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Triathlon Swimming – Handling big seas in an easterly blow

View of sea from Hobie towards Kings Beach

Didn’t even want to go try for a sea swim today because of the rough conditions in strong easterly winds, until Alec Riddle challenged us all through email to put on our “big boy pants” with a promise that the beer would taste better afterward!

Couldn’t believe what I saw when I got to the beach. Never ever even liked yachting in a big boat in these conditions (often got sea sick), and now I was about to swim in it! It was therefore with some trepidation that I donned my wetsuit and waded towards those breakers.

These photos really don’t do it justice, as the wind had already dropped considerable by the time they were taken.

Last words of advice from Graham Richards were “don’t try and swim back into it, rather head straight out all the way to Kings beach (about 1.5km). Not exactly encouraging for me as a relative novice amongst seasoned swimmers.

As I made my way out to the end of the pier, there were others around me being continuously beaten back and unable to make any headway. Somehow I was able to porpoise underneath the huge breakers and got to the buoy relatively quickly where I hung on in a wild sea-saw ride waiting for the others to also make it out, but none came.

Eventually decided that if I was going to do this thing at all, I’d had better get going on on my own pretty soon (the main group of about 10 swimmers were already out of sight) before this growing uneasiness sent me back on a screaming chicken run!

Like I said, you need to loose all your marbles to do this Ironman stuff!

So I struck out for Kings Beach careful to head a little deeper so as to avoid the larger waves that were breaking quite far out. Worked hard at settling into a relaxed stroke and rolling for air with the big swells and hissing whitecaps.

And then the magic happened!

Found myself feeling exhilarated whilst moving in tune with the swells and accelerating down the oncoming faces. Stoked!!!

The 6 Pack, Tripod and Kahunas (that name is now even more apt) all seemed to float by in a flash, and soon I spotted the rest of the crazy gang standing and waving on the beach waiting for me to come ashore.

Awesome stuff! I’m hooked!

Hey, and the beer at Barney’s really did taste better tonight!

View of sea from Hobie Beach

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Triathlon Training – Killing Six Birds With One Stone

Or in one single step how to:-

  1. Train harder.
  2. Recover well.
  3. Manage heart arrhythmia.
  4. Repair calf muscle strain.
  5. Improve overall performance.
  6. Sleep better at night.

It’s funny how one can sometimes grapple with a seemingly complex and unresolvable issue only to discover one day that the solution is quite simple really.

For long now I have been most concerned about my leaking heart valves and ever increasing moments (never noticed any in the beginning) of wildly fluctuating arrhythmias between 30 and 240 beats per minute during training and competition (and those are just the recording limits of the heart rate monitor)!

It’s only after I read an article describing one of the reasons why the Russian athletes were at one time so far superior to their American counterparts, that the penny finally dropped.

You see the Russians where monitoring their athletes heart rate variances overnight which would then determine their state of recovery and therefore the intensity of the next day’s training for each individual.

You can only train as hard as the degree to which your body has recovered, and exceeding this is what leads to the dreaded over-training syndrome which includes in my case, aggravated heart arrhythmia!

And so it also dawned on me that the reason I was struggling to recover properly was because of my having to get up every hour at night to go to the loo as a result of prostate enlargement that restricted my bladder from being completely emptied. Tests now show that I carry a permanent reservoir of at least 500ml in my bladder (more than the average persons total capacity), and only void the overflow each time!

So there you have it!  Just have to fix the prostate (one stone) to sleep well, recover better, control arrhythmia, train harder and improve performance. Simple really.

Ah you say, but what about the calf strain?

Yes I know, seem to have pulled it quite badly last Sunday at the EC Tri Champs, and it’s going to need some good rest to heal. This Monday noon I’m checking into the St. Georges hospital for five days to have this long overdue prostate op done at 2pm, and so the subsequent 2 weeks forced rest will kill the sixth bird too!

And don’t be surprised to see me into some heavy cycling and swimming sessions this weekend, in fact right up to that hospital check in time – I intend to be so “poegaai” by then that I probably won’t need any anesthetic! Ha ha ha!!!

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Triathlon Swimming – Are there shark attractant or repellent colours?

SharkI have often thought that the colour of my Orca wetsuit too closely resembles that of a seal which is after all prime shark food. So I got to wondering if there is any data on shark attractant or repellent colours, and if so, why are wetsuit manufacturers not making them accordingly?

It seems too little research has been done to draw any solid conclusions, and conflicting opinions or myths are rife.

Research does indicate that sharks do see in colour, as do most marine creatures. Makes sense, as I do not see why there should be such a vivid colour display down below if it were otherwise.

Of the seven colours tested in this short video below, it appears that the top three colours sharks are attracted to are yellow, silver and black (in that order), with blue and red being the least.

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Now silver and black are the colours of my wetsuit, so my fears of “looking like a seal” seem well founded! Not good!

Again I think this test may have been too short to provide conclusive results. For swimmers I would like to see these tests done at or close to surface level as colours appear differently at depth. Multi-coloured patterns should also be tested as is indicated in this very interesting US patent:-

Techniques for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic patterns and coloration
United States Patent 4494245

A method for repelling predatory animals by the use of aposematic patterns and colorations is disclosed. A man (10) if isolated, alone, or injured in marine or ocean waters (24) is substantially at the mercy of numerous predatory organisms that live and thrive in the marine environment (24) such as for example a shark (26). There are however organisms or animals such as deadly Pelamis platurus sea snakes (28) which possess oposematic colorations such as bright yellow backgrounds (30) with black irregular spots (32). It has been found that sharks (26) typically have an innate avoidance response to these sea snakes. According to the method of this invention, therefore, the man or diver (10) protects himself from the predatory animal (26) by wearing a wetsuit (12) which mimics the sea snake (28) or some other aposematically colored organism. Thus, according to one embodiment the wetsuit (12) will be made of a bright yellow color background (34) having a multiplicity of black irregular spots (36), (38), and (40). In addition, bathing suits (50) and life preserver (52) may also be manufactured to mimic the coloration of other naturally distasteful or venomous animals. Also, hypothetical patterns which include the three basic aposematic colors red, black, and yellow may be applied to other diving and aqua marine equipment such as life raft (68) diving tank (76), foot flippers (70) and (72) and the like.

Certainly the situation is sufficiently serious to warrant thorough research into this area, and there could be a mint of money to be made by the wetsuit manufacturer who runs with the ball, as well as obvious benefits for us all.

So if you have insider contact with any, please send them a link to this post…