fitness

Swimming adventures

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

This is the last post, I promise, of swimming pics from Turkey. These are photos that were taken by Mustafah – the boat captain for the last two days. In addition, to driving the boat he would run around and take photos of us all whilst we were in the water swimming. He had an impressive Canon Digital SLR camera. Here are plenty of action swimming shots of me and my fellow swimtrekkers, accompanied by our swim guide escorts. Viva open water swimming. No boundaries. No lanes. No walls to kick off from. No chlorine. We battle the waves, the sea water and the marine life.

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

Here’s a few of me, in action:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

One of the minor challenges of open water swimming, was knowing where our destination was. Kind of hard to tell which way to swim and having to sight. Which way? That way!

From Action swimtrek

Middle of the pack:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

Mr. D doing a backdive into the water. Don’t try that at home kiddies!

From Action swimtrek

I forgot to mention that there were a few hand signals that we had to learn for the duration of the trip. There was a signal for ‘help’, a signal for “I’m ok” and can you guess what this one was for:

From Action swimtrek

The letter “W” made with both hands. It meant you were taking a leak in the water, just to let others know around you to keep clear. No one actually made this signal during the trip. We all just peed anyway…but of course you’d swim away from the group. (Well, I hope others were offering the same courtesy!) Here’s a group photo of us yellow-cap swimmers. We look pretty happy and glowing – high on endorphins and sunshine:

From Action swimtrek

Drink breaks involved treading water and having drink bottles thrown to us:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

This is our group setting off for the archipelago swim:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

More action shots:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

And another one of me:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Swimtrek day 3

I took a couple of videos on the trip. They’re a bit lame. And I haven’t edited them (don’t know how and can’t be bothered). Here’s one of the water as we sail on the boat. Click link. This video was taken at Aperlae. I was in the water and taking a video of the other practising swim drills. This has a lot of noise, so best on mute. And this video is kind of crazy. I was taking footage of Mr. A freedive down to the sunken coast guard boat, but this was the failed attempt. The water was super choppy and it was quite deep in this part of the sea. After the failed freedive attempt, I didn’t realise the video was still running, so I have all this random footage of what looks like me being tumbled around in a washing machine. I’m obviously trying to stay afloat, and tread water, but my hand holding the camera is waving about under the water with the video still running. It was really nice to be able to have the luxury to spend 2-3 hours a day swimming. These swimming adventure holidays are a great way to travel. I promise, no more photos. That’s it. Got no more left to show you. My blog will resume back to its regular dribble of food and life in Japan. There are a few other companies that offer swim adventure holidays. Swimtrek is the most prominent and has the most extensive and comprehensive destination itineraries, but it’s more convenient for those in the UK and Europe. I also highly recommend booking in advance, because they book out really quickly. I booked in February this year for an October departure. I had wanted to go in September, but they were booked out. 3-6 months advance booking is ideal…also gives you time to train and get in shape! There are a few other competitors out there but are more specific to a particular locale. SwimVacations – focus mostly on the British Virgin Islands and Caribbean SwimSafari – is more Australia friendly in terms of location. They run swim safaris in Fiji and Vanuatu. Doing one of the 5km OWS races there is on my bucketlist, but they also run swimming tour holidays as well. Would like to do one of these once I’m back in Australia. And if you missed my day-by-day recount of the week-long swimtrek here are the quicklinks: Swimtrek day 1 Swimtrek day 2 Swimtrek day 3 Swimtrek day 4 Swimtrek day 5 Swimtrek day 6

