Vlad's Sydney Swim Sessions

I flew into Sydney a couple of days after the Rottnest swim, still a bit annoyed with myself, by ‘a bit’ I mean massively. I thought it was all over and I had no chance of ever getting across the Channel. The only thing in my favour was the lack of cut-off times on a Channel crossing, however this didn’t make up for the fact that I was completely blown out of the water by every single other swimmer I saw. Plus, excellently, I forgot to zinc the back of my hands and now had the worst sun burn I had ever experienced. They were throbbing, it really was a welcome bonus.

I felt very sorry for myself. After getting to my hotel I had a look on my phone to find a message from Vlad saying he would see me at 0600 the next morning at the pool. To say I didn’t really feel like it would be an understatement, but after everything that was said on Rottnest I thought I had better go along. This was an excellent decision.

Sydney Harbour

0515 arrived and I was up wobbling around trying to dress without really having the use of my hands. It was horrific. I made the 30 minute walk to the ‘Andrew Boy Charlton Pool’ still feeling pretty low, but within about 10 seconds of seeing Vlad again I felt a lot better. He was so enthusiastic, really loving what he was doing and you could tell straight away the whole squad loved it too. I have never seen so many happy people at 0545 in the morning!

I got in the pool and started the warm-up, pretty much immediately being over taken by everyone. I was obviously in the slow lane but it was like no slow lane I had ever seen. Vlad just said don’t worry about it, forget about everyone else and just concentrate on my stroke. He said pretty much the exact same things were wrong with my stroke that Dawn and Gill had said in England, but sometimes it hits home a bit more when you are told by somebody else. I swam for about 2 hours doing more sets and sprints then I had ever done, this was pretty much achieved after one set as I had never done them before. Vlad spoke to me after the swim and we arranged a few one on one sessions. I wasn’t completely over my post-Rottnest depression but I had had a very good start.

Drills (Press play on the bottom bar at 6 seconds for the soundtrack, youtube reasons)

As the sessions passed I was sure I was becoming faster, nothing outrageous but I wasn’t being left behind quite as much as on the first day. Vlads enthusiasm was really starting to rub off on me and I was getting back into the swing of things. ‘Smile and be happy in the water’ was his saying, and I was smiling. I was doing new drills, which were slight variants on the ones I had already practiced and I was slowly becoming more comfortable and stream lined in the water. I think seeing all these excellent swimmers still doing drills made me realise I was insane to think I could just get in the pool and do hour sets before my stroke was completely sorted. It turns out getting pulled from the water at Rottnest was the best thing that could have happened to me, it really gave me a kick up the arse that was needed. I went back to basics and it was helping immensely.

Start Line of the Sydney Harbour Classic

I still had one more swim to do in Australia, the Sydney Harbour Classic, and my aim was to finish in the pack, something I had never managed to do in any of my previous swims. It was only 2km but I entered as the chance to swim in front of the Opera House was too good to turn down.

When the day came I definitely felt more confident then I had in a while and for the first time wanted to do more than just finish the swim. As the swim started I was amazed as I wasn’t completely left behind! Usually I am alone after the first few minutes but now I was staying in touch with everyone else. I was obviously not in the middle of the pack, but just clinging on to the back of it. This was a massive improvement. As we passed the halfway buoy I was still there, and I felt fine, almost cruising along so I decided I would try to up my pace a bit. I started over taking people, this was a completely new experience. I assumed I must have been going the wrong way. I was still going past people at the end and I climbed out of the water after 33 minutes, not bad for 2km at all. There must have been a slight help from the current but I was happy to have finished in front of people rather than the finish time, as open water times are always hard to judge due to all the exterior factors involved.

Fresh as a daisy after finishing with the pack, for the first time

I had reached the end of my time in Australia after what had begun as a nightmare ended up being an excellent time. I couldn’t thank Vlad, or Cameron enough for everything they had done for me. I had never met anybody like them, willing to help with no ulterior motives at all, just awesome people. Vlad even told me he would send me a training programme to follow when I returned to England, this would help massively as there’s nothing worse than getting in the pool and not having a clue what to do, which is what I had been doing for the last few months.

First things first though, I still had to fly to Gozo on the Swimtrek Long Distance training camp, where I would hopefully complete my 6 hour cold water swim to qualify for the Channel…