A mixed week - very tired (due to work), and quite low in mood (due to being tired) for much of the week, but I did complete my biggest swimming week since February (20.9km), which included 2 visits to the lake and 4k swum there without a wetsuit, and a trial at the local masters swimming club! In addition, my times which were So. Slow. last week, are finally getting around to where they probably should be - I did a 3:03 for 200m this morning, and 6:15 for 400m. Very definitely not as good as they could be (I once swam 5:57 for 400m) but going in the right direction, and I'm looking forward to trying to get them down a bit more over the forthcoming months and weeks!
Yesterday I went to a trial at the local Masters swimming club. I was a bit scared once it became described as a trial (even though I know someone MUCH slower than me belongs to the club). I was also a bit scared as I hadn't been to the pool before (which proved very difficult to find), and I didn't know what it would be like [twenty year irrational fear of swimming pool drains]. However, the pool was lovely, if very hot, and I had a good time. The coach wasn't there - in fact there weren't many swimmers - Saturday ams are apparently the quietest session - but we followed a sheet and I swam with two other ladies. I was the slowest swimmer there during the warm-up (not least because I had to swim breastroke and backstroke (which are normally my warm down strokes ) and even attempt butterfly. We did an aerobic main set which we didn't get all the way through but which was great because it involved swimming hard for short intervals which I struggle to motivate myself to do on my own. My times got faster as we got through the 16 x 100m! I am pretty sure I will go back, but I would like to try a session when the coach is there to meet him. I also need to work out whether I can physically/mentally cope without my Saturday morning lie in, as I usually get an extra hour or so of sleep that day, and lack of sleep is a big trigger for low mood for me.
So what did I get up to this week?
Monday: 3k pool swim, 2k lake swim
Tuesday: 2.5k pool swim
Wednesday: 2.25k pool swim
Thursday: 4.25k pool swim
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 3.3k masters swimming session
Sunday: 2k lake swim, 1.6k pool swim.
what's the plan for this week?
To swim as as possible Mon-Fri as I am on the first day of my triathlon coaching course on Saturday, and on a mindfulness taster course on the Sunday - out 7.30am - 7pm both days running so no time for swimming! That said, I am going to try to be kind to myself this week and next as they are both due to be very busy at work, and as I am out for the entire weekend there will be little time to rest, so a swim may have to be sacrificed for some sleep!
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Weekly catch up (confused and flat)
As the title say - confused and flat. In the last 6 days my mood has plummeted, back to how it was at the start of the year. I was supposed to be racing at Dorney Lake this morning, but my times were so slow earlier in the week that I just couldn't face it. It also seemed like just too much effort to go over there and hang around waiting for the race to start and then to try and push it hard. In the end, I waited for my friend Claire to wake up, and then we went over to the lake for (probably) her last swim of the season, and a bit of a pootle for me without a wetsuit. About 15C but I didn't get the shakes, wearing a neoprene hat definitely helped keep me cosy (even if that's not within the definition of non wetsuit swimming). I then headed off to the pool to do a 3k set.
Whilst I had anticipated feeling a bit down, and also physically tired, I didn't expect it to be this bad, or to last this long. It's also difficult to determine what is my illness and what is related to the race. I sought advice as ever from friends on facebook, and there were some interesting thoughts. Jothelibrarian wondered if the fact that I wrote the list of things I wanted to do after the half ironman whilst I was still in training explained why I didn't really fancy any of the things on it for now. And Mandy said that it was "post ironman fallout" and that a mental break was as essential as a physical break. Not sure I'm any closer to solving the issue but I shall plod on. I STILL have a lingering sore throat that comes back most afternoons/evenings which I'm sure isn't helping.
Anyway, onto the training, I've managed to swim 19k this week (partly due to being on leave on Monday and Tuesday), which isn't too shabby and probably the biggest swimming week I've managed for a while, obviously hoping to beat that this week coming! Although my times were realy bad on Thursday, today they had picked up somewhat - still a way from where they should be but not quite so appalling.
(Monday - 3k, Tuesday - 3k, Wednesday - 2.5k, Thursday - 4k, Friday - 2k, Sunday - 1k, 3k)
Whilst I had anticipated feeling a bit down, and also physically tired, I didn't expect it to be this bad, or to last this long. It's also difficult to determine what is my illness and what is related to the race. I sought advice as ever from friends on facebook, and there were some interesting thoughts. Jothelibrarian wondered if the fact that I wrote the list of things I wanted to do after the half ironman whilst I was still in training explained why I didn't really fancy any of the things on it for now. And Mandy said that it was "post ironman fallout" and that a mental break was as essential as a physical break. Not sure I'm any closer to solving the issue but I shall plod on. I STILL have a lingering sore throat that comes back most afternoons/evenings which I'm sure isn't helping.