Turkey travel diary: Day 4 – Swimtrek day 2

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Woke up to this view, as seen from the balcony from my room.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Calm, flat waters and perfect weather. Today was the first official day of the Swimtrek tour (but I count yesterday as being day 1 – the Swimtrek arrival day). I think I was still jetlagged and woke up early. Or maybe it was out of habit considering the early starts that I had been having. There was going to be no sleep-ins this week. We had to be up early every day. I was sharing a room with a fellow female swimtrekker for the week. The tour is booked based on twin share, so I had been paired up with a roommate. You can pay extra to have your own room, but I was on a budget and didn’t want to fork out a week’s worth of single supplement, and was happy to share a room. The men however were inclined to get their own rooms. Jetlag, body clock adjustments, and the blare of the morning call to prayer from the local mosque was enough to awake me up. I was generally awake between 4am-6am everyday, but laid in bed until about 7-8am. We had to meet at 8am anyway for a compulsory pre-breakfast swim. Donned my cossies and headed down to the decks along with everyone else.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Our first ‘mini’ swim was only about 300-400m out in the bay in front of the hotel. This was a swim so the guides could assess our swim skill and speed. Based on this swim, they would put us into speed groups for the week. The hotel had its own private entry into the bay, via a ladder off the decks. The water was chilly. There was a fresh cold water spring right from the cliffs we were on. Patches of cold, patches of warm sea water. Swim completed. Breakfast on the deck. A buffet spread of fruit, bread, savouries, turkish condiments, cheese, olives, preserves, yoghurt etc. Had to restrict myself from going nuts on the buffet breakfasts so as to avoid getting bloated and drowning. A big meal, not a great idea before swimming. By about 9:30am we were all bundled up into a van and transported an hour’s drive away to Ucagiz. On the way to Ucagiz:

From Swimtrek day 2

Our swim for the day was taking place over that part of the coast. Ucagiz is a pretty little sea village.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

We boarded our “home” for the next two days – a gulet (a turkish yacht). Super nice. Seating, table, a small kitchen. a toilet, and plenty of sunbeds – all your mod cons.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

We set sail and enjoyed the water views, a little nervous about our first upcoming swim.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Day 1 and there was no mucking around. Literally, thrown into the deep end. First up, a 3.5km coastal swim! Prior to each swim, there was a ritual of lathering ourselves in suncream, and greasing up with vaseline (to prevent chafing – a common hazard swimming in saltwater). I was in the yellow-cap middle group, which was fine by me. There were six of us in that group. The orange caps were the fast group, and the pink caps were the slower group. Each group was staggered and each group was accompanied by either a swim guide or the boat captain with an escort boat. Mr swim guide A (aka the hottie) was mostly designated to our yellow group. Suffice to say that I had a wee crush on Mr A. And by “wee” I mean major. Geez, he was easy on the eyes. I may not be tall, skinny or pretty. But I ain’t blind. And I liked what I saw. He was fit (and knew it, too). Enough to make you want to drown just so he could perform mouth to mouth. Wait. I was on a swimtrek. That wasn’t going to fly. Damn. Given the fact that were indeed on a swimtrek, it meant that I got to see him wear nothing but little swim shorties all week! I could get used to this. Hehe. A little holiday crush is normal, right. Who hasn’t gone away on holidays and had a crush on their tour guide, cruise director or their ski instructor. Anyway, enough of my gushing… The first swim was magical. The water was warm, blue and clear. Relatively flat and calm as well. Very decent swimming conditions. The sea water was really salty which helped with buoyancy. Wasn’t going to drown in this water, even if I wanted to. I was as bouyant as a helium nugget. Try sinking one of those. Near impossible. We swam a tad over 3.5km. Each swim over the course of the week was always escorted. We’d stop for drink breaks during the swim where drink bottles were thrown to us from the boats, and we’d tread water, take a little drink break and then onwards to our destination. Once we had reached our end point we climbed aboard the gulet. First swim done. And I had survived. We sailed to Kekova for lunch – Kekova is the largest of the Turkish islands.

From Swimtrek day 2

The boat was anchored into a little cove, where there were some goats nearby.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

The clarity of the water was stunning. I suppose this is why this west coast of Turkey is called the Turquoise Coast, also known as the Turkish Riviera..

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Time here was spent sunbaking, getting to know each other, mingling, taking photos (maybe that was just me), and more importantly, eating.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Our skipper barbequed chicken off the back of the boat for lunch.

