A Sunday afternoon set

It felt so good to knock out a decent set today at Civic Pool. About half of the 11km was speed work, a quarter one arm drills and the rest continuous swimming at 75% (that's my favourite part). Best of all, even toward the end my times were holding steady, meaning there is still lots left in the tank.

This week is the 3rd 'on week' of the monthly program (I call it cranky week). I do 3 weeks in a row of about 25km swimming, one weights session and one Pilates session. The 4th week is half the swimming distance, Pilates and no weights...the 4th week is the most important week as the down time is letting my mind and body rest and consolidate that hard work, thus becoming stronger!

Location:Civic Pool

South Head Swim

Yesterday I competed in the South Head Rough Water Swim, a 10km black water swim. Although the seas were calm the strong head current made the swim over an hour longer than what that distance should actually take. The swim itself is nothing but spectacular, with giant cliffs plunging into deep black water off Sydney's coastline.
The best part of the day was undoubtably swimming through the Heads. Very few people actually get to have this honour and today Duncan and I did it!
Yet again we had a great support team with Matt driving his boat, Mick and Christian support paddling and Narelle looking after food and drinks.

Long Swim

Second long swim back after Rottnest and it seemed easier than usual and I think I know why.

For the last 4 weeks I have been working hard with Andrew and Suzy on improving my stroke to improve efficiency and relieve some right shoulder tension. With an increasing training load coming up for the Gibraltar Swim starting in October now is the time to do this much needed technique work.

So it's been a few weeks of changing the angle of my right hand entry and eliminating my trademark right arm stretch before starting my catch. It was a weird feeling to start with but as the weeks rolled on the feeling became one of 'just been' normal.

All the training has been short sharp sessions designed at getting the feel before getting tired. There was strictly no long sets or no speed work until I could instantly feel if I reverted back to that 'old stroke'.

So today was the first long session where a 10km swim was planned. I decided to break the swim into 6 x 1km and then a 4km swim once I started to get tired. I decided it was about completing the swim and forgetting the times. Lucky, as my watch was showing some terrible splits. But I walked away from the set feeling full of energy and best of all no shoulder joint pain.

So it's onto the 10km Roughwater swim in Sydney next weekend to give my new stroke another good work out before going back to the pool for the winter.

4 months of technique work

With my shoulder still giving me grief it's time to step aside from the intensity training and into a winter of technique training to fix this ongoing issue.

In particular, I am working on my right arm entry, catch/pull and the timing of that stroke. I have had the first lesson where I was immediately made aware that I was gliding too far on the right which then made for a dead spot where neither arm was propelling me forward. It was also clear that my stroke on the right was about .5 seconds longer than the left. This explains and confirms the gliding.

So, the challenge is to now even up the right stroke rate to the left. By quickening up that stroke I will stop gliding and the pressure on my shoulder will decrease.

So this little stroke beeper will be my favourite friend over the coming months as I look to fix this problem before the Gibraltar prep and the summer marathons start up again.

Last post for the Rottnest blog

This will be the last post in the "Swim Kane Swim - Rottnest Channel" blog...

I hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as i have. Here is the movie i put together of the swim:


Don't forget to follow my next swimming adventure: Gibraltar Straits Crossing in 2015.

Share and share alike...

It is three weeks since the Rottnest swim and I am now back into swimming and also excitedly starting to think about my next swimming challenge.

I have had lots of people ask me about the logistics of swimming Rottnest as an interstate swimmer. So below is a list of the main points of note that i would past on:

• Set your goal(s) for the swim:
• I had two:
• To successfully swim the Rottnest Channel
• To ensure i trained enough to enjoy the day, not just struggle through it

• Early preparation is the key:
• Make yourself aware of three key dates as soon as you decide Rottnest is for you:
• The registration period (its only open for 1 week)
• The qualifying swim and a backup swim (just incase)
• The Rottnest swim
• Book accommodation immediately. Hotels in the area book out well in advance.
• Make enquiries into hiring a support boat. Getting a boat and experienced skipper is probably going to be the hardest part of your preparation.
• There are skippers out there who just want to be part of this huge event. They won't charge you excessive amounts either. I was lucky and found a wonderful skipper who refused to let me pay for a single thing, it was clear he was just honoured to skipper a solo swimmer.  So get going ASAP...

