(unedited)

I am always amazed at how quickly the swim season passes and often find myself in a new training cycle wondering if I am where I need to be. This year has been an interesting thus far to say the least. At the beginning of the season I found myself in quite a state after a fairly serious MS attack in Hawaii caused by overheating while in a canoe race. It wasn’t until late October that I was able to truly start training for this year’s swim. And now it is the end of January and I find myself asking the same question I always do, have I done enough thus far?

My base training plan is to work up to back to back 25 kilometre swims in. 13C  water. I will be heading to the Great Bear Rainforest in June and swimming through Heiltsuk waters from the exit of Lama Pass to Namu, past Hakai and to the mouth of the Koeye River. The swim is between 45 and 60km and will be staged over two days.  In he mean time, I need to increase my volumes in the pool and get into the cold water!

I was hoping that by the end of December I would be able to manage back to back 10km pool swims. With a late start to the year and holiday time with family in Montreal things didn’t work as I had hoped. I was managing 20 to 25km weeks but only one long swim on the weekend. This had me quite worried so I decided to kick things up a notch and push the volume the last three weeks of the month … no matter what.

Here’s what it looked like:

January 8 to 14

• Monday: am 3k swim, pm spin, 3km swim, weights
• Tuesday: pm 3.5km swim
• Wednesday: am 3k swim, pm spin, 3km swim, weights
• Thursday: pm 1.5km swim
• Sunday: 15km swim
• Total Swim: 32km

January 15 to 21

• Tuesday: pm 3km swim
• Wednesday: am 3k swim, pm spin, 3.5km swim, weights
• Thursday: pm 2.8km swim
• Saturday: 10km swim
• Sunday: 15km swim
• Total Swim: 37.3km

January 18 to 24

• Monday: pm spin, 2.5km swim, weights
• Tuesday: pm 3km swim
• Wednesday: am 2.8k swim, pm spin, 2.5km swim, weights
• Thursday: pm 3km swim
• Friday: am 3km swim
• Saturday: 10km swim
• Sunday: 17km swim
• Total Swim: 43.8km

The sweet spot was on the last Saturday. I pushed through the swim in just over 3 hours and was not tired. I can’t say that about the final Sunday though. That’s another story.

So am I where I need to be with my base training? I think so. I just need to get back into the cold water!