Some jumbled thoughts on running

I want to talk about running, and especially, running FAST. Or slow. In other words – what pace you run at and how that pace is perceived.

When I started running I had no idea about pace. I was pretty sure I ran slowly, but only when I really thought about it. Pace just didn’t come into it. In fact, the first time I worried about time – or even considered it – was when I ran my first half marathon. It was the Two Oceans half, in 2004. And the reason for worrying? The cut-off was 2hr35… and I had run a longest rub of about 8 or 9 km, about 4 months prior to the race. So making the cut was a genuine concern! But nothing comparable. Not “am I slow/fast relative to other runners?” or “am I running at a good pace?”
Now, though, I hear a lot of that. A lot of “is this a good pace?” And what I want to know is how do you answer that? Is there really a good pace, or is it entirely relative? A colleague, who is a relatively new runner, told me that her brother (an exceptional athlete with a 10 km PB of 36mins!) advised her that a realistic and achievable 10 km goal for women is between 50-60 minutes. Now, I remember my first sub-60 10 km and it felt like a hell of an achievement. And I would have thought that sub-55 was FAST. Maybe I see pace with a skewed perspective??
So then I did a quick Twitter poll of other women runners, and it seemed that there was some consensus. Obviously the length of the run and the course (uphill, downhill, flat, trail, road, etc.) plays a big difference. But for a non-elite, average running woman, over an average road half marathon course, people seemed to feel that around 2hr 15 +- 15 mins was what could conceivably be claimed as a “good” time. Then however, the pace demon reared its head and a “twar” erupted, with some Twitter trolls shaming one of the respondents – claiming that she was fabricating a faster half marathon time for herself than she actually had achieved. I mean, really? What is wrong with people? WHY does it matter (unless of course you are winning the race or claiming a record) whether someone runs faster or slower, and why does it matter what they say they run? Is there some kind of competition amongst recreational athletes? The whole thing boggles my mind.

Here’s the thing: inevitably, when a group run is being planned by women who don’t know each other that well, you will hear a chorus of “warning, I am slow!” or “I’m not sure I will be fast enough for the rest of you” or “I don’t want to slow you down too much”… from everyone! No-one says “I am feeling fit, and strong, and am confident that I am going to kill this run”. No-one says “ I am an experienced runner, who has been running distance for over 12 years, with multiple marathons and ultra-marathons behind me, and so I will lead this run”. No… it’s all about pace.
A runner I know spent a year trying her hardest to make the “D” seeding category from Two Oceans Half, and being incredibly disappointed and frustrated that she was always just outside it. I asked her why she was determined to get to D, and she claimed it was because she would lose too much time starting further back. I couldn’t understand it – at OMTOM, each seeding category has its own start time, so starting at the front of E is probably a quicker start than losing a few minutes by starting at the back of D (this didn’t use to be the case – in fact, one year I took nearly 9 mins to get over the start line of the half, I think, before they split the starts). And what I kept asking was why, if you are clearly not running at the pace of the D athletes, would you want to start among them? You’ll set off too fast, be pushed too hard… wouldn’t you want to start with other runners of the same speed as you? But let the pot not call the kettle black. On running my fastest every 10km in 2015, I immediately thought “yes, I have made it into C seeding!” even though I wasn’t even doing the OMTOM half the next year. So yup, I was in exactly the same boat; delighted to have made it into a seeding group, for a race I wasn’t running, at a pace I couldn’t maintain, meaning a run that I wasn’t doing but that I would hate every second of. What does go on in our minds?!

