Channel Swim 18: A brave new world
Things have moved fast in the last couple of weeks. Lakes have reopened and we can now swim in rivers with more than one other person. Swim England will be sharing the guidance for pools reopening in a couple of weeks.
I’ve managed a number of swims in both river and lake and it feels glorious to be back in the water properly. I do feel very very rusty, and slow, but it is coming back, if slower than I would like. I keep trying to swim at what I know should be my all day pace and then grinding to a gasping halt. I had a 1:1 coaching session with Hannah where we had the entire lake to ourselves. This was spectacular and she was able to quickly home in on some bad habits I was developing; I’m now slowly working on fixing them one by one.
Most importantly, my skipper has come back to me confirming that my window has gone, but also very confident that a lot of international swimmers won’t be able to take their slots this year as well as there being long tides, meaning he’s very bullish that he’ll be able to get me away.
So that’s all good, right?
As I took all this fresh information and started to build a new plan, it quickly started to feel like I was trying to build a jigsaw where all of the pieces are from a different set. No matter how I try to jam them together I cannot make a coherent picture. It’s a very different world we are coming back into, swimming after lockdown is not going to be the same, and at the moment I’m struggling to see how I can make things work, but working through the puzzle where I can.
The first example, I had my six hour qualifying swim cancelled the week lockdown hit, so I still need to do a cold OW swim before I’ll be allowed to make any attempt. As lockdown lifted, temperatures were skyrocketing, and the local lake shot through the maximum of 15.6 degrees just as we were allowed back in (it’s currently 21). I’d emailed the CSA to ask what options I had and they suggested I can do a qualifier at a higher temp (but well below 19) if I extend it to seven hours. I now need to find someone who’s prepared to spend seven hours in a kayak paddling very slowly up and down the Thames so I can tick that off.
Before lockdown I was swimming for up to 3 and half hours four times a week in the pool. The local lakes are restricting timeslots, typically to 45 mins/an hour, with a ‘kicking out’ window in between slots, which rules out simply block booking a morning. I’d also be having to pay for multiple slots, which would quickly become ruinously expensive.
Rivers are free, but I know I shouldn’t swim on my own – I don’t have any friends who would want to join me for a three hour session in a river, and to be honest I can’t blame them. I will see if I can find a few who will join me for an hour at least on a regular basis.
In an ideal world the sea would be the best option, but with a level of national madness going on and me not having an established beach to swim from means the last thing I want to do is abandon a ‘family lifeguard’ on the beach to add to the mess.
A while back, one of the endless ‘What If’s that was starting to worry me was ‘What if the pools don’t reopen’. Over the last few weeks, it’s started to occur to me that even if they do, they’ll effectively be useless for what I need right now. When the pools reopen, the one thing we can be certain of is that there’s going to be distancing and controlled numbers, so I’m assuming I’d be allowed in for an hour at a time. Wherever I decide to resume training, it’s going to be tough to put in the hours I need.
I have considered having an endless pool fitted as this would solve the training load issue, but I really can’t afford it and If the swim is in September, I don’t think I’ll be able to get one in fast enough to make it worthwhile. If the slot does wind up slipping to 2021 and we can’t train properly in pools, that comes right back up the agenda, but for now I need to find a way to make natural resources work for me.
And one set of natural resources I think are going to be very important… I need to reach out to my friends and see who can help.
I don’t think there’s any one solution to this problem – I need to put a jigsaw together, using all the pieces I have one way or another, and not be too picky about the picture.
Oh yeah, there’s one more problem I need to beat…. I’d got used to swimming for hours at a time. Right now I’m getting bored after about twenty minutes…
I’m sure you’ll stay positive Stuart and the boredom will evaporate once you’ve a clear path to your goal. Enjoy the journey. A long time ago I someone said “Always have a plan, always be ready to change it” (I use that when coaching cricket.. and plans frequently have to change mid match). I’m not sure I’ll have time to join you on the Thames swims but I’m sure 3CTri will come up with some help. Thank you for yesterday’s AgeGroup coaching session – my take away – I’m going to keep trying, not give up and enjoy the journey.