calella

friday to monday, six sessions, a fifty metre outdoor pool, twenty seven degrees and almost no shade. the plan was to narrate it live from the poolside, one piece after every set. instead i swam it, and then i went outside and looked at spain.

so this is the version that exists: what the weekend actually measured, what it did not, and what is left between here and a dock in september.

A fifty metre outdoor pool at sunrise, lane ropes running to the far end, one swimmer mid stroke with an arm extended in front.
the last session, 07:00, before the flight. catch-up drill: one hand waits in front until the other arrives. · shot by coach kai

what the weekend actually was

six sessions across four days, friday to monday: three mornings and three afternoons, in a fifty metre pool that is open to the sky. a fifty metre wall is the nearest a pool gets to open water: half as many push-offs, half as many resets, twice as long in one unbroken rhythm before anything squares you up.

that was the whole reason for going. not volume. continuity.

An empty fifty metre pool at first light, starting blocks in the foreground, flat water, hotel buildings behind.
Wide panoramic view of a still fifty metre pool reflecting the sky and a tall pine before anyone has entered the water.
A fifty metre pool under hard mid morning sun, lane ropes strung out, nobody swimming.
Swimmers moving down several lanes in low evening sun, kickboards stacked on the starting blocks.

fifty metres, empty, first light.

flat water before the first set.

mid-morning, hard sun, nobody in it.

low sun, kickboards out, the set already running.

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what got measured

before the camp i wrote down eight things i did not know, so that they could be checked later rather than quietly dropped. this is the checking. the honest answer is that a pool camp could only ever reach one of them.

what the week gave evidence on

  • 7 what my stroke does without a push-off to hide in. partial. fifty metre walls halve the number of resets, and that is where the week bit. the swim that tells the story is not from the camp at all: 1.8k on 2026-08-25, the morning after, and it came out struggle free. that is a continuity datapoint, not a fitness one.

what is still open

a pool has a black line, a lifeguard, a wall every fifty metres and no weather. none of the following can be answered in one, and none of them are being marked answered because the trip felt productive.

  • 1how often to sight, and what it costs the stroke.
  • 2whether to wear a wetsuit.
  • 3how to feed on the move, or whether it is needed over 5km.
  • 4what a rolling start does to pacing.
  • 5how cold a september dock is at the ninety minute mark.
  • 6how far off line i drift when nothing corrects me.
  • 8what four hours of cut-off feels like to someone whose races last twenty six seconds.

seven of eight still open, and the swim is on 2026-09-12. that is the actual state.

A full lane of swimmers launching off the starting blocks at once, the nearest already extended flat over the water.
Eight swimmers bent over the starting blocks in a long line, all loaded, none of them gone yet.
A swimmer in full flight off a starting block, body flat and horizontal above the water.
Two swimmers leaving the blocks mid set while others wait in the lane below.
Two swimmers launching from adjacent blocks in the same position at the same instant.
The same two swimmers a moment later, both grinning as they leave the blocks.
A line of swimmers waiting on the starting blocks in low sun, all of them still upright.
One swimmer already in the air over the water while the rest of the line stays loaded on the blocks.
A swimmer entering the water with a splash while others stand on the poolside watching the line.
A single swimmer in a red cap in one lane, early sun flaring off the water surface.

a full lane leaving at the same time.

eight loaded, nobody gone.

long and flat, before the water.

two away, the lane still filling.

two starts, locked together.

the same pair, one second later, both grinning.

waiting on the whistle.

one away, the rest still holding.

an entry, watched from the side.

a lane to yourself, sun still low.

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the squad

Two swimmers and a shop worker in front of a wall covered in hundreds of swimming caps from clubs around the world, one cap being lifted into place near the top.
greenwich royals going up on the cap wall at the crol centre, last day. until then the wall had only ever carried saxon crown, the lewisham club this one came out of.

you do not do six sessions in four days on your own. the useful part of a camp is not the metres. it is that somebody is already on the block when you would rather not be.

that is the part that does not come to the dock. on the twelfth there is no lane next to me, no wall, and nobody already loaded when i would rather sit down. the camp is what makes that gap describable rather than smaller.

The whole squad gathered in the shallow end of the pool, most of them in caps and goggles, looking up at the camera.

everyone in the water, the last morning.

dock2dock

5km, rolling start, royal docks, saturday 2026-09-12. when this page went up i had never swum five kilometres without a wall. the camp did not change that. it made the gap easier to describe, and then the dock closed it: about 1:36, eighteen degrees, no official time.

level water was the event's official charity partner, and the fundraise made its £500 target. the mission line has not moved: the deep end, on video, so no child has to start there.

what the dock answered → the page → the journal →

camp closed. 1.8k the following morning, struggle free. seven of eight unknowns still open.