Once again, the perception of “pace trumps all” was off-kilter with the rest of the running experience, which I have found to be very welcoming and encouraging of everyone – all ages, shapes, sizes, genders, experiences levels, and – yes – paces.
I think of my very fast running friends, whose goal is to increase their distance so they can finally run their first half marathon. I think of my endurance running friends, who can run for hours but who desperately worry whether they will make the 3 hour half marathon cut-off each race. I think about race cut-offs themselves, and what that means for people. Is someone who took 15 hours to do 42.2 km entitled to claim they are a “marathoner”? Where does one draw the line? What about when someone’s pedometer racks up 42.2 km, can they then claim a marathon? Should the cut-off remain to ensure that the race is even more of an achievement and a specific goal to work towards?
So this was more of a ramble, a vent, a collection of unanswered questions, than anything else. I think it’s appropriate that I leave it very much with a TBC….

Race results

The race stats

And my splits were:

600m swim – 11 minutes 27 seconds

20 km bike – 48 minutes 30 seconds

5 km run – 28 minutes 11 seconds

Total time – 1 hour 28 minutes 09 seconds

Position: 8/58 for age group (30-39 Female)

25^th woman across the line (out of I think 136 women – all ages)

Lesson 1. Spending so much time away from my family is hard on me and on them – and I can’t wait to spend a little more with them now that there won’t be (quite) so much training

Lesson 2. Based on my race times, and those of everyone around me – my cycling is better than I thought and my running is worse!!

Lesson 3. Do more brick sessions. Lots more!

Lesson 4. Start training as soon as possible for the XTerra in February 2012… because yes, I’m hooked, and already planning on entering my next one 🙂

Lesson 5. Listen to the SSISA coaches because they know what they’re talking about – and they walk the talk too, both training next to us and racing along with us (although in the case of Lezandre and Richard, they actually won – unlike us :))!

Thanks to Kim, Kasha, Lezandre, Sharon, Richard, Ben and Greg for the last 12 weeks of encouragement, information, coaching, and the occasional burst of slave-driving!! It’s been a wonderful and exhausting 12 weeks.

Most of all – thank you so much to my wonderful family for putting up with my absences, being supportive, picking up all the slack, and allowing me to indulge in exercise luxury 🙂

race day

Sunday – RACE DAY

The 5 hours between bed time and alarm clock were hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, and wakeful. The fan was noisy, so we turned it off. It got unbearable hot, we opened doors, then they slammed, then my son woke up, and by the time 5.30 rolled around I had been awake for half an hour already and was more than happy to get out of bed.

The weather had turned during the night, and was much cooler – thankfully – but was now very windy and threatening rain… not so great. Still, Leann and I downed some coffee, piled into the car and set off. It only took us about 45 mins or so, this time 🙂 since we knew the right way! We got to the race venue in perfect time to register, set up our bikes in a good spot in transition, and get ready without rushing too much.

Wetsuits were announced as legal (whew), and we all assembled under the New Balance tent to cover ourselves in Spray ‘n Cook, KY Jelly, Body Butter, and other lubricants of choice – to enable us to slide out of our suits at full speed – before squeezing into our suits and putting on caps and goggles. We went for a quick dip to get wet, get water into our suits, and ease them around until they fit perfectly. Then we had the race briefing, and then it was the start! First the elite men, then the elite women, then the 15-29 year old men, and then it was the turn of the first batch of our group  – the 30 + men. After which it was our turn – all the women together. And the rain started coming down too!

It was an “in-water” start, but most of the people stayed grouped where they could stand. I went deeper into the water and to the furthest point that I could so that it was a) a LOT less crowded and b) a straight line towards the buoys. And bang – the starting gun went and we were off! I had the most fantastically relaxed swim. I never touched (or was touched by) another person, I found it relaxing, got into a good rhythm, caught up with the end of the men’s group, and before I knew it my fingers were scraping the ground and it was time to run out. In hindsight (given how the rest of my race panned out) I should have pushed harder on the swim and gained more time!

