In fact, this isn't quite true. In 2002 I was swimming from the Indonesian Island of Batam to a small island approximately 1500m away. It was dusk and I was caught in a current. My coach Bob and another athlete, Rita, were paddling a back-up canadian canoe beside me when it overturned and all 3 of us were in the water being swept away. We had the choice of swimming for the island or staying with the up-turned canoe. We decided to swim and, after sometime without making any noticeable progress against the the current, I started to feel that I wasn't going to make it - an awful feeling!
To cut a long story short, I did make it some some rocks and a passing boat collected all three of us. I've been nervous of currents ever since and aware that I am not a particularly strong swimming. This lack of confidence was helped on the weekend by an open-water swim clinic conducted by triathlon coach Troy Fidler (pictures).
I was one of the slowest swimmers in the group but very much enjoyed the departure form a pool-based swim session. Below are Troy's tips for open water swimming in a triathlon:➢ Always warm up with minimum of 400-500m swim.
➢ Survey and test conditions during warm up – look for rips, currents, sweeps, wind direction etc.
➢ Warm up on course if possible and find ‘larger’ sites behind turning buoys.
➢ Seed yourself appropriately at the start line.
➢ Aim for shortest route.
➢ Run ‘wide-legged’ to knee height.
➢ Dolphin to waist height.
➢ Draft but look for buoys (swim head-up every few strokes).
➢ Breathe to non-chop side.
➢ Wait for waves on the way in to shore.
➢ Swim until hand touches bottom, then dolphin until running height.
➢ Run hard to transition/finish.
He had another one, not included here; 'don't wear goggles'! He says they are more trouble than they are worth and you see the marker buoys better without them. I tried this but didn't see the marker buoys at all (I had my eyes closed most of the way!).
2 comments:
Wow! I see how now you lost so much weight!
KL's jogging almost daily now, and he's lost 2kgs in a fortnight. I never stop nagging until he goes jogging every evening!He's 95kgs now, aiming for 85... 10 weeks to go (theoretically)...:)
When you get the other side of 40, being the right weight is important. My parents are both overweight and have pills for diabetes, cholestrol levels, hypertension and 'blood thinning'. Their kitchen looks like a pharmacy! All these health problems are related to being overweight. Losing weight is REALLY hard but getting fit, particularly with other people is fun, I find. Then the weight loses it self (theoretically.... :)
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