Well, don’t expect too much biochemistry here- I’m winging it, but I have had a couple of sessions with the inimitable and also mad Paul Symmington (ultra endurance runners are totally kooky….)who is helping me with the sports nutrition side of things. I had to keep a food diary for 2 weeks which was a struggle- boring and irritating. I had to keep it to see if I was getting enough calories for what I was asking my body to do…I picked the 2 weeks leading up to my 6hr swim, thinking I would be really pushing the calorific intake….seems I am still 700 calories below what I need if I am to sustain training. ummmmm

I also learned that my weekly evening swim of between 4k and 5k is not a quick paddle, but a distance that I should be reckoning on recovering from….No wonder I haven’t been bulking up! I snatch a light lunch at work, get back after 6, maybe have half a malt loaf for tea and my energy juice while I swim, but the last thing on my mind was fuelling up at 10pm when I got home! Ooops. Slapped wrists……

On the plus side, I had managed to put on 10 pounds (although since the 6hr swim, I have rebelled against heavy foods and chocolate and lost 4 of that already…) but that was seriously unpleasant…I know, I’m a girl, I’m supposed to like chocolate, but eugh. At least I am encouraged to chomp the dark stuff, Less cloyingly icky. But a pound of it a week? I was getting headaches! And struggling to get it down me!

I got strapped to electrodes and had my body fat analysed…I have attained the lowest percentile of the range I am aiming for, water levels are ok; so basically I have a kilo of muscle to put on (Jean Claude Van Damme shoulder pads here I come) and equal laaaaaard. Oh joy. And I’ve topped 10stone- the heaviest I’ve been since I was pregnant! Yikes. Oddly enough, I haven’t had to go up a size in clothes….yet. the body is truly remarkable.

I’m enlisting Duncan to force me to pump up the shoulders… and hoping that a weekly beasting will force me to eat right (for right read lots and lots)

I’ve also just signed up for this year’s Aspire channel challenge- to swim the distance of the channel but in your local pool. you can take as many sessions as you like, last year I tested my long distance style and did a half distance in one go- this year I want to complete the entire distance in less than 3 goes.I won’t be counting my weekly sessions- will book a lane in taunton and see how I do! then do it again a month later……

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