Citius, Altius, Fortius...........

Ok so it's been a week since I was meant to have completed my first major outdoor swim. It's been a tough week mentally and to be honest there's not really been a lot of training going on. There's an overwhelming sense of despondence in some of the people I've got to know who also got cancelled. They've literally thrown the towel in, for how long who can say, everyone deals with these sort of setbacks differently. What is clear though is that it's not easy to simply pick up and carry on from where you've left off, you have to have the right attitude and you have to reach deep to want to be able to move on. Maybe I'm lucky that however much I doubt myself in the run up, deep down I know that I can find the strength when it gets tough. I know this week's tough and I know that by next week I'll be back trying to improve my performance. I think as well with this type of event you have to remain pragmatic, the weather can be bad, the algae can take over, you can injure yourself in training, hell you can even put your nail through your suit on the start line! Setbacks are part of it, they're a reality check, you deal with it, try and learn from it and you move on. Even the great Keri Anne Payne had a *swim fail* and came fifth rather than second after missing the slap board, a mistake she's sure to learn from and not repeat in the Olympics and a reminder that we're all human.

Last Sunday there was a LOT of pent up sporting energy and having really battled to get in the right head space for the day; I'd been left feeling like a pressure cooker with no steam release valve.
Also having looked at the course on a very wet and windy Friday night there was also a vague feeling of relief that I hadn't had to put myself through it, not because for one minute had I underestimated the scale of the swim or the possible conditions we could face but seeing quite how far it is really put the effort required into sharp focus.
With events like the London Marathon and the Great North Swim becoming increasingly popular, people seem to think that anybody can just rock up to an endurance event and almost expect to complete it. Not so, for those people who've done it or who are seriously intending to do it, they know the hours that have to go in prior to the event to minimise the risk of embarrassing yourself or doing yourself an injury. People have sadly died taking part in both; it's not something you want to take on without doing your homework.
All credit to Paul Wilson of Rotary Global Swimarathon fame, he completed his swim on Sunday morning after the Sunday session went ahead in almost sunny conditions! Not sure who booked the weather on that day, him or Keri Anne Payne but clearly I don't have that much sway with the Gods of weather, requests to be sent in triplicate to Zeus, Aeolus and Poseidon next time.......

Sunday night after spending most of Saturday/Sunday moping about, starting arguments and being generally unpleasant to be around I headed to the gym. Time to "unload" some of those carbs from the last few days, put myself in a better frame of mind and more importantly see if 7 days taper had made any difference.

It seems that the taper or maybe the pent up aggression did me some good, smashed my 10Km bike time down to 17:15 without too much difficulty, ran for 10mins on the treadmill without having a loaded gun put to my head and finished it off with a 200m swim in 5:17 Around 12 seconds over my stand alone swim time, not bad for a NON triathlete....

Laying in the sauna afterwards it was time to think about the next move. There was a couple of hundred pounds of sponsorship money to consider, as well as having a better understanding of the reality. 12 months was a long time for people who'd sponsored me to wait and while it was good that it allowed a decent amount of training time, it was going to be tough staying in the right place mentally and trying to get re-energised after the weekend's disappointment when the next event was so far away. Waiting till next June would mean double the time we'd already had, it should mean that by next year we'd be in a great place (Having gone from zero to hero in under 6mths!) but trying to get the enthusiasm up to start hours of pool and gym time again with the finish line so far away was going to be a bit of a non starter. Time to get back on the horse and pronto.

The Open water season was half gone already, it's not massive in the UK anyway and there's a limited number of suitable events. Realising what we'd taken on meant a reluctance to sign up for something too soon, a bit more time to get used to swimming in a wetsuit was probably a sensible plan.

The most attractive option was switching from the Great Swim series to the Speedo Swim series. The venues are amazing but the times are fast! The Great Swim series is more popular and probably attracts more of the "anybody and everybody" crowd. The Speedo series while billed as an "anyone" event, taking one look at the finish times gives you the distinct impression there's a lot of "proper swimmers". Hmmm time for a compromise.

16th September the "HUMANRACE" holds its annual "Poole Swim" as part of the Speedo swim series. It's fast, the slowest half mile time is around 25mins, 4mins over my "pool" time and this time it's in the sea! It would be different again to a lake. The speedo series confirms it's "proper swimmer" status by the fact that wetsuits are optional and not allowed over a positively tropical 22degs! Events also go ahead even if the temperature drop below 11degs! :-S
While I could sign up for the full mile, I think the fact that it's in the sea with the waves and the posibility of it being in a swimming costume not to mention the fact I really need to bust my pool time down below 20mins makes up for the shorter half mile distance. Shorter but tougher and faster.
Ok sign me up!

http://swimseries.humanrace.co.uk/events/poole

The true replacement event will probably be either the Speedo Eton swim at the Olympic rowing venue in May or next year's Great North Swim back in Windermere in June. That gives us almost another year to get up to the full 1600m distance in wetsuits and not do it in an abismal time. Who knows maybe I'll even sort my worse than abismal running out and actually think about a triathlon (assuming I haven't been committed under the Mental Health Act)........

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