Windsor 3.8k - June 10 2012

Blue Seventy wetsuit - 3.8 Windsor swim.

On me lonesome for this one.  Not sure why no other Redcaps had entered but nevertheless, off I toddle with Chris for the Royal Windsor Swim.

Few hundred competitors in all and a very cold murky day.  This is when you really do have to pull on your enthusiasm and justify why on earth one would head off on a long car journey, in cold windy rainy weather to jump into an ice cold river.

I can't answer that question.  But can say, that its for the same reason thousands of other swimmers do it. It's a fantastic achievement and a great feeling.   Whats the alternative?  Housework, gardening, cooking, ironing.  Mmmmmm, now let me think - that's exactly why I do it.  It's called living life to the full.  And I love it - (Most of the time).

My famous Lock-Ness arm recovery - dreadful !

Not entered an F3 Event before and I was a tad disappointed with the lack of facilities, organisaton and results procedure.


The registration tent had no idea where to send me to get changed.  It was impossible to get out of the river, swimmers were being pulled out on their tummy's along a make-shift board!

I am actually standing on some poor mans knee as the previous method
of sliding out on your tummy was proving too difficult for the swimmers.

1st lady over 50, 1hr 1min, tough swim.

and something went wrong with the timing chips so the presentations didn't happen.  And no results for over 24 hours - not good.   

So, all in all, did I enjoy this one, not particularly.  A race against a very strong current made it extremely hard work for half the distance.

No other Redcaps there either so a pretty dull day :{

Queens Jubilee Charity Swim Challenge June 2012

We doing Skins or suit today?

5 June 2012, in order to boost funds for our Chalkwell Redcap 2012 Charity Challenge, I organised a Queens Jubilee Charity Swim in the River Crouch at South Woodham Ferrers.




27 swimmers took to the water, all agreeing to donate £5 towards our chosen charities.

I think we are swimming that way !

Brrrrr ! defo suit for this one



Hurry Up Lorraine - We are freezing - Can't we just Swim

I see Mrs Tyrant is'nt swimming, but she makes damn sure we have to.

Im going half suit, half skin !

Weather looking gloomy, but it was actually OK

Distances of 1/2, 1 or 2 miles were set for the challengers and flags were set along the coastline to mark the various distances.

Swimmers were invited from The Chalkwell Redcaps Open Water Swimming Club, Blackwater Triathlon Club, Chelmsford
Swimming Club, and a few of my other long term swimming mates from days past.

Must pay attention to Mrs Tyrant's Rules !

The Charities are RNLI and Essex Search & Rescue.


The majority of the swimmers took to the water in a wetsuit with a few die-hards going without.

Boats all ready, and they're off

On the day, we collected nearly £400, and added to the on-line donations, the event raised approximately £500 for charity.

Bye Mrs Tyrant - Nice knowin ya

I was relieved that the day went without a hitch.

And they came out smiling.

Well almost. Un-be-known to everyone, I got there very early with the intention of lining the coast with Red, White and Blue balloons. On opening my boot, they all flew out in the wind and all popped on the bramble bushes! - great start !.

Lovely picture

Fighting back the tears, coz clearly my whole day was now ruined because of my lost balloons - on my own, I then had to chase a rolling black sack full of balloons up the road to try to prevent loosing the remaining few. Hilarious! and so glad no one witnessed it! Do I laugh or do I cry?

More smiles

Thank God Derrick arrived early to assist in putting up the flags as Chris had had a last minute calling to the golf club!!!!! say no more !!!!! so I had no 'set-up' assistance.

And even more, so glad you enjoyed it

I guess the flags went un-noticed on the day as the wind prevented me from hanging them across the poles that I had bought down, so we had to make do with twisting them round a fence post. They were there honest!

Special thankyou has to go to all the volunteers that offered their time and valueable experience to making the event run smoothly.

Yep, head still there !