• I hired an endurance coach in July
• I have completed lots of 10km swims but moving up to swimming 20km means different challenges.
• A good coach who knows about endurance will be able to help you to peak at the right times (qualifying race and again for the actual race). They will also be able to help you out with nutrition plans, endurance sets, recovery plans and advice, and also help you through those down times (trust me, there will be downs time where you just want to throw the towel in). 

• Join a swim squad
• Speed work as part of your drills is vital to your success, swimming with others makes this easier.

• Start experimenting with food during your swims now
• It took me 3 months to find food that settled in my stomach well
• Practise eating during your training swims
• Practise treading water. I was incorporating 5 min periods at the end of my sets.

• Resistance, resistance, resistance; Use resistance to simulate longer swims. For example i would put the hand paddles on and get in the habit of doing 500m before the warm down at the end of each squad session.

• Get ready to eat like you have never eaten before. As the training ramps up so does the food bill. 
• Put good stuff in and your body will perform well. I found on the odd day where we had take away food my body did not perform well for the next few days. 
• I also found drinking milk immediately after long sessions helped with recovery.

• Find out which sea sickness and nausea tablets work well for you. TIP: forget the herbal crap, i did that at the beginning and they don't work anything like the medical stuff.

• Get a good support team together
• Make sure you find a few good paddlers
• I started practising 3 months out with the kayakers.
• Practise your feeding/drinking from the kayak. Get them used to your likes/dislikes.
• You want everything to just go smoothly on the day.  

Don't forget to follow my next swimming adventure: Gibraltar Straits Crossing in 2015.

Team photo...

What an awesome team to swim under...left to right - Phil (skipper, spotter, logistics), Narelle (food and social media), Pauline (paddler, spotter), Craig (navigator, photographer, spotter), Andrew (coach, paddler, spotter), Dave (paddler, spotter), Kane.


Open water swimming is a solitary sport but without a good team around you reaching your goals is impossible.

Yesterday...We swam it...!

Wow what a day yesterday...we covered 21.3km in 6 hours and 43 minutes.

The day started off at 3am with lots of apprehension about what was ahead. I knew this was a big event but it was not until i reached Cottlesloe Beach that i realised its enormity here in WA. Live TV, politicians, celebrities, it was huge and a real buzz to be part of.  There was 268 solo swimmers and 1800 team swimmers.

The first thing for the morning was to get the sunscreen on and the grease applied. With all the team out on the water Jen, had that terrible job.  I am happy to say there was not one chafe mark on my body...awesome job Jen.

After a quick warmup we were off at 6am. The premier of WA fired the gun and away me and about 100 other swimmers went in the solo male's seeded wave. The start was very gentle compared to the trash-and-dash swims and in no time i was past the 500m mark where Andrew could join me in as the support paddler. We were soon at the 1000m mark where the support boat join us without incident. This was a great effort by all the team and immediately took away my fears of not finding everyone before the 1500m (this is where you have to wait if you are not joined up).

From there I started to settle into a nice breathing rhythm and by the vibrations on my watch i knew i was moving at a pace of about 3.5km/hr. At about the 3km mark i was told to slow down, which at the point felt terrible but as the k's rolled on felt better and better.

After practising for months and months the food was going down a treat. A bottle attached to a rope flew out in front of me every 20 minutes, then it was 15 seconds to put it down and away we went again. The only tough part was getting the sea sickness pills down, we had awful trouble with that and i really felt for the support team who were trying their best but the waves kept on washing them out of our hands.  This also contributed to the paddlers capsizing..of which i felt terrible that i could not help them (we were just lucky we had a boat of very accomplished swimmers onboard who could look after themselves).

hundreds of these stinger welts

At about the 7km mark we got the 'bloody' jelly fish. I must have been stung 100 times in about 10 minutes. They are not ovally painful just very very uncomfortable, although the one that got in my nostril did hurt...and still hurts! Here is a photo of the result the next morning...

After passing the stingers we got into a rough patch of water where the messages of support were well received. It was just hard work and it seems like it went on forever. I was told later that this is the tough part of the race because its shallower here which results in increased waves.

