As the Brownlee Triathlon nears Claire and her son head to their local water sports centre to try their hand at open water swimming.
After my impulsive triathlon in July which I found tough, I resolved to get back into training during the school summer holidays and for the most part, I have. I have also done more stretching exercises and even treated myself to some sports massages too. Both of these things have been far more pain than pleasure but do appear to be helping me!
The wetsuits I hired for me and my son to use in the Brownlee Tri arrived and we spent an amusing evening practising taking them on and off. Hopefully it would prove to be easier to get off when wet. So on a cool and sunny morning, we took to our first open water swim in a local watersports lake. This was a public swimming session and we observed where the buoys were, watched the first swimmers set off and then followed their course…or we tried to. Even though the buoys are enormous, from the surface of the water they are strangely not as easy to spot once you’re in it. We zig-zagged our way around the 400m course and soon realised we needed to practice our sighting.
Second time round, I looked up every 6 or so strokes and was pleased to find I held a much straighter line. The one thing I did find was that my shoulders felt as if they were being pinned back by elastic bands when I swam and by the end of the session, I felt I’d done a huge upper body gym session instead of a swim!
Onto the Brownlee Tri open water training session where I was really looking forward to learning what I was doing wrong. It was a fantastic afternoon with 35 other triathletes who were mostly beginners too. We had a classroom session followed by how to set up your area for transition and how to check your bike is race ready. The coaches then talked us through what to do in transition with simple practices at moving in and out of transition. Their tips and hints will be invaluable.
The majority of the afternoon though was spent learning about open water swimming. I was pleased I’d swum once before as I knew a bit about what to do but the biggest learning curve was swimming with everyone else around you. Of course I’ve watched events on television and knew swimming in a big group can be a ‘dangerous’ thing. Despite everyone trying to be careful, it proved to be extremely easy to clatter and swim into each other. I am not looking forward to this on race day as we go off in waves of 100 people and think I’ll have to go for the outside as I’m not into fighting my way through tiny gaps whilst being ‘hit’ by others!
I learnt so many things from the excellent coaches and also found out why my shoulders ached so much after my first swim; it was a simple case of not pulling my wetsuit up high enough on my shoulders. Once I’d been told to keep pulling it up until you have no spare wetsuit to ‘play with’ under your armpit, it fitted correctly and of course, that sorted my problems! I must thank Graham Beardsley, the official photographer on the day for allowing me to use his photos for my blog this month. It’s amazing that he’s captured me looking calm and in control!
My main reason for starting triathlon was from the inspiration the Brownlee brothers had given my son, and his enthusiasm drew me in. We entered into the Brownlee Tri last November and at last the event day is nearly here. It’s been my focus for 9 months and I always said I’d do it to fundraise for the charity of the rare, incurable disease which affects my neighbours’ son. So as a final effort on my part to hopefully pull in sponsorship, I’ve upped my entry from super sprint to sprint. This is really going to be a huge challenge as I still feel I’ve got to gain a lot more fitness but I know I’ll finish, even if my knee tries to prevent it. Just don’t tell me what my run split time was!
Claire’s next blog will be available on Wednesday 7th October. To read her previous blog, click here.