I ran into transition stripping off wetsuit and cap and goggles, to my now sopping wet towel, cycling shoes and gear. I put my helmet and shoes on, grabbed my bike, and ran out (via a nasty sand covered hill) to the “mount line” where I got on my bike and rode off. I’m not going to go into gory detail about the ride, but any ground I had gained in the swim was pretty much lost… the wind was howling, absolutely blasting. And the 1^st 13 km were either against the headwind or being hit by a cross-wind that was so powerful that I was in real danger of being blown off my bike. It felt as though I was fighting with my handlebars to stay on track. Also, it was raining – horrible stinging rain in my eyes – and the road was very wet and slippery and covered in puddles… not ideal for trying to race. Maybe it was just me, but I really struggled with the bike leg. And to add insult to injury, the bike course ended on an up-hill, so that put paid to any fast cadence leg-spinning I had planned to prep for the run. Instead, I ended with heavy hill-pushing leg muscles and HORRIBLE jelly-legs.

I managed to put on my (also soaking) running shoes and rack my bike, and tried my best to run out onto the course but sheesh – I could hardly move the bloody heavy log-like things that I had masquerading as legs. I knew I’d get over it eventually (thanks to the SSISA’s brick training sessions) but it was a long slog until that happened. And the run route had some deceptive ups and downs on it – as well as some wind, some rain, and some off-road. I lost even more ground here as it seemed every woman in the entire race was overtaking me! But luckily I finally found that a little more of my legs came back to me at about 3 km, and the last 2 km were not fabulous, but bearable. There was a diabolical little hill just before the finish stretch, and there was the line at last! My family were there to cheer me over… it was a pity they were all looking the other way and not paying attention, and I had to go and shout “Oy! Hello? A little support??” at them before they noticed me, and I could run over the finish line.

And just about collapse in a heap. What a race!

getting there…

Race Weekend

Somehow, during a frantic Thursday full of work, holding my second public meeting that evening, wrangling the toddler since my husband was out of town for the day at a meeting himself, and arranging for my (nervous) father to pick the little one up from crèche and do the evening routine with him while I did my work presentation, I completely forgot about training. Really, I did. I only realised the next day that I was supposed to have done a swim and a run, and hadn’t done either! Hoping that it was too late to matter much…

Friday rolled around and we packed everything into the car. After many dramas! Our double cab bakkie had developed an oil leak and engine issues and was in the shop, which meant we were only left with a small Peugeot hatchback… to fit 4 people (2 in car seats), a bike, a MASSIVE tog bag, a camp cot and mattress, all the toys and paraphernalia to keep 2 kids under 5 busy for a weekend, food, clothes…. yeah right! And no bike rack either. Plus – last minute – oh heck, what are we going to do with the dog over the weekend?? Chaos, panic, stress… eventually packing into the in-law’s double cab bakkie, borrowed for the weekend. Dog staying at their farm. Everything in, and off we go.

But horrors! A massive accident on the N1 outgoing, causing the entire road to be closed. In rush hour. On a Friday afternoon. We turned off at Plattekloof, then crossed over into Bellville, then crossed back over into Durbanville, then crossed back over into Brackenfell, then into Kraaifontein, and finally made it passed the closed section of the road and back onto the N1 about an hour later. In the heat… barely maintaining our composure. Then clonk…clonk…bang, crash. Stop the car, only to discover that the indicator light at the front had previously only been stuck on with insulation tape, a not terribly effective measure, and it had now had fallen out – more drama. From there it was relatively smooth sailing until the R60 out of Worcester, which had 2 “stop and go” roadwork sections that we waited 20 minutes at… each. With 2 now awake and very impatient kids who had had more than enough of the car.

About 5 hours after leaving Kommetjie we rolled into our accommodation, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then realised we’d forgotten the camp cot, and every bed in our cottage (and Leann’s cottage next door) was being used already. Luckily the accommodation was able to find an extremely old rickety camp cot that we jammed between furniture and the wall to keep upright, and that worked wonderfully (once we stuffed cushions between the cot and the wall, after our son nearly brained himself by flinging himself down in his cot but misjudging distance and hitting his head extremely hard against the concrete wall…).

