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.
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.
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. |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| More shallow water start practise. |
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| Dan worked tirelessly to get my hand position right |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Here's the gang. Last supper |
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| The food at Club La Santa is fabulous |
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| Chris had to amuse himself whilst I slogged away the hours |
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| White legs and brown top - Too much time in the water |
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| Pay Attention ! |
