July 2011 - Southend Great Pier Swim/Hubby is converted !/My training plan for the future

Now that my year of assisting Karen in her quest to conquer the channel is over, it's time to knuckle down and decide what I want to do with my own swimming.  No doubt if it wasn't for Karen, I would probably have returned as a pool swimmer, but now having the bug for open-water swimming, I realise this is where my future in the sport lies.

So decision time.  Do I become an open-water swimmer content with challenges and raising money for charity or do I get back to racing.  Having done all the Great Swim series so far this year with Gold or Silver results in my category each time, (and this without any training), I guess the 'pull' towards seeing how well I can do next year, if I get a years winter training under my belt, is quite strong.  But on the other hand, I felt so proud conquering the 24hr charity challenge and raising a whopping £1,625 for Help4Heroes, and also being part of Karen's channel challenge, that the desire to conquer lakes/seas etc. is also strong.  So, that's it, decision made - I will do both!

Train hard to produce a fast 1mile, 2mile and 10k race time which should give me enough stamina to conquer perhaps Windermere next year, or the latest Chalkwell Redcap challenge which we are contemplating at the moment: -  Southend, Essex to All Hallows, Kent, back to Leigh on Sea, Essex and all before you run out of water - so a highly tuned, precise swim against the clock.  See : -

http://www.h2openmagazine.com/readers-swims/southend-essex-to-all-hallows-kent-to-leigh-on-sea-essex.html


The chap that has achieved this swim actually won the Great Southend Pier swim this year, to which I came in 6th overall and 1st in the ladies over 45 category. And I am sure he won't mind me saying that at 57 years of age, is a remarkable achievement and which finally, has stopped me from telling myself, that at 53, perhaps I am too old to return to swimming with such high ambitions.

So just 4 weeks into my 'serious training', I have found a new group of tri-athletes to hang around with on Mondays and Wednesday at Burnham on Crouch.  A fast flowing stretch of water at the majority of times, which led me to having palpitations the first time out with these guys.  Having been used to swimming at 2min/100 metre pace for the past year, bit of doggy paddle here and there, to suddenly being in a situation where six strong tri-athletes all say, OK re-group at that boat over there (1/2 a mile away at least), and to have to swim my guts out continuously for 1/2 hour to keep up, I realised, jeez I have become unfit.

I've also hooked back up with my old club the Blackwater Triathlon club from many moons ago and have been welcomed to the lake session on a Saturday morning where I self-discipline myself into doing timed laps /drills etc.   Add this to having the privilege of swimming with some very fast swimmers from Chalkwell Redcaps in the waters of Southend on Sea, plus 1 pool swim a week to work 'off the clock', and my training plan is falling into place.  I have set myself a target to lose 1.5 stone and be able to swim 40 x 100's swim and rest off 90 by the start of the open-water season next year.  High standards for me, maybe not for others, but if I set my mind to it, I know I'm capable of doing it.

Chris & I doing a 5k straight swim from Westcliff to Thorpe Bay with about 15 Redcaps - Brilliant.  Chris pulled out at the Pier and walked back to Westcliff by himself to get the car, much to the humour of on-lookers, whom one referred to him as looking like 'James Bond'.  No wonder he loves wearing that wet-suit.

15 Chalkwell Redcaps out for a challenging afternoon.

Chris has also finally given in and realised that if he wants to see me at all from one week to the next, he had better get in the lake/river with me.  So, I am chuffed that I also get to swim with him once at week down at Marsh Farm or in the River Chelmer, (albeit I do wish he would keep up!).  I have even persuaded him to enter the Southend Pier Swim, Lakeside SwimFest, the Great Scottish Swim and Bournemouth Pier to Pier.  Well, saves him getting bored on the sidelines being no. 1 photographer.  I do hope he manages OK.   Memories of Sheffied Masters 10 years ago when I entered him in the 200 f/s to give him something to do while he was there, still relives nightmares of him coming in last and me hiding in the changing rooms for a couple of hours till he calmed down and had the chance to forgive me for putting him in the wrong heat!.

With his new kit all purchased, he comes home from his 'preferred past-time', the golf course, to relay further stories of how his golfing buddies have been taking his new found sport less than serious.  They see it as a perfect opportunity for 'micky taking'   Jealousy will get you no where guys. I know you are all secretly wanting to dress in neoprene !  Anyway, the constant jibes soon changed to 'Chris is your man' when a fellow golfer decided to throw a tantrum at the 14th hole and hurl is very expensive golf club in the air, only to see it land in the pond.  Nothing that Chris would be familiar with of course !!!!!!

Yes, these photo's were taken at the 14th, at Langdon Hills Golf Club.  Not what you would usually expect to see.   With no thought for safety whatsoever, he dived in, much to my horror, as I remind him he should have done the traditional life-savers jump into unknown waters!

However, much underwater searching did not retrieve the golf club and I do believe, his golfing buddies take his new sport a little more seriously now having realised how quick he was to jump into the lake after a golf club!  Which begs to question whether he would be so quick if he saw me in trouble at the lake!

Me & Colin Corby just before the start.
As long as I continue to beat him, I am a happy bunny

 So now back to Southend.  A beautiful sunny day, hardly any wind and a brilliant race which forbid the use of wetsuits for the racers.  The buoy spotting was not good tho.  A 3k long stretch with only two large buoys and several very small unsiteable ones and just a simple instruction to swim either side of them till you get to the other end, left most swimmers probably covering all sorts of different distances.  And as for the instruction for the finish, well - "racers have to swim between the two orange buoys".  Hello! there were a dozen of them - all over the place.  The first thing my lovely friend Ann said to me when I finished, was "Why did you go the long way round".  "Did I".

Well, hubby certainly looks the part, doesn't he?

 
Chris was in the challenge event which meant he left, so I thought, 15minutes after me, with wetsuit.  I guessed, knowing his speed that I would be waiting about 1/2 hour for him.  1 hour later, a very exhausted hubby crosses the line.  Little did I know he was in wave 3 so didn't leave till 45mins after me, by which time I had already come to the conclusion that he had been airlifted out of the sea and was on his way to casualty and that perhaps I shouldn't encourage him to race (memories of Sheffield still all too familiar).  So a relieved wife finally stopped pacing the beach and was delighted when he announced he enjoyed the experience and will still race at Bournemouth!

Friday just gone saw me doing another epic challenge swim.  Organised by Ben Jacques who decided swimming 5k was just not challenging enough, he decided that if we timed it just right, we would be against the tide for 2.5k towards Southend pier, and against it to get back to Chalkwell again.  We had to leave at 4.19p.m. precisely !!!!  It was choppy, we all went non-wetsuit and were battered and bruised by the waves by the time we got to Westcliff.  A stretch of water here which is particularly torturous as the waves bounce off the leisure centre.  Next re-group was at the pier where we all stupidly thought, swimming back would be easier as the tide felt fairly static at that moment - Wrong.  The lifeguards were called out by a member of public who thought we were in trouble which was a bit embarrassing as we tried to explain to the 3 lifeguards, "No, we actually enjoy doing stuff like this and despite the fact that we are struggling, we would actually like to carry on".  2.5 hours later 3 very tired swimmers finally emerged back at the Crowstone, speechless and too tired to even contemplate drowning Ben for his crazy idea.  We are all strong swimmers but 2.5 hours to do 5k - that's how hard it was.

So, I am now on an unforeseen rest period as I think I have 'pond tummy'.