Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Belated pictures from Bridge to Bridge
Finally here are some pictures of the Bridge to Bridge Swim which I did two and a half weeks ago. It gives you a great sense of the journey which is why I'm sharing so many! There don't seem to be any from the last gruelling stretch, I think the path may have departed from following the river at that point. I hope you enjoy them!
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Big Dog Swim
Finally a little write up from The Big Dog Swim last Thursday near Reading. I had the afternoon off work instead of my usual Thursday morning and picked Mr W up from work to drive down to the swim. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere with about 75 people competing over two distances, 1500m and 3.8k.
I was familiar with the lake, having used it for my 10k training in 2010. It is quite small, with a 750m loop, so we were required to swim 5 laps with a little bit extra. Unfortunately, we swam 50m down from the finish for the little bit extra, whilst the 1500m swimmers started at the finish line. This meant that shortly after starting the race, there was a bit of rough and tumble as you tried to negotiate some rather slower swimmers. I felt that I set out strongly, and couldn't see too many white caps (3.8k distance) in front of me. Unfortunately, I was really very tired and by lap 2 I was already flagging. With so many laps to do (another company who runs 3.8k swims does 3 laps...) it was slightly mentally frustrating too to think that I had to finish this one and go around another 3 times. It was very tempting to get out after 1500m and call it a day, writing off the experience to poor planning and insufficient recovery. But I do have stamina and perserverence (or perhaps sheer bloody mindedness), so I kept swimming and by lap 4 I had revived a little. At one point I tried drafting off another white cap, but he was swimming faster and less straight than me so we kept playing leap frog. Eventually I got nearly to the end, and put my head down and tried to sprint with whatever I had left. Which wasn't much. It was a deep water finish and I struggled a little to see where I needed to stop without losing speed, but I got there.
Time was 1:04:10.
Although I was a little underwhelmed by my time, it was good enough for 6th overall and 2nd woman (the race was in fact won by a woman in just over 55 minutes!). I think given that I don't usually race in the evening, and that I was still recovering from the triathlon, the 1500m swim, and probably the 14k from 10 days before, it was a reasonable result.
I do enjoy swimming the 3.8k distance and I hope I can still find a few opportunities for it next year, but I definitely need to balance my race calendar a little better.
I was familiar with the lake, having used it for my 10k training in 2010. It is quite small, with a 750m loop, so we were required to swim 5 laps with a little bit extra. Unfortunately, we swam 50m down from the finish for the little bit extra, whilst the 1500m swimmers started at the finish line. This meant that shortly after starting the race, there was a bit of rough and tumble as you tried to negotiate some rather slower swimmers. I felt that I set out strongly, and couldn't see too many white caps (3.8k distance) in front of me. Unfortunately, I was really very tired and by lap 2 I was already flagging. With so many laps to do (another company who runs 3.8k swims does 3 laps...) it was slightly mentally frustrating too to think that I had to finish this one and go around another 3 times. It was very tempting to get out after 1500m and call it a day, writing off the experience to poor planning and insufficient recovery. But I do have stamina and perserverence (or perhaps sheer bloody mindedness), so I kept swimming and by lap 4 I had revived a little. At one point I tried drafting off another white cap, but he was swimming faster and less straight than me so we kept playing leap frog. Eventually I got nearly to the end, and put my head down and tried to sprint with whatever I had left. Which wasn't much. It was a deep water finish and I struggled a little to see where I needed to stop without losing speed, but I got there.
Time was 1:04:10.
Although I was a little underwhelmed by my time, it was good enough for 6th overall and 2nd woman (the race was in fact won by a woman in just over 55 minutes!). I think given that I don't usually race in the evening, and that I was still recovering from the triathlon, the 1500m swim, and probably the 14k from 10 days before, it was a reasonable result.
I do enjoy swimming the 3.8k distance and I hope I can still find a few opportunities for it next year, but I definitely need to balance my race calendar a little better.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Paralympics
On Saturday, I had a wonderfully inspiring day out at the Paralympics. I had been hugely disappointed not to get tickets for the swimming at the Olympics, but hadn't even thought about going to the Paralympics when my very kind colleague offered me a ticket for the heats on the morning of 1st September to go with his sister in law and her husband. I didn't even think about it before saying yes, and spent most of the preceding 10 days feeling really exciting about it and trying to decide which of my Olympic pieces of clothing, amassed in the previous month, to wear.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
Here is the first glimpse of the Aquatics Centre
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
I got a quick picture of me by the pool in my Team GB accessories!
The diving pool was looking a bit forlorn I thought.
At half past nine the officials came on...
...followed by some swimmers and it was time for the first race.
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
...diving in....
...swimming along...
...and heading for the finish. WOW.
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
I couldn't resist heading into the London 2012 megastore to come away with a souvenir. I bought a Paralympics Tea Towel. Highly practical, and one of the cheaper things on offer!
Absolutely excellent day out.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
At half past nine the officials came on...
