Club La Santa - Lanzarote - September 2012

My holidays so far have always been relaxing, get away from the stress of the daily routine and just read books, sun-bathe, drink wine and eat fine food.

So this one, which had been a dream wish of mine for a few years, could not have been further away from that.

Here's my swim mates for the week and what a great fun bunch they were.

The Open Water Training Camp at Club La Santa, Lanzarote is run by Swim 4 Tri's, Dan Bullock, twice a year.  It's an intense 7 hours a day, mixed with pool, land exercises, open water and classroom.

Coach, Dan Bullock is third in from the left in the photo above. Having won Coach of the Year award several times, he was worth his weight in gold.  His teaching methods are easy to understand, very well explained and he makes it interesting and enjoyable.

I can never remember a holiday before where I was setting the alarm at 6.15a.m. ready for a 7.00a.m. training session to start.  Pitch black outside and a flood-lit pool awaiting me, I dragged myself out of our cozy holiday bed.

How strange that you come out of your apartment at such an early hour and witness dozens of athletes stretching and limbering up in the corridors ready to get as much training done as possible before that scorching hot sun rises.  If only I could do this every day.


Above. My new best friend for the week was my central snorkle!     Oh, how I battled with that in the early sessions.  Having never used one before, I continued to drown as the pressure built up in my nose each time I attempted to swim.  It was 3 days before I mastered how to use it without a nose clip.  

Combined with the underwater video coverage that I had previously seen of myself, I was quickly able to see exactly why I zig zag all over the place when in the open water.  And this is where the central snorkle comes in.  Not cheap and made even more expensive now as since returning home, I've been banned from using it in two local pools. Health and Safety gone banana's as usual !



We had 3 sessions a day, either 2 hours or 1.5 hours each and also another 1.5 hours in the classroom each evening to analyse the video coverage and dissect every inch of our strokes.  God, do I really swim like that, are you sure that's me?






The crowd I was with were brilliant.  Spending a whole week with like-minded people is very rewarding.  We understood one another, we helped one another and we laughed a lot.

Training under the watchful eye of Dan.

This course is very affordable.  And although us swimmers had a break between sessions, it was clear to see that Dan continued to work relentlessly, all day, getting stuff ready for our next session.


He was cutting videos for us to take home and analysing our strokes so he was well prepared for the following session.  Such value for money.

Quick photo-shoot before swim time.

I continued to worry whether Chris was getting bored waiting around all day for me to finish yet another gruelling session but with the temperatures soaring, he made use of the local golf course, a few cycle trips here and there and quite a lot of sun-bathing.

I left my weeks schedule on the coffee table and we arranged quick catch-ups between the sessions.  Not ideal, but for a one off, it worked.



After 3 days of drills, we were allowed into the pontoon.  Very warm, very shallow but a great place to practise the open water skills we had been learning all week.

Survivor !

I love this picture on the left.  

It almost looks like I am a professional butterfly swimmer, but Alas,  Dan was teaching us how to get a good start in shallow water and the technique was to keep hurling yourself off the bottom of the sea bed with huge leaps and butterfly arms until you reached deep water.  

So the truth of the matter is I am only in about 3 foot of water !   Well it looks good.

More shallow water start practise. 

Dan worked tirelessly to get my hand position right

Seconds away from being told
I am swimming the Iron man course after all!

The highlight of my week had to be when Ben Price, second in from the right, offered to swim the Lanzarote iron man course with me.

Dan had taken a few of us to the beach with the intention to just swim part of the course.  Because of the different standards of swimmers, he was unable to allow me to swim the whole course.  

Being an open water swimmer that is petrified of the open water is no easy thing you know.  I was kind of disappointed but relieved at the same time when he told me we need to stick together, so sorry Lorraine, you will have to stay with us.  So, its not my fault I can't swim the Lanzarote Iron man course - right !




But then, as Dan started to explain to everyone what we were doing, I realised he was leaving my name out.   Mmmmm. ??     Lorraine, Ben's gonna take you off and accompany you to swim the Iron man course.   "Wow, thank you so much"....    "*&@@*&* SHITE"!     I wondered who that extra bod was in our mini-bus?