From Swimtrek day 2

He even tried to catch us some squid. We could see a couple of squid but they weren’t biting. Lunch was a nice spread. A veritable feast of salads, bread and chicken.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

After lunch had digested, it was time for the video shooting. We had to swim a short course, one by one, and be filmed twice – once above water and an underwater video. Our swim stroke technique (or lack thereof) would be analysed later. Here’s me with a couple of fellow swimtrekkers:

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Then it was time for our afternoon swim of 2km. I struggled a little with this swim. I had already done 3.5km in the morning. I was ready to call it a day. The afternoon was a little harder because the water was choppy and bouncy – not as flat and calm as the morning had been. Day 1 alone and we had racked up about 6km. Back on the boat and we sailed to Simena/Kalekoy – a tiny island, home to an old castle ruin.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

We had some free time to explore the castle and the views from the top, and/or some sarcophagi tombs. A handful of us chose the castle ruins (Entry – 8 Lira). We had to hike a bunch of steep stairs to reach the top of the castle. The views were absolutely worth it. But you be the judge…check out the views:

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Wow. Who knew Turkey was so beautiful. Bliss. There was even a little amphitheatre – perfect scene for a cheesy photo pose.

From Swimtrek day 2

I also loved the Turkish flag – it was everywhere! They’re a patriotic bunch. Such a simple understated flag – a moon crescent and a star. A flag as awesome as that, I’d hang up it up everywhere as well! Why wouldn’t ya!

From Swimtrek day 2

On the way back down – spotted: a cafe with an awesome name. I’ll spare you the cheesy photo pose that I took here as well. Yes, indeed a photo was taken here. How could you not?

From Swimtrek day 2

This holiday was truly turning out to be amazing. Beautiful water, stunning location, delicious food, great eye-candy. Geez,these guides had it hard. This was their “office” – not a hard life at all! Back onto the boat, and we sailed back to Ucagiz, and then a bus back to Kas. We got back to the hotel around 6:30pm and we had about an hour to shower and freshen up. It was a great first day. About 6km of swimming in one day. A group dinner had been planned for the night, so we met just before 8pm for dinner at a local restaurant where we enjoyed some wine and mezzes and some fresh Mediterranean cuisine. I could totally get used to this!

From Swimtrek day 2

Dinner – well earnt after a long swim day.

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

Some other photos: A cat sleeping in a basket on a window sill (lots of cats running around in Kas).

From Swimtrek day 2
From Swimtrek day 2

I was physically tired by the end of the first day – a combination of jet lag, sleep deprivation, sun exposure, and oh, swimming 6km! Physical exertion alone was tiring. It was a great first day of swimming. Was on a total high. Met some great, friendly people. And was totally in love with the locale. Photo album link. 5

Rejection…

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

sucks.

I (or rather my entry into the 2012 Tokyo Marathon) have been officially rejected by the Tokyo Marathon committee. I missed out on the lottery. Only 35,000 runners allowed, and they had over 284,000 wanna-be participants. I will not be one of them. Boo. Got the official rejection email today. There is an ever slight possibility that I could get a spot on the second round of offers released in November….but I don’t like my chances.

Need a new goal for 2012. Any suggestions? Maybe a sprint Olympic triathlon (would be my first triathlon) or perhaps a marathon in a different city around the world, or even train for a Sydney marathon

Dream Sea Change

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I’ve just come back from an amazing holiday from Turkey (hence my blog absence) – one week of which was spent doing a Swimtrek where I swam over 25km over 5 days of swimming around Turkey. The. Most. Amazing. Experience. Ever! Veni vidi vici.

It was a great week of open water swimming. Some people pray. Some people meditate. Some people drink. Some people run. I swim. It was an exhilarating experience. A week of sunshine, sea and water. Water is home for me. I also fell in love with Turkey. Leaving was like having my heart broken all over again. Such a beautiful, amazing country! The week of nothing but swimming was very much cathartic. Such a cleansing and purifying experience of being in the ocean and indulging in open water swimming. Some people go to India, Thailand etc for meditation, yoga and Buddhist retreats – for me, this swimtrek was my meditative retreat. At the end of the week, I felt great. I felt fit, inspired and awakened. Not sure how or why. But I felt really different after this experience. Open water swimming is so liberating.

Water is so essential to my being, and although I got a bit abused by the water, I have a very healthy respect for the open water and oceans of the world. When you’re swimming 5km a day in the deep blue ocean, there’s plenty of time to think and reflect. I have spent much of my life traveling. I live for travel. It’s a funny thing that all of life’s experiences happen on land, yet more than half of this earth is water. Even our own human bodies are over 2/3 water. Considering, over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered in water, for me, this was an incredible opportunity to sea travel – to explore a whole new underwater world. It was a new perspective to see things below the surface and peek into an entire world that exists in water.

