North Bondi Classic

Date : 08th Feb 2009

The day of my first sea swim comp finally arrived. It was the North Bondi Classic 2KM swim..

The build up :
I felt quite confident after a couple of sea swim sessions in the last week. I haven't done a long sea swim, but was hoping that my kick boxing fitness combined with my swimming technique should be sufficient to register myself in this event. It took me a while to convince myself to register for it..
The following well worded 'terms and conditions' on the site was giving me second thoughts for a while :
Risk Warning pursuant to Civil Liability Act 2002 (section 5M)

Ocean swims are demanding and potentially dangerous events. Risks include drowning, natural obstacles,man-made or -controlled obstacles, and marine attack. The Ocean Swim takes place in the open ocean. Swimmers enter at their own risk. You should have a medical check prior to entry, and prepare for the event by training. Water safety craft will patrol the course for the duration of the Ocean Swim. If a swimmer feels unable to proceed further in the swim, the attention of the water safety personnel should be sought.

The Ocean Swim organisers cannot guarantee your safety. The Ocean Swim organisers reserve the right to bring to shore by the water patrol any entrants which they deem to be incapable of competing further in the event. While in the competition area - including the beach and water environments - entrants must follow all directions of Waverley Lifeguards and Ocean Swim organiser’s officials and water safety personnel.

After much thought, I decided to sign up for it. Not only sign up, but also thought I'll do the 2K swim instead of the 1K swim (The 1km swim is proving very popular for older swimmers not trained for the 2km and younger swimmers 10 years of age and older.)

Pre-Swim :
The weather was about 34 degrees (with an expected max heat in the west to be about 45!!).. I got there just in time to see the 1K swim start. I wanted to be there to see it, as I've never seen an ocean swim comp before. The beach was packed with Swimmers and families..
Rahul the lazy ass backed out and let me down (AGAIN).. Fortunately, Mark turned up on time and was there to mind my stuff and make sure I actually return to shore :)
I went for a quick dip in the sea prior to the start of the race. I did realise that the water is cold, but thought it wasn't too bad (ohhh how wrong I was!!! - The water turned out to be 15 degrees and it was supposed to be one of the coldest most swimmers have experienced)

The Start line :
The swimmers started at various waves depending on the colour of the cap (which depends on their age/sex category).. I was initially hoping to join the back of the pack (The group which starts right at the end and is designed for slower swimmers).. however, since I was wearing a yellow cap and was in the age/sex category, I had to start off in that group. I must admit, I was really nervous even before starting the race.. The sea was calm and there wasn't any waves and I wasn't sure how packed and serious the swimmers will be when entering the water..
First to go was the younger swimmers ... next in line was my group!!

The swim :
After a long and anxious 3 minutes of watching the young swimmers swim away from the shore, it was our turn to go. Everyone rushed to the water.. I did not really race to the water, but entered straight after the main group of swimmers did. I don't recall much of the first few minutes in the water. All I remember was trying to keep up with the group and swimming in until a few minutes later, I experienced something that could only be described as a mixture of adrenaline rush, anxious and a mild hypothermia!!!.. I was actually thinking of stopping the race and either embarrassing swimming back to the shore or swimming to one of the life guards!! I even stopped a couple of times and kept looking at a life guard - I'm pretty sure he thought I was going to swim to him!.. Fortunately I just kept swimming and managed to see the first orange turn. It was only then, that I decided to calm down and get into rhythm. I also realised that most of my group has swum a lot further from me. So I decided not to speed up to them, but to get into to rhythm and swim at my own pace. It was all good and well until I swimmers from the next category started swimming all over me and kicking me at the turns... I decided to keep going at my own phase and giving way to all other swimmers..

The finish line :
The rest of the swim wasn't as bad at all. It was fun to read the waves and either swim with it or against it. It was a good feeling to finally see the end in sight and to be helped by the waves to get to the shore.. Once I exited the water, I started shivering uncontrollably.. We had to run about 50 meters to the finish line. It felt great to finish it all.. but I was still shivering a lot and was struggling to talk!! It took me almost an hour (included driving to Parramatta with heater on full blast) to finally get back to normal..

My official time was 51.53.. I didn't expect any remarkable times but was quite surprised (and a little embarrassed) to be almost in the last 100 swimmers in the 1200 swimmer event! On a positive note, I know I can definitely shave a lot of time off it in the next few races now that I know the drill and will not be as nervous!! :)
Will update the blog with my report on the Malabar to Little Bay Stockland Challenge 2.74km swim this weekend :)

My First Sea Swim

Date : 26th Jan 08 (Happy Australia Day!)
Time : 9am

Open water swimming has always been of interest to me but never really got around to taking it any further. Closest I came was a few emails and couple of google searches on sea swims just before the Bondi to Bronte swim (http://www.bonditobronte.com.au/).
However, I never really ended up doing any surt swim training cos of the bad weather in the weekends in the build up the event.

The build up :
Last weekend, I decided to finally give it a go and see how easy / hard it is. So after weeks of telling the boys and scaring mom that 'I will be going for a sea swim this weekend' and not end up going, I finally decided to give it a go...
I called BondiFit to ask if they could organise a personal training for me as I wasn't entirely comfortable joining a group training straight away. However, the guy i talked to convinced me to come for the team session as I could comfortably swim 2ks in the pool.
I got to Bondi early (for a change) around 8.40am and found the north Bondi life saving club. I could see the group of swimmers stretching and getting prepared for the training. I was probably the least prepared as not only did I not stretch at all, i was after a big night at Pontoon!!
I could notice there was a mix in the group. There seem to be some serious swimmers, some not-so serious swimmers and one or two lost ones (including me).

The Session :
The train started off with all the boys facing the girls and singing 'advance australia fair' as it was Australia day. I'm not sure if the trainer did it intentionally, but shouting and pretending to swim certainly did calm my nerves and I felt a lot more relaxed.
This was followed by the experienced guys going for a 'warm-up' swim.. While us newbies were given some basic instructions on sea swimming. They were more about how to constantly keep looking at your pointers/floats or the instructor to know what direction to swim in. After a few quite tips we were told that we'll be hitting the water for a 'short' swim... There it was, my first ever SEA SWIM! :)
It was as hard as I expected... I struggled to break the waves and enter the surf.. and when I did, I was really nervous about the unknown and wondering how deep it could be and 'what if I had to stop'!! I don't remember much of what I saw in my first swim. I was concentrating more on where the instructor is (she was paddling on a surf board). As a result without realising, I was doing breast strokes and when I did free style it was just for a few storkes. Exit the surf was equally interesting.. I did not read the waves, so just got pushed around and pulled back.. I decided to running off the beach to the end line :P..
I still can't believe that whole swim only lasted a few mins and probably only covered about 100-15o meters!! (and there I was thinking how I am going to survive a 1K swim)..

I felt a lot relieved after my first swim .. The trainer told a couple of us that we should be doing freestyle and breathing as per normal - Doing breaststroke is a sign that you don't do many laps in the pool.

This was followed by a second swim. This time were suppose to longer a bit further into the sea. By the time I felt a lot more relieved. I needed a lot more training, but I felt really comfortable entering the surf and swimming against the waves. I actually remember seeing in the water and seeing fish!! I was also breathing..
I was one of the last to finish it, but really felt a lot more confident.
This was followed by what turned out to be the favourite part of that training. It was learning to enter and exit the surf. We had to run in and enter the surf and do about 20 strokes and then catch a wave and exit the surf. It was quite tiring.. But it was good fun and I figured I could do this by myself when I hit the beach next time!!
The training ended with another long swim and back.. and another longer one for the experienced guys

Overall, it was quite an interesting experience and would love to do it again. I feel a lot more comfortable to do the North Bondi Classic Sea swim. I'm really tempted to do the 2k swim. But I think I'll be realistic and stick to the 1k swim. I think I'll miss the training on saturday cos of my kick boxing training, but will definitely go afterwards for some training on my own...
Hopefully I will be ready on 8th Feb for my first sea swim event... It feels like a brick wall that appeared from no where.. but breaking it is turning out to be a lot of fun and challenging - just the way i like it ..

Jan 23rd - General Update and Training Schedule

OK.. January has been going quite well and has been relatively injury free (besides sore shins specially on my left leg from sparring).

Training:
Things have been going quite well in regards to training. My training routine has been as follows :
Mon 7-8pm : Boxing
Mon 8-9pm : Muay Thai

Tue 7-8pm : Muay Thai
Tue 8-9pm : Boxing

Wed 7-8pm : Muay Thai
Wed 8-9pm : Boxing

Thu 7-8pm : Muay Thai
Thu 8-9pm : Boxing

Fri 6-7pm : Sparring

Sat 11-12pm : Muay Thai
Followed by a Sauna session

I've been quite impressed that I've been able to doulbe up on my boxing/muay thai training. I also notice that I go quite hard almost throughout the 2 hours each day and not taking it easy cos I'm doing two hours of training.

Running :
Only downside is, I'm quite drained out and tired after training and struggle to get out of the bed to be on time at work (let alone doing a morning jog)..
I've currently cut down on my running for no apparent reason other than I don't have a lot of times. I aim is to try my best to start doing a jog in the morning. Hopefully I'll start doing it this week.

Diet :
I have been quite relaxed on my diet but still careful with what I eat. I'm trying my best to ensure that I'm not starving or feeling tired during training. Only way to do that is eating sufficiently and drinking water..


I'm also thinking of trying to extend my holiday to include another weekend. I really don't want to get to Rawai and be told that I can't fight cos I'm not prepared or need atleast another few days before fighting.


Sea Swim - The North Bondi Classic Sea Swim is still on the cards. It's held around the second week of Feb. I'm being a bit more realistic now and thinking of entering the 1k swim instead of the 2k. I'm really comfortable with swimming 2ks in a pool, but not really sure how hard(er) it will be in the sea. I'm hoping to go to the beach atleast twice this weekend and hope to figure out how hard it could be. I really want to do this .. It will be a brick wall that appeared from no where, but it will give me some good confidence if I can break it!