Bliss – a beautiful farm, a stunning view, gorgeous swimming pool, and our first lobsters of the season on the braai 🙂

Saturday was the hottest day of the year so far. The kids and the rest of the family spent the day at the pool. Leann and I went on a mission to try and meet the rest of the programme team and coaches at the triathlon venue for a swim, jog and orientation. 2 hours after we set out, and many many many wrong turns later, we arrived, hot, sweaty, tired and rattled. In 38 degrees! We had completely missed the group swim, but managed to go through the orientation – where transition was, the swim start and finish, the bike in and out, the run out, etc. Then we were so flipping hot that we did our own swim! The dam was beautifully warm, and there was talk that wetsuits wouldn’t be allowed the next day. So we did the swim without suits just in case. Then hopped back in the car and went back to the accommodation.

By the time we got back we’d spent the better part of a very hot day in a car and we were tired, overheated and (in my case) a little grumpy. I won’t go into painful detail of the rest of the day but we went out for supper, it was very hot, it was very late, we ate very little (it was heavy winter food like lamb shank and mashed potato) and we only got to bed at midnight. Sheesh… great race preparation!!

Gale-force time trials

Tuesday

I didn’t do the cycle scheduled for today. I couldn’t do it in the morning before work because my husband left at 5.30 am on a work trip – I couldn’t do it during the day because I was trying to do the final prep for the meetings, and I was at the meeting from 4.30 – 7.30 pm. And that’s despite the fact that it’s the last week… and I haven’t cycled in who knows how long… ugh!!

Wednesday

Today is the 5 km time trial around Rondebosch Common, to compare to our pre-programme 5 km time trial result. I’m nervous! And apprehensive about my calf muscle strains. We’ll see how it goes later…

We assembled at 5.45 at Rondebosch Common in a HOWLING South-Easter – which is a change from the last time trial we ran there that was pretty much windless. After the pre-race briefing (and some enthusiastic yapping from the canine participants) and the walk to the start point, off we went. It was fine for the first bit, but then we rounded the corner next to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and wham – the wind hit like a sledgehammer, and continued to push against us all the way (and it’s the longest stretch, too!) until we had rounded the next corner. On round 2, the same thing happened, except the wind was so exacerbated this time that I actually had to bend forward and try to push my way through it. Leann said it was like trying to punch through with her arms!

Lezandre was running with us (as was Kasha, but she was off with the fast people!), and she told us to try and take small steps and increase our leg speed, especially against the wind, rather than taking bigger strides. It’s apparently very energy-efficient… and she was totally right! It made such a difference if I just upped the leg cadence and took more steps. Kasha had in fact told us this at the beginning of the course but now with the awful wind factor, it actually made sense when I put it into practice.

In the end, I did about 25 min 50, which is a full 3 minutes faster than the first time trial, despite the really insane wind, so I was pleased with the improvement. And whilst I felt dead at the end, within a few minutes I was totally fine – that quick recovery is really a sign of increased fitness. So yes, the programme has worked wonders for my running 🙂

It was quite surreal saying goodbye to everyone and “see you at Brandvlei” – at the triathlon. Can’t believe it’s already here. Not to get through the mad amount of work I also have before then…

I also got my copy of Tim Noakes’s new book (Challenging Beliefs) from Wilma (http://blogs.health24.com/Supergirl101) for being the first person to answer the question on her blog correctly – hooray for me! Can’t wait to get into it… maybe after this mad week!

Went home to a lovely bath with my little boy, and delicious baked potato, salad and seared tuna steak prepared (and caught!) by my darling husband. And then had to sit up late sewing an elf costume for my son’s crèche concert… the joys 🙂 He’ll look ridiculously cute, at any rate!!

transitioning…

Monday

After a panicky day at work trying to sort out last-minute crises and prepare for my public meetings that I’m holding this week, I rushed into SSISA at 5 pm to do my 1 km swim before our transition training session. I decided it would be a good idea to swim in my borrowed wetsuit as much as possible, so I wore the suit for the swim, even in the gym pool! Felt like a bit of a fool, but at least I got some more wetsuit swimming under my belt. Although, when doing my cool-down 100 m, I realised that it is NOT advisable to swim breaststroke in a wetsuit… it keeps your legs much too buoyant and it’s impossible to kick!

After the swim I got the rest of my stuff together (bike, helmet, cycling shoes, running shoes, towel) and went round the back of SSISA to do transition training with the crew. It was a little less frenetic this time – partly because we had (most of us) done the previous transition session, and partly because Richard wasn’t there making us all feel panicky and competitive like we were in an elite race 🙂 but there was still a degree of headless-chicken-ness about the whole shebang. I’m still not good at getting onto my bike – and managed to forget to unclip my shoe when trying to get off my bike but luckily it was not my “landing” leg!!

It’ll be interesting to see how different it is during the actual event, when we have a much longer run from swim to bike, and have actually just raced 650 m of swimming.

When I got home I was so exhausted, for some reason (think it was the day at work rather than the training), that by 8.30 pm I was in bed, lights out, without even having had supper!

weather update for Sunday

Looks like a perfect day – warm and sunny but not too hot (since we start at 9.30 am we’ll hopefully be finished by 11.30 am), and the light rain only hits later!

Sunday20/11/2011	02:00–08:00		22°	0 mm	Light air, 1 m/s from west
	08:00–14:00		24°	0 mm	Gentle breeze, 4 m/s from west-northwest
	14:00–20:00		28°	0 mm	Moderate breeze, 7 m/s from west-northwest
	20:00–02:00		19°	0.3 mm	Moderate breeze, 6 m/s from west-northwest

the re-assessment grump session!

Saturday

The jog yesterday went well. It seems that if I run slowly, and on the flat, 4.5 km doesn’t really even register as a run anymore. So that’s good news. Now onto today’s shenanigans…

I presented myself (and my bike) at SSISA at 6.55 am. Grumpy and tired – we are not supposed to eat anything really, and are definitely not allowed to have any caffeine. I cheated on the food… had toast with butter and Bovril… but obeyed the coffee/tea restriction and hence was a super-grump. I don’t know what it was about the process that made me feel down, but somehow I walked out of SSISA post-assessment feeling really despondent. It may have been the obsessive-compulsive discussions taking place of calories, weight, dieticians, nutritionists, how many calories in each jelly-baby and how everyone is structuring their eating… I know the triathlon is a week away but I find this obsession with sports nutrition and the latest gear all very boring! I don’t know about the rest of the programme members but I joined this as a fun fitness challenge – I’m not an elite athlete, I’m not competing (I’m completing, hopefully), and I am not intending to let this take over my life.

OK, rant over (clearly I’m still a little grumpy), and back to Saturday’s assessment. We don’t have the results yet of all the calculations, but my pulse is down from 72 to 60, my weight’s the same, my cholesterol is up but still low, and my blood pressure’s the same. My cycle PPO improved by 25 %, and my swim by 12 seconds. The running time trial is only on Wednesday so we will see what happens there… hoping for about a 2 minute improvement but who knows!

Afterwards, Inge, Leann and I headed off to Silvermine Dam where we covered ourselves in Spray ‘n Cook and KY Jelly (it sounds kinky, but it is most decidedly not. In fact it’s just icky, more than anything!), put our wetsuits and everything on, did a small swim, and then practiced running out of the dam and taking our suits off as quickly as we could. I had Spray ‘n Cooked the left hand side of myself and KY Jelly’s the right hand side to test if I could detect a difference. The wetsuit come sliding off like greased lightning! I couldn’t notice any difference in ease of wetsuit removal between the 2 – but the SnC definitely lasted longer afterwards (it’s oil-based not water-based). Not sure if that helps though! And I smelt like butter until I showered it off… ugh 😦

Sunday

After the rain eased up (hello, summer???) I went for a gorgeous 40 minute sunset run this evening. Grump over 🙂

My calves seem to be improving – hoping they don’t object to a time trial. I may have to take it a little easy on Wednesday because the race is on Sunday, and any increase in pace seems to cause the problem to flare up. It’s Voltaren emulgel and anti-inflammatories for me this week to try and speed healing!

