Short Setback To Training

Despite many practice sessions, and a notable improvement when it came to tolerating the cold temperatures, I was yet to become that swimmer that confidently glided into the cold water and literally bossed it from the off. I was/am working towards being that swimmer though, which I know will take time and great effort to achieve. To help I have purposefully surrounded myself with fellow swimmers that have a great mindset, along with coaches (Leon and Stu) who allow me to get away with absolutely nothing whatsoever if it was not serving me well. Included in this was faffing around, general pre-swim 'tomfloolery,' and lack of a purposeful stride into the water in this. I was also following some great advice from the likes of Dr Heather Massey, a researcher at the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth, who says that; ‘the secret to acclimatising to cold water is just to swim in it, often – at least once a week, and preferably two or three, gradually extending the time that you stay in the water," and I must say, my training and acclimatisation was going really well until, after 3 years, COVID finally caught me. It hit me like a freit train, and despite the temptation to carry on regardless, I was effectively 'banned' from swimming by The Swim Buddy (also nurse), and ordered to just get well first. She is my swim buddy for many reasons, however what tops this list is that she knows what I need to keep my strength up (cake and Berocca - obvs) and, after checking I hadn't lost my sense of taste (because that would be a complete waste of good food), arranged a doorstep delivery.

As it turned out, after many, many tiring hours on the sofa watching t.v and reflecting on life/the universe/swimming, I came to the conclusion she was right. I didn't want any part of this experience to be negative, and so I didn't swim. Part of my reflecting included some pretty frantic Googling of the effects that illness had on illness and exercise and thankfully, to quote Heather Massey again, 'research has shown that a couple of weeks off cold water swimming while you recover from illness has little impact on your cold adaption'. 

This information did stop me from panicking for the most part, but what did panic me was the weather forecast that Wincy Willis (Jonty - fellow swimmer) rang me especially to share. The bleakest of winters was about to descend pretty much overnight in Britain, and the water temperature had dropped significantly from 7 to 0.5oc overnight. Under normal circumstances I would be untroubled by this news, I'd either just dip rathre than swim, or wait out the cold spell. Unfortunately, right now I did not have the luxury of this option. I felt pretty certain that my return to the water would be pretty horrid at best. 

I'd like to point out, before I go on, that Jonty also did ask how I was feeling and really hoped I would be back training soon. I suspect he was disappointed that I wasn't swimming as I had promised to bring with me some home - made fudge cake (not technically home-made in its entirity - the Jane Asher one I once bought from Sainsbury's (other supermarkets available etc...) many, many moons ago to donate to the school Christmas Fayre and passed off as my own, fraudulently declaring it a 'family secret recipe,' should anyone ask, but now as absolutely everyone loves it, and as I'm too far in to tell everyone I have been deceiving them all this time, I have to go to buy from out of town so I'm not seen ...what a tangled web we weave... anyway, I digress). Skip forwards 2 weeks, and FINALLY I declared myself well enough to swim. My little swim tribe rallied together to ensure my safe return into the water by turning up with extra hot water bottles and cheerful words that let me know I'd been really missed, such as; 'great to have you back. Don't suppose you managed to bake that cake whilst you were off?' 

So, in the short time (but felt really, really long) I was off, the Baltic weather that had arrived so abruptly had left at the same pace, and whilst the water temperature was still not as high as it had been, don't get me wrong, it felt really cold, and some post-swim 'home-made' fudge cake would have made all the difference, however I was thrilled that at 4.5oc I nailed it. Okay, not nailed it in its entirity, but there was a seamless water entry worth mentioning, and although after that I didn't put my head under the water for the first 25 metres until Lara reminded me to, and it wasn't a vigerous swim, although I also cocked up setting my watch so it could have been vigerous, but we'll never actually know for sure, aside from that, it wasn't half as bad as I had imagined, which was something of a great relief with only a few weeks to go until the world championships. 

Finally, if you'd like to follow me for more regular training updates, I'm on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Look for Open Water Woman. 

Also, for those interested in reading more from Heather Massey the link is here. HOW TO ACCLIMATISE. The science and practise of adapting to cold water. https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/how-to-acclimatise-to-cold-water/