Toward the mid to end it started to get congested with boats, kayaks and swimmers; remember every swimmer/team has a boat and a paddler, thats a lot of boats. After getting through that area the sea floor started to rise, the coral appeared and i knew we were home then!

So I now go into the record books as the 1559th swimmer to cross that 20km stretch of water.

Thanks for all the messages of support along the way, they were all gratefully received!

I could not have done this by myself; here is the TEAM..!

Christian (middle man who has all the contacts), Jenny (chief WA organiser, host), Phil (skipper and owner of the boat), Craig (navigation, photographer, spotter), Pauline (paddler, spotter), Dave (paddler, spotter), Andrew (coach, spotter and paddler) and my wonderful wife (logistics on the boat, social media).

The course we took across to Rottnest Island. Perfect Phil...!!

All greased up...no chaffing here

Starting off from Cottesloe in the dark

Stopping for a drink and something to eat

Whole lot of empty ocean out there

Dave, making sure we kept on course

The 1559th swimmer to cross the channel with the 1st swimmer

Solo swimmers photo

Local TV coverage

Nearly there

Almost there. About to peel off and leave them on their own.

Shark moving away

Just head shark moving away from fleet. No need to worry.

Buoy

Another buoy to go around....only 2.7 to go

Shark sighting

Shark sighting at 14 km mark. It's a hammerhead. Lucky we just passed 16 km mark.

15 km

At 15 km. Getting a bit congested as we all start to merge a bit

Paddler change

Dave's back in the boat feeling a bit sea sick. Andrews in the kayak now...Kane's still in the water

Snack time

Time for another snack, just carb drink. No treat this stop.

Hypothermia

One swimmer withdrawn with hypothermia. Keeping an eye on Kane. All is good. Our spotter is a paramedic so all is under control

Good rhythm

In a good rhythm now. On pace with 3.1 km per hour.

8.8 km

Hit the 8.8 km mark. Few jelly fish around and has been bitten. Taken some tablets and continuing on. Still going strong

Another one in

Another kayaker fell in. Kane still swimming strong. Waiting for Dave to catch up.

New Kayaker

Changed kayaker. Dave's in now. Apparently the water is cold now. Have some tea ready if he wants to warm up.

Overboard

Pauline's in the drink. Andrew going to help her get back on the kayak. Kane still swimming. Pauline is back onboard. All is good.

Change over

First food stop done. Kayaker changed over and Pauline in water. Going at 3.3 Kms. Little bit quicker than planned but doing well.

Swimmer found

Found Kane in the mayhem. Strope light worked well.

He' off

In the water now... Only 19.7 km to go

Holding bay

We're in the holding bay waiting for the race to start. Go Kane!!!!

Map Links

Map Links:

• Click here to view the map I have made (you will only see my location) or
• Click here to view the event's map (you will see every swimmer on this map)
• I am number "0171" [look for a number with a white background]

Race Briefing...

The race briefing was this morning...

Everything points toward good weather for the swim tomorrow; sunny with a tail wind for 3-4 hours followed by a few hours of calm before the Fremantle Doctor kicks in after lunch. The water temp will be in the low 20's and the current coming from the south. With the wind and current conditions it all sets up for a dead straight straight swim and a total swimming distance of under 21km. If conditions are not as described above we will be forced to take north or south hook path which will mean more than a 21km swim.

Started on the sea sickness and nausea pills last night...I am trying to avoid that horrible Townsville experience - sorry again Matt for throwing up on you!

Jelly fish galore...

Practise swim today of a rather short 450m... My shortest swim of my entire year. The reason, I got absolutely nailed by jelly fish today...I must have been stung 10 times by the clear stingers and once by a blue bottle.

We decided it's not worth risking Saturday so out we came and just sat and admired the beach view and tended to our stings.

Rolling the arms over

After a huge sleep i got up and found a nice beach to finished the first of two oceans swims before Sat. I went down to Coogee beach for a 4km session to 'get the arms back rolling over'. The water was stunning; clear, warm'ish at about 21 to 22 degrees, lots of little fish, 1 stinger (it touched me but forgot to sting me) and 0 grey shadows...!

