Another early start. Dragging myself awake to the sound of the Blackberry alarm and heading off to Manly in the dark. I don’t drive down there anymore. I can walk fast enough to cover the distance by 6.10am. Water still glassy and beaten flat by the wind. The weather Gods are with me still. I arrive to some consternation by the 6am group of Bold and Beautiful swimmers who are just leaving the water beaten up by the Jimbles. I tear back to the club house and smear myself with Vaseline. We head out to the point at 630am into the still dark ocean and everyone turns left heading north towards Queenscliffe. I presume the rest of the Balmoral Beach Club group has gone too. It’s a mass of bodies ahead in the water. Half way to North Steyne I feel the jellyfish tentacles of a Jimble slide over the back of my neck, then down between my shoulder blades and finally over the backs of my legs. I await the sting. The shock never comes. It’s gone. The Vaseline works. I make it to North Steyne clubhouse, feeling pretty good but getting old. Swim back with Tim Anderson. Time of 40 minutes. I guess that’s respectable. That’s a 1.3km brisk walk and a 1.9km swim all before 7.30am and I haven’t got to the gym yet.

Turned up at the gym very tired. I ran through the stretching exercises and the step ups with Belinda and she corrected some of the technique. Then we did some squats using a big red gym ball up against the wall and lying across it on the floor. On the flex machine she had me lifting up the bar with two legs and dropping it with one. That was a really tough exercise. I was too knackered to do any work on the bike at the end of the session. She said I should have one day a week off from exercising – that swimming and walking every day, with the gym on top, is too much. Your body needs a day to recover. No bench presses today at the gym.