Chopper Swim Challenge 2019: Preparation
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 I could take part! From then on I committed to building up my weekly swim distances.
In December/January/February I aimed to swim at least 20km per week and to fit in as many 25 or 30km weeks as I could. Given that I was also in the final months of writing up a PhD thesis (the submission date being precisely two weeks after the Chopper Swim) this required some careful timetabling. However, it proved extremely useful to have a weekly swimming goal: it meant I couldn't be sucked into a cycle of thesis panic and despair. Spending lots of time in the water provided some valuable perspective, and also some valuable thinking time. The difficulty was remembering all the brilliant ideas I had while swimming long enough to jot them down once I was on dry land.
Another bonus of this preparation phase was that I was surrounded by people training for events. Rebecca was building up for the SCAR Swim in Arizona, taking place in April; Tom and Jeremy were beginning their training for Taupō; Alice was training for a long swim in Hong Kong mid-2019, and Eliza was ramping up huge distances to prepare for her two-way Taupō swim. Somebody from this goal-driven crew was always up for a long swim in the pool or multiple lighthouse laps.
My own training moved between squad sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, master's club sessions on Saturdays when I wasn't in the sea (there were a few Saturdays where heavy rain caused pollution in the harbour), and various distances of sea swim, including Days Bay/Pt Howard return, Freyberg/Hataitai return, and multiple lighthouse laps (up to three at a time). I also counted Splash and Dash (a fortnightly 2km/2.5km harbour race series), and the Days Bay/Eastbourne Wharf-to-Wharf race as training. With regular training swims of 6-8km, a 2km race really began to feel like a brief sprint.
During this time I also read as much as I could about preparing for a 20km swim (this is dangerous - there is obviously a lot of very good advice available via the Marathon Swimmers Federation, and other sources, but some of it is alarming and some is contradictory; in the main, people in this community are good-hearted and encouraging, but as with any online discussion, there are a few negative or deliberately intimidating individuals around). I also listened carefully to everything my more experienced training companions said about their longer swims -- especially in terms of food and drink.
Training seemed under control (although there were some nights when I woke up in a blind panic about finishing my complete thesis draft AND training, and felt that I'd probably fail to meet any of the requirements for both, probably resulting in accidental drowning). So, the next step was to find a support kayaker to keep me heading in a straight line during the swim, and to serve the buffet.
I contacted as many kayak/canoe/multisport clubs in Auckland as I could find, put posts on their FB pages, and crossed my fingers. After a couple of weeks of extreme worry about time running out, two very experienced kayakers emailed me within hours of each other. As soon as I received the first email, I replied saying 'Yes, please!' The second kayaker I thanked kindly for getting in touch.
In my next post, I'll say a bit more about the contribution made by my kayaker Phil: enough at the moment to say that he is a Coast-to-Coaster, an Ironman, and an all-round good guy. We talked on the phone a couple of times before the event, met on the morning of the swim at Matiatia, and he was just great.
Having found a kayaker, all that remained was to keep updating the information on my fundraising page, book flights and accommodation (I decided to sleep on Waiheke the night before the event), and keep training.
A minor setback occurred around 20 February just under a month before the event, when I got a nasty virus: it started much like a minor head cold; after a couple of sniffly days I turned more into a temperature and general lassitude, and I ended up spending four whole days languishing in bed and drinking vast amounts of orange juice with fizzy water. Missing training agitated me a lot, but it seemed wiser to rest and get fully better before trying to swim. I can usually judge an illness's severity by how it affects my desire to swim: sometimes I just can't wait to get back into the water, but other times, the thought of taking off my clothes and being in cold water seems horrifying and lying in bed seems much better. On this occasion, it was the latter sort of bug. However, I was very relieved when I woke up one morning, a full week after the day I took to my bed, feeling 100% better and raring to go.
The first two weeks of March both involved 28-30kms, with a triple lighthouse on the two Saturdays. Then two weeks before the swim I started tapering, but with a 7km pool swim to start the process. I also had two pretty vigorous massages from the wonderful Pam and Helen who do massage at VUW.
