The Winter Blues

The nights closing in, the lakes all but closed in the evenings, the rain flooding the rivers, the temperatures of the few lakes that are open dropping. Yes, It is the time of the year that some swimmers in the Northern hemispheres dread! Time to get back to the chlorine pit for the winter training! The heat, the chlorine, the bad lane etiquette, fighting for your patch of water. It is enough to make one want to stop swimming altogether. If that was not enough to put you off swimming in the winter, some of the more iconic swims are either selling or publishing dates when they will be taking their entries for next years events.

Gone are the days when you could leave it until after the holiday season to enter some of these events. Many swims now fill up in hours, not days, weeks or months. If you had your eye on them, or one of the many coveted non wetsuit spots, October can be a very expensive month but it is also when your desire to swim wanes terribly, or in some cases, just falls off a cliff! That is the situation that I find myself in now. If I want to escape the heat of the indoor pools, I am now reduced to paying per swim at one of the few lakes that is open. The Rivers are an option but it seems that someone left the taps on so the incessant rain has seen an increase in flooding turning many of the rivers into the overflow for the sewers. The ocean is also there but it is a fair trek for me to get to it. The only viable option for me to fit training around my busy life is the local batthub – sorry POOLS!

It seems that I too have a bout of laziness that just seems insurmountable at the moment. So how do you deal with this time of the year and keep on going?

Well, if you have had a busy summer, now is the time to take a break, catch up with the family and friends, watch the World cup rugby, get over that injury that you are carrying and STOP FEELING GUILTY FOR DOING IT. Fortunately, nowadays there is still plenty to do with certain pool based events to book onto. Somewhere there is always a Christmas 100 x100m that you can sign up to. These will test you in many ways. If you have never heard of hot water acclimation, IT IS REAL! As I do every year for the past 4 years, I have signed up to one of the aforementioned swims. Most of them are by invite only but there will always be some nutters who will be doing it somewhere. This is not a format that I relish; but neither is doing a 10km non-stop swim in a heated pool. I have been put into the fast lane so we will be doing the 100m on 1 minute 40 seconds turn around. As every lane needs a back marker, I anticipate the swim will go something like this: I might get to lead the lane in the early part of the swim; when I am fresh. So the first 5 -7km I will have a few seconds rest between the 100s and the the last 3km I will probably have to swim non stop. Everyone wins: I get the opportunity to vary my swim at the beginning , having a few few rests; then just swim it out at the back. Now most of these swims will be in a heated pool, if you are lucky, they will be outside, in a 50m pool, but others will be in a lesiure pool.

With the concept of having a goal that will keep me training. Gone are the days when I could just rock up at a 10km swim and wing in; without any training! I am getting too old to do that. I am certain my mother will be very pleased to hear me say this.

I went off to the local indoor pool and thrashed out 2.5km in water close to 28 degrees Celcius (82.4 Fahrenheit). Bear in mind the last time I swam was in the Lovely coolness of Loch Lomond – which was about 15 degrees Celcius (59 Fahrenheit). I forgot how utterly exhausting swimming at my training speeds in water that hot can be. If I thought I came out of 2 degree (35.6 Fahrenheit) water bright red, Well at the other end of the scale, the results are the same. The only difference is when I come out of cold water I feel invogorated and revitalised . Get out of warm water and I feel absolutely exhausted. So over the next 6 weeks I need to work my way up to 10km in bathtub temperatures without undergoing self combustion along the way. So yes, HOT water acclimation is very real.

If training hard during the winter is not your thing, this is an ideal time to curb the distances and work on technique, set yourself little goals of increasing speed or adjusting your stroke. If the bank is not already broken from booking onto a plethora of swims for next summer, get some coaching. Personally I train on my own and make up my own sets and coach myself. Sometimes I might be lucky enough to get a companion to join me for my swims. I will still get into the lakes and the rivers to have an invigorating swim.

I have noticed that there are quite a few posts on social media about people carrying injuries andasking; “Are they able to take two weeks off training?” In my Opinion, yes. Certainly, this is the time to do it. In the two weeks that you will not be in the water, the loss of fitness and speed is negligible. I have just taken about 6 weeks out and when I got back into the pool, my times had not dropped at all. I admit that my endurance is down but that can be built up pretty quickly. I cannot vouch for everybody else. But, if you are sitting there comparing your training to others who are doing the similar challenges next year. Do your self a favour and STOP! all of our circumstances are different and none of us have the same challenges as anybody else out there. Some are fast, some slow, some have family and children, some have limited access to pools some not. The differences are endless. Comparing yourself to others, whose abilities and challenges are totally different to yours is putting you on the motorway to disappointment and despondency. For your own sanity, train and swim to YOUR ability, do not expect that just by following others will make you like them; It will not!

Like many of us at this time of the year we are looking at the calenders for next year and I have my eye on a few of the medium distance swims that have tickled my fancy. Also the fact that it will take me to new places. I have also been asked to help out on a few channel swims so that will keep me occupied over the winter.

Happy swimming and take this time to work on your technique and drills. the hot water is not the place to do distance work. If anyone would like some coaching tips or sets made up for them then let me know and I will be happy to help out.

Keep a lookout from something else coming from the Zimhippo in the next month or so. it has been a few years in the making but is about to be finished.