Words can’t really express this most amazing experience. For me, it was more than a holiday. It was almost a catalyst, or a turning point for change. I felt purified and liberated after the first week in Turkey. Something I was totally not expecting. I expected it to be like any other overseas holiday. You go away, have fun, see new things, take photos, explore a new country and then come back home to reality. It was weird, but I felt different after the first week of swimming around Turkey, in a way I can’t explain. I felt inspired, motivated, but also lost and confused at the same time. There was definite clarity but also a sense of loss. Then something even weirder happened. A few days later after the swimtrek ended, I was in a different part of Turkey and one night I dreamt of my own death. It’s scary to dream of your own death. I was a bit wary for the rest of my trip, especially that day, when I was later on a flight back to Istanbul. I paid more attention than usual to the in-flight safety procedure. Exits here, here and here. Right. Got it. What does dreaming of your own death mean? Really weird state of mind to be in, especially after what was such a renewing week of solid open water swimming. How could I have felt so alive, yet have this cloud of death hanging over me.

On my last night in Istanbul, I met up with my best friend, Em. She had flown over for 24 hours from the UK to meet up with me in Istanbul. I told her of my dream, and she shocked me by telling me what it meant. Dreams are very rarely a premonition. They also rarely foretell of the future. Dreams are what happens in your subconscious and are more a reflection of the present. Phew, what a relief. Dreaming of your own death, she told me, means ‘change’. Wow. How incredibly freaky is that. The fact that it means change, especially after how ‘changed’ I felt by doing this swim trip. It’s like what I felt had been confirmed by this dream. Dreams of your own death means change, renewal. It means a loss of a part of yourself to something new that is about to happen. It’s about transition, and new beginnings. Death of yourself is symbolic to leaving a part of yourself behind. There’s those sayings about, something needs to die in order for something new to grow, one door needs to close for another to open. This is why you dream of yourself dying. Another transition, however, lies in wait.

It is said that dreaming of your own death is symbolic of an inner metamorphosis. And almost always, dreams of your own death are a positive thing! Hmmmm. Change is a brewing. What this change is, I don’t know. It may not even be drastic or even related to job, relationship etc, but simply could be just a change in the way you feel, or even letting go of something in the past, letting go of some feeling or something. I don’t know. But I do know ‘change’ is on the horizon. It’s uncanny that I dreamt of my own death following this incredible swimming journey, this sea change. The title of today’s blog post is ‘Mukai’. The two kanji characters are ‘dream’ and ‘sea’ 夢　and 海. Together pronounced ‘mukai’ – Dream Sea. Extremely fitting in light of my dream and sea journey. The beginning of a sea change perhaps. Here is a really amazing photo (if I do say so myself) of me swimming in Turkey which captures the beauty of what I experienced – swimming towards the light. It was taken by someone else on my underwater camera. He had me swim over the top whilst he held his breath and stood a few metres under the water looking up. He was able to capture this beautiful shot of me swimming towards the light (the sun being reflected off the water).

From Swimming towards the light

Over the next month, I will be posting up a travel diary on my blog here of my time swimming and traveling around Turkey.

September 5km run race

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I started off today with a pathetic 5km run race – one that I’d rather forget. —- Last weekend, I bought new running shoes at a shopping outlet. Super bargain! A pair of Adidas (SuperNova Glide 3W – a wide lightweight running shoe). They are super light. And were really cheap. They were reduced! My current, old pair were also Adidas. I’ve had them for over 5 years, so I guess, I was in need of a new pair – way overdue. If I get accepted into the Tokyo Marathon, I’ll splurge on another pair and get a proper fitting consultation.

From 5km run
From 5km run

Super white and clean. They practically glow in the dark!

