Plans for 2018

I shall continue striving to perfect the swim stroke in the pool when I have the time in England. Building on my sea swimming over the last few weeks.

Here is a very interesting blog from Paul Newsome packed full of interesting items:

http://swimsmoothperth.blogspot.com/2018/01/how-are-your-2018-training-racing.html

Hmmm, plan might be the wrong word BUT I would like to try to get to the start line for the Rottnest Channel Swim in 2019. I've sort of survived with the niggling shoulder since my DNS for Rotto 2015. I've had to be very careful with regards to intensity and/or volume, and still sometimes have a small setback by forgetting this, e.g. this Xmas New Year break from work (2 weeks) where I did a lot of swimming in the ocean, instead of my usual 4 mornings a week in the pool and Sat morning at the beach. Considering my longest sessions were ~4.5k in the pool (with breaks, recoveries, intervals), doing multiple 6k continuous swims and 3k swims in between was a dumb thing to do!

Anyway, we will see what happens. I only started keeping stats in 2014 but here's some numbers. I hoping I'll be able to get up to 100km for 2018.

Year  km        av km/week  av km/day av km/day (for 5 sessions/days per week)
2014  952.04  18.31           2.61         3.66
2015  290.74   5.59            0.80         1.12
2016  593.60  11.42            1.63         2.28
2017  859.06  16.52            2.35         3.30

gw

I think you mean 1000 km for 2018.

That is quite a goal.

I could only watch the Cottesloe Mile swimmers come in on Saturday but here,s hoping for next year!

cottmiler wrote:I think you mean 1000 km for 2018.

lol, yes 1000km. I will need to be smart about it.

Have you been able to get much swimming in while in Perth cm?

Yes indeed. The right shoulder which had been out of action since 23Oct improved nicely by the middle of December and we only went to Claremont pool three times at first then went daily to Cottesloe and the river.

This is the most sea swimming I have ever done in one holiday and I feel there has been a real improvement in technique. This is combined with my better left arm action enforced by weeks of left arm only.

We leave tonight and hope to be back at the end of November. In mid Feb we fly to Sydney and will visit Palm Beach (Summer Bay) before hopping on a ship.

I registered to Slovenia masters 5k, that will be swum event in Bled Lake on the 9th of September:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfOnY7zhuzt/

This week's yield #1(3km test):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfYf8kph4aq/

This week's yield #2(4km test):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfdWETRB8pc/

3km (40:02) and 4km (53:38) by wearing shorts is not bad for a 40-44 age group amateur swimmer i think. If i swim around respectively 39 and 52 minutes in my time trials, that will be fantastic for me.

I dont have facebook account but you may follow my instagram (Marathon Swimming-Turkey).

I will keep sharing my milestones on the way to Slovenia...

---------------------------
Some stimulating remarks from Mahatma Ghandi for motivation:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaTXNpyhNqY/

gregorywannabe wrote:

cottmiler wrote:I think you mean 1000 km for 2018.

lol, yes 1000km. I will need to be smart about it.

A couple of lifeguards at my local pool did this as a sponsored challenge a few years ago. It was branded "The Million Metres Swim". They basically swam a couple of miles a day for the best part of a year. Raised a load of money for our local special needs swimming lessons, which was great.

Of course, if you work as a lifeguard it's a whole lot easier to get to the pool every day!

I'm going to do a few outdoor events between May and September, up to a max of 5km distance. I would really like to do a long swim next year, perhaps up in the Lake District, but it's not viable for me to take on something like that this year for various reasons (money, training time, etc).

At the moment I'm trying to recover some fitness, having lost 7 weeks over December and January due to back problems and other illness. My first swim after that gap was like swimming through treacle! I'm currently swimming 4x500m with 1 min rest, at a pace of 1:54/100m (non wetsuit). At my peak fitness last year I was swimming these sets at 1:49/100m (non wetsuit). It will probably take me at least another month to get back to that level.

Nowadays in Turkey winter or Spring races became very popular, there are huge number of participants. They are several races in 13-17 degrees water with and w/o swimsuit. I dont participate in these races, usually the slow grandpas are participating. I dont participate because because according to me these organizations are not sportive, just swimming from on point to another point regardless of swim quality. Adam Walker or TI like swimmers also love these races.

Actually, I dint love any races organized by Municipalities. I hav ben just choosing 1-2 races in a year where better than avarage swimmers participating which pushes me to workout better and improve my pace, becoming the first in general ranking in low quality races never makes me happy. Races organized by FINA or Turkish Swimming Federation interest me.

Mike A wrote:I'm currently swimming 4x500m with 1 min rest, at a pace of 1:54/100m (non wetsuit).

Making slow progress, and still getting interrupted by stupid health problems. Now down to 1:52/100m for 4x500m, which is about a 28 minute 1500m pace. At least I'm going in the right direction!

At times my progress has seemed to be going backwards this year. However, last Friday I swam a PB of 27:11 for 1500m (25m pool, no wetsuit). Quite pleased with that - just under 1:49/100m.

I am currently repairing my wetsuit and thinking about what events to enter in the next few months. The good news is our local unheated lido has opened a month earlier this year, so I can start wetsuit training in May rather than June.

"I think there's something wrong with this watch..."

Swam the River Arun 3.8km last weekend. This year they seemed to time the start just right to catch the tidal current. My official time was 51:23. That's almost 15 minutes faster than last year! I did swim better this year, but I reckon 10-12 minutes of that difference was the faster current. My average pace was 13:31 per km; I don't think I've ever gone below 17:00 per km in the pool for 1km or more!

Training for the Cottesloe Classic Mile is going well, pleased to say! Jan 12th. It is the only sea swim I can manage this holiday.

Today managed 2.2km, 44x50m at Claremont Pool, non-stop.

In order to avoid boredom I included 6 drills interspersed throughout in 4 lap chunks.

Mrs Cott did 28x50m, non-stop, a lifetime,s best.

Hey CM, welcome back to Perth.

So far this season I've done the following ows races:
5km - Coogee
1.6km - Rottnest
5km - Rockingham

Was planning on doing a 10km at Coogee this Sat. but the forecast is not looking good. 25kph seabreeze all day. Pretty sure I don't want to swim in those conditions. So might try the 10k at Champion Lakes a week later.

The Swim Thru Perth this year has a 3.5km point-to-point option starting at Elizabeth Quay and finishing at the usual spot. Seems popular and a large number are already signed up for this.

The Cott Classic has a 3km option (and a 400m) as well as the normal 1.6km. Feel up to a 3km swim?

gw

You have done well so far.

3km is beyond me atm. I am still trying different ideas after doing some videos at the river. Higher arm recovery and tidier sighting.

We hope to bus up to Sorrento and swim in the shark netted area when the wind is lower.

Always tried to swim everyday....can't make it. hope next year will do it and be a great swimmer.