Kayak and boat support from Chalkwell Redcaps Open Water Swimming Club, Blackwater Triathlon Club, SWF Yacht Club, and close friend and past Channel Swimmer 'Water Slave' Karen Eyles, along with husband Roger, provided additional kayak and first aid support.

All the trouble I went to getting a celebrity, and no-one even
noticed Noel Edmunds swimming

Volunteers collecting money, selling raffle tickets, checking swimmers in and out of the water, feeding them home made cakes, all gave their time free of charge.

Must get the crabs off me toes before I come out

The generosity of all those involved meant that every single penny raised was able to go direct to the charities. So thankyou everyone.

A special thank you goes to Lee at The Whalebone Pub who catered superbly with 50 hungry mouths all decending in the pub at the same time for a social.






Lee donated additional money and a fabulous raffle prize of a 'meal for two' at The Scrimshaws restaurant (which I am delighted to say, was won by a Redcap, Julie Dempsey). He fed all the hungry swimmers free of charge.

Look at all those lovely prizes.

I am absolutely delighted that all swimmers enjoyed the day and the swim. Without the full support of everyone involved, I could not have done this so a very special personal thankyou from me.

Special thanks to our No. 1 kayaker, Andy.

I was wondering how to thank Lee for his generosity and Derrick Griffiths came up with the idea of a group of us doing a training swim in the Crouch, you can all pop back to mine afterwards to use the hair-dryer and put your lippy on (men as well if nec.!) and then I could book a table in Scrimshaws restaurant and we could all go for a nice meal. All interested, email me your names and I will organise a nice little dip for us soon.

Phew, all counted in and out safely.

And so to the raffle. Only possible because
many people donated prizes. I would suspect
at least another £50 was taken in raffle money.
Thankyou.

Happy Days.

THE COUNTDOWN TO C.P.C.P.C.P.C IS ON. ONLY 6 WEEKS TO GO !

And Mrs Tyrant didn't even charge for the cakes or drink - thats a first!

June 2012. Great London Swim & Eton 10k

A weekend to remember.

Just when I was starting to panic that I would never be ready for the open-water season, the gods finally came good.   Sunshine - and heaps of it.   Previously, I had a trip to Stubbers Adventure park and plopped myself into the minus 12 degree waters for my first open water dip of the season. 

Suffering from ice cream headache, I doggie-paddled round the 1k loop and then shivered all the way back to the changing rooms.   On my own, (as everyone else seemed to manage more than 1 lap), hypothermia set in and as my fingers shook vigourously, I struggled to remove my locker key from my costume. What a state to be in.   No choice but to stand in the red hot showers (bad move), in my wetsuit for 20mins.  I had a migraine all day, Why?   I had to do some research. 

Next day, I headed off to the sea and plastered a tub of vaseline on my forehead, (advice from Derek), pulled two swim hats down over the mess and put on the extra large goggles that Derrick (another Derrick) had lent me. That should do the trick.  Nope!   3 x 200metre laps of the Crowstone Crawl, and I was in trouble once again.   And whats more, coz I lifted the goggles off to tread water and hold my head in agony, I managed to get vaseline all over my fingers, then I put the goggles back on, the ice-cold water turned the vaseline white - and now I am blind (as well as stupid)!

But then, a miracle happened.  My prayers were answered, twice over!  Windsor 3.8k is cancelled due to severe bad weather.  RESULT.  I have another whole week to acclimatise!  Then miracle no. 2 happened, a whole week of glorious sunshine and the water temperatures crept up daily. Halaluya.   London Docklands here I come.

The day was made extra special because my mum came to watch us. The Excel centre had a Heroes convention going on, so as well as several thousand arriving for the swimming, there was equal amount of people dressed up in costumes.   Chris, now a 'swimmer' and not a 'golfer',  has been training, (sort of) with me but this was going to be his first ever 1 mile distance.  

 
It was lovely to have him right beside me (if only for the warm up routine and the acclimatisation dip) as there was no way he was gonna be anywhere near me when that gun went off “!  

