This weekend was my last of 'playing away' from Dover harbour training - I was set to swim in the BLDSA 6 mile 2-way Lake Bala swim. I deliberately chose this event as the lake is notoriously cold. Last year the water temperature was 58F and a lot of people retired during the race because of that. I thought the cold water training would be good as part of my programme.
Saturday...
The race starts at 1pm. What a civilised time to start a swim! Except that it gives me more time to get nervous, more time to fuss. Luke, my canoeist, and I arrive at the lake edge to watch the start of the morning (novice) race. It's nice to watch them go off and to remember that I used to think that 3km was a long way to swim. Then there's a lot of sitting around. It's very sunny and warm. Is this really Wales? It's 24C or so and the sun is shining fabulously. I hear that the lake water temperature is 62F. So much for cold water training. Oh well.
My aim is to see how far off my time from last year I'll be. Last year I swam it in 3hrs40. But I've really slowed down and I think that I'm tired with all the racing and training. I say to Luke that a more likely finish time is 4hrs, but that I'd like to get close to 3hrs40. I look at the start list and it's fast - no slow swimmers, I think I'll come last. I tell Luke this - so that he isn't too deflated when we're last in.
I set off. My first thought is how much less buoyant the lake water is than the sea! But I really like swimming in fresh water, in fact I think I prefer it.
Luke hasn't done canoe support before and at the start there's a bit of time spent with me yelling to him - 'closer', 'further away', 'not too much in front'. I hate it when my canoeist is in front of me and I feel like I'm spending the whole time trying to catch them up. Luke smiles and gets used to where to be and we get into a good rhythm. Buckle down.
I say that I'd like a feed after 1hr30. By my calculation I'll be close ish to the turn boat (at the far end of the lake, the 3 mile point) by then. I'll assess how close I am to the turn, and then will decide to feed before or after the turn. At 1hr30 Luke stops me for my feed and we're close enough to the turn boat to press on. Excellent. Maybe I've miscalculated my slow speed and I'll be fine! We get to the turn boat at 1hr43. Two minutes faster than last year so far. I'm buoyed up. I can see two swimmers behind me. I'm determined not to let them catch me or overtake me and this spurs me on. We feed at 2hrs. As I'm swimming along I do all the calculations in my head. Split times, mile times, 100m times, 1km times, multiplied and divided, converted from decimal to imperial and back again, subdivided and analysed. I love to do this. It's really therapy for me. I'm hoping I can get in even before last year's time. How fantastic that would be. I race my feeds, so that the two swimmers behind me can't catch up while I'm feeding. And at any rate, I'm drinking the lake as I go along so I'm not dehydrated.
Swimming back is slightly more arduous as we're swimming into a head wind. I know we are as I can see the flag alpha on the canoe and I can see that Luke's having to actually paddle. But it doesn't feel that much harder than on the way, just slightly more arduous and choppy.
We feed again at 3hrs and we can actually see the finish in the distance. Luke is grinning - and I'm quite happy too. I really think we're only going to have another 45 mins or so. I don't bother scheduling another feed.
But then something strange happens and the last stretch lasts forever. Luke keeps telling me not long to go, but it just isn't getting any closer. What's happening? I'm counting the strokes by six times tables. I have developed a weird synchopated breathing pattern - every 4 strokes, then every 2, then 4 then 2 and so on. I count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 six, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, twelve, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, eighteen! I get to around 200 strokes and realise that it's only a couple of hundred metres and we seem to have taken hours to get to it. I give up on that idea. I'm not aching or anything. It's just that I'm not getting there... Close to the end I ask Luke what the time is. He just says 'you're nearly there, keep going' so I know I've blown it!
I touch the jetty and finish the race at 4hrs 17mins. I'm not caught by the two following swimmers, who come in a good few minutes behind me. But I'm shocked it's taken so long. I'm not sure how the second half can have been so off. The first half was 1hr43 the second half 2hrs 34. That's a startling split, even with the head wind. To be honest I'm a bit baffled by it.
The weird thing is that I actually enjoyed the swim, almost all of it. Which is something that I don't often say. I'm off to puzzle and analyse my swim now. Maybe it's the race I did last week which has tired me out? Maybe all the training has just tired me more than I realise? Maybe I didn't feed properly? I'm not overly worried. At least I enjoyed it.
This weekend I'm back to Dover and knuckling down to doing some really long swims in the harbour. I've enjoyed my weeks away and the races and the invaluable psychological training that they have given me. And I'm looking forward to the last few weeks run up towards the Big Swim.
Saturday, 4hrs 17mins, 63F
Sunday, DAY OFF!!