Back to Jen's to continue resting...thank god the winter olympics are on!

Coogee Beach

  

Sri Chimnoy Lake Swims

This morning I did some spectating and support for some of the Exceed swimmers. In fantastic conditions for all but one rain storm there were some exceptional performances out there today. For the Exceed guys with Ann coming 1st in the 5km, Margaret and Tara coming 3rd, and Adriana, Leigh and Richard all putting in very nice performances and swim times.

With the water warm I was itching to get in for a swim today but today is not the focus and rest is absolutely my best friend at the moment.

The box of goodies

I am leaving on Monday to fly to Perth so I spent this morning getting everything boxed up for Narelle to bring over on Thursday.

What is in the box?

• 17km worth of carb drink
• 6km worth of a fruit drink
• Seasickness pills - non drowsy
• Nausea pills
• Anti Histamine pills (for Jelly Fish stings)
• Stinggos Cream (to easy Jelly Fish stings)
• Anti Inflammatory pills
• Hydrolight
• Zinc clear cream
• Thermos for a warm green tea
• Safety thermo blanket
• A few lollies as treats along the way
• External battery for tracking device
• Camera backup battery and SD card
• Rope
• Funnel
• Tape and Scissors
• Spare pair of goggles
• Anti fog for goggles
• Spare thick silicon cap
• Race book containing
• the race information
• food and drink schedule
• sea sickness plan
• jelly fish identification book
• hypothermia plan

Second Tapper Session

Off to my favourite pool today for some build sets, speed sets and hypoxic sets. Chris joined me today which is always good because his pace pushes me. About 3km's into the session we decided on a 500 build set. My objective was not to get lapped so i started the build a little earlier. Much to my surprise out popped a non drafting 500m PB of 7:57...WOW!  I had about 15 seconds of excitement before i realised the big guy was about to power home through 600m in 8:20'ish...HOLY CRAP!

I got my start time for next week today. Its a decent 6am start. The sun won't be up at that time so finding Andrew in the pre dawn light might be an issue we did not think about. Off to do some research about what others have done before.

First Taper Session

First taper session today and with my energy climbing back to about 80% swimming felt good tonight. Two of the 500's were at 8min flat and the last 500 was at 7:36min (a "drafting" PB). I was even getting close to touching Duncan's toes - but just couldn't get there though. I will do it one day!

Storm Week before the calm...

Monday

I treated myself to a visit to Dickson Pool, my favourite swimming pool where i got through the set i missed yesterday. Again, it took a good 1000m to feel properly warmed up and before i started feel good and get a nice breathing pattern happening. I suppose this is something to take note of for the competition.

So that is the hard work out of the way and now it time to rest, relax and get my body fuelled up and properly hydrated to swim on Saturday week.

Sunday PM

The Sunday PM swim did not take place because of "water's" opposing enemy..."fire". The unfolding Victorian Bushfire situation and a total software failure of one of our mapping systems meant i had to miss the very last set of my preparation for Rottnest.  As you have probably read all the way though i am a pretty risk adverse person so its lucky we (our awesome team of absolute professionals) had built a backup software system for just that situation.  So, what could have been grey hairs all around ended up been a slight shift from BAU. I think i actually enjoyed going to work and activating this system more than swimming!

Sunday AM

After two days rest I am feeling back to about 60% energy levels today. Four of us went for a 4km swim in the lake this morning. It was a stunning morning for a swim, the water warm and the pace a gentle 17:40 per km...along with a few long chats in the middle of the lake.

It took about 1500m to loosen my shoulder up this morning and find my rhythm. After that is was as though i could keep that pace going for many hours.  I was also trying to concentrate on just relaxing and feeling as though the water can do whatever it wants with me...that is what ocean swimming is all about...you can't fight it! One more swim this afternoon and then its some down time.


Thursday

Dead tired today and my pre-squad and squad swims showed exactly that. I was doing some slow times (1:50 for 100m) but it felt more like 3 minutes! As a result I have moved Saturday's lake swim to Sunday so i can get recharge.

