Explaining or justifying?

Here it is, my own North Channel Swim Challenge record card. I've decided to dub this week as a rest week. But is that explaining why I haven't been swimming this week or justifying my laziness? Ugh.

Here's some excerpts from an interesting article on swimming the North Channel (taken from active.com):

American team conquers the UK's North Channel

There was a time when Steve Frantz used to have to cling to the side of the pool and catch a breath after a short swim. Now, the 58-year-old attorney has the English, Catalina and North Channel crossings listed on his swimming resume.

Frantz, who makes his home in the Southern California beach community of Cardiff, recently swam the North Channel between Scotland and Ireland with a relay team.

Frantz and his five teammates braved the chilly waters, strong currents and winds in August to become the first American team to swim from Port Patrick, Scotland, to Bangor, Ireland a distance of about 25 miles. They completed the trek in 13 hours, 11 minutes.

According to Frantz, the North Channel is a notch above the English Channel in difficulty in every category. The water temperature ranges from 52 to 56 degrees as opposed to 60 to 64 degrees in the English. The currents and the winds are stronger as well, and then there's the jellyfish.

The plan is to start Monday morning. We'll see how it goes.