Anyway, onto the training, I've managed to swim 19k this week (partly due to being on leave on Monday and Tuesday), which isn't too shabby and probably the biggest swimming week I've managed for a while, obviously hoping to beat that this week coming! Although my times were realy bad on Thursday, today they had picked up somewhat - still a way from where they should be but not quite so appalling.
(Monday - 3k, Tuesday - 3k, Wednesday - 2.5k, Thursday - 4k, Friday - 2k, Sunday - 1k, 3k)
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Chillswim Coniston (DNF)
My first ever DNF... Chillswim Coniston was the treat I was looking forward to after the half ironman. A lovely, long distance swimming event, swimming the length of Coniston (5.25 miles or about 8.5k) which I knew that I was more than capable of, and a nice weekend away in the Lake District.
Of course, I had to complicate things. If you've read this blog over the last few months, you'll know that I've been dabbling in swimming without a wetsuit recently. I decided that I really wanted to give the swim a go without a wetsuit. Unfortunately, because of the cold that I've had recently, plus the half ironman, time to accimilitise to the falling temperatures has been a bit limited. We arrived in Coniston on Friday night and I had a quick swim, about 500m. It was cold, colder than I'd swum in for a while, and I really didn't know quite what to do.
Mr Tuna and I talked it through. We both knew that without question that I could swim the 8.5k without a wetsuit. What we didn't know was if I could swim that distance in 15-16C water without a wetsuit. So, we made a game plan, which was "to see how far I could get". Obviously I wanted to get to the end, but I didn't know if it was possible.
It was a beautiful day, and the organisation of the event was excellent, as you would expect from something run by Colin Hill, who also has the Olympic Openwater Swimming events to his credentials. However, the water was jolly cold for me. I got in, and it was cold, and it eased off slightly, but by the first mile marker I was cold, and had stopped enjoying it. I kept trying to sprint a bit to try to warm up, but it didn't make much difference. Stopped at the 1.5 mile feed station and had a couple of jelly babies which gave me a bit of oomph, but was still really cold. Kept going, hating every minute of it. At the 2.5 mile station I asked if I should get out as I was really cold, but they said that I could keep going and that a kayaker would tow me to an exit point if I needed (I couldn't face the embarassment of that!). I started chatting to a kayaker who realised I was struggling, but just before 3 miles I started shivering. If there had been less left to swim, I might have persevered, but there was still around 3.5k which would have been over an hour of swimming (and I seemed to be swimming really slowly, around half an hour for each mile). Mr Tuna had managed to get to a little bay to wave at me, and I knew that he had my warm clothes, so I said to the kayaker that I thought I should get out. Mr Tuna dressed my shaking body, and we walked to the next feed station where 2 other people (one of whom wearing a wetsuit) had also come out, and were able to get a minibus back to the finish (Mr Tuna was on his bike!). I shivered for a good half an hour.
I'm still undecided as to whether I made the right decision. I feel like a big failure now, even though I did what Mr Tuna and I had agreed that I would do. To only manage 3 miles in 16C water doesn't seem very impressive when my arms weren't tired and I wasn't even mentally or physically tired or drained (or at least, didn't feel like it - I acknowledge that I must be very run down from 20 weeks of training with a house move, a half ironman, and a world championships in the last 22 weeks), I was just hating it because of being so cold! On the plus side, 3 miles/5 k is much further than I've ever swum in 16C water before, so that is an achievement.
Of course, I had to complicate things. If you've read this blog over the last few months, you'll know that I've been dabbling in swimming without a wetsuit recently. I decided that I really wanted to give the swim a go without a wetsuit. Unfortunately, because of the cold that I've had recently, plus the half ironman, time to accimilitise to the falling temperatures has been a bit limited. We arrived in Coniston on Friday night and I had a quick swim, about 500m. It was cold, colder than I'd swum in for a while, and I really didn't know quite what to do.
Mr Tuna and I talked it through. We both knew that without question that I could swim the 8.5k without a wetsuit. What we didn't know was if I could swim that distance in 15-16C water without a wetsuit. So, we made a game plan, which was "to see how far I could get". Obviously I wanted to get to the end, but I didn't know if it was possible.