Andrew assures me that this tiredness is all part of the build process and it shows the effort put in over the last 5 weeks straight.  Tapper week in two more days!

Wednesday

Todays swim seemed easy compared to last nights squad session. Started off with 3 x 1km sets where i was trying to keep a steady pace and same number of strokes per lap. That all seemed to fall into place and each laps stats nearly looked like the one before and also the one after.

At the 5km mark i jumped out and put on a long sleeve shirt and went for another 1000m. It was hard work but my the time was a little better than i expected at 19:00.

A long warm down and that was another days training in the bank.

Tuesday

After a busy day at work i managed to get in a nice long swim (6 x 1000m) before swim squad. My goal was to try and keep a constant pace of 1:44 until the 4th set. Where I would let it creep out to 1:47 and then onto 1:48. I forgot to bring my pool food today so it was certainly interesting to take note of when my body started to crave food.

I also noted a build up of acid in the arms around 5km. This has not happened before and i can only attribute it to the lack of food and insufficient hydration.

A quick trip the pool cafe and a homemade biscuit and a small chocolate and it was back into the pool. I did the warm up easily and then looked up to see 1000m time trial written on the board.  Its actually my favourite set, but after just doing 6 of them this would clearly show me where my endurance is at.

After, losing the lead guy (Gleb) in the first few laps i dug deep to slowly claw back his gap over the next 300m. Once i got him it was then nice to then sit on his toes for a bit to bring the heart rate down.  Gleb and I always have a good sprint to end and he knows i always make my move 150m out. But this time i thought i would fox him and leave it to the last 50m. We both got a good turn and as i moved onto his hip he kicked and very soon i realised he had actually out foxed me.  The times were in the low 16s, respectable.

Tomorrow, its off to the AIS for a 2 hour swim with Chris. The last 1km is with a shirt on and suppose to simulate the type of tiredness toward the end of an endurance swim. If nothing else it should be amusing!

Rest day

Today was massage day. My neighbour is a physio and I get the most wonderful back and arm looseners!

Tomorrow we r back into it, with a 4km set followed by 3.5 km speed set at squad training. Then a swim on wed, afternoon double set on thurs, sat in the lake then a double endurance set on Sunday afternoon. All up about 35km in 5 days.

Everything is ready for the race now with all the logistics confirmed and ready to go. The boat skipper is attending the race briefing tomorrow. He will get the wave times then.

During my Sunday swim I started to think about all the things I have learnt whilst preparing for this swim. I will post them after the swim but I have at least 15 things so far to pass on.

Cole Classic

Cole Classic at Manly today. Early morning trip and back in the arvo for squad training.

Even after a tough week of training i managed my second best time for 2km in the Ocean - 30min 07sec. The conditions after the first 500m were perfect. A nice chop, small swell and some nice long runners at the end.

a quick video of the finishing line

Taking Stock...

I have a day off both work and swimming today and i thought i would look back to see where my training started and where i am at the moment.

I am rather anal about putting all my figures into Garmin Connect and after a bit of data extraction and manipulation i was interested, but not surprised, at what the last year's worth of training looked like.

I was not surprised because it was exactly how Andrew described it at the very beginning. We will build your distance up, we will consolidate that fitness, we will build it up again, consolidate it, then go for the final push...its the same with any endurance sport.

The light at the end of the tunnel

My training schedule for the last 4 weeks...two weeks of 'normal' training and then its into the Taper Weeks!

Resistance is not my favourite word

Just back from an 8km resistance set...probably one of the hardest set so far.

1km warm up...
1km paddles - build
1km ankle band and paddles
1km paddles (6,4,2,6,4,2...) breathing
1km ankle band and paddles (8,6,8,6...) breathing
1km paddles and ankle band
1km swimming as slow as I possibly can (55sec) per lap. Bloody hard work....

4 weeks to go!

Into the last four weeks and the last few weeks have been nothing but water and water!

This weekend is my rehearsal swim as scheduled by my endurance coach.

Saturday was 5km, Sunday AM 6km and PM 8km, then 10km (1/3 under resistance by dragging a wet spnge behind me) on Monday. These three days will be 150% of the race distance and is the beginning of the last of the major build weeks. After then its into the last of the resistance and hypoxic training.

