Nose clip? Check. Goggles? Check. Condom-style hat? You bet ya! This can all only mean one thing… I’ve given up all hope of ever having nice hair ever again and decided to get better at swimming.

When I say ‘get better at swimming’ it pretty much means ‘learn to swim’, because what I do when submerged in water is not so much swimming as trying not to drown.

Apparently when I was about five I used to be quite a good swimmer. My family describe how I used to swim quite happily as long as I couldn’t touch the bottom – I liked the deep water. Then I didn’t go swimming for quite a while and seemingly forgot how to swim. Undeterred I would splash around quite happily in the shallow end, until one day when I jumped in where the water was deeper than expected and I had to be pulled out by a lifeguard.

In my adult life I’ve only swim when on holiday, so that’s probably a total of about 10 hours swimming in the past three years. I don’t need to consult my triathlon guru to know that this is probably short of the amount recommended on most triathlon training schedules.

I’ve taken baby steps towards becoming a better swimmer. Last summer I purchased a one-piece swimming suit for the first time since I was 13 and headed out for a swim in The Serpentine. It’s only taken a year for me to complete my beginners kit. Now I’m ready to dip my toe into the world of swimming. It’s not going to be easy, or pretty, but, while I may be a pretty rubbish swimmer, I was once a pretty rubbish runner too. Watch this space.