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FINA XII World Masters Championships (Perth, Western Australia)


Well, at last, I nearly got my flat water

The World masters 3k Open Water race was held on Friday 25th April (ANZAC day) in the Swan river on the centre of Perth This was the last event of the championships.

The weather was brilliant, 26C bright sun and a water temperature of 21C. The course was a straight 1.5k against the current turn then 1.5k back.

There were some 700 swimmers so registration and numbering took some time. The event was swum in age groups so all the youngsters were registered and away and back before our age group. There was electronic timing, unusual for o/w swims we all had two sensors on our wrists and before the start had to pass them over a pad then at the end bang on a board to stop them.
Some local lasses!!!!

We all entered the water through the rowing club boat shed ready for the in water start. It is very unusual to swim exclusively with your own age group with swimmers from all over but particularly from Oz.


Me in fancy new suit. Don't know if it did any good

Off we went on the first 1.5k no dramas, bumped into a few jellyfish, non stinging type, but a bit odd, you just push them aside but they don't feel too nice. Round the turn and back. Only slight difficulty was swimming with the sun directly ahead which made spotting a bit difficult especially near the finish when you had to get through the buoys.

Nearing the finish

Had a good tussle with a South Africa, from Duirban, though, obviously, I didn't know who he was at the time. We did a bit of bumping and banging before I managed to get ahead a couple of hundred metres from the finish.

Good race I think.

Time 58min 43sec which is my quickest 3k
Position in age group 65-69, 19th of 36

Overall I was pretty pleased with that. The guys at the front were 10mins ahead. How they do that I don't know. I guess I've just got to train harder. Maybe I overdid the tapering in the last week and also overdid the carbs. But a great experience anyway and roll on Sweden 2010.

Richard Posted by: litsl (5.5.08)

Queensland Camtains Cup 4k Open Water Swim

Hi again from Queensland,

Well you know when you go on holiday in Europe, say the Med. or Aegean or places like that and the sea is nearly always just about as flat as it can be well why isn't it like that when I come here?

Report

Camtains Cup 4k Open Water swim, Glenelg, Adelaide, South Australia Sunday 30th March.

This is the last swim, they don't call them races, in a 10 event series run by various Masters Clubs in and around Adelaide.

Usually the course is a straight 4k from Brighton jetty to Glenelg jetty but this year, because of an international beach vollyball tournament it meant that we had to swim 3k straight then turn back for the last 1k.

1030 start and 43 intrepid swimmers prepared to enter the sea. Any normal person who thought I'll just pop down to Brighton for a quick dip would have taken one look turned round and gone back to bed, or at least for a cup of coffee. Until the previous week Adelaide had had a record breaking heatwave with no wind the sea temperaturers had been 23-24 degC. By the time I got ther the temperature had dropped to 18-19 and a strong wind was blowing. More like Eastbourne than Adelaide.

Immediately on entering the water a nasty littlish rain squall blew across so it was a good job the starter had an air horn. I would describe the conditions at the start a somewhat akin to an aquatic assault course. Big waves everywhere. Off we went, any attempt at swimming correctly was a non starter it was more a matter of survival. There were several occasions when I turned my head to breath only to be confronted with a breaking wave descending on me and bouncing me about, then consider ones arm recovery, this is normally done clear of the water, not always possible here as the water was on top. We survived this first part of the swim, though iI never even saw the 1k marker buoy. Eventually the 2k buoys, they call them cans, came into sight and things started to calm down a bit, the sun even came out. Generally the wind and current were with us for the first 3k so we got to the 3k turn round the cans and back 1k into the wind and current. This was, probably, the toughest 1k I have ever swum and so to the finish on the beach at Somerton Surf Lifesaving Club.

All 43 swimmers completed the course, they are pretty tough these South Aussies. The winner was, I think about 15.
Position 33 of 43
Position in age group (60-69) 3rd. If it had been 5 vr. age band position would have been 1st.
Time 1hr 32.59

I'm not sure if it was fun but it certainly was a challenge.

Otherwise training is going really well both on my own and with the Miami Masters club. I'm up to about 18k per week now with one weeks training left befor going over to Perth.

The Swan river will be a doddle compared to this.

Richard Posted by: Richard (10.4.08)

Extra programmed lane swim locally & circuit training

This is a word of mouth recommendation for some extra training
sessions that are available locally from Dave Silk (who regularly
swims with with us in lane 2).

Saturday 12 noon - 1 hour programmed lane swim - The Leys School Pool
(Cambridge) - £5 (no closure for easter, this is on tomorrow)
(suitable for tri-club and Impington Swimmers lanes 2,3 and 4 -
probably not intense enough for lane 1 swimmers)

Tuesdays 7.30pm - 1.5 hours circuit training - Cottenham Village
College - £5 (no closure for easter - this is on next week)
(circuit training with around 20 stations including an ergo)

Thursday 7.30pm - 1.5 hours circuit training - Comberton Village
College - £5 (restarts April 10th)
(circuit training with around 20 stations including an ergo)

From my point of view, circuit training is the one exercise I do which
keeps me strong enough to do all the other sports - I used to be
addicted to Yoga but find circuits better.

For more details please call Dave Silk on 07796 491 883 Posted by: litsl (29.3.08)

Term Dates

Mondays 7th April - 14th July
Thursdays 10th April - 17th July

(Closed on BOTH bank holiday mondays) Posted by: litsl (29.3.08)

Richard is in Queensland

G'day from, not always too sunny,Queensland.


Good to see some good times from Sudbury!


We are here on the Gold Coast at my son's just 10 mins from the beach.

I have joined Miami Masters SC as a guest for training. They have 2 x 1hr sessions per week. I manage to get to the Tuesday evening session 1830-1930. The pool complex has 2 x 50m outdoor pools an 8 lane and a 10 lane see pic, there is also a small indoor teaching pool. It is quite interesting training outdoors in the dark. Sessions are about 2500m and I can keep up with lane 2, just.


Otherwise there is a netted off area on the Broadwater, see pic, and 30 lengths takes me around 1hr continuous swimming. The sea is as warm as the pool and I manage to get a good swim in most days.






The race I entered in New Zealand was cancelled due to bad weather so I hope that my next event a 4k open water race in Adelaide will go ahead a planned on 30th March


Then it is on to Perth for the world Masters with the 3k OW on the last day 25th April. We will see how that goes eventually


Attached I hope are a few pics, the one with the fish was taken on the Great Barrier Reef and no that is not my new racing suit. It is 'stinger' season so we all had to wear these fetching suits


All for now


Richard
Posted by: Richard (20.3.08)