Swimming Is A Team Sport

From Wetsuit to Race Suit in 2.5 hours Jo Mitchinson - Team Aqua Sphere UK athlete Saturday's alarm went off at 05:30, but not before our daughter arrives in our room looking like something out of a horror film. Face full of blood from bleeding nose can only mean one thing in our house - summers here!!  So, I head downstairs for the compulsory last minute checking of my packing. This was unceremoniously strewn across my lounge floor & fell into 2 distinct piles.  Add caption First, there was the packing for The Great East Swim in Suffolk. This contained: Wetsuit, swimsuit, spare swimsuits, timing chip, hat, goggles, spare goggles, earplugs, towels, millions of layers in case the weather forecast is wrong & it suddenly gets freezing cold, clothes in case the forecast is right, food, drink, inhalers, and a particularly attractive 'granny trolley' to carry it all in because I don't want to break myself walking from the car park to the race l...

Jo Mitchinson Team Aqua Sphere UK athlete 2017  I’m starting to look ahead to my first OW races of 2017, which inevitably also involves a bit of reflection on the preparation that I’ve had so far. In 2 weeks time I’ll be celebrating the end of a very busy half term at work, saying ‘Goodbye’ to my incredible form of 16 year olds as they start study leave for their GCSE’s (that ironically start on Monday!) and then flying out to compete in Majorca at BestFest Open Water Festival. Anyone that knows me will already know that I’m a bit of a planner. Not in every area of my life – that would be far too useful, but certainly when it comes to packing, preparation and training. So, it won’t come as a surprise that I’ve already started packing. The essentials are already in the case. The essentials, as I see it, are the things I need to race. Unfortunately, sometimes the ‘what if’ gremlin gets in the way and this can lead to what can only be described as 'Severe Over Packin...