My close friends will know that I am not adverse to letting my mind wander (beyond all reason) when I'm out in the open water.  Ben saved me, by the way, from Noah!   Yes he did!

All sorts of crazy pictures were going through my mind when the two of us swum way, way out.  Puffing like a good un, hanging onto Ben's silhouette, I truly believed that in the next Milli-second, a huge basking shark would take us, both whole. 

 

Coach Dan, me and Ben Price (who saved me from
a Killer Whale).

A bit like the Pinocchio in that whale scene.  And then I would be stuck in the whales mouth with Ben - working out how to get out. My only comfort, whilst I was swimming, was "Stay close to Ben, he's experienced, if we go in the whales mouth, he will know how to get out.   How I ever have time to think of such elaborate crap in such detail when I'm swimming, I will never know.

Here's the gang.  Last supper

The food at Club La Santa is fabulous

Chris had to amuse himself whilst I slogged away the hours

White legs and brown top - Too much time in the water

Pay Attention !

Henley 3k Race - August 2012

The most scariest of all my races so far !

The hottest of all days and a nice lift with the Edge family meant I could fully relax for this one.  Tony, Shaun. Vicky Alex and myself all representing the Redcaps.  

Me, Shivvers and Alex pre race

And we're off !

Just two laps of a marked out course and my life nearly came to an end half way through the second lap.  The Thames was extremely narrow at one point so the final turning buoy was in the centre of the river.  

An example of how the river narrowed at the top before curving round to the right.

You couldnt see this buoy until you were about 25metres from it as it was situated round a corner.  On approaching the corner, I could hear the sound of chains and engines getting louder and louder underwater.  At the point that it became deafening, I turned the corner, lifted my head and saw this barge below, coming straight towards me width-ways.  He had ignored all warnings of a race taking place and just in the nick of time, he put his breaks on and tried to turn.  I had whistles being blown at me from all angles to just swim, swim, swim back the other way.  As the race was nearing an end, the field had narrowed out so just my luck that I was the swimmer about to take the final turn.  I watched in horror as the barge took the buoy completed out!   All I could see was a huge amount of back-wash and waves churning up the water as he struggled to keep the barge under control.   How lucky was I ?

A more peaceful picture of the barge that almost wiped me out.  

Medal time - Champions.

Winners of the day.  Me, over 50 and Alex - very  much under 50 !

Vicky, Tony, Alex, Shivvers and me, post race.

Redcaps 15K Challenge 2012

Who's idea was it to attempt 15k on one tide as a charity challenge?    Doh, Mine. Dumb idea!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 6 HOURS, 6 SWIMMERS, 1 TIDE IS DONE! 

Challengers and support swimmers waiting for the water to come in.

Quick natter on the best way to attempt this mad idea

Jane Bell kayaked for the whole 6 hours - Thank you Jane

My instruction box to the land crew - Says it all

Master of the tides, Mr Jacques opting for a banana to get him through the challenge.

Mmmmm, perhaps he should have opted for the Jelly Beans - looking a little worse for wear.

Kirsty Fehily and me - Glad its all over

                                                                                        

And finally, here is Jane Bells summary of the days events.

Lakeside 10k July 15th 2012

Another 10k just one week after Brighton.  This time, 13 laps of Alexandra lake, Lakeside, Thurrock.  A rather strange run-up to this event as I had originally entered it, then when discovering that SKS was going to be on this day, the organisers allowed me to move it to September 15.  Then when discovering an open water swim camp was taking place in September, I was allowed to move it back to July 15 as SKS was cancelled!!!!  Then I forgot to move Chris's entry back to July so by the time I finally turned up, I think the organisers were well and truly fed up with me.  Ironically, I won a wetsuit for entering it !

13 laps is a difficult one.  Swimming a 10k from A to B is not so bad - just 1 length.  But 13 laps!   Did become a bit boring and did need to pull on all my 'focusing techniques' to get me through it, but sort of enjoyed it in a strange sadistic kind of way!