On another note, I have been looking at the long term weather forecast for Worcester (triathlon venue) and this weekend looks STINKING hot (yay for swimming pools and rivers at our accommodation farm), but with some light rain on Sunday morning. This is NOT a good thing – road riding in the rain, and running in the heat… neither optimal!

Have a look here (this is apparently a very reliable site)

http://www.yr.no/place/South_Africa/Western_Cape/Worcester/long.html

DIY bricks, ghostbusters, bubbly and bull sharks

Thursday

Today the sun is shining and the roads are dry. I have a brick session planned for the evening – to make up for the one I’m missing on Saturday.

And I actually managed to do one! Once again Leanne came through and we parked the cars at Scarborough, in the parking lot of a restaurant and right up against the veranda that people were having drinks at (more on this later). We geared up, got onto our bikes and headed off. We did ride very slowly for the first half of the ride, just warming up. What a gorgeous route – undulating, winding through the hills and Fynbos covered slopes with a view of the sea. And in the latter stages of the route, along the boundary of the Cape Point Reserve. After about 7 or so km, we turned around and rode back, going significantly faster! Coming into Scarborough, I remembered the whole “fast cadence = easier transition to running” idea and flipped to a much easier gear, spinning my legs furiously and feeling like a total tosser as we cycled into the parking lot.

We stashed the bikes in the car – and this is why we had put them right up against a veranda full of people, so that we could feel easier about leaving them – slipped on the running shoes, and went in the opposite direction towards Misty Cliffs. I don’t know if it was the slow pace, the downhill section at the end of the ride, the fast spinning, or the fact that I’m more practiced at it, but the transition was almost painless. What a blessing 🙂 And it was truly spectacular, running along next to the sea, in a cool breeze, with a beautiful sunset. Plus, the whole route (cycle and run) was in minimal traffic – if we were passed by 15 cars total it was a lot.

After 15 minutes we turned around and ran back, doing a total of 30 mins running on top of a 40 minute cycle. A 14 km cycle and a 5.7 km run. So although not a major brick, it was a brick session nevertheless. And a perfect wind-down to a frantic and stressful day.

Saturday

This morning I skipped the group “brick” (aka torture session) and instead joined a group of colleagues and friends to do the 15 km Devon Valley Run through the beautiful wine estates of the Devon Valley (think Clos Malverne, JC le Roux, Stonehill, etc.). We went as a group entry and our dress-up theme was Ghostbusters – so it was khaki shirts (and skirt in my case), black knee socks, water pistols, caps, backpacks and a mini dust-buster vacuum cleaner for Helen! Along the route was wine, bubbly, snacks, fruit, music, and festivities. The route itself was either up or down, all the time, so if you chose to run (which we did, about 60-70% of the time) then there was also a great workout to be had.

An aside – I’ve been really struggling with my lower inner calf strain thingies again – both legs – it seems to flare up after every run that I increase the pace and do a hard, fast run (like last Monday’s intervals). So after today I am going to ease off on the running for a few days as the physio suggested and give it time to heal a bit.

