Caroline Mason

Who knew?

An addendum to my last pool blog:  During our end-of-session laps as I approached the deep end of our lane, there were a few swimmers queued at the wall,  waiting to swim back.  I’d lifted my head from the eyes-down position so I didn’t smash into the end of the pool, so I saw a group of underwater headless bodies clad in our CanToo swimsuits perched on the foot-ledge.

Pushing that water

We are a pod!  The CanToo name for we groups that participate in the training and sponsorships is ‘Pod’.  The routine for the pool sessions is for Joe-our-coach to describe and act out the drills we will be performing, along with the POINT of the drills; we then get into the water and practice the drills, while the coaches watch us and offer comments and corrections.  We have two lanes reserved for our sessions at the Clarence Aquatic Centre, and last week we were divided into ‘confident in the water’ (aka fast) swimmers, and ‘less confident’ (slow) swimmers.  Genuinely unsure, I asked which lane I belonged in, as a ‘confident, but useless’ swimmer.  I got a long look from the coach, and was put in the slow lane.  I suggested that we should be called ‘Starpod’ and ‘Dudpod’, but it hasn’t caught on. 

The ever-patient Joe explained to me that there is an optimum speed for drawing our arms through the water to capture a cushion of water, and push against it.  Too fast, and the arm just slices through the water without generating propulsive force.  I tried it, and it’s much less tiring, and I actually get somewhere.

Progress.

Now to try it in the ocean…

Definition of insanity … a digression

There is a saying to the effect that ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result each time.’ 

I’ll tell you the story of my history with FitBits:  I bought my first at the airport six years ago - not cheap, but I quickly came to like what it did.  Unfortunately the screen developed cracks, so after a couple of years I replaced it with the next model, which had fixed that problem.  With this one, the screen pixels faded, so after a couple of years it was unreadable.  So I replaced the second with a model that was sold as being ‘Water-resistant to 50m’. 

50m water-resistant, imagine!  But they lied.

Last week my third FitBit died after an hour in a swimming pool.

I am not insane.  I have deleted my FitBit account and ordered a sports watch from a reputable brand.

Jelly

Sunday at Kingston Beach, our second open water session.  I had had a swim the day before at Blackmans Beach in perfect conditions, glassy calm and overcast sky.  I managed to swim the length of the beach in half an hour; it took me the first quarter hour to get my second wind, and I swam more breaststroke than crawl, but at least I’m reassured that I will be able to finish the 2.6km Beach2Beach swim within the 90 minute cutoff.

The weather at Kingston Beach the next day was choppy again, and after a beach briefing on how to recognise dangerous waves, we were directed to the pontoon moored off the southern end of the beach near the sailing club.  We did swimming drills, practice to keep on track during the swim by aiming for a prominent landmark.  

The prevailing wind and sea currents had concentrated Moon jellyfish from the current bloom at the southern end of the beach.  This meant that every couple of strokes your hand would encounter an ooky blob of jelly - however they are not dangerous unless you are a very small creature of the plankton.  Wikipedia tells me that member species of the jellyfish genus Aurelia (the most well-known is the Atlantic species Aurelia aurita) are almost impossible to distinguish unless you have a gene sequencing machine in your back pocket; the local species is called ‘Aurelia sp.’ because it hasn’t been formally described yet.

The photo is of the GPS track of the session shared by a participant with a clever watch.  The pontoon is at the bottom end of the track.

Ducking and goosing

We had our second pool session last night, we’d been asked to bring fins and snorkels along for our drills. First up, we were given drills to give us a feel for the effect of drag in the water, by finning a few laps with our hands held in various attitudes in the water.  From there to sculling with our hands in the water, and then finning and rotating our our upper bodies in the water every sixth stroke.  For the final quarter hour of the session we did a few laps of freestyle.

In the pursuit of streamlining, we are supposed to keep our heads in line with our bodies - this prevents arching of the back, which is tiring and presents a larger cross-section of our bodies to the water.  I find this difficult to remember; when I’m diving I’m used to looking where I’m going, not at where I’ve been.

A comical consequence of this ‘eyes-down’ swimming position happened as we were standing at the shallow end of our lane listening to Joe, our coach.  One of our group, a very nice, large, jovial man, came barrelling down the lane (eyes-down) and swam straight in to me - his leading hand went straight up my bum.  He was SO mortified.

I couldn’t stop laughing.

Well that was harder than I expected.

We had our first beach training session on Sunday. We were issued with fluoro rash vests at the Kingston Beach SLSC , and had a number texta-ed onto the back of our hand; this is our roll call number for the duration of the course (mine is 21), and we are checked several times during each beach session.

Orange and azure

First pool training session:  A mutter of thunder and flickers of lightning on the horizon alerted me to the approaching storm.  I decided to head off to my first pool session early, and the first fat raindrops were darkening the earth as I got into my van.  I drove up the Huon Valley in a tropical downpour, headlights on, wipers in top gear, rain clattering on the roof and windscreen - more Sydney than Cygnet.  Then, on the other side of Vince’s Saddle, sunshine as I drove towards Kingston.

And they’re off...

It’s our first pool training session at the Clarence Aquatic Centre this evening.  We’ve been sent supportive, friendly emails from the Can Too team; they will be well-practiced in wrangling newbies after training 22,000 participants.

WHY???

I'm supporting cancer research and prevention with Can Too Foundation. 

As a young man with a young family, my Dad was diagnosed with a vicious, deadly cancer,  Adrenocortical carcinoma.  Forty years later, thanks to an out-of-left-field experimental treatment that put his cancer into remission, he died of something quite different.  I myself survived Melanoma, a couple of my work colleagues didn’t.  Brain tumours took other colleagues, and my cousin, far too early; some of my friends diagnosed with breast cancer are still alive, others never made it back to their families.

We need research to learn how to prevent and cure this many-headed disease, our own cells attacking us from within. That's where the Can Too Foundation comes in: Can Too provides professionally coached training programs for participants of any fitness level to run, swim and cycle their way to a healthier lifestyle and a cancer-free world. 

In return, I am raising funds that go towards innovation in the prevention, care, and control of cancer. Since 2005, Can Too Foundation has trained over 22,000 participants and raised over $30,000,000 to invest in over 150 cancer research grants.

It would be fantastic if you could sponsor me, or even better join me in a program!

Thank you for your support!