Time for a laugh ...

Lighthouse to Bigbay Swim 2012

Saturday morning ... flat seas ... water at 12 - 13 degrees Celsius ... 10.5km swim distance ... thick fog ... and a variety of support craft ... perfect conditions for a great swim. Many thanks Derrick for organising such a great event.

The start of the 2012 Lighthouse to Bigbay Swim, in Cape Town, had to be delayed by an hour due to the thick fog at the start line. The swim is a one-way, shore hugging, 10.5km cold water, sea swim. The conditions were really great, albeit a tad chilly. And getting out beyond the waves was at first a slight challenge ... especially for some of the longer life saving paddle crafts our dedicated support crew from the local life saving association were using.

The somewhat chilling swim went off perfectly. Practising my new stroke, feeding well ... and constantly hungry! Waters were flat. The constant view of the shore line was lekker. Seals were out and about. Shipwrecks, Table Mountain views, an assortment of paddlers, kayaks, stand-up-paddlers and a variety of rubber ducks all added to the mental stimulation in an otherwise, simple, run-of-the-mill, mind-numbingly boring swim :-)

I was quite happy with my 3h16 ... a good steady sub one hours per 3km pace. Minimal shivering at the end. A cool 33.5 degrees core temperature after the swim. Hot chocolate. Good lucky draw prizes and a great crowd.

... what more does one want from a day out swimming :-)

Winter is here

Well, winter has arrived in Cape Town ... cold, wet, windy and red wine weather. The latest weather and sea conditions limit major open water swimming options: Silvermine has become rather cold and the sea is rather rough these days. But ... we have found a real pleasant 50m indoor swimming pool in Strand - about 40 minutes outside of Cape Town itself.

Friday morning (Freedom Day, public holiday in South Africa) we went for a good long training session. 15km ... tedious 300 lengths up and down ... swimming. Actually quite enjoyable. I followed this up with a short 3km swim on Saturday and a little 4km swim Sunday ... All in all a good weekend.

Overall the training is going well. A slightly unproductive week two weeks ago - suffering from a high fever and high pulse, accompanied by body aches ... but that dissipated quickly and now been feeling very good again. My gym trainer is putting me through my paces once a week with a thorough core and upper body session and I am aiming for at least 25km per week in the water.

What an awesome swim this morning ...

Sitting in the office right now, looking outside at the cloudy sky and pumping wind, it is difficult to imagine I was enjoying a really great swim four hours ago.

Cape Town must be the best place to be training for the English Channel!

A slightly chilly morning at 07h00. Left Robben Island at about 07h45, heading on a good 11/12km swim to Three Anchor Bay. 13 degrees in the water; with outside temperatures topping out in the thirties. My progress was monitored by an early morning police boat, a mid-morning seal and a late morning dolphin parade ... all round, an entertaining morning :-)

A steady swim throughout ... continuous stroke rate of about 68 ... feeling strong and enjoying my swimming immensely.

Good Easter Weekend

Now that was good :-) ... a very productive long weekend. Work, training and catching up with family and friends ...

The feeling of processing through a full email inbox and ending a weekend with it totally empty is just fabulous. The only problem is that one has processed, replied, attended to all the mails ... and now inevitably I shall receive endless new responses or follow-up issues to mails processed ... the never ending admin trail in life ...

On the swimming side I managed a good 25km this last week. with a decent 6km on each day Friday, Saturday and Sunday ... followed by pleasant stiffness and tiredness which can best be treated with a really nice glass of wine. A rest day yesterday and a nice 3km session this morning.

It is a good feeling to have put in a truly productive swim week again ... and maybe I can top it off with a good long open water swim in the next week or two.

What a place to train ... Silvermine Dam

After a period of de-motivation, laziness and not 100% health I feel I am back into a rhythm of sorts. My body definitely feels as if it has had too much rhythm of sorts!

Silvermine Dam ... one of the most beautiful places in the world. A freshwater dam up in the mountains around Cape Town, and the location for a lekker 13km (4.5hour) swim this morning. My weekly mileage coming up to 23km this week. Tomorrow a little run and a gym session ... strict instructions from the chiropractor to do a land based activity to "open up" some of the tight mechanical chains I am developing through my swimming.

We try to fit in one 10km swim every weekend; in the dam. Currently a comfortable 18 degrees. It offers a great 600m too and fro swim ... which can be a little mind numbing when you do 15 to 20 reps ...

I am quite chuffed to have plodded through this swim today ... although totally knackered now ... mentally it was very good to have paddled around for close to 5 hours (about 4h20 swimming ... and a bit of chit chat to get through the lot).