Here are some of my Ghost-buster colleagues en route 🙂

the Devon Valley Run - Ghostbusters

Sunday – Thursday

I spent this last week at a conference in Stilbaai, accompanied by husband and offspring. Relaxing it was not! We were both trying to attend the conference, so we tag-teamed in and out of sessions while looking after the small-bite. Not optimal, especially when my husband dropped the ball and allowed the toddler to escape during my presentation, so he came running in to tell me about ice-creams and suchlike at the top of his voice in front of 100 people… and I ended up giving my talk with him on my hip, pulling my ponytail and saying “Mama’s tail” at the top of his lungs. Hmmm…

Anyway, I only managed to get in 1 real training swim up the estuary. And the entire time I was freaking myself out and getting the real heebie-jeebies about Zambezi sharks – after all, they occur in the Breede which is west of Stilbaai… and then a fish would swim past and I’d think “that’s a grunter… it’s perfect shark food”. A scary swim 🙂 but the water is so wonderful. I wish we had 20 degree sea water in Cape Town!

And now I’m back, terrified that I’ve lost all my training and fitness 😦 I have a short slow jog scheduled for today (Friday) to warm up my legs and assess my calf muscles, and then tomorrow it’s re-assessment day! The repeat of the assessment we had in our first week – cycling PPO and swim time trial. Wonder what it’s going to hold… and if I’ll make it at least onto the “untrained” chart (if you remember, last time I didn’t even make onto the untrained baseline!! Terrifying…)

DON’T forget to rinse!!

Tuesday

When my alarm went off at 5 am this morning I very reluctantly got out of bed. But I made the effort, and was up, in the kitchen, kettle on, all that stuff. My bike and gear was packed into the car the night before, and I had everything I needed for work already in my tog bag. Then I looked outside. I even went outside in my pj’s to check. Yup… RAIN! It was STILL raining, the ground was wet, the clouds were low, the paving was puddled and gleaming. I went back inside, sent Leanne a text, and got back into bed! I was not prepared to go for a cycle in the rain, either from a safety or a comfort point of view, especially not on a weekday morning when there is traffic about. I’m really hoping the rain stops soon; it’s wreaking havoc with my training. Maybe it’ll be OK or me to get a gap this evening. Or not!

Wednesday

At lunchtime, after a morning full of meetings, I was more than ready to shake the cobwebs off. So a couple of colleagues and I kitted up and set off for a run from work – to the common, around it, and back. About 6.5-7 km, I guess. It was hot and sunny and I’d forgotten my hat (seriously silly mistake), but a lovely run. And we broke in the newly installed shower at our office afterwards. It make such a difference, I find, to my afternoon concentration levels – definitely helps to avoid that post-lunch slump!

At 5.30 pm we assembled in the pool at SSISA for our group training session. On the programme was a 2 km swim! The furthest we’ve swum so far, and the furthest we are going to swim, I’s guess. Especially since it’s more than 3 x race distance. Anyway, Coach Sharon told us that we’d actually only be swimming 1.9 km… wow, a whole 4 laps less! What a relief 🙂 We set off with drills, kicks, assorted strokes, and other fun warm ups. Then we settled into the main set: 4 x 200 m with 30 sec rest, then 4 x 100 m with 20 sec rest. Whew!

Somewhere in the middle of the 200 m sets I began to notice my swimming cap was not behaving itself. It often feels like it’s pulling up off my head, but this time it really was doing it. I couldn’t swim 25 m without my cap slipping right off, no matter what I did. It’s the same cap I use every time… couldn’t imagine what the problem was. Until I finally took off my cap, and it was super slippery and slick… and too late I remembered sticking my head under the shower after my run, and then just spraying leave-in conditioner into it. So my hair was wet and covered in slimy conditioner – no wonder the cap wouldn’t stay on! I borrowed Sharon’s cap, and either the conditioner had rinsed out or the fact that her cap was totally dry meant that it stayed on the rest of the workout. To catch up I swam the rest of the 200m repeats with no breaks whatsoever – I think I swam about 600m straight!

Because we were 4 lengths short of the 2 km mark, our gung-ho group (the guys, anyway) suggested we do 4 x 25 m sprints at the end of the main set, before our cool-down. “come on girls, you up for it?” Pttththth! What a way to kill ourselves at the end of a workout 🙂 but hey, that’s my first ever 2 km swim (I think).