The Splat Cooking Blog

I took the plunge, literally, on Sunday and turned up for an Open Water Swim seminar. After the fiasco at the swim section of the Hampton Triathlon I really needed to do this, even if it was only to get my head straight.

Dorney Lake at Eton was the venue, triathlons were going on at the same time and we all rather nervously took at seat for the seminar bit first. Bill Black, coach to triathlete stars, spent the first 45 mins going through technique and giving out valuable bits of advice for the various big events coming up – Blenheim which I’m doing in 3 weeks was especially good. Didn’t realise until Sunday that once you finished the swim there is a 400m uphill run to transition, Bill said to take your wetsuit off straight after the swim and run with it to T1 otherwise the suit will have dried off so much it would be difficult to take off once you’re up at T1. Bill also let slip that one of the coaches had been replaced by Andrea Whitcombe – a tri goddess, wow, the whole lake swim thing seems more exciting!

Wetsuits on, walk to the lake, cloud comes over, wind gets up, sun vanishes, it’s probably around 13 degrees – hmmmm, not fun. BUT, I managed to get myself into Andrea’s team, it’s a difficult choice as Nicola Millichip, swim goddess, has the other team. I could have kicked the lady next to me when she asked Andrea what her name was – obviously no idea that she’s talking to a god (!!!!!)

Into the water, it’s cold, not as cold as the North Sea in August, but cold, wetsuit is fantastic but the bits sticking out are freezing – hands, legs and the worst bit is putting my face into the water, boy it’s cold.

I actually quite enjoyed the first 20 minutes, then the feeling went in my hands and feet and breathing was really hard when the water is so cold it takes your breath away. A lot of people had problems with not seeing the bottom of the lake, pond weed, not knowing what was around your legs (the odd shark), after diving and surfing this bit wasn’t the problem, breathing out underwater was so my stroke went totally to pot.

I’m more than a little worried about swimming 750m but I’m hoping that when I’m moving it won’t be as bad and hopefully it will be warm and sunny, plus I’ve been coached by the famous Andrea Whitcombe so I’ve got to get it right. Thanks Andrea.

Maybe it was because I looked at the London Marathon as a particularly daunting task – running for 4 and half hours over 26 and a bit miles. Maybe it’s because I run a half marathon as a leisurely Sunday Morning friendly run up and down some pretty steep hills. Or maybe I just totally misjudged the whole triathlon sport completely and utterly but this is one of the hardest things I have EVER, ever done – much harder than the marathon.

I figured that I run lots so 5km is nothing. I used to complete in the Polaris Challenge with Peter (long suffering husband) in the days before children. The Polaris is a 2 day orienteering challenge on mountain bikes, usually on the weekends the clocks go forward or back – end of October and March – so pretty cold, and they take place in different areas every year, usually somewhere mean and steep like the Black Mountains, North Yorks Moors, Kielder, Exmoor – you get the picture. For the Polaris you have to carry all your food, tent and survival gear on your backs on the overnight element. The last time we did it, we did it on our MTB Tandem and Peter hit a rock on the side of a mountain, tipped us both off and I broke my arm – continued to cycle for another 5-6 hours though!!!
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