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.
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.