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
Absolutely excellent day out.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
40 mile Sportive
I am seriously behind with my blog now as so many exciting things have happened in the last 7 days. My husband even asked me on Friday when I was going to write up my 3.8k swim for the blog because he was looking forward to reading it. Well, he, and you will have to wait, as I've decided to blog about today first, and then catch up on everything else that I want to cover in the next few days (3.8k swim, splits from last Monday's tri, photos from my 14k river swim, and my amazing trip to the Paralympics yesterday - so stay tuned).
Today was my longest and fastest cycle ride to date. It was the Ox and Bucks Sportive which was held to raise money for the Children's Brain Tumour Foundation. There were two options available, 40 miles or 70 miles. Obviously we signed up for the 40 miles.
I was quite nervous about it after the disaster of my 34 miles and especially as I've have a lot of events in the last 8 days and not been feeling tip top due to work and not sleeping very well. In fact I wasnt even really sure that I was going to do it until I got out of bed this morning. Well, of course I was going to do it, I like to finish things.
We set off at 8am and were almost immediately overtaken by everyone else setting off in our wave (the waves were 10 minutes apart). As usual I felt wobbly for a mile or so; I wish I felt comfortable sooner on my bike, I guess that will come with practice and experience. But I soon settled down and was even contemplating trying to grab my drink whilst cycling. I didn't, because I only had one bottle of squash and I didn't really want it all over the road. I practiced my hand signals instead. Because I've had problems with back pain in the past few rides, the plan was to get off at regular intervals to stretch my back out and this seemed to really help. It wasn't actually that long before we saw the 10 mile marker - a quarter of the way through. I was absolutely flying along the first half until we hit the food station just before 20 miles. The first ten miles were hilly, but the second were flatter. After the food station it all got a bit more rolling again and I think we slowed down, but we seemed (with back stretching stops and a couple of stops to pee) to be tackling each 10 miles in about 55 minutes which wasn't too bad. By about 34 miles I was starting to really have to dig in, my legs were tired and it was further than I'd cycled before, but I was doing far better than when I had cycled this far before. Unfortunately it got more and more hilly (in the uphill direction) and I got more and more miserable, culminating in a descent to the finish which I just couldn't manage to get down. Descents are my weakness (and I'd already got off once for a descent that I didn't feel comfortable with); my hands were all sweaty so I couldn't grasp the brakes properly, and I was just tired. I felt so stupid at not being able to manage to last little bit that I just cried.
With some help and encouragement from Mr W, I walked down some of the hill and then got back on for the final 100m and we rode over the finish line together. He could have done it so much faster than me but it was nice to have the company and support. It had taken us about 3h 35 minutes which I don't think is too bad at all. Obviously I need to do some work for my 70.3 because I'll need to go another 16 miles and pick the pace up a bit, but I reckon it's a solid position to be starting from with 364 days to go.
Today was my longest and fastest cycle ride to date. It was the Ox and Bucks Sportive which was held to raise money for the Children's Brain Tumour Foundation. There were two options available, 40 miles or 70 miles. Obviously we signed up for the 40 miles.
I was quite nervous about it after the disaster of my 34 miles and especially as I've have a lot of events in the last 8 days and not been feeling tip top due to work and not sleeping very well. In fact I wasnt even really sure that I was going to do it until I got out of bed this morning. Well, of course I was going to do it, I like to finish things.
We set off at 8am and were almost immediately overtaken by everyone else setting off in our wave (the waves were 10 minutes apart). As usual I felt wobbly for a mile or so; I wish I felt comfortable sooner on my bike, I guess that will come with practice and experience. But I soon settled down and was even contemplating trying to grab my drink whilst cycling. I didn't, because I only had one bottle of squash and I didn't really want it all over the road. I practiced my hand signals instead. Because I've had problems with back pain in the past few rides, the plan was to get off at regular intervals to stretch my back out and this seemed to really help. It wasn't actually that long before we saw the 10 mile marker - a quarter of the way through. I was absolutely flying along the first half until we hit the food station just before 20 miles. The first ten miles were hilly, but the second were flatter. After the food station it all got a bit more rolling again and I think we slowed down, but we seemed (with back stretching stops and a couple of stops to pee) to be tackling each 10 miles in about 55 minutes which wasn't too bad. By about 34 miles I was starting to really have to dig in, my legs were tired and it was further than I'd cycled before, but I was doing far better than when I had cycled this far before. Unfortunately it got more and more hilly (in the uphill direction) and I got more and more miserable, culminating in a descent to the finish which I just couldn't manage to get down. Descents are my weakness (and I'd already got off once for a descent that I didn't feel comfortable with); my hands were all sweaty so I couldn't grasp the brakes properly, and I was just tired. I felt so stupid at not being able to manage to last little bit that I just cried.
With some help and encouragement from Mr W, I walked down some of the hill and then got back on for the final 100m and we rode over the finish line together. He could have done it so much faster than me but it was nice to have the company and support. It had taken us about 3h 35 minutes which I don't think is too bad at all. Obviously I need to do some work for my 70.3 because I'll need to go another 16 miles and pick the pace up a bit, but I reckon it's a solid position to be starting from with 364 days to go.
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