Happy new year to you … I thought I’d wrap up 2022 and start off 2023 with a post about a little adventure last week, and my activity totals for the year. I wonder what 2023 will bring?

So it was the 29 December, mid winter, and the weather was pretty cold and miserable as it has been for a while now. Cold rain, but not too cold… the air temperature was about 5 or 6 degrees… and it turns out the water temperature was about the same.

I’d been in touch with Nina in December to see if she wanted to go for a winter swim … I figured I only live once and I might as well try it. Knowing how much I don’t really like the cold, I had a feeling I would do ut once and say never again – I’ll stick to summer and autumn outdoor swimming thank you very much. But if you don’t try it, you don’t know, right?

I took Nina to a place I’ve swum before (up near Aberfoyle), but as it’s quite a small loch, it could be possibly a bit frozen… we would see.

We got there about 9am just as the daylight broke, and it was indeed frosted over… frozen over in fact. Nina was confidently in her swimming costume, for a skins swim, and her dry robe to keep her warm.

I was planning on being in the water in my thermal wetsuit, neoprene socks and gloves, and likely my big warm swim cap too… if I put my head into swim… but as it was frozen over we had to rethink our plans. (Most of the pics below were taken by Nina).

We went down to the waters edge and tried out what the water (ice) was like, and we decided that I would try to see if the ice was thin enough to break and swim through, or if we’d be better off finding another larger loch that wasn’t frozen (Loch Ard wasn’t far away).

As Nina was in her swimsuit (and dryrobe) it wouldn’t be good for her to try, so she gladly took some photos of me being silly instead. I touched the ice with my shoe, and the edge seemed to break, but it seemed thicker further in.

We decided I might as well try and see, and there was a big branch nearby so I used that to break some of the ice. (The ice ended up breaking the branch 😂).

Nina’s thermometer duck said the water was about 6’C, but she says it usually over estimates so it was maybe 4’C. Nina has been doing great with her swimming this year, topping off the year with some cold winter skins swims – it wouldn’t me, but I bet it’s good for her.

I made my way into the water and broke some of the ice, I was in up to about my waist or so, and the water hadn’t gone into my wetsuit yet so I was still nice and warm, and dry mostly. I had put my warm hat on instead of my swim hat.

I often see people doing things like this and wonder why would they… But me doing it was a bit of fun, with a very experienced open water and winter swimmer around, before the end of the year, and likely as a I did this once, and will probably not do it again. The cold water is sore!

I broke some of the ice, then I jumped my bum up onto the ice to see if my 65kgs could break the ice at all. I cracked it a bit with the branch I had, but then I realised it was over an inch thick, and whilst it was fun and not too cold, I probably wasn’t getting anywhere.

So after some laughs, I got out and dried off, and we went back to the car so I could change into my socks and trainers, and dry robe, and we drove to Loch Ard for a swim instead.

We’d always had the plan that we wouldn’t be in for long and we ended up being in for about 15 mins in total. I got in first, I’d be warmer for longer in my wetsuit, and the amazing Nina was in her skins for that amount of time too. Brrrrrrr!

The loch was so full the usual walkway was submerged, and my turtle thermometer said it was 5’C. I had to put my wet neoprene socks and gloves on again, and the cold water going into the wetsuit wasn’t so fun this time… but just like the ice dip, it was good to try.

I had my swim cap and goggles on, with the intention of putting my head in for some swimming. But my goggles I had aren’t the best, very dark and misted up. But the real reason I only managed a few strokes with my face in was that it was just too cold (and sore) for me to have my face in. Sore like I said above. F&£k that. Ha. I need a new pair of goggles anyway.

It was nice having our heads out – so we could see the rain pouring down… and it was about 10 minutes or so before we realised it has stopped raining. There’s something special about being in a loch when it’s raining heavily like that.

I did some doggie paddle and swimming on my back (kicking to move my feet and get them warm), and ended up doing around 400-450m or so. We went out and my feet weren’t working too well. Standing in the stones in the water was sore, even with my neoprene socks on.

We were careful to turn around going back within plenty time. My hands and feet were quite cold by the time we got out. And I dread to think what Nina was feeling like, but she’s experienced and knows her stuff.

Afterwards we warmed up and drove back home. I tried driving back in my wetsuit for the first time which was fine, it kept me warm; although there was some water in it. It was easy to change out of in the shower at home. 

It was a good fun morning anyway, and I’m glad we did it. 

My total for swimming for the year ended up being 258,000m, or 258km. Now onto my other activity totals for 2022…

With a bit of a flurry towards the end of December, with 4 runs in the last week and only one short one before that on the 1 December…. I managed to scrape together a total of 450km running for the year. (Covid made me take a break).

My annual running mileage was very low compared to normal, but swimming replaced a lot of my running time, and I’m good with that. Although I have realised I’ve missed running so I’ll hopefully keep this momentum going and aim for 3 runs a week for January maybe into future months too.

And what surprised me a bit was that I walked further than I ran … probably for the first year ever – I walked 480km. 

So my totals for the 2022 are:

Swimming – 258km /  87hrs 20 mins / 43,800 cals

Running – 450km / 44hrs / 26,600 cals

Walking – 480km / 123hrs / 29,000 cals 

Cycling – 100km / 6hrs / 2,500 cals 

Total = 1,288km / 160hrs / 102,900 cals

Plus the gym for 22 hours / 38 times / 5,000 cals 

= 182hrs / 108,000 cals

= just over 7.5 days non stop exercise 😂

Looking back at previous years, I’m about 50,000 calories down on average annual calorie burn, and abut 400 activities last year vs between 600-700 activities in previous years. I have had a bit of a quieter exercise time in the last three months, and I probably needed the recovery.

I have some thoughts for my 2023 activity, and January will be a bit of a relaunch into running and strength after covid I think. Along with some walking and weekend swims of I fancy it, to start me off.

All in all I had a good 2022 and I’m in a good place to go forward in 2023. I hope you had a good 2022, and you’re raring to go in 2023. If not, maybe it’ll come.