We we were blessed with one of the best days I have ever experienced in Langebaan. It is the middle of May, normally associated with single digit temperatures and pouring rain in the Western Cape of South Africa, however, yesterday we had 30°C air temperatures and a fresh 13°C water temperature for the annual Around The Island Swim 2013.
Over the last few months I have had numerous requests to host an Open Water Swimming Skills session for both Open Water Swimmers and Triathletes. I have been privelaged enough to have attended a host of Open Water clinics myself and I feel it is time for me to share a couple of the tips and secrets I have learned over the last few years.
The plan is to cover a few crucial areas of Open Water Swimming, providing tips that will hopefully save you time and energy whilst you are out there in the water.
Open Water Swimming Tips
Feel free to contact me on the details above in order to book your place.
Where: Silvermine Dam (at the top of Ou Kaapse Weg)
When: Saturday 16 March 2013
Time: 14h00 Start
Back at Ashanti, this time for the Western Province Open Water Swimming Series event 2. The schedule included my first 10km of the season followed by a 3km. With a 4 week break between WP Open Water 1 and WP Open Water 2 there was a lot of time to work on racing form and strategy. However, having had a bout of flu and an erratic training schedule for the two weeks after the last event, I was a bit anxious to see how things would go. The week leading up this event had been relatively consistent and was the first week of solid training I had managed to complete in quite a while.
The weather on Saturday was appalling, we arrived at Ashanti with the wind howling and rain pouring. The weather leading up to this event had been very warm which had left the water temperature in the mid twenties. Even though the rain was falling, it was very comfortable in the water. I had a good warm-up before race briefing and discussed my feeding strategy with my coach, Brendon.
10km and 5km swim start
This past weekend I was back at Ashanti Wine Farm, this time for the Winelands Mile 2012. I have done this race a few times over the years and was going back this year as the defending champion. After having spent the week ill and not having swum once since the Bridge House Mile the previous weekend, I left the decision to swim until the last minute.
I woke up on Saturday feeling much better after finishing the course of anti-biotics on Friday. I was still feeling a bit week but it was a stunning day in Cape Town, so decided to head out to Paarl and use the event as a training swim.
Ashanti Dam