Just Keep Swimming

As a kid I did every sport going. That also included a short spell in a swimming club when I was about 10 years old. Unfortunately it didn't last long. Constantly having to wear a verruca sock wasn't a good look! The other youngsters in my lane also used to sprint to catch me up and yank my foot underwater until I was close to drowning so that they could swim over me and finish the length first. It is also not natural to want to train for a sport where you can not breathe! So after a few months I told Mum I wanted to join table tennis club, trampolining club and high board diving club instead and that was the the end of my short lived swimming career.  When I started swimming again at 24 I couldn't remember how to do front crawl and had to start from scratch again, starting with just a length at a time.  All I remember thinking was "why on earth did I ditch swimming for table tennis club?"

I quickly realised the most important thing about learning something new is being able to laugh at yourself. Check out this video below of me being mega serious thinking I am absolutely nailing the tumble turns.....no wonder the lifeguard used to kill himself laughing!

When I first started triathlon Mum could pick me out amongst the other hundreds of swimmers because I was the one who had the incredibly fast arms but didn't seem to be getting anywhere!  Over the years I have been able to improve my swimming.  I'm never going to be the quickest but I'm gradually decreasing the gap between my own time and the lead swimmers time, this can be seen in the latest championships I have done, starting in 2010 a whopping 3 minutes 50 seconds behind the lead swimmer in my age group and decreasing that this year to 48 seconds. Granted, every race is different and it depends on who is in the race but my geeky stats table below shows I'm stepping (or swimming) in the right direction....

	My Swim Time	Time I’ve lost to the lead swimmer in my AG	Average Swim Time	Time over average swim time
September 2010, World Triathlon Champs, Budapest Position after swim – 17th Finishing position – 11th	13:28	3:50	11:42*	1:46
June 2011, European Triathlon Champs, Pontevedra Position after swim – 11th Finishing position – 7th	13:07	2:43	11:09**	1:58
June 2013, European Triathlon Champs, Alanya Position after swim – 5th Finishing position – 1st	12:43	0:48	12:13***	0:30
September 2013, World Triathlon Champs, London Position after swim – 18th Finishing position – 7th	11:53	1:42	11:02****	0:51

* Taken from top 10 finishers

** Taken from top 8 finishers

*** Taken from top 3 finishers

**** Taken from top 10 finishers

One of my swimming highs this season was definitely coming out of the water with the lead pack(ish) at the British Champs. What a great position I had put myself in to start the bike leg.  However, last out the water at Liverpool Elite (with the canoe bringing up the rear) and also 28th out of the water at the European Champs in Turkey (giving myself a hell of a lot of work to do) made me realise that I need to crack this swimming business.

With 3 compulsory non-wetsuit races this year, it's time to learn more about technique!

To help me in the right direction I contacted my friend and swim coach Jai Evans.  Jai has been coaching swimming for 20 years and has been around the world to coach every standard of swimmer from non-swimmers and novices, through to competitive and professional athletes.  I met Jai when we raced in Belgium earlier this year and over-hearing him talk to others about swimming I thought "there's nothing this guy doesn't know!".

Jai is convinced there is a great swimmer inside of everyone (even me!). Rather than break the stroke down and isolate movements, Jai has helped explain how the whole connection of everything I do impacts on my stroke. He has got me thinking about my body position, taught me to swim more effortlessly and even got me humming when I swim!  The speed is starting to come naturally without thinking about it. Last week I clocked a 400m PB (5:43) and a 600m PB (8:58) which by the fast swimmers standards is not speedy by any means, but compared to where I started, it's a massive improvement.

The following photos taken from swim video analysis also show the progress I've made.

The above photos were taken about 6 months apart but show the same point in my stroke. You can see on the left hand pictures that I have no high elbow under the water thus no catch and I have no real sense of body position in the water, my head is all over the place and I'm often losing balance in the water. The pictures on the right show an improvement in both of these things.

This most recent filming shows a much more streamlined body position in the water. The picture below also shows more control in my rotation.

