Yes, that's "trough" as related to waves and the ocean...this is not a pre-christmas over-indulgence update!!!! Four weeks into my CanToo Ocean Swimming Program and I thought it was time to send you an update!
Thanks to all of you who have sent words of encouragement, and special thanks to those of you who have pledged...it's very nice to know that I have both your good wishes and your hard, cold cash!! In short, I am coping well with the amount of time I'm spending in either the pool or the sea water...but my hair is leaving a lot to be desired! Frankly, if cancer wasn't such an attention-seeker, it would make sense for Can-Too to spend it's money fundraising to explore why swimming caps have not evolved to actually keep water out...isn't that what they're meant to do??
More on this later in the email. Our program has consisted of training swims each Wednesday evening in the pool and Saturday morning surf sessions down at Manly Beach. The pool sessions are quite daunting (in addition to that small matter of the anxiety of exposing your flesh to a group of random strangers). My coach is Ashley, who is young, fit and very knowledgeable...would you believe that after all my years of confidently surging up the pool a la Esther Williams (does that make me sound REALLY old??), I find out that I'm not "catching" efficiently and I have a non-textbook arm movement where my elbow refuses to bend. To address this and other "weaknesses" in our stroke, we have the pleasure of doing various "drills", so rather than just following the black line for an hour, we have lots of variety and get completely thrashed by the lovely Ash (a girl by the way as you could be thinking she's a he!) It's been fantastic to get some focus on my technique and I am taking onboard (don't you love all these nautical references!!!) her coaching and am definitely getting FASTER and swim fit!!!
Now, that would be a good thing if I was planning on swimming 2km in the pool...but unfortunately then we move onto the surf! Where do I start. Week One we were given a lesson in entering the water. Should be quite simple you say, just wade in, jump over a few waves, perhaps dive under a few bigger ones and then start swimming........................................NOT! Firstly, we were taught the importance of "wading" into the water (this is where we attempt to imitate an ironman (or woman as the case may be) and kick out from the knee as we leap over the small (knee height) waves. Our coaches were positioned so we waded out into the water, then went across the waves around another coach and then waded back into shore (about a 150m circuit).
On this day I wore my heart rate monitor and let me just say that if you think this is a piece of cake...think again!!! Trying to maintain my composure whilst running towards the water as my cossie crept up my butt and my thighs flapped about as I leapt over waves...then gamely waded across the water to the other marker, then making for the beach and trying to look like I wasn't about to collapse as I ran up onto the sand (a requirement not vanity!) was a memorable experience....we experience this glory about four times before they decided we'd caught on sufficiently!!!
Next was "dolphin diving" which I am a HUUUUUGE fan of...this is where you are mostly UNDER the water and avoiding being slapped in the face by the surf as you dive under the waves and make progress out past the break....relatively easy and definitely better for my image, any wobbles are conveniently concealed by the WATER!! The other great fun is using the rips to get out faster and then avoiding them when you're trying to swim to shore...so to all my overseas recipients just remember, the rip is your friend!!!!!
So, once we got out past the break (in the first couple of weeks it was just the above drills with no real ocean swimming to speak of), we then launched into some distance. Week 3 we did a swim from Manly to Shelley Beach with a small stop for breath in the middle...this was a swim of 1.5km in total...Yeah!!!! We were all very chuffed with our progress. Now, whilst I am TRYING to focus on the positives of ocean swimming (seriously!), there was a slight issue that we couldn't see very much in the water because of an "algae bloom" which affected visibility and to make things even more interesting, means you end up with little bits of green goop stuck to your hair (despite the swim cap) as well as this same determined goop finding it's way into our cossies.......boy was that a fun shower afterwards....say no more!
It was a great achievement knowing that with only 3 weeks under our belt we could already knock off 3/4 of the Cole Classic! Last weeks surf session was held in a rather strong swell and despite this we did about 1600m. This time it was doing a circuit out from the beach and around a couple of "cans" (ocean swimming jargon for marker buoys!!!) and then back in...utilising all of our acquired skills to date. This was a much tougher week because of the requirement to incorporate the dreaded wading and dolphin diving into our swim. The entire circuit was 400m and we did it four times!!!!!! Am I an amazon or what! As we swam out to round the cans, I noticed how far down the anchor ropes went...we were swimming in VERY deep water.
Now, those observant people on this distribution list will have noticed the absence of any reference to sea creatures of the biting, nipping variety...this is NOT a coincidence! We were told in the third week (the goopy one) that if we felt something tickling our toes (yes seriously) it was only a "noah" and we should just kick it away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what hardened ocean swimming types refer to as a "little" shark...apparently a "curious" baby shark!!!!! Momentary panic was then overcome by the realization that if it was my time to go, at least it was doing something enjoyable (aha) and no one was nagging me for something to eat/drink or to remove something from their hair/limbs/ears/nose/nappy! Suffice to say, no Noah's were sighted and so far they've kept their distance.
In conclusion (yes I'm finally finished), I will revisit the subject of swimming caps...!! As if they were not appealing enough in their natural state, the Can-Too swimming caps are BRIGHT ORANGE...I'm talking fluorescent (photos will follow eventually to demonstrate my point). To add insult to injury, with all the thrashing about in the water that we're doing, I emerge at the end of each session with my swimming cap askew and bearing a strong resemblence to a device which I will not mention as this email goes to both my mother AND my mother in law!
So, when you are considering whether you have exhausted your charitable contribution bucket for the year, think of me wading out of the water at the end of the Cole classic, with algae bloom in every nook and cranny, my goggles completely fogged up (that's another subject entirely), my legs wobbling and my FLUORO orange swimming cap bobbing about on my head....and dig deep for the sake of my dignity................!!!
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