Now for another DVD ... and lots of food ... ;-)

A bit of fun before resuming some serious training

Well ... I recon I have had a far too long a break now! Tapering to race week. Then a failed race. Then a week of holiday. Then no swimming for a week due to a nasty upper respiratory infection ... that adds up to four weeks of being lazy. It is now high time I dig deep and up my training to a good 25 km per week.

The Plan ...

- Three mornings a week at 5 to 6km swimming (squad training most sessions)

- One long weekend swim, preferably open water (10km)

- Two (or three) gym sessions

- And when time allows, and training has been good ... some cycling or running as a reward

And on a lighter note I didn't laze around totally while sick ... it might not have been ideal, but I still went out to enjoy the annual Argus Cycle Tour ... this time purely for fun and laughs ...

Two different days off Perth

The sea conditions for the Rottnest Swim on the Saturday of the race ... and the tranquility of City Beach, Perth (just up the coast) three days later ...

Rottnest Swim failure ... but a great holiday

Well rested, recharged and ready to get going once again. I have just spent a good two weeks in Perth, Australia. Baby sitting, sleeping, a little swimming, eating, shopping, more sleep ... really just relaxing :-)

Unfortunately the Rottnest Channel Swim did NOT pan out as planned. I had to pull out after 2h45 ... probably about 9km of the 20km completed. I started of very well - fit, strong, energised and happy with the conditions ... but then slowly became extremely nauseous :-( The conditions were not great, yet also not terrible. There was a constant chop and irritating swell that battered us the whole time. After about 90 minutes of swimming I progressively felt more and more nauseous and tired. Eventually I had to stop and relax/breathe every ten strokes or so.

It was probably the toughest decision in a sporting situation I have had to make - hundreds of thoughts going through my mind about battling on, digging deep, taking it bit-by-bit ... but ultimately I was feeling horrible and really didn't have the energy and stomach to carry on for another four to five hours like this. I am also very pragmatic about the whole thing - we have to take what we get dished out; things didn't pan out this time ... and I basically need to work towards the next one ;-)

My dear paddler (Russi) was actually over the moon that I pulled out ... he had been hurling his guts out (unbeknown to me) for the last hour already ... and was quite happy to get out of there too ... thanks a mill mate ;-)

Many, many thanks ...!!!

I need to extend an amazing thanks to several persons with regards to my Rottnest attempt. First and foremost to Lynn and Rowan Matthews for offering their boat and skipper services ... you were amazing, extremely hospitable and helpful in every regard. Further thanks to John Turner for your support and options to do my final training sessions in Perth. Furthermore, many thanks to my good friends Russi and Vivian (and family), as well as Tania, for support, accommodation and a fabulous holiday.

It was a great trip. Very relaxing. Slightly disappointing. And a good learning curve.

Thanks to all ... and now for the next SIX MONTHS ...

Poor show Challenge Family ... and a tired body ...

Two and a half weeks to Rottnest. Too much work. Battling with a tired body. Sore and stiff. And then Challenge Family Triathlons comes up short and ruins my week totally :-(

Challenge Cape Town - a full Ironman distance triathlon was supposed to be staged in Cape Town end of last year. I was overjoyed and extremely keen to partake! I laid out my R4500 (about $500) for the entry and made sure I was fit. 16 days before the event ... yest, you got it - only 16 days ... they pulled the plug and cancelled the race. Many, actually all other athletes I know that entered, have received their refund ...

... except myself! and apparently some other folk that I don't know. R4500 is a fair bit of money! And I really want that refund. I put some pressure on the local organisers and the German mother company. First they promised refunds over and over again. But no; nothing materialised.

Last week Challenge Family in Germany distanced themselves and disassociated themselves from the local organiser Grant Kunneke. They basically say they can offer me a slot in Roth and that is it. Grant Kunneke , the totally incompetent dreamer in Cape Town, is dependant on some new event and new sponsorship before he can pay me back.

... What does one do? I don't want Grant to organise another event, because I don't want other triathletes getting sucked into his poor event management endeavors. But I also do want him to get the sponsorships ... so that I can get my money!!

On a lighter and more specific swimming note ... I had a great sea swim yesterday afternoon ... kinda cold at 12 degrees. But a nice group of people and I managed very well in the cold.

I am rather sore, stiff and tired of late ... getting some weekly massages to help me prepare for my 20km swim in two and a half weeks. I think I am doing too much speed and power work ... definitely some good tapering required, and a focus on long slow swims for a while.

So for today ... thoroughly enjoying my rest day ... and here is me giving Challenge Family and Grant Kunneke a right royal "up-yours" ... probably much the same as Fabio Capello is giving David Bernstein today ...