All that remained was a bit of last-minute retail therapy, providing both reward and motivation (see photos):
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 I could take part! From then on I committed to building up my weekly swim distances.
In December/January/February I aimed to swim at least 20km per week and to fit in as many 25 or 30km weeks as I could. Given that I was also in the final months of writing up a PhD thesis (the submission date being precisely two weeks after the Chopper Swim) this required some careful timetabling. However, it proved extremely useful to have a weekly swimming goal: it meant I couldn't be sucked into a cycle of thesis panic and despair. Spending lots of time in the water provided some valuable perspective, and also some valuable thinking time. The difficulty was remembering all the brilliant ideas I had while swimming long enough to jot them down once I was on dry land.
Another bonus of this preparation phase was that I was surrounded by people training for events. Rebecca was building up for the SCAR Swim in Arizona, taking place in April; Tom and Jeremy were beginning their training for Taupō; Alice was training for a long swim in Hong Kong mid-2019, and Eliza was ramping up huge distances to prepare for her two-way Taupō swim. Somebody from this goal-driven crew was always up for a long swim in the pool or multiple lighthouse laps.
My own training moved between squad sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, master's club sessions on Saturdays when I wasn't in the sea (there were a few Saturdays where heavy rain caused pollution in the harbour), and various distances of sea swim, including Days Bay/Pt Howard return, Freyberg/Hataitai return, and multiple lighthouse laps (up to three at a time). I also counted Splash and Dash (a fortnightly 2km/2.5km harbour race series), and the Days Bay/Eastbourne Wharf-to-Wharf race as training. With regular training swims of 6-8km, a 2km race really began to feel like a brief sprint.
During this time I also read as much as I could about preparing for a 20km swim (this is dangerous - there is obviously a lot of very good advice available via the Marathon Swimmers Federation, and other sources, but some of it is alarming and some is contradictory; in the main, people in this community are good-hearted and encouraging, but as with any online discussion, there are a few negative or deliberately intimidating individuals around). I also listened carefully to everything my more experienced training companions said about their longer swims -- especially in terms of food and drink.
Training seemed under control (although there were some nights when I woke up in a blind panic about finishing my complete thesis draft AND training, and felt that I'd probably fail to meet any of the requirements for both, probably resulting in accidental drowning). So, the next step was to find a support kayaker to keep me heading in a straight line during the swim, and to serve the buffet.
I contacted as many kayak/canoe/multisport clubs in Auckland as I could find, put posts on their FB pages, and crossed my fingers. After a couple of weeks of extreme worry about time running out, two very experienced kayakers emailed me within hours of each other. As soon as I received the first email, I replied saying 'Yes, please!' The second kayaker I thanked kindly for getting in touch.
In my next post, I'll say a bit more about the contribution made by my kayaker Phil: enough at the moment to say that he is a Coast-to-Coaster, an Ironman, and an all-round good guy. We talked on the phone a couple of times before the event, met on the morning of the swim at Matiatia, and he was just great.
Having found a kayaker, all that remained was to keep updating the information on my fundraising page, book flights and accommodation (I decided to sleep on Waiheke the night before the event), and keep training.
A minor setback occurred around 20 February just under a month before the event, when I got a nasty virus: it started much like a minor head cold; after a couple of sniffly days I turned more into a temperature and general lassitude, and I ended up spending four whole days languishing in bed and drinking vast amounts of orange juice with fizzy water. Missing training agitated me a lot, but it seemed wiser to rest and get fully better before trying to swim. I can usually judge an illness's severity by how it affects my desire to swim: sometimes I just can't wait to get back into the water, but other times, the thought of taking off my clothes and being in cold water seems horrifying and lying in bed seems much better. On this occasion, it was the latter sort of bug. However, I was very relieved when I woke up one morning, a full week after the day I took to my bed, feeling 100% better and raring to go.
The first two weeks of March both involved 28-30kms, with a triple lighthouse on the two Saturdays. Then two weeks before the swim I started tapering, but with a 7km pool swim to start the process. I also had two pretty vigorous massages from the wonderful Pam and Helen who do massage at VUW.
All that remained was a bit of last-minute retail therapy, providing both reward and motivation (see photos):
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