Saturday, June 6, 2009

Making up for lost time...

A busy week including meetings, wherries, race marshalling and a trip to London meant that I didn't get anything in at all. I really should have (note to self) as swimming at the lake this morning was definitely a bit of a struggle - but it was also very windy and choppy today, probably the worst conditions I've swum in. Trish and I made it to the buoy in 16:50 (15:30 last week), swimming non-stop), although benefited from the wind behind us on the way back (15:50, total 32:40). Standing in the water by the deck was just like being in a wave pool, really, and swimming was a constant battle against facefuls of water (outward) or feeling as if we could be body-surfing (return leg). We certainly felt we'd had a workout! Didn't envy those people swimming two laps.

Later on I headed out on the bike, timing it to meet Mark back down at the lake so I could help with the novice swimmers. I had a gentle warm-up riding to UEA to get my bike helmet and glasses, which I left there on Friday, and then made my way out to East Carleton to do one quick loop before heading to Whitlingham. I didn't record the overall time, but the 9.1km of the loop was done in 17:27, so 31.2km/h. With a headwind on the return segment it was a real push, but I was pleased with that and it was good to have a blat for a change. Unfortunately the headwind persisted all the way to Whitlingham, but I was there on the dot of 5:30, so good timing!

Last week I had an annoying creaking on the bike, still present this week - but more of a plasticky creak than an aluminiumy "dink" noise like I had a couple of months back. Didn't have time for much investigation but it seems to be the seat post (which is carbon fibre) - I loosened the screw by half a turn, not wanting to suddenly find my seat dropping, and that sorted it for a bit but towards the end of the ride it returned. I'll make sure Mark mentions it to the bike shop when he takes it in for a service this week while I'm in London. I wonder if I should drop the saddle a bit anyway, I had a couple of nervous moments when starting off at junctions.

The novice session went well, it was still a bit choppy but much less so than this morning. I stayed with the more cautious group, going between the deck and beach for a while to get them more settled in to being in the water, but by the end of the session we had ventured out to one buoy (100-150m maybe) and back to the deck, which was (rightly) met with a real sense of achievement. OK, so they are not going as far as some people, and not always swimming crawl, but they all made real progress in that one session and should be really pleased with themselves!

No comments: