Goggles at Dawn

The night of the 17/18 March was fairly blustery: I could hear the wind in the flax and cabbage trees outside my room, and this suggested that the sea would be choppy. However, I woke up at 6am, and could hear nothing but some early-morning birds - not even a whisper of a breeze😊  My breakfast involved a hefty amount of porridge eaten very slowly (it was hot, the weather was hot, and I worked up quite a sweat just eating) and a strong cup of tea. I'd worked out during various training swims that having milk pre-swim made me feel strange, so I avoided milk in the porridge or tea. However, the Kiwi House proprietor was laying out breakfast for her other guests, and the plain yoghurt looked refreshing, so I had a few spoons of that, and it was delicious.  After checking I had organised my bags correctly for the boat, had all the food ready, and the drinks mixed, I was ready for the taxi. The taxi driver knew all about the swim - one of her family had participated in a rel...

On Sunday 17 March I flew to Auckland mid-morning, and as I was in the process of sending a full draft of my doctoral thesis to my supervisor, I jumped off the SkyBus as close to Auckland's central library as I could. Before getting to work, I indulged in some crucial carbohydrate loading at lunchtime (delicious potato wedges, followed by two squashed plums that had barely survived the journey).  Up on the 2nd floor of the library, I found quiet, calm, solitude, reliable WiFi, and air-conditioning. I worked for about two hours on editing/improving chapter 4, before a friend turned up and we repaired to the Auckland Art Gallery for more catching-up, coffee, and more carbohydrates. After he departed for Mount Eden, I took a stroll down Queen Street - now baking hot - and stopped in at Kathmandu to buy an additional large water bottle, and a drybag (the latter an impulse buy, but it was remarkably reduced in price and would be useful for the clothes and towel I'd store in the ka...

A promising weather forecast 48 hours before the swim filled every heart with hope, and when I woke up at 5.02am on Saturday and could not hear the merest whisper of wind I felt more optimistic about the extreme darkness. I heated my porridge, which had been soaking overnight, and prepared a water bottle ... all without switching on the kitchen light because there was an injured hen asleep in a box by the screen door. I didn't want to wake her, up, and she made fractious noises when the microwave door clunked shut. By 5.35am I was waiting - somewhat early - outside the Pak & Save petrol station for my ride out to Petone. We were at Petone Beach by 6.06am. This was truly a goggles at dawn scenario. The sun was barely visible, but the wind was entirely absent, and there was a tiny chill in the air. View from Petone foreshore, looking towards Mt Victoria and Miramar Peninsula. Support crew getting their briefing. View from Petone foreshore towards Matiu-Somes and the H...

Towards the end of 2018 I began thinking about taking on a larger swim in the summer of 2018-2019. A logical choice seemed to be the Chopper Swim Challenge, scheduled for 18 March 2019. I knew a few people who had taken on the Chopper Swim Challenge in 2017 and 2018, and the photographic evidence showed visiting orcas, some challenging choppy water, and a lot of happy faces at the end. In addition, this is a swim that raises money for the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter; there's no entry fee, but every swimmer undertakes to raise $500 for the good cause. The event is all put on by volunteers. Here's some more official information . In September 2018 I registered my interest in taking part, including some information about my swimming experience, 10km time, and other relevant details about training etc. In October, one of the Chopper Swim pioneers, Mike Cochrane, was in Wellington for a swim, and he assessed my abilities in the water (during a lighthouse lap) and confirmed ...

Today is Monday, my usual 'rest day'. I also made a plasma donation this morning, so my right arm is empty and needs a lot of cossetting and encouragement. After yesterday's 2km (or 2.5km) race at Scorching Bay both arms hurt. I ascribe this unusual aching to not having done my usual warm-up: before Splash and Dash (and the Capital Classic) I now do an 800-1,000m warm-up in Freyberg Pool.  This prevents suffering later on. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a set that I swam a couple of times early in 2019 when I was training for the Chopper Swim. On both occasions we swam the set in a long course set-up (50 metres, in NZ) at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre, where I swim with Harbour Capital Masters on a Saturday morning (if I'm not out in the sea). This was a good set for doing a good distance (just over the distance of two lighthouse laps) while livening things up a bit with the 8x200. The kick laps gave the arms a break but keep the heart rate up. For reps 5-8...

The prospect of a great week's swimming over Christmas and New Year filled our little group's hearts with joy and anticipation. Unfortunately, a few days before Christmas, there was a major drain catastrophe in central Wellington, which sent a lot - and I mean a LOT, as in several swimming pools' worth - of raw sewage straight into the harbour. The whole area was closed, including Evans Bay, and a rahui was put on the harbour. No swimming, no fishing, no nothing. It was terrible, not just because we couldn't get in our lighthouse laps, but mainly because of the horrible pollution and the fact that Wellington's drainage infrastructure is crumbling. Oriental Bay at the time of the rahui Anyway, alternatives had to be found. Christmas Eve found a good-sized group of us ready at 6.30am to hit the water at Thorndon Pool. The challenge for the swimmers training for 40km swims was '100 x 150'.  Thorndon Pool is approximately 30 metres long, so 150 metres i...