From 5km run

I have small feet. I also wear orthotics so I needed a pair of shoes that fit them. My feet are also quite wide. Yesterday, I had to go to and pre-register for the race – pick up my race number and goodie bag. Entry into the 5km race was 2500yen. Running races are so much cheaper than open water swimming races in Japan which will set you back around 7000-8000yen. Here is the goodie bag:

From 5km run
From 5km run

It included some Vaam gel sportsdrink, and a bag. I was pretty happy with the bag. It’s super lightweight and folds and packs up, but it’s also a drawstring backpack. This will come in super handy for my swimtrek. I need a swim bag/day pack that will fit in my luggage, so the bag is pretty awesome. I had a sleepless night last night. Couldn’t sleep at all. I woke up this morning overtired, and I nearly slept in. I also woke up ridiculously dehydrated. It was kinda hot during the night. I guzzled over half a litre of fluids prior to the race. The 5km race was one lap around the Imperial Palace – my favourite running race route in Tokyo because it’s so familiar, and convenient to get to. I rode the train in, with my very conspicuous joggers.

From 5km run

I got to the race this morning with about 15-20 minutes to spare. I was still half asleep and very thirsty. Here are some pics pre-race around the Palace.

From 5km run
From 5km run

It was a very small turnout.

From 5km run

The race was only 5km. And there were two categories: Serious and Beginners. Needless to say I had registered myself for the Beginners and we raced at 9:35am. Here is the line-up for the “serious” runners:

From 5km run

The weather was a tad warm for my liking. If there’s one thing I hate more than jogging – it’s jogging in the heat. The race start was 9:35am, and the temp was already in the high 20s. Like I said, too warm for my liking. I had only one goal for this race. And that was to run sub-30minutes. Not a big deal to most people, but a challenging goal for me. My pace on average is 6min/km. I’m having trouble breaking that pace. So off I went on the 5km run. Torture. The worst 5km run I had ever run.

I started out strong, but then I don’t know what happened. I was still so freaking dehydrated. Super thirsty. Every breath was drying out my mouth, and being only 5km, there were of course no water stations. Crap. So super thirsty and I was also really hot. Reached the 2km mark, and thought crap, I’m already beat. How unfit am I. Another 3km to go! Geez. 3km to 5km was struggle, struggle, struggle. Needed water. Stat. A most bizarre feeling overcame me. I felt so incredibly dehydrated and hot. My whole body was heating up. Scarily so. I needed water like one needs air. I thought about dropping out of the race because I needed a drink so bad. The temperature was one thing, but my God, the humidity was abominable.

Here is a weather analysis of the day (source: Yahoo weather, Japan): Between 9-10am (the race time), the temperature was about 28 degrees (orange dotted line), and the humidity was a whopping 90%! (the green dotted line). You can see that the humidity level really dropped off to about 75% in the hours after. It’s still summer here and Japanese summers are incredibly humid. Dangerously so. Today the humidity really affected me. I felt like I was going to pass out. I’ve suffered heat exhaustion before, to the point of fainting, so I knew something was wrong because I got that same feeling. I didn’t feel ok. So badly wanted to quit, but I’m not a quitter, and I hate to say, that I had to walk a bit of the race. Walk, slow jog, walk, slow jog for the last couple of k’s. I was annoyed that I had to walk but my safety was paramount. My whole body was extremely overheated. I managed to cross the finish line in one piece. I felt so hot and red. I must have looked like an incredibly unfit freak…but the truth was, I wasn’t feeling good. The sooner I got to the finish line, the sooner I could guzzle some water. Got to the finish and sat down. Could barely stand up. Drank lots of water, wet my body, and drank some sportsdrink as well. Needed sugar. Body was incredibly overheated. Such a crazy, unusual thing to happen over such a short distance race. I sat for about 30-45min, not being able to move. Felt weak and headachey. I took my time to relax and for the body to cool. I looked at the time on my iPhone/music player, and had worked out that by my time I had run about 32minutes. Didn’t break my 30 minute goal. But I didn’t much care. I was glad that I had even finished the race, and not walked out on it. 32minutes wasn’t too bad considering I walked a portion of the race. I had run the first couple of k’s strong.