(The bruise on my leg is courtesy of Jacqui after we fell off our bikes a couple of weeks ago!)

So between now and when I next go and see Jai again I'm just working on mastering what I've been shown and trying to maximise my potential as a swimmer.  I've done a bit of research on my own and as I don't go to any coached or group swim sets, I've been thinking more carefully about planning my own swim sets.  Luckily I've been able to drag my training partners Anna and Jacqui in to help me complete them and I'm really enjoying the variety and challenges these swim sessions are giving us.

If you're interested in seeing Jai for some specific swim feedback of your own he can be contacted on swimjai@me.com and his new website will be up and running soon too so watch this space! Thanks for reading, happy training.....and just keep swimming.

1:29:59

So that's the number that is driving my winter running at the moment!

1:29:59

It's been a while since I have done a stand alone half marathon, maybe 4 or 5 years. The last half I actually did was at the end of a half ironman last year where I ran a 1:41:59. Running through winter is something I love to do. We have loads of nice places to run near home - Wyre Forest, Malvern Mountains, Nature Reserves, commons and the countryside.  So I thought what better way to motivate myself to get the winter miles in than enter a half marathon.  For some reason I had decided I would love to do a half again, I am blaming my sister who raced at the Birmingham Half where I went to spectate and thought "ooh this looks like fun!"

This was the last half marathon I ran,
I obviously didn't try hard enough as I am still smiling in the last 100m!

So my good friend Stu started on the case of finding half marathons for me around February or March time. After trawling the internet, finding lovely half marathons in cities such as Berlin and Munich, I settled on the grand location of Watford! Pay day came, the race was entered, and now it was time to set a goal. For this I turned to my friend and training partner Jacqui and our conversation went a little something like this.

Me: "Jac I've entered a half marathon"
Jac: "Which one?"
Me: "Watford"
Jac: "Fab, I'll help you with your training."
Me: "Great. I want to run a good time."
Jac: "What time do you want to do?"
Me: "1:29:59.....or less"
Jac: {pause} "Oh. That's quite fast."
Me: "No I think it will be fine.  How hard can it be?"
Jac: "It's sub 7 minute miles"
Me: "No it's like two 10ks at 45 minutes, that would be OK."
Jac: "It's quicker than that, it's longer than two 10ks"
Me: "Oh. So how quick would I have to run the two 10ks?"
Jac: "More like 43 minutes."
Me: "Oh, that's quite fast."
Jac: "Yep"
Me: "What does that work out at per mile?"
Jac: "About 6:49 minute mile pace."
Me: "Oh. That's very fast" {feeling slightly deflated}
Jac: "Yep. You could always have a range instead of one specific time."
{Pause}
Me: "No, I want to do 1:29:59"
Jac: "Great, well lets get cracking...."

And with that both Jacqui and Stu have helped me with my run training to help get me started. Who'd have thought running could be so fun! Tempo runs, progressive runs, negative split runs, interval runs, hill runs, fartlek runs....the list goes on! Best of all I am really enjoying it!

My first cross country in years....another run & still smiling

If I'm totally honest, my first thought was actually, if I can't break 1 hour 30, I'll forget the long runs and just enjoy some Christmas films and put my feet up instead. But actually I love a challenge. Hitting my target is, quite possibly, a bit out of reach, but thinking big and working hard is something I'm very good at.

I'm definitely not a natural runner. Do you ever ask someone a question hoping that their answer will fill you with confidence and positivity? After a good run session the other week I said to Chris "What do I look like as a runner?". His response was "heavy." Haha! Not the response I was hoping for but I know what he means, I am heavy on my feet and sometimes I sink a bit into my stride. So that's lead me to concentrate a bit more on my core strength and read up on run technique. It's amazing after 20 years of running that you still continue to learn more!

So now I've said it out loud (or written it in black and white), it makes the goal a little bit more real (and scary!).  I'm also very much hoping to change my own perception of myself as a runner and actually start believing that I can and will run well.  So 13.1 miles of pain, here I come. If you have any training tips of advice to help me along the way they would be greatly received.

Bring it on!