Can Too Trivia

Monopolistic Behaviour
Third place getters: Team CJ
Second place getters: Zieggler's Zepplins
The winners - these crackpots and these women
The Indefeasibles

A run away success ...
Congratulations to:
The Crackpots and These Women - First place
Zieggler's Zepplin's - Second Place
Team CJ - Third Place
and Emily - winner of the West Wing Round
with thanks to all competitors, especially those who bribed us for the answers, corruption for an excellent cause!
We raised over $1100 which is AMAZING!

Coogee Cold Water Challenge*

Freezing cold but all extremities accounted for - after the Coogee race

* Not its real name, but it really should have been

First ocean swim of my season. Warm up by running on the beach as warming up in these arctic waters would be oxymoronic. It's 15.8 degrees in the water and they're allowing wetsuits and discouraging slow swimmers.

Finally get in the water – adjust to the point where I can put my face in the water and then sprint for the sand to try and get warm. The kids go out first in the 800m swim and get swept off course. We are all advised to head left. We are also advised the boats are all equipped with space blankets.

Race briefing. My stomach is somewhere near my tonsils just writing this – pre ocean swim nerves are all consuming. They’ve changed the course at the last minute throwing all our tactics out of whack. Get to the first buoy with some semblance of style and / or grace as opposed to sheer panic. Big improvement from this time last year.

The cold is still a shock to the system and by the last buoy I am really ready to get out. Despite a significant effort to get back into the beach ASAP it still takes forever. I add 5mins to my last 1km time, but have retained all fingers and toes. Win!

Fundraising Update:

With thanks to the following people we are almost halfway: Me, Lydia (Can Too Swim), Bridie, Airlie and Ben, Anne, Sophie, Emma, Dad (Can Too Marathon 2006) and Tamera (my Can Too team Captain)

Cool, cool, cold!

The pool sessions are starting to ramp up in terms of distance and speed. We had to do an 800m time trial to try and set a benchmark that we’ll aim to beat in all subsequent training sessions. I actually had an awesome time of it, the bloke behind me overtook me on the 150m stretch, and so I swam in his wake for the rest of the set, and then motored past on the home stretch. Who said watching the Tour de France obsessively wouldn’t be useful in real life?

We were forewarned about the water temperature at Thursday’s session. The recent northerly tending winds have forced much colder offshore water onto the coast – reducing the water temperatures from a balmy 21 degrees to an icy 16 degrees. I seriously thought extremities were going to drop off. We did a swim out to Ben Buckler’s point and then focused on ins and outs. Most people were shivering after the first swim.

I have never been more thankful for my inbuilt insulation system (augmented by more than a few fundraising Caramellos). The cold water showers in the Bondi Pavilion have never felt warmer.

The target is in your sights

Rotate ze shoulders ...

Sighting and rotation drills in the pool this week.

It’s not enough just to swim during an ocean swim, you also have to sight your targets and line up. If you just follow the crowd you are liable to end up off course (life lesson there?) and if you don’t sight properly the s bend pattern you adopt may mean you end up swimming much more than the intended course. Equally you lengthen your stroke considerably if you rotate properly.

It proves much easier this time around … in the pool. Get into the open water and all of a sudden what worked in the pool results in salty mouthfuls.

Nonetheless I was able to sight (an admittedly orange clad) bloke on the beach who insisted on moving about to test our sighting abilities. This proved remarkably difficult for those amongst us who have poor long distance sight – do they even make prescription goggles?

Dawny’s Cockatoo Island Challenge is supposed to kick off my ocean swimming season. Collective veto in favour of brunch. Inauspicious start to the season.

Welcome to Frustration Town. Population 1. You.

Back in the pool for the first time in months. I have never been more frustrated. I trained really hard all though winter and did a lot of coaching sessions in Cairns to try and correct my stroke and I am starting from a worse position than last year. Made it through the set, slowly, but it was awesome to be exercising again.

Beach session. Wake up call: you really were sick. Pneumonia is exhausting rather than sickening. I’ve felt worse from colds. So I had no idea how sick I had really been until I tried ocean swimming. Between the adrenalin, exertion, general panic and occasional mouthfuls of salty water my lungs were really up against it today.

We started in the middle of the beach, swam out about 150m and then across to icebergs. All up about 750m but I swear it felt longer than Palm to Whale or Little Bay to Malabar (both 3 times longer).

I muddled through but it was a very welcome indication of how sick I’d been and justification of my recent sloth impression.

Word up to the Bondi Lifesavers who volunteer their time to swim and paddle out with us. Without you we couldn’t too. They are such a reassuring presence. Props to Bec and Alex who were both on patrol. Very reassuring.

Onwards and upwards. Week 2 down. Ten to go.

It starts ... sort of ... maybe later

Week one was spent on Smith’s Lake with the family finishing my course of antibiotics and generally recovering.

Inauspicious start.

Call Anna and it's been pouring, wet cold and miserable down at Bondi whilst I've been hanging by the lake. I believe "Curse you Katie" was the prevailing sentiment.