I aimed to do my longest training swim around five weeks before my Channel window opened. Not all prospective Channel swimmers do an 8 or 10-hour swim but if you can pull one off it’s a great confidence booster.

I’ve swum to Bat’s Head before but always from Durdle Door so it was nice to get a new angle on it. Only a month to go before my Channel window opens and I decided it was time for an 8-hour duration swim.

After you’ve decided you want to swim the Channel you need to find a pilot, train like mad, find a crew, train some more and then do some more training.

Just 94 days to go before my Channel swim so time for the first swim of the season from Fisherman’s Walk Zig Zag to Boscombe Pier and back, around 3.8km.

A bit of a milestone day as I officially kicked off my long distance open water season and logged my first one-hour swim of the year.