They had the little prize ceremony for placegetters in the serious category. Fastest male did 17minutes, and fastest female did 20minutes. They also had lucky dip/door prizes. I wanted to check out my official race time. I saw on the record sheet that it said: 37min, 23 seconds! What!!!!! I started to mentally flagellate myself…thinking how shit I had run and was thinking about ways to punish myself for such an atrocious time. I wondered how my stopwatch could have been so off. It wasn’t possible that my time could be 37minutes, considering we started at 9:35am and I was back by 10:07am. I then realized that the time hadn’t accounted for the 5min lag between the serious and the beginners start. We started five minutes after, so I needed to subtract 5minutes. So my official race time was 32minute and 23 seconds. That was better. Still not good. But better, especially given how rotten I felt during the run. I got home and crawled into bed with the air conditioner on and slept for a few hours. I was super tired, and had a giant headache, and was feeling not 100%. A little bit lightheaded.

Am feeling much better now though…although I don’t think I have eaten enough today. Here’s what I think went wrong that accounted towards how I felt today: – high humidity. (Major cause). Not healthy to run in such high humidity. And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I need to HTFU. But as consolation, here is one tidbit I found on the Internet: “Humidity is considered high when the levels go above 45 to 50%. When combined with high temperatures, high humidity can be very dangerous to the body as it interferes with the bodies ability to cool itself down, which may cause heat stroke. High humidity can also trigger an asthma attack.” – total lack of acclimatisation. Today’s race was the first time I had jogged outdoors. All summer, I have jogged indoors, inside at a gym on a treadmill. I had no exposure to running outdoors in the heat and humidity. My body didn’t adjust so well. I think it was a bit of a shock to the system, especially given how much I swim – I’m too used to being in the water where it’s wet and cool. – lack of proper hydration.

I don’t know why I woke up so thirsty. I had drunk plenty of water the day before but I guess the heat during the night took it out of me a bit. Even now as I write this at 5pm, it’s 29 degrees. It’s just hot. And my body does not enjoy running in summer. This is why I swim. – no breakfast, no fuel prior to the race. I’ll often race on an empty stomach, so this isn’t usually a huge problem especially for such a short race. Even though I only jogged 5km, I also somehow managed to get blisters on both feet. Maybe a marathon wasn’t such a great idea after all. Still hoping I get accepted anyway. At least it’s in the winter. I’d rather run in snow than in 90% humidity in near 30-degree temps! Will probably regret saying this, especially if it does actually snow on marathon day next year. I didn’t achieve my sub-30minute goal, but I ran 5km, so I s’pose that’s better than nothing. Gotta start somewhere. Around the Palace moat on my way back to the station, there were some turtles. I felt as slow as a turtle today. But on the upside, turtles live a really, really long time!

From 5km run
From 5km run

Saw a t-shirt today that said: “Run yourself better”. Simple. But nice.

Swimmer’s block

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I hadn’t swum in over week, which is a little bit of a record for me, because I always swim at least, at a minimum – once a week. Today, after doing a 2km swim this morning, I remembered why I had taken a break from swimming….shoulder pain.

In just a few weeks, I will be swimming around Turkey – a 30-35km swim over 6 days. On average swimming 5-6km a day. I should be training more, me thinks. But with all the swimming I had been doing over the summer, my upper shoulders and upper back/neck are getting sore. Subconsciously I had stopped swimming for about 10 days to give my shoulders a break. I’ve also taken up jogging as well, which meant that I had swapped the pool for the treadmill. I am actually getting into the jogging a bit now … even bought myself new jogging shoes! I’m in need of swimming motivation considering I had slacked off a bit. I’m also getting worried about the swimtrek. I feel underprepared to swim that much, day in, day out. The thought of sore shoulders and back is a little unnerving. Swimming laps in a pool also gets a little boring.