Kerri Ann Payne was looking absolutely gorgeous as she always does and I managed to get my photo done with her. Beauty and the Beast comes to mind in this photo, (sorry Kerri - but you really look rough without any make up!!).  

This was the first race I have ever done where I had no nerves. I am enjoying my new found sport so much and I don’t want to be competitive with anyone any more. Those days are gone. I just want to set my own targets and race my own race.

Shivvers and Me just before our race.

My 2012 goal is to beat 25minutes for the mile and being capable of doing sub 23 in a pool, I am hopeful its a fairly realistic target.

The weather and conditions dictate your swims for you.  Fast currents, strong winds, ribs motoring up and down, causing waves, all play a part.  The Great London had a strong head wind to swim into and I had a bad zig-zagging day all round the course, so hence a crap time of 25.52.   Never mind. I came 55th out of 1,684 competitors and was the winner of the ladies over 50 category.   Chris was 640th.

It was lovely at the finish line to have mum there and after I collected all the goodies they give you and had my photo shoot, it was back to the finish line to wait for Chris. 33 minutes and bless him, he looked knackered but he loved it. 

Every 1/2 hour, another 300 competitors set off into the glorious sunshine



Taken from the start as the swimmers head off

And the pink wave hit the waters

Followed by the green wave

Me, Chris, Shaun (Shivers) Derek. Just four of many Redcaps there today encouraging one another, no matter what our standard, we are a team. x.

ETON 10k
Back home, I had the perfect excuse for no housework today, I had to get up at 5.30a.m. and head off to Eton for a 10k race. Once again we had lots of Redcaps in the 10k so we all travelled in a minibus together which added to the team spirt.

The organisation was a bit hectic. Only 4 portaloos between almost 400 swimmers and even more spectators, so we were 15 minutes late for registering. I headed off to the bushes for a wee as it was the only option and met my poor friend Helen just returning from the bushes with severe nettle rash all up her legs.  Nice.  

Looks very inviting doesn't it.  The calm before the storm.

Now, let me see - who's juice shall I steal!  Redcaps were organised, we had a bucket with all our stuff in.  This was just a small section at the nutrition pit stop, it was about 15 meters long.  So if you didn't have a flag sticking out of your bottle, you had no chance finding it.

As the hours went on, the field spread out.

AND SO TO THE RACE
I hate wearing a wetsuit, I fight it all the time as I feel claustrophobic. I prefer to feel the water.   But I also hate feeling cold  - so dilemma!  We were told the water was 19 degrees.  Thats a good temperature for a short distance but can I stay in it for up to 3 hours?  As I crept up the queue to register I heard the three people in front of me say "non wetsuit", so when I got to the table, I found myself saying "non wetsuit".  Ooops!    I knew I would be uncomfortable wearing a wetsuit for 3 hours so now I am just going to be uncomfortable freezing for 3  hours instead. 

We were like sardines bobbing around in a tiny warm up area and when that gun went off, it was chaos. Only a small gap to get through, so the first 1k was like swimming in a washing machine.  The most dangerous mass start I have ever participated in.  400 swimmers had to squeeze between narrow starting posts, all fighting for water.  Hence I came home with several cuts and bruises.

  

I love the video below of how to train for a mass swim start. It is honestly just like this.

I went round the first 1k with Derrick Griffiths but then I lost him on the turn buoy amongst all the arms and legs that were battering me.  I wished I had kept with him.  We are usually the same pace, but with so many swimmers fighting for clear water, I lost him.