On existing the water I learnt that Chris had won his age group 1500m so bloody well done Chris. x.

Two wins for me and Chris and a brand new wetsuit thrown in too, so what a result.

Brighton 10k Sea Swim - July 6, 7, 8 2012

Chris and I headed off for a long weekend in Brighton.  I was swimming in the 10k on the Friday afternoon and Chris in the 3k Saturday afternoon. 

The weather was absolutely horrendous.  Just one hour before my swim, I was standing at the registration tent in torrential rain which was coming down sideways due to the heavy wind and wondering why on earth I was about to swim 10k in the sea without a wetsuit !

 Once again, I had to call upon a favour from my dad and I prayed he would send me some decent weather for the next 3 hours.  If you are anything like me and believe there is someone watching over you at all times, then you will fully understand what happened next.  Just 20mins later there was a break in the clouds :)  Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou.  Yes, by the time the 10k started, we had clear blue skys, WOW - now that's spooky.

 Four laps of a 2.5k marked course and it was tough.  About 5k into the race, I had company.  A man and a woman pulled along side me and the next 1k made for a much more interesting race.  Us ladies managed to pull away from the man whoever he was and little did I know at this point that the lady I was battling it out with was going to give me so much grief at the end over the result.

   Sighting was impossible.  The wind had blown over the huge inflatable buoys so they were lying flat and with the brilliant sunshine reflecting on the water, the high waves made each sighting stroke impossible - just sea and more sea.

  I battled and raced with this lady to the bitter end.  Sometimes she stroked ahead, sometimes I did.

 On the last lap, I managed to 'ditch the bitch' - You'll understand later why I became a bit bitter towards her.  She pulled alongside me for the final 400meters and we both 'went for it' to the finishing line.  Only problem was, no one knew where the finishing line actually was.  Simon Murie, head of Swimtrek and organiser of the event made an announcement at the safety briefing that as the tide was constantly moving and as the waves were so strong, "we will decide when you are swimming where the finish line is".  No one questioned this at the time, because after a 10k swim, no one really thinks 2 swimmers are going to be neck and neck.

 As myself and my mystery lady eye-balled one another for the final strokes, we both stood up together and smiled at one another.  In knee deep water, we both took a moment to find our land legs and then admittedly, she exited the water before me and I eventually walked up the beach.

With no wetsuit for the past 2.5hours, I was suffering a bit from hypothermia, so at 7pm I decided to head back to the hotel.  The presentation was not till 9pm and I was in no fit state to hang around.

Saturday we headed off back to the beach for Chris's swim.  Sad faced and reluctant to get in that water, the picture says it all.  It was dreadful.  Wind, rain and cold but at least he was allowed to wear a wetsuit!  The red flag was flying and a decision was left to the very last minute whether to go ahead or not.

 Meanwhile I headed off to the results table to see where I came.  I was told that they gave the Gold to the other lady because she kicked up a right fuss insisting she was ahead of me.  Completely gobsmacked, I told the chap, she is welcome to it.  Bad sportswoman she is but if she needs it that much, she can have it.  I genuinely wasn't bothered at that particular moment, but the more I explained the story to my friends back home that she contested the decision, the more I came to realise that the result was not acceptable.  NO, she did not beat me, so NO, she ain't having the gold.  Thankfully, I received an email the following week stating that the organisers had awarded joint 1st place after carefully considering the finish.  Justice was served in the end.

 Back to Chris's event.  An impossible 'run-in' start as I doubt many swimmers would have made the first hurdle so it was decided that the safety crew would escort all the swimmers through the waves and once everyone was 'in', they would then sound the starter.

 The 3k was reduced to 2k for safety reasons and it was hilarious watching some swimmers take several attempts to get in.

 Chris had a spectacular exit from the water, having been rolled over several times and with 2 people attempting to help him stand up.

 hilarious, made me laugh anyway, but the picture I took of him when he finally made it to the beach has been deleted from the camera - coz its too funny !!!   Another bad Sport!

We had a fantastic weekend, albeit the weather made it a damp one.