Last night I came across an awesome blog of a gal who a few months back did a swimtrek. Hers wasn’t so much a holiday as it was a swim bootcamp. She had signed up for the Gozo (Malta swimtrek) – this swimtrek is a swim camp used mainly by those who want to swim the English Channel. It’s a full-on long distance ows swim camp, working up to a 6-hour swim. (My limit is 2-hours). It’s a really interesting read of the training and mental endurance of open water swimming training in cold water (15 degrees). I highly recommend reading her three entries on her swimtrek. Start reading from here. And work your way to post 3 of her Malta swimtrek. Her last post is the most inspiring and motivating. Her blog gets brownie points because she makes reference to Haruki Murakami. It was a re-quote from someone else, but I’m pretty sure that Murakami said that in this book, “What I talk about when I talk about running”. (Murakami is a prolific marathoner). One of the quotes that always stuck out in that book for me was: “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional”. (I think it was also a re-quote from someone else as well). But after reading that book – that quote always stuck in my mind. I think I should re-read that book. Good motivation for mental endurance and perserverance, especially since I’m also hoping to get accepted into the Tokyo Marathon. It was a good insight into what I can expect…although not as full on as that. It will be a similar routine. Up early, breakfast and then hitting the water everyday, swim for a couple of hours, lunch, swim a few more km’s, dinner, a couple of sessions on technique and swim analysis, and then sleep. Thankfully, it’s also a holiday, and not a race, and not a swim bootcamp, so hopefully it will be a little more leisurely.

After reading that last night, I thought it was time for me to HTFU. So even though I desperately wanted to sleep in longer this morning, I changed into my cossies, got onto the train, jumped into the pool and swam 2km. The first 1km was easy enough. Felt good to be back in the water especially having not swum for a while. Between 1-1.5km my shoulders started to get sore. My lower neck, upper back and shoulders are getting really tight and sore though. It doesn’t help that I sit in front of a computer all day at work either. I think I’m gonna need some deep tissue massaging. In my last ows race (the 4.5km one) I remember my arms being incredibly sore, especially around the 3km mark. To the point where I could barely get the, out of the water and they were just pretty much skimming the top of the water, floundering. Should I be pumping iron? Do I have weak arms? I think sore shoulders and arms is normal? The recommended swimming training program provided by Swimtrek seems pretty relaxed to me. Maybe, I am swimming too much. When you also eat as much as I do, there’s no such thing as “swimming too much”. I went back over the swimming training program – which spans 3 months in the lead up to the actual swim.

I leave in 3 weeks, and I feel as though I haven’t done enough training, despite being on track with the program. I barely swim 5km a week, let alone 5km a day for a whole week! They recommend a certain distance per week = target km. I have then recorded my actual distance swum for that week.

Month 1/July

Week 1: Target: 1km Actual: 10km (includes 3km OWS race, plus additional training km’s)

Week 2: Target: 1.5km Actual: 10.6 km (This was the week I competed in the 4.5km ows race, plus additional training km’s)

Week 3: Target: 2km Actual: 1.5km (this was my recovery week after two back to back weekends of ows races)

Week 4: Target: 2km Actual: 1km

Week 5: No target. Actual: 1.7km

Month 2/August

Week 1: Target: 2.5km Actual: 4.1km

Week 2: Target: 3km Actual: 5km

Week 3: Target: 3.5km Actual: 3km (did more cross training instead of swimming – 3 jogging sessions)

Week 4: Target: 4km Actual: 3.5km (lazy week. No jogging either)

Month 1/September

Week 1: Target: 4km Actual: 1km swim (but 3 jogging sessions)

Week 2: in progress Target: 5km Actual (so far): 2km ….but the week ain’t over yet.

Here’s what I need to cover over the next 2-3 weeks…

Week 3: Target: 5km

Week 4: Target: 3km Moral of the story. No pain. No gain. And must find good masseur.  I also need to fit in another open water swim session (instead of laps in a chlorine box), so I signed up for another race (my last one for the summer) which is in a week and a half away, and I’ve not done much training for it. It’s a 3.84km open water swim race. If you’re thinking 3.84km is a weird distance, it’s because I will be swimming the length of a bay somewhere in Chiba prefecture, and apparently that’s how long the bay is.

Looking ahead

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One of my little life’s philosophies is: Always give yourself something to look forward to. It can be something as simple as a dinner with friends, watching a movie, getting a massage or manicure, or something as big as a holiday, trip overseas, a big function or event.

