20 weeks till Rottnest Channel Swim...

 As of yesterday we have 20 weeks till we take on the Rottnest Channel Swim. We are still on track for making qualification in five weeks. Still filled with excitement and even better tomorrow registrations open, so once that is done and qualifying is done its head down, bum up with training.

Yesterday my training partner and I had planned to head to the open water for our first swim with the warmer weather, but as there had been a large number of shark sightings up and down the coast, we decided best to push ourselves with a 10 kilometer swim in the pool.

 We start to get to the sticky part of our preparations for February 2016. With a five kilometer event in a matter of weeks and then our qualifier just two weeks after. With yesterday's session of 10 kilometers we have managed Personal Bests on our times. Mine was at least four minutes, and I was totally happy with the result. It makes a definite difference from the swim in July, where I wasn't swimming as efficiently as I was yesterday. I can still say though it did hurt in the sense of muscle soreness but found that I knew exactly when to feed through out the swim., as I could feel certain muscles in my arms and back become sore and strained.

For the next four weeks its training as usual, with up to 20 -25 kilometers per week. Its Taper week, the week prior to the qualifying swim (14th November). That will be a week of eating and resting and getting all the logistics organised with feeds.

I have a couple of awesome and hard swim sessions put together for late November when our local 50 meter pool is re-opened. It will simulate the swim in February to a point of understanding how we deal with physical and mental fatigue. I believe this to be a very important part of our training. I could set our plan for what we are doing now, but its not simulating what we may feel when we get into the ocean and doing 20 kilometers. This particular session will be four, five kilometer swims in two days. Yep that is right, we will be doing a five kilometer swim in the morning, then out and off to work. Then another five kilometer session later that afternoon and then the same the next day. This is where eating and recovery is of utmost importance. I am very much looking forward to the coming months of training. With so much more to learn and understand about how my body and mind deals with high levels of fatigue and exercise.

 I firmly believe that it is never to late to do what you wanted to do as younger person. Things might be a little different to what you originally wanted to do, but that is fine, as long as you are happy doing it.

Have an awesome week everyone...

Hayley xx