It was a beautiful day, and the organisation of the event was excellent, as you would expect from something run by Colin Hill, who also has the Olympic Openwater Swimming events to his credentials. However, the water was jolly cold for me. I got in, and it was cold, and it eased off slightly, but by the first mile marker I was cold, and had stopped enjoying it. I kept trying to sprint a bit to try to warm up, but it didn't make much difference. Stopped at the 1.5 mile feed station and had a couple of jelly babies which gave me a bit of oomph, but was still really cold. Kept going, hating every minute of it. At the 2.5 mile station I asked if I should get out as I was really cold, but they said that I could keep going and that a kayaker would tow me to an exit point if I needed (I couldn't face the embarassment of that!). I started chatting to a kayaker who realised I was struggling, but just before 3 miles I started shivering. If there had been less left to swim, I might have persevered, but there was still around 3.5k which would have been over an hour of swimming (and I seemed to be swimming really slowly, around half an hour for each mile). Mr Tuna had managed to get to a little bay to wave at me, and I knew that he had my warm clothes, so I said to the kayaker that I thought I should get out. Mr Tuna dressed my shaking body, and we walked to the next feed station where 2 other people (one of whom wearing a wetsuit) had also come out, and were able to get a minibus back to the finish (Mr Tuna was on his bike!). I shivered for a good half an hour.
I'm still undecided as to whether I made the right decision. I feel like a big failure now, even though I did what Mr Tuna and I had agreed that I would do. To only manage 3 miles in 16C water doesn't seem very impressive when my arms weren't tired and I wasn't even mentally or physically tired or drained (or at least, didn't feel like it - I acknowledge that I must be very run down from 20 weeks of training with a house move, a half ironman, and a world championships in the last 22 weeks), I was just hating it because of being so cold! On the plus side, 3 miles/5 k is much further than I've ever swum in 16C water before, so that is an achievement.
2013 Aquathlon World Championships
On Wednesday, only 10 days after completing my first half ironman, I had the other big event of my year - my chance to go and represent Great Britain in the 25-29 Age Group at the Aquathlon World Championships. Pretty cool. This was never my A race, rather I viewed it as an exciting, one-off opportunity, and perhaps a lap of honour. It couldn't be my A race because of the half ironman, but also because of the format - if it had been a 5k swim and then a 1k run then perhaps I might have done somewhat better at it. But I felt very privileged to be there representing my country!
We got up at 5am, collected Claire (who took the brilliant photos illustrating this blog) and headed to London. We'd booked parking near to Hyde Park so only had a short walk to the event site once we arrived, at 7am. I hadn't been able to register the day before so I had to try to find the team manager who had registered for me - that was the most stressful bit. We then went off to find some drinks, and Mr Tuna, who had a very bad cold had a waffle with ice cream to ease his sore throat. It did seem to perk him up a bit.
Here's me setting up transition - unlike a triathlon not that much to do. We'd been promised boxes to put our wetsuits in (with a penalty if we didn't...) but they never materialised. Towels weren't allowed so it really was just a case of leaving my shoes, opened and ready to put on, and my sunglasses, and making sure I knew where my slot was.
Then there was a very long period of waiting around until it was time to put the wetsuit on and go. We sat in the British Triathlon Tent, trying not to get too cold, and meeting up with another athlete from our club, and my oldest friend from school's Mum who was also racing! It was especially nice to see her, as although she went on to take an impressive 7th in her age-group, she was just as laid back about it as me which was refreshing. There was then time for a quick photo in front of the list of names in the British team - quite a number!
Then it was time to go and line up - there was 20 minutes of lining up with the 18-34 females for our start wave. It was pretty chilly at this point and I got jolly cold waiting around, so much so that when we sat down on the pontoon and put our feet in the water, I actually started shivering.
We waited here for about 2 minutes (I had a nice pee into my wetsuit to warm it up), before we were told to get into the water. There was no chance of any warm up in the water (I'd done a dryland one as part of trying to keep warm whilst waiting), but I did manage to dunk my head under a couple of times - it was very brown and about 15C so I wanted to try to eliminate any panic as it was quite a big mass start.
Then
Then
Then we were off. I tried hard not to panic and reminded myself that always, always, the field spreads out and then there is more room to swim. In fact, somehow I spent most of the swim swimming on my own, which is a bit weird, as there should have been plenty of good feet for me to hang onto. But if I'm honest, I just felt sluggish for the first 750m, I was obviously still very tired from the half ironman. However, by the time we rounded the last buoy, I was getting into the swim, overtaking people, and feeling really disappointed that it wasn't longer. 1k is such a short swim for me - I did get a pretty embarassingly slow time though of 16:49 - not good at all, that should have been at least a minute faster!