These Open Water Swims (OWS) throughout this summer have really given me something to look forward to. Surprisingly, I enjoy competing, and I look forward to race day. Even though it’s challenging, it’s keeping me fit and focused during the week. It’s also made me realise how much I love swimming. Swimming has always been there in the background of my life, but lately it really has occurred to me that’s a huge part of my life, and it’s kind of nice to take it up more seriously. I’ve been really obsessed with swimming lately, in particular long-distance swimming. I really want to push myself to swim longer distances and get up to 5km, 10km swims. I think this is something that I really want to pursue – yes, long distance swimming. It’s kind of my niche sporting activity at the moment. I’ve been obsessed with looking up long distance swims on the Internet and I’ve got some goals in sight with some swims over the next year or so in some exotic destinations. Having something to look forward to is an important motivation. Lately, it feels though my time is counted by the number of swim races I can do.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a 2km open water swim in Shizuoka. I feel ok with the training I did this week to do the distance comfortably. I was more focused on being comfortable with the distance rather than speed. Since last Sunday’s race, I managed to do the following: Monday – 2km swim in about 45min

Tuesday -1km swim

Wednesday -4km jog, 1km walk (total 45min cardio – cross training)

Thursday – rest.

Friday – 2.2 km in about 45min

Saturday – will be rest.

And tomorrow race day.

My motivation at the moment, is my upcoming trip to Egypt. I’ve got three weekends, and two swim races to get through and then I am treating myself to a nice holiday.

Lake Toya swim

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With swim number 2 behind me, I’ve got another ocean swim race ahead of me this weekend. Here’s a recap of last Sunday’s swim. I arrived in Hokkaido on Saturday morning only to be greeted by clouds and rain at Chitose airport. Upon arrival in Hirafu I had a hearty brunch.

Given the weather conditions for the day, Fi and I had a chocolate bake-off for the rest of the day, but that, my friends, spawns another blog post. In short, there was a lot of drinking and eating had on the Saturday, topped off with a night at the pub for trivia where several glasses sparkling wine and meat pies were consumed. On a very full stomach and a few alcohol units, I somehow managed to get up early on the Sunday morning.

Departing Hirafu at about 7.30am we made good time to Lake Toya. The weather was gorgeous. What a fine day indeed it turned out to be. It was about 29 degrees that day and the sun was out. Courtesy of the sun’s appearance I am now sporting a decent tan despite applying generous amounts of suncream. I’ve got a pretty severe cossie tan. It was a great day to re-visit Lake Toya. I swam in both the 800m and 1.5km swims last year, and was entered again for both this year. Unfortunately, my times were a bit disappointing. It was definitely a slow swim day for me, but not bad considering how little training I did and the amount of food and drink I consumed the day before. Probably not the best training diet. Don’t try that at home kiddies. A sensible diet and an early night’s rest is ideal the night before a race. Oh well, good times were had anyway. It was really quite a miracle that I did not sink in that lake. Lake Toya is a freshwater lake, so the swim was a bit of a struggle. We swam across the shoreline. And man, I really felt the distance in this race. First up was the 800m swim. The distance felt a lot longer. My time was 15minutes and 11 seconds for that one, and placed 8th in my age category of about 17 people. A considerable difference between that and the 800m swim at Atami beach which I did in 10 minutes. The age category was all females under the age of 39. That was a pretty broad group of competitors. I felt really slow in the water and the distance felt like forever. I think the salt water in ocean swims really make a difference. Either that, or I was carrying a lot more weight through the water this time around, coz I felt heavy in that water. That swim was then followed by the 1.5km. That was a struggle. Especially after doing so poorly in the 800m, I didn’t know how I was going to double that. It was two laps of the same course (which would make it 1.6km ja nai?). I was slow and felt like I had been swimming forever. The finish line didn’t seem any closer. Usually I guesstimate my time by the length of a TV show. This swim felt like the Director’s Cut of Titanic along with preview and credits. The whole time I was swimming that 1.5km all I could think about was “how the hell I am going to swim 4km?”. During the week I had sent off an entry for a 4km beach swim. That was more than double what I was doing now! That’s going to be a solid 1.5 hour of swimming in the ocean. 4km! What was I thinking! “I’m struggling to swim 1.5km so how the hell will I finish 4km!” What was also frustrating about this swim apart from being slow and sluggish in the water was the two ends of the course were marked by blue raft boats that we had to swim around, yet they had lifeguards in other blue raft boats that were paddling along the course, so every time I would look up to see how much further I had, I kept seeing these moving raft boats which were the wrong ones and kept thinking I less to go than what I actually had to swim. I spent over half an hour in the water moving my arms and legs. My