The essentials

One of the guys in our swim squad who has swam the Rottnest Island Event (and the English Channel too) told me early on to start organising early so 1. your don't miss out, 2. it does not cost you an arm and a leg, and 3. so closer to the time its all about swim preparation not organising the people to support you.

Sound advice and i now have everything in place. a support boat and captain, 3 paddlers, a person who looks after food and drink and Andrew who is coming along for on the fly training and motivation. I was lucky to have a fantastic contact in Perth but even still it took a few months to get all this organised.  So my advice having been through it is yep, start organising your support crew and equipment as early as you can.

He has also told me to give every support member two tasks. One primary and one support. It is inevitable that someone is going to get sea sick and if they cannot perform their duties at least the swimmer (me) will know things are covered off.

Rest week or frustration week?

They call it a rest week...but I think these weeks where swimming half the normal distance is actually harder than the 'on' weeks.

I know it sounds strange but i feel lazy for not training and my energy levels are suffering from lack of endorphins.  However, i am constantly telling myself these rest weeks serve a good purpose... i.e to freshen up both mentally and physically for the next 3 weeks of hard training.

Next week I start a month of tempo training where the goal is to swim constant speeds over longer distances...can't wait!!!

Onto week 4...the half distance week and bit of a rest !

In reflection its amazing what the body can do with just a few weeks of solid and focused training. Just three weeks ago I was swimming about 16km a week swimming and averaging in the mid 17min for each. Now, with determination to get out of bed early,  the right guidance and a 30km training program designed specifically for my goal I am consistently swimming mid 16mins...I even managed a 16min 17sec on Sunday immediately backed up with lots of 500m squad swims all below the 8min 10sec mark.

However, all this training has not come without the usual side-effects: physical tiredness about 3 hours following the session, ongoing mental tiredness and a slight lactic acid buildup later in the week. In addition, i am eating quite a lot...about 1/3 more than normal and sleeping about an hour longer per night.  However, all the side-effects have got slightly less over the last three weeks.  

So what conclusions can I take from that?  My body is slowly adapting to the increased training, I am building endurance, the speed is coming by default and my body is asking for more the fuel to do what i want.

What do i expect as i move into the second month...the times are not going to come down like they have but i am hoping my endurance continues to build; thus i should start to feel a little less tired.  

Bondi Ocean Swim Practise

Last week i had a swim at the beautiful Bondi Beach.  A bit chilly getting in but once i was out past the breakers it was glorious conditions. The water was crystal clear and their was lots of marine life around...swimming at its purest!

The swim did show another weakness of mine...swimming into the rising or setting sun.  Each time i swam to the east the path i took was rather erratic. Heading east all I could see was a shadowed smoke stack and by the image below you can see i got caught in a few return rips (the spikes closer to the beach).

On the other hand going back the other way the path is very tight as Iceburg's was clearly visible across the entire bay; easy swimming!

I am going to Bondi for a week in January to do my final ocean preparation before Rottnest Island.  The plan will be to swim 7-10km each morning and 2km each afternoon when the swell picks up.

Week 3

Its the third week and things are getting a little easier even though the KMs have increase to 27.5 per week but the session count has not. This afternoon i actually set a PB for a km at 16.23...not bad considering we did a 6km pyramid speed set last night and a 6km session this morning.

Today i entered the qualifying race for Rottenest, the National Capital Swim. The swim is from one end of the Lake in Canberra to the other. I did the swim last year and it was tough. The water is cool and as strange as this sounds you swim into the current the whole way. The swim starts at the dam and finished 9.2km away at the mouth of the Quenbeyan River. Last year it felt more like i had swum 11 or 12 km not 9ish.  Anyways, 2 December is the date and i need to come in under 4 hours to qualify.  I don't see this been an issue as my goal time is 2 hour 45 minutes.

Into week 2 and its all about food

I was told to expect an increase in food consumption but I never thought my body would want this much. At the moment the diet after an average two session day goes like this:

• Breakfast
• Bowl of muesli with milk, yogurt, banana and honey
• Coffee
• 1 apple
• Mid Morning:
• 2 Apples and an Orange
• Lunch
• Medium plate of pasta
• an Orange
• Mid Afternoon
• 2 Glasses of flavoured milk
• Dinner
• Normal Dinner with a little meat and lots of vegetables
• Evening
• Glass of milk

Milk and fruit and colourful vegetables are the main foods I use for recovery. This is combined with a good amount of water seems to replenish the energy levels rather quick.

I am currently experimenting eating different foods on actual swim days so when I have it closer to the mark I will write a post about it.

Week 1

Holly hell...I managed 27.6 km this week..

I feel great for having achieved that time in the water but my body is tired beyond tired. Even sleep is hard. I have never had black rings around my eyes before so its all new territor But my body will get used to the 10km per week extra and i know things will get easier throughout this journey.

I am not convinced Narelle is totally over the impact this week has had on my body but I am sure as time goes on she will see it and give me some more

So Tuesday it is into week two. The same schedule as week one although I am going to get an ocean swim in this week as we are going to Sydney for the All Blacks game.

First morning session

Its 545am and -2 outside and I got 5.7km set ahead of me.  What am I thinking...?

#thiscouldbethehardestthingihavedone#

Oh Jesus is what it takes?

Oh wow I just got my Rottnest training schedule...

In summary per week for August:
- 12 hours 30 mins each week in the pool
- 26 km
- 5 main speed sets
- 3 long swims sets
- 1 double set AM and PM (Wed)

This is 9 km more than what I am doing currently each week..ouch !

"Nothing great comes easy"

Back into it

After 4 days off it was good to be back into the pool for training. The session was only an hour long and concentrated on speed work...something I need to focus on as I look to quicken up my stroke.