Swimming Naked

For some inexplicable reason, I decided not to wear a swim cap this morning. I'd never realised what a difference wearing a cap makes when open-water swimming. I know the pool was only 11.1 degrees, but when I launched into the water for my first length I thought I was going to freeze to death. My head was throbbing away so much I thought about stopping after that first length ... but I kept going ... only for 15 minutes ... and then I escaped to the heat of the changing room. I'll be back with swim cap next time.

As Channel relay swimmers, we get yellow silicon caps to wear. (The solo swimmers get red caps.) These are cosy caps, but they're really designed to make us easily identifiable when we 're training in Dover Harbour.

We don't have to wear the yellow caps when we're actually swimming the Channel, so I'm going to experiment with some other types to see which offer the most heat retention. After all, no wetsuits are allowed, so us blokes have to swim the Channel practically naked. I'll be checking out the Aqua Sphere Aqua Glide cap - a cap that's designed to cover the ears too.