2014...NY, here we go!

Happy New Year...here we go for the best year of swimming yet.

2013 did not end to well as for the first time in the year i got sick...I suppose 2014 has not started to well either! But with 52 days left in the bag its not a big deal...rather now than in a few weeks.

I couple of days rest will do me the world of good before the Sydney swimming trip anyways.

Up we go again...

Today was the first set of the increased resistance and speed phase. The 5km i just completed feels like i have just slogged through 15 in rough seas...!

A lot of the work was 200's and 600's with the band or a bloody sponge dragging behind me. If you ever want to feel like your 20 kegs heavier give this a go.  However, that is exactly the point of the next two weeks training seasons, too work the big muscles and continue getting used to swimming tired. I should come out the other end with increased stamina and mental confidence of knowing i can keep going when tired...that is the plan anyways!

 

Vald Swim - Balmoral

Went for a swim with the Vald Swim group today at their Rottnest Qualifying event.  This was going to be my backup qualifying event just in case the National Capital Swim was canceled. So after a week that consisted of 20km resistance training (sore arms) and a stinking hot night with broken sleep i woke up feel more exhausted than when i went to bed....not good when i have 1 and a half hours of swimming ahead.

The conditions when we arrived were nice although everybody was talking about the wind. I soon found out why as i turn right around the exposed headland and 'smack' straight into a 40km/h headwind and 'my favourite' wind blown chop. As a group of us battled down the first leg we were unknowingly heading for the wrong turn buoy. See the map below, we were 150m north of the actual turn buoy. Because of the chop and tiny buoys meant for calm weather it was hard to navigated.  We were soon corralled to the right buoy but there had gone 5 minutes and a lot of energy.

The rest of the swim went well and on the final leg i decided to head a little bit further out to take full advantage of a strong tail wind.  The final 2km flew by as i turned for home and finished in 1 hour 32 min. About 7 min slower than i planned to swim.

The most pleasing part of the day was how much i had left in the tank. I could have easily done that again and then again. Although, with the wind and chop increasing i was glad to call it a day and hop in the car and come back to Canberra. 

Resistance Training - First Week

The first two days of full-on resistance training are over and i am hurting. Those 12km of band, a hand paddle work is just the start of the pain for this week.  With 20km more to go to complete this weeks schedule its going to be a world of hurt come Christmas week.

The reason for the resistance work is to prepare my body for those tough last km and also if the conditions are rough.

Thrown in the middle will be a leisurely 5km swim on Sat morning in Sydney with a mate who is a 2 time English Channel Swimmer...very exciting!

Injury...

oh no my neck is playing up again after doing a extended set of heads-up or sighting swimming yesterday...off to the massage guy this morning for a fix.

Tomorrow i am back in the lake for practise with Pauline; one of the support paddlers for Rottnest. We are going to practise all the necessities; feeding, directional support, timing, position, etc. I am so lucky i have supporters that want to practise, it should make race day so much easier.

Only three weeks until i get to Bondi for 2 weeks. Can't wait to get into the ocean morning and evening.

Rest before the Storm

Today is the last day of rest before its back into a gruelling 2 months of training. I have found having a week off is as tough as the hardest week of training. The body takes a few days to power down and relax after months of training, however the hardest part is dealing with effects of not having elevated levels of endorphins. The brain gets used to all these good (happy) chemicals and then to essentially switch them off is rather tough.

So the food bottles are ready and the swimming kit packed...i am ready for the 300 odd kms of predominantly resistant training that lays ahead.
   

Qualified...!

After a few months of hard training and relaxing by the pool in Fiji I qualified for the Rottnest Swim
last weekend.

The National Capital Lake Swim in Canberra was a race was from one end of the lake to the other...a total of 9.3km. The qualifying time was a generous 4 hours and I came in under that at 2hr 38min.

The race distance itself was a formality it was more about preparing myself for up to 3 hours in the chilly waters of Lake Burley Griffin. The lake temperature had been increasing nicely from early Spring until last week's downpour sent it plummeting. In places it would have been no more than 17 degrees, which after an extended time feels more like 10...!

After a week of preparing as though i would swim Rottnest i woke up on Sunday full of enthusiasm for what lay ahead. Breakfast was consumed 2 hours before race time, I arrived 1 hour before race time, set up the kayak, topped up my food 15min before, put a layer of vaseline over my chest and back, had a 5 min warmup and acclimatisation swim, a big drink of water and then it was time to jump in for a deep water start.

At 7:45am I managed to get off to a good start as i immediately settled into a nice breathing rhythm of 4-2-4-2-4-2 . This immediately calmed the nerves and consistent 16:30 to 17:00km splits were then rolling out one after the other, something i would have never dreamt of this time last year.

We reached half way and it felt as though the race had just begun. All the endurance training was paying off and i felt a million dollars. It was about this time the sun came out and it felt wonderful and warm on my back and neck. The 20min feeds were perfect and just like training i had them down within 10 seconds. We pushed on past all the beautiful National icons and buildings and reached the 3rd transition in a nice time.

It was 500m past this point that the water got bitterly cold and it felt like i was pushing into a decent current. It was also dragging me to the right which was frustrating me no end. My split for this section ended up being 3 minutes slower than the splits before and also after that 1500m stretch. Afterwards a lot of the swimmers commented on this tough and cold section of the lake. I suppose Lake Burley Griffin does have a big river flowing in and a big river flowing out so it only makes sense there is a current i.e. we were swimming upstream.

The final 500m went by quite quick as i kicked a little harder to get warm. Even though i felt as though i could have turned around and swum back the same distance i was actually glad to get out of that cold water. After stopping exercising i was still shivering about 15min later!

There were 5 of us who completed the swim with no wetsuit...i presume these are all Rotto swimmers!

Following the swim and some lunch it was then onto the Sunday Squad swim. Another 4.5km to the 9.3km made it my longest day of swimming and a good look into what is coming up in the months ahead...It is only 88 days away!!