Reaching this week's distance goal involved doing two pretty similar training sets on Friday and Saturday. Alongside the distance goal, I am also aiming at being able to do a 10x100m set @1.30 (i.e. on a 90-second interval). I'm working towards this by doing different sorts of 100m interval sets in different sized pools (e.g. 25 metres, 33 1/3 metres, 50  metres) to see what effect turns have on the ease of completing the set. On Friday I was feeling a bit weary, so pulled back from trying to do the 1.30 intervals so that I'd leave feeling pleased rather than disappointed.  I was swimming at Freyberg in the morning and had a busy day, so didn't want to be half-dead by 2pm😜 Here is the set: On Saturday morning I swam at WRAC in long course set-up (50 metres). Again, I shied away from 100s @ 1.30, because this seemed cruel to inflict on the other swimmers in the lane who were doing the same set.  However, the 100s @1.35 went pretty well, especially the se...

Capital City Triathlon hosts an excitingly varied calendar of multisport events in Wellington throughout the year, including long and short triathlons, aquabike (swim and cycle), aquathlon (swim and run), and duathlon (bike and run).  They make sure there are many different distance options, to encourage more people to enter. The events are fun and competitive, and the course - involving swimming at Scorching Bay, and cycling/running around the beautiful coast road of Te Motu Kairangi/Miramar Peninsula. I don't participate in the running/cycling side of things (in early 2016 I plunged into the 'Triple-Tri' event, involving three mini triathlons back to back .... kind of like grossly extended interval training, and decided I'd done my bit with that sport), but love the fact that Capital City Tri also offer a swim-only option: you can do a 500m, 1km, 1.5km, or 2km swim in the clear and crisp Scorching Bay (the name is a bit of a misnomer - it's usually around a degr...

I'm aiming to 'Swim a Million Metres in 2020' and a kind, technically-minded person has shared a spreadsheet that enables one to keep track of metres, chart weekly and monthly averages (you need to swim 83.33333km per month to reach the goal).   I began the last week of January in  Taupō, and although Monday is usually my rest day, I also had an extra rest day on Tuesday when we drove back to Wellington. This meant I had some catching up to do, in order to reach the goal. On Wednesday I did a 5.066km effort at Freyberg; on Thursday we had squad in the morning, and then I was helping with a triathletes' swim in the evening. I got through 3.2km in the morning, and really wanted to do 2km in the evening, but due to the conditions, this was impossible: just 1.4km achieved, which meant only one thing: I had to do a 7.5km session, all on my lonesome, on Friday 31 January.  Fuelled by a spoonful of peanut butter (Fix and Fogg, of course) and two small bananas, I arriv...

One of our favourite 'long swims' in the sea around here is the Hataitai-Freyberg return. This can only be undertaken in light winds, so naturally it doesn't happen all that often. This time we started at Hataitai (where parking is free for those with cars), swam past NIWA, past Balaena Bay, around Pt. Jerningham, and then glide towards Freyberg Beach. K. and M. set off just ahead of me and Rebecca; we caught up with them somewhere around Balaena Bay.  Rebecca had some lemon drizzle cake in a lunchbox in her tow float, so we had a nice snack on the beach (along with the customary Tom and Luke snack balls, and a couple of jelly snakes), waited for M. and K. to arrive, gave them some cake, and then set off for Hataitai again. Now, it was a light southerly, which meant we'd been pushed gently from Hataitai to Pt. Jerningham, and then had flat water in Oriental Bay. We also had flat water from Freyberg back to Pt J., but after turning the corner at the lighthouse, it seem...

January is a great month for swimming in Wellington. The Christmas break generally lingers on until the second week of January, and people who are gainfully employed have some time off with nothing to do except swim.  January 2020 contained additional excitements: two friends with whom I've swum a lot were embarking on a big swim, a really big swim: Lake  Taupō. This 40.2km lake swim is one of the great open water swims in New Zealand, and those who complete the swim are (rightly) elevated to an almost divine status. Breanna and Rebecca were also doing something new and exciting - a tandem crossing. This means that they swam side by side (but without touching of course) for the whole 40.2km, the whole 14 hours and 9 minutes. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of their support crew.  Anyway, because they were undertaking this massive feat of strength, they had to swim a lot in January, and I joined them for a fair bit, in the pool and in the sea. Lucki...