A Marathon In A Pool (Well, Almost)

So, myself and fellow Guildford City Swimming Club (GCSC) Masters Squad member Kieron Taylor have entered a swimming event - the more we've discussed it, the more we realise how hard it will be to complete, and from reading previous participants comments, mental strength is going to play a huge part in it.

You see, for swimmers, there aren't many high profile / well organised challenges to test you, unlike Running or Cycling. Take running. Anyone can do it, at anytime, anywhere - from a simple jog around the block, to entering a 5k / 10k, or even a Half Marathon (Never EVER again) or full Marathon. Other than swimming club competitions and meets, there isn't much for swimmers - triathlons (tick), BT Swimathons (tick) and British Gas's Great Swim Series (tick). Then there's the English Channel - more people have climbed Mount Everest than successfully swum to France. Maybe one day.

Anyway, we've entered 2Swim4Life. It's a 24 mile swim, in 24 hours, in the Guildford Lido, taking place on Saturday 30th April. The basic challenge is to swim one mile on the hour, every hour, starting at 9.30am in aid of Help For Heroes.

Other than my GCSC training (up to 9 hours a week, mostly starting at 6am) I'm going to have to start getting fit for swimming a mile at a consistant and comfortable pace. A mile in a 50m pool is 32 lengths. A mile in a 25m pool is 64 lengths. Ideally, I want to be swimming the mile in under 30mins, so on the day, I'll have time to get out of the pool, warm up, stretch out, eat, refuel, rest before getting back in for the next mile.

Training started this morning. My first thought was "32 lengths is a bloody long way", followed shortly afterwards by "what the hell have I entered this for", along with "I've lost count already, how many lengths was that" and "I've not actually posted that entry form yet.. maybe I won't get a stamp for it"

Managed the first mile in around 25mins, had a 3minute break, and did another mile in around 28mins. That's 2 down, 22 to go then. Ouch.

The Average Faces Of Women Of The World

Think you'll agree the average female face is actually quite attractive - the results are achieved by overlapping images from around the world, this image adds female faces from individual countries (click here or on the image below to see the full resolution image, with loads of other countries) that have been uploaded so far - you can upload your own too on the Face Research site here.



Thanks to Geekologie / Face Research

Ice Skating & Swimming - Or Is It A Vodka Viral?

Sceptic, Me? Pretty sure this is a viral video for the Norwegian Vodka Vikingfjord Liked it anyway, and love Norway, though I only get to go in the summer..

Reading Time Lapse

1,000 tonne bridge deck moved into place over Caversham Road as Network Rail completes first phase of six-year project to improve Reading's railway.. *think* the Reading Festival site was under threat by part of this project a few years ago, as it involved altering the route of Cow Lane so they could replace the bridge across it - building a road on the site (well the allotments) and through the Little John's Lane tunnel.. *think* the threat has gone away..

First Celebrity Advocate Of The No Sh*t Sherlock Diet?

It has been brought to my attention that I might consider getting in touch with Comedian / Actor / Writer / Thoroughly Nice Bloke Simon Pegg for my book idea, the "No Sh*t Sherlock Diet". In this month's Men's Health, he answered "What's Your Secret To Good Health" with the following;

"No matter what people say, if you want to get smaller, you need to move more and eat less, that's all there is to it"

Book cover strap line?

Homemade Solar Power

Back in November, I got excited about "Melting Rock With Sunlight", after seeing a scientist from the Solar Furnace Research Facility in Southern France demonstrating his concave mirror, focusing the sun's energy, reaching temperatures of over 3500c.

Well, an American teenager has built one of his own, from an old satellite dish and loads of mirror tiles, and has achieved the same sort of results.

As stated in my original post - imagine what you could do with this free energy from the sun? Off the top of my head, a smaller version focusing onto water to heat it for households, or a larger version heating water into steam to generate electricity, seems like a such a simple idea, maybe too simple for anyone to manufacturer. Maybe I should get in contact with Sir James Dyson.



Here's Captain Slow aka James May from his Big Idea series, visiting Spain's Solar Tower..

Introducing The "No Sh*t Sherlock Diet"

I'm thinking of writing a diet book ready to tap into the 2012 market.

The "new" Atkins (so I understand) is called the Dukan Diet, and it has sold over 1.5million copies in France alone, and with Celebs such as Giselle Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez rumoured to be following it, it'll no doubt sell by the bucket load now its available in English. By the way, the Atkins Diet has sold over 15million copies worldwide.

Trouble with my "No Shit Sherlock Diet" is that it is based around the following 4 basic principles;

1. Eat less food
(as well as food that is bad for you)

2. Drink less alcohol
(as well as fizzy and sugary drinks)

3. Exercise more
(that's exercise that makes the heart rate go up, and might even make you out of breath)

4. Do this all the time
(ronseal)

It'll be hard to pad this out for a few hundred pages I must admit, but I think I'm onto something - I'll even get some solid scientific evidence to back up my new diet, as well as including recipe ideas (don't use lard, don't add cheese, cut down on the fat, don't eat ready meals 24/7) exercise plans (walk to the shop, go for a little run / bike ride / swim regularly) as well as how to watch TV of an evening without drinking a bottle of wine.

Wonder which celebrities I could get to endorse this lifestyle revolution?