T
T
It was then into transition where I disgraced myself further with the slowest transition in my age-group (just over two minutes) - I think I lost time putting socks on and struggling to get my cold feet into my trainers. And then onto the run. I have mentioned in the run up to the half ironman, the problems I was having with my hip. The half ironman did not do anything to improve that, and even though I wanted to, I hadn't been able to run since that event :( In fact, I couldn't actually run properly, and everyone said I was visibly limping around. Unfortunately because I was so slow, I got a lot of sympathy cheering, which I didn't enjoy very much. But I cheered on all of the GB women overtaking me and was especially excited when my pilates teacher overtook me and went on to a 5th place (she was in the wave behind...)
That said, the course was flat and I somehow managed to do 28 minutes for the run, which is ok for me! Here I am on the last bit.
Weekly Catch Up 15th September
Just a brief weekly catch up this week, as I have two big posts which I also need to write about the races that I did on Wednesday and Saturday. It's been a busy week. Now we approach the end of the season with my last swim race on Sunday. Distance for this race TBC - I'm entered for the shortest distance available, 3.8k, but am tempted to switch to 10k as it's wetsuit compulsory.
So, what did I get up to this week?
Monday: 2.5k swim
Tuesday: 2.5k swim
Wednesday: World Championships Aquathlon (post to follow)
Thursday: 2k swim
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Coniston swim (post to follow)
Sunday: OFF.
What's the plan for this week?
Monday: 3k swim
Tuesday: 3k swim
Wednesday: 2.5k swim, pilates
Thursday: 4k swim
Friday: 2.5k swim
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Last swim race of the season!
So, what did I get up to this week?
Monday: 2.5k swim
Tuesday: 2.5k swim
Wednesday: World Championships Aquathlon (post to follow)
Thursday: 2k swim
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Coniston swim (post to follow)
Sunday: OFF.
What's the plan for this week?
Monday: 3k swim
Tuesday: 3k swim
Wednesday: 2.5k swim, pilates
Thursday: 4k swim
Friday: 2.5k swim
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: Last swim race of the season!
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Weekly catch up - one week post race (or where did my mojo go?)
Unsurprisingly, having done a race with a bad cold, the cold would only get worse in the following week. I am bitterly disappointed that I didn't get to spend the rest of my holiday in the way that I had planned (swimming across Lake Zell, getting a pedalo with a slide out on the Lake, spending time in the hotel spa) - I just couldn't face doing anything wet - which is most unlike me. Even when we got back (after an epically long road trip..) I still wasn't interested - I went to the pool, but just couldn't get going. (It didn't help that my sinuses were so filled that every time I did a flip turn I had an excruciating pain in my face - and if you're not flip turning then it's soooo easy to stop at the end). I've finally managed to get a bit of swimming done but not quite what I hoped. My hip is still excruciating so no running even though my legs are twitching.
The other odd thing was today. I went to the lake for a swim as we were having a photoshoot of club members in their GB kit. We got there early enough for me to swim for over an hour, the photo was at 9 and then we came straight home. So by 9.30, I was home, having trained. That felt seriously weird after literally weeks of Sunday bike rides (with the only exception being when I wasn't at home on one weekend to do one). I did lots of stuff, ate lunch, and I wasn't even tired and needing to go to bed! Weird.
What did I get up to this week?
Monday - Weds: off, had bad cold
Thursday: 2k swim
Friday: 2.5k swim
Saturday: 3k swim
Sunday: 3.5k swim
Total: 11k swum - 3.5 hours of training
What is the plan for this week?
Monday: 2.5k swim
Tuesday: 2.5k swim
Wednesday: Aquathlon World Championships
Thursday: 2.5k swim
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Chillswim Coniston (8.5k)
Sunday: OFF
The other odd thing was today. I went to the lake for a swim as we were having a photoshoot of club members in their GB kit. We got there early enough for me to swim for over an hour, the photo was at 9 and then we came straight home. So by 9.30, I was home, having trained. That felt seriously weird after literally weeks of Sunday bike rides (with the only exception being when I wasn't at home on one weekend to do one). I did lots of stuff, ate lunch, and I wasn't even tired and needing to go to bed! Weird.
What did I get up to this week?
Monday - Weds: off, had bad cold
Thursday: 2k swim
Friday: 2.5k swim
Saturday: 3k swim
Sunday: 3.5k swim
Total: 11k swum - 3.5 hours of training
What is the plan for this week?
Monday: 2.5k swim
Tuesday: 2.5k swim
Wednesday: Aquathlon World Championships
Thursday: 2.5k swim
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Chillswim Coniston (8.5k)
Sunday: OFF
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Some of the official pictures from Sunday
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