Birthday blowout

As well as being my birthday, last Saturday was the second event in the EGTC Winter GP, which was the 1km swim. This is one of my favourite events in the Winter GP calendar as it doesn’t involve running and you don’t mind getting wet, unlike The Perch.

Last year I was aiming for a time of less than 20 minutes and to my surprise clocked in at 18 minutes 20 secs. This year I was therefore aiming to surpass this with a time of less than 18 minutes. Every three months we have a swim session that involves three 300m swims with a rest in between (which I think is a minute, but could be more. Whatever it is doesn’t feel long enough before you’re churning back up the pool). The point of this is to get a good assessment of your speed over 100m which equates to your hardest sustainable effort.

When you can't sustain the effort

Last Friday I was looking through the results of the last time we did this (in December) to see what my time was over 100 metres - 1 minute 48 seconds. At the time, guess what, I hadn’t been feeling my best so felt that I hadn’t really pushed myself as hard as I could. 

I worked out that over a kilometre 1 minute 48 seconds would bring me in just under 18 minutes. No problem. All I had to do was turn up and a new personal best would be mine.

But unfortunately, you’re never going to believe this, I was feeling a bit under the weather. I’d been suffereing from a sinusy headache and my energy levels felt low. When I woke up on the Saturday I didn’t feel much better, but knew I’d regret it if I didn’t turn up. I dragged myself out of bed, had a good old sniff of Olbas Oil and after some porridge felt a bit better.

Once in the pool I began the warm up. And I was struggling. I considered getting out but soldiered on. I downed an energy gel, thinking that might get the juices flowing. We set off but I wasn’t feeling much better and was struggling to keep up with the others in the lane. After about eight lengths I had to stand aside to let a fellow club member pass me. 

After 12 lengths I was spent, so clambered out of the pool and went home with my tail between my legs to open my birthday presents.  

However you’ll be pleased to know that I have made a recovery and have this week managed a turbo session, a 10 mile run and the Thursday club swim session last night. So now I’m knackered.