them embroidered in yellow with a message something like 500 miles in 2022 swim challenge for guide dogs. I'm trying to think of various ways of bringing attention to myself while I'm doing it, swim caps might be a possibility. I hope to set up a website as well as the just giving page and possibly get some business cards printed with the various web addresses on.

Being a moderately hairy man, with the exception of my head, I'm wondering if it is worth having my body waxed. Partly for the publicity, partly because it will make me swim faster, and partly because I am quite obviously a weird masochist.


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## Grannylorraine (Aug 26, 2021)

Chris Hobson said:


> The guide dog people have now sent me a fundraising pack and tee shirt. The colours are dark blue and yellow. I have bought some dark blue bath towels, with the plan being to get them embroidered in yellow with a message something like 500 miles in 2022 swim challenge for guide dogs. I'm trying to think of various ways of bringing attention to myself while I'm doing it, swim caps might be a possibility. I hope to set up a website as well as the just giving page and possibly get some business cards printed with the various web addresses on.
> 
> Being a moderately hairy man, with the exception of my head, I'm wondering if it is worth having my body waxed. Partly for the publicity, partly because it will make me swim faster, and partly because I am quite obviously a weird masochist.


Pleased that it is all coming together for you.

How about doing a charity waxing, people pay so much per waxing strip.  That way you raise more money, swim faster and fulfil your weird masochist obsession, so I can only see that as a win win.


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## Chris Hobson (Sep 1, 2021)

There is a regular at the pool who is a swim coach. He can't resist helping people out with their technique and offering helpful advice. So, I am busy doing my kick drills and he shows me a different method which he says is much more effective. Instead of holding your float in front of you and kicking along in the normal swim position, you put only one hand on the float and go along on your side, you then repeat with the other hand. This is much harder to do. My legs are now really stiff so it does seem that I've had a better workout.

Looking through some of the archives, it has come to my attention that I have actually been thinking about the 500 mile swim challenge for about four years. Reading my earlier musings on the subject, I came to the conclusion that I would be unable to do it while working full time. Now I am free of the hamster wheel I'm hopefully good to go.


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## Grannylorraine (Sep 2, 2021)

Sounds like the new technique is working.  You are certainly not taking things easy in retirement.

I admire you for your dedication, commitment and passion to do something and see it through.


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## Chris Hobson (Sep 2, 2021)

The main thing that drives me is that lots of exercise helps with the diabetes. Over the past year I have done less proper exercise and have had to start taking medication again. I will be getting reviewed again in November after about four months of being more active so I will see how well it has been working.


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## Chris Hobson (Sep 8, 2021)

Peter the free swim coach was at the pool again this morning. He gave me some more advice on how to do my kick drills. I did these and several sets of pullbouy drills, some with the webbed fingered mittens on. Later he rounded up several swimmers and organised some 25 metre sprint races which were really knackering but great fun. I then finished off by doing a few more lengths to bring my session up to 1500 metres. Sometimes it's nice to mix things up a bit rather than just ploughing up and down.


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## Grannylorraine (Sep 9, 2021)

Yes nice to mix things up, but sounds like he is very motivational. Pleased he even made it fun.


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## Chris Hobson (Nov 2, 2021)

I'm still working on getting swim fit. Rather than 4K I've been doing 2 hour swims and managing a little over 4K in the time. Today I had a chat with a lady who swims 4K every day, including several lengths of butterfly stroke.


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## Grannylorraine (Nov 3, 2021)

Nice to see an update from you.


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## Chris Hobson (Nov 6, 2021)

New record for 2hr swim today, 4575 metres, about 2.8 miles. It helped that, for a while, I was sharing the lane with a lady who was a very quick swimmer and I was working hard trying to keep up.


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## Chris Hobson (Nov 20, 2021)

Today I swam 5k and set a new distance record on my watch. I set a fairly leisurely pace and still managed it in under two and a half hours. In trying to get swim fit for next year I'm managing about six or seven miles a week so, hopefully, it shouldn't feel as though I'm stepping up too much next year.


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