I did two laps before diverting off to the pit stop.     Ben was just pulling out as I pulled in, and the evil in me instantly thought, SHITE, now I have a race on my hands.  I am almost up with Doctor Doolittle himself, Mr Ben Jacques!!!!  I spent the next lap torturing myself thinking, Ben knows I am on his toes so 'will he, wont he', pull into the next pit stop?   I wasn't going to take any chances.  (what did I say at the beginning of this write up - I am not going to be competitive - I just can't help it).  I swam right past the next pit stop to make up some time and hoped that I would cope with no fluids for the next 4k.   Un-be-known to me, poor Ben was in trouble with severe back pain and I was already ahead of him.   Derrick came in first out of the Redcaps, then me, Ben and then my two little water slaves, Helen Wildin and Jane Bell - whom I am so proud of.    Both smashed their targets so went home smiling.  Other Redcaps with great results, Stuart Athol, Shaun Hales and Sarah Macintosh.   My time was 2hrs 49mins, 47secs, a whopping 7 minutes faster than last year.

As we sat on the grass watching the final swimmers come in, I received a text from fellow Redcap, Kirstie.  She was at Lakeside with many other Redcaps where we had great results, including several wins. What a fab weekend for us Redcaps with the swim of the day definitely going to Kirstie who won the 5k at Lakeside in 1hr 9 at the tender age of just 14.

So now I am focusing on my Queens Jubilee Charity Swim which I have organised in the River Crouch. With over 30 swimmers registered, we are looking forward to a fab day and social afterwards and I hope I raise oodles of money for charity.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - MARCH 31 2012

It's been a hard slog through the winter working full time and trying to train in my spare time as my spare time is almost zero these days.  SKS Charity Challenge work, writing training sessions, articles, organising fundraising events and being asked by the editor of H20 magazine, Mr Simon Griffiths if I would like to share my training schedules with his readers.  It's no wonder I have had no time for my blog.

But this weekend, I have given myself 3 whole days off training.  WOW.  So I have had a good ole catch up on the computer.  I've also had time to check out a weeks training at Club La Santa in Lanzarote for the beginning of May so really hope I can get out there.  Chris even got a roast dinner cooked for him today which has been a thing of the past lately.  Not because I haven't had the time to cook it but because I train for 2 hours on a Sunday evening and can't do that after a belly full of roasties, so hence, if I can't have a roastie, no one can!

And why, you may ask, have I given myself three days off training?  Well, it's because

MISSION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.

Back in July 2011, I needed a goal.  The channel swim attempt was all over and I was a lost soul again.  I needed to set myself a target.  I had oodles of distance training under my belt but the end result was that my speed had completely disappeared.  I didn't even have a 25metre dash in me.  2 extra stone in weight had gradually found itself attached to my middle and I needed to sort myself out.

So target number 1 was obvious.  I had to lose weight.  Target number 2 - I had to find my speed again.I never managed to break the 25min mile last year for open water and for me, this was awful.  I was doing them in the pool in sub 22mins just a few years ago so not breaking 25mins was hard to swallow.

So, target set.  Lose 1.5 stone in weight and complete 40 x 100's swim and rest off 90secs before 1 April 2012.  Best thing for me when setting targets is to say them out loud.  Print them on face book.  Type them in me blog and tell every Tom, Dick and Harry of me intentions, even the milkman if necessary.  Tell the World.  This is how it works for me.  Once Ive announced it - I HAVE TO DO IT.

From July 2011 right through to December 2011, I had lost a whopping - wait for it - 6lbs.  Crap.  Then off I went on a two week Caribbean Cruise and put the whole lot back on again.

 

Then I was ill for 5 weeks and couldn't train, then it was Christmas. I was no farther forward than I was in July.  I was training hard but could only come in on about 86 secs on the first 100m, then 89, then 91.

So new years resolution - Pull yourself together.

I joint a fabulous website called MYFITNESS PAL.  I told it what I needed to weigh before April, I told it what I weigh now and IT told me my maximum daily calorie intake if I wanted to achieve it.  Oooh dear, that's not a lot of calories to survive on.  However, great thing about this programme is that it calculates exercise calories for you and adds them to your daily allowance.  I soon worked out that a hard 2.5hr F/S session burns 2,000 calories.  Result!  Now I could actually eat loads as long as I trained loads.  I became addicted to the programme to the extent that if I came home from work only having 250 calories left for my evening meal, I would work out what I wanted to eat and then MYFITNESSPAL would tell me how many hours I have to swim for tonight in order to get the dinner I wanted.  God this sounds so sad when I write it down, but this is what I have been doing and whether its sad or not - it worked for me.

