Hello everyone. Welcome to this week’s blog post – one I won’t get to post again! I have completed AMFMH (a month for mental health), swimming 40,000 metres (1600 lengths) in August. This was 4 sessions a week for a month, swimming 100 lengths each session.
This month was created and set up by Jacob in aid of the Samaritans, a charity aiming to prevent suicide and aid mental health. A very important charity that I was delighted to raise money for. Overall, the combined total is just under £3000! The majority of this money was raised by Jacob through his insane challenge of a marathon and ironman triathlon in August!
I finished my last session yesterday and I must say it feels great to not have to swim 2500 metres (100 lengths) every time I go to the pool. I always train four times a week but my training varies and I do lots of sprints, drills and other forms of training. I would say I am a distance swimmer. My strengths certainly lie with distance swimming and not sprints but both are fun and essential to improve technique and fitness.
I have never done a swimming challenge before and I must say I enjoyed it! It was challenging but It felt good to really challenge myself and focus in on swimming. It is a huge part of my life and It was amazing getting pictures and videos of me swimming to commemorate this event. It is great to evaluate my technique as well!
I have just realised I have never shared a video on my blog before – I wasn’t even sure you could do that! Below are some videos that Jacob took of me!
So, what have I learned? This experience really consolidated how much I love swimming and how much exercise and swimming does for my mental health. Exercise is an essential part to a healthy mind and body. It is important to find an exercise you really enjoy. This seems to be swimming for me. I love so many different exercises and sports but this one is different.
I think everyone can find that. I love the water and it helps me feel calm and centred. That is actually the reason I got my tattoo (you can see it above). Water is a wonderful thing and when embraced, works beautifully with the human body. I would argue (and many others would too) that swimming is the best exercise for health and or a combination of swimming, yoga, mindfulness and resistance exercise!
It showed me how diverse mental health is and the scope of how many things truly impact and consume our lives. Our own mental health is always a battle and I think we forget that other people struggle with totally different things that we might never think about. It’s important to have compassion and care for others. You never truly know what others are going through.
On Sunday the 29th of August 2021, Jacob completed an ironman triathlon. Swimming 1.2 miles, cycling 57 miles and running 13.1 miles, back-to-back. This took 9 hours and without a break. What a day this was and what an amazing achievement. I couldn’t believe the day had finally come after months of preparation. He did it and did it so well. Below are some pictures from the day. I had no idea how he was still standing either.
This was a happy moment!
Remember, it’s not too late to donate! The donation link will be valid until Monday the 6th. Make sure if you want to donate, you do it before then!
The link to donate: https://gofund.me/19a56811
If you would like to know more about this month, the challenges, the good bits and Jacob’s challenges. This Sunday I am uploading a podcast with Jacob, discussing the ironman and a month for mental health. It’s going to be a good one. Make sure you don’t miss it. You can follow me on Spotify or apple podcasts or any of your podcasting platforms to not miss out!
This week’s podcast:
Thank you very much for reading!
Mairi 🙂
Let's Talk Health with Mairi 