Recently in Swim Category

Bert woke me at 7am this morning with the usual 'flap,flap, flap' on the letterbox which tells me that he and Ernie are still waiting for their breakfast. Normally this is a bit of a rude awakening, but with only a half bottle of wine last night, I felt surprisingly chipper, and the clear, bright blue sky made me feel good about the day.  I decided to do something useful. 

Sophie had helpfully reminded me yesterday that I need to work some more on my swim if I'm going to survive Windsor, and as I brewed my cup of tea I realised I only have 8 weeks before my first swim (at Blenheim), and only 9 weeks before Windsor!  I had found my something useful.

There's no white line on the bottom of the lake, and you don't often get a rope to guide you, so I always have trouble swimming in a straight line in open water.  Bearing that in mind here are my top tips for how to swim in a straight line:

1. Bi-lateral breathing
   When I learnt to swim at school, I was taught to swim every 4th stroke, and always breathe to the right hand side.  This makes for an inherently uneven swim stroke, and can tend to drag you to one side.   Learning to breathe every 3 strokes, and breathe on the right and the left can help you go straighter.
   
2. Look where you're going
   If you're swimming breastroke, you'll tend to go in a straight line, but because your head is underwater 90% of the time with front crawl, you'll find yourself swimming in circles unless you learn a technique known as sighting.  Before you start off in the direction of the next buoy, work out where it is in relation to something large and obvious in the landscape - a large tree or electricity pylon is good. Then  aim to look up every 10-15 strokes, either as part of your breathing motion, or by just slightly bringing your eyes to the surface, and see where your point of reference is.  Make small adjustments if you go off track rather than large movements which can be the start of a wild zig-zagging motion which can significantly increase the distance you end up swimming!

Had my first "members-only" open water swim at Cassington with Oxford Tri today. It was fantastic.  For any of you that is tempted by open water swimming but is worried, don't be.   I've put up some novice tips on open water swimming here.

Since it was my first time, I was advised to stick in a group (actually, everyone does this anyway - it makes everyone feel safe and also means they can stop at the various bouys and have a natter).  I tagged onto the back of a couple of ladies that looked like they were heading for an 'easy' route.  They were kind enough to lead me round and we did a couple of laps of the lake - or about 1200m, which was good enough for me.

The Oxford Tri open water sessions are well organised and friendly, so if you are looking for your first open water swim (or if your experienced and just want to do more), I'd strongly recommend them.  They're available only to members, but membership is so cheap and easy you might as well join!