So by the end of January 2012, the weight was shifting pretty quickly but the speed in the pool was still not looking good.  So, another radical change of plan.  Stop killing myself with long distance work.  I've got the endurance now, I've got the stamina - start sprinting again.  So I started doing 25's with loads of rest and at the beginning I was gasping for air after just 1!  Jesus, how the hell am I gonna do 160 lengths in one hour at this speed.

But once my Memory Muscles had kicked back in, I soon remembered what it feels like to do 25's in 15/16secs.  And it only took 2-3 weeks of doing sprint work before I was repeating these times swim and rest off 30.  I then started bringing in the 100's and was amazed that I was coming in sub 80!!  All I needed to do now was keep repeating it - that wasn't so easy.

Throughout March I had several attempts at my target.  I needed to know how close I was, coz 1st of April was just round the corner.  I managed 11 one day, then next time only managed 10.  Jesus, how the hell am I gonna do 40.  I kept hearing Gray's (great swimming friend) voice in my head from last summer "Why don't you set yourself sensible targets Lorraine"?  He has no idea how many times I have revisited that sentence and has no idea that it was that sentence that helped me to achieve my goal.  I had to prove him wrong.

The Sunday before 'D' day, I prepared to do it.  Nice lay in, relaxing day, plenty of the right fluids/nutrition and off I went, the little saddo I am with my self-inflicted mission on tow.  I managed a lousy 6.

On the Wednesday before 'D' day, I managed 27!   And the only reason I had to stop at 27 was because some stupid kid that could hardly swim, crossed the lane rope and I had to stop to check she was OK.  She was only about 10years old, could barely tread water.  I was so flaming angry with her and the lifeguards that I just screamed at the little brat "Do you cross the road without looking?"   I felt awful afterwards because how were they supposed to know what I was doing but I was so close to doing it, that it infuriated me.

Friday morning at the crack of dawn, texts went off to fellow swimmers, I need a pace-maker and I need one tonight.  40 x 100 swim and rest off 90secs please.  Any volunteers?  That's the great thing about facebook and texting - just send the message out there and all those nutters who understand where I am coming from - came forward.  But - not with what I wanted to hear.  Sorry, I'm away this weekend.  Sorry Im working etc etc.

But then came the BEEP I was waiting for.  One nice little text popped up from my good friend Andy Jopson'.  "Well, I'm flying out to Gerona at the crack of dawn in the morning, but I will try to get my packing done and if you could leave it till late evening, I will come and pace you".  That's some friend for you isn't it?  He did that for me.   Thank you, thank you, thank you. x.

As the pool was so hot, we did them in batches of 10 with a maximum of 1min between each ten to drink.  It was necessary as I had learnt from my previous 27 which had left me red faced and having palpitations purely down to the heat in the pool, that there had to be some cold drinks consumed throughout the challenge to avoid spontaneous combustion.  I packed my drink with ice cubes to help reduce my temperature.

And for some very very strange reason, I found it easy.  I just sat on Andy's toes and I just focused on 10 at a time.  He paced it brilliantly for me.  He started at sub 85's which was really comfortable and then towards the end, I was just reaching for the wall at 86/87, taking a deep breath and pushing off again.

I guess it would be easy to say that swimming in someones draft made it easier for me, but I don't care how I did it, I just know I finally did it.  And with it looking so doubtful just 2 weeks ago, I was chuffed to bits so if anyone wants to accuse me of drafting, then so be it.

Now being the real odd ball I am, I woke up Saturday morning feeling somewhat empty - Now what do I do. I no longer have a target.

Oh yes you do Bettsy - Break that 25mins for the mile in the open water this year and break 2hrs.45 for those 10k events.