Saturday's Swim 5km

Sunday AM Swim 6km

Sunday PM Squad Swim 8km

Monday Swim 10km

This week is probably the first week i am really feeling comfortable with completing 20km. My fitness and speed is exactly where we predicted it to be, my food is sorted and i think the sea sickness and nausea medication is spot on.

Day 6 Bondi Boot Camp

Rest day, just as well too. The surf was huge (9ft swell).

Day 4 Bondi Boot Camp

Day stated off with an ocean swim. I felt great in the water and quickly completed 5 laps in good pace and rhythm. As i turned for the last lap (in very calm water) i started to feel rather sea sick, i think it is when i have a drink and i am vertical in the water.  I got 500m before i feeling so terrible that i swum into shore.

I tried extra hard not to consume any salt water but no matter how hard i try to keep it out it seems to get in. The culmination of water upsets my stomach and its not long after that the sea sickness starts.

I have heard 'Tums' and the serious sea sickness tablets combined with no-doze can help so i might find a chemist and give them a go. I might also try drinking more water as this should assist in flushing it through quicker and not leaving me dehydrated, as salt does. Anyways, this is exactly what this week was for...to find out all the things that work and don't before heading across to Rottnest.

The pool 5km session this afternoon went without hiccup and i worked on not consuming any water.

Day 3 Bondi Boot Camp

Day 3 has come and gone. Because the surf was high in the morning but expected to drop i swapped the ocean and pool sessions around.

So it is a bus trip and a nice walk to the ABC pool on the harbour.  The set was a challenging 5km speed and resistance set combined with race pace swimming. I find it hard to drop back into that race pace (18min / km) so i practise it a lot.

The early afternoon we spent in the ocean having fun in the breakwater bodysurfing before i did some open water swimming out the back. It was cold yesterday, i presume this is from the large waves churning the cool water up from the bottom.

Now that my wife has gone home i have this nagging voice in my head about swimming alone. As i mentioned yesterday i know i can swim for hours and hours but now there is now no-one on the beach keeping an eye on my progress or expecting me to return after x hours. I feel rather vulnerable out there and have chosen to stick to the end of the beach where there are more people, surfers etc. Sounds a bit cowardly but this goal of mine is not worth losing my life over.

I got in the 3km set without to much effort and then it was back to the hostel for a dinner of vegetables and pasta.

Lets see what Day 4 brings, i figure i will be swimming tired tomorrow...then its onto a day off.  

Day 2 Bondi Boot Camp

The day started with disappointment as the ocean was far too rough and sets too close together to go out safely by myself. So i headed to the ocean pool and to my surprise it was as rough as the ocean. The waves were crashing over the walls and creating challenging conditions. Even though i am a confident swimming there are some situations i would never put myself in.

I completed the ocean set in the pool and enjoyed every minute of been tossed around like a cork in the ocean.

It was then onto the ABC Pool for the second session of the day which consisted of a warmup, main set and drills equaling 3700m.  This seemed to be a breeze and it felt like a 30 minute swim.

Early to bed tonight to pretty much do the same tomorrow.  Hopefully the waves and swell will be a little tamer tomorrow.

Day 1 - Bondi Boot Camp

Day 1 of a 10 day ocean swimming boot camp has come to an end. After a few hour drive to Bondi it was check in and then for a lesson on improving my body surfing and picking returning lines from out the back in rough conditions. Then it was onto the main set, 4 crossings of the bay. This is usually a 14 to 15 min breeze but today it got quite scary. A large swell was pushing into south end of the beach and it took a lot of concentrating to navigate though. I swallowed a large amount of water on the third crossing which played on my stomach. Just in case I got sick or cramp from the water I decided to swim in closer to the surfers on the back break. This course change made things considerably rougher but in return my comfort level increased dramatically and I cruised in to complete the set.

My poor stomach is still tossing 3 hours later! Lesson 1 - salt water in the mouth is a swimmers worst
Enemy!

Tomorrow it's a 6 way crossing with a mate of mine. Conditions are going to be rough again tomorrow so I am going to drag my safety float and head out a bit further. Safety first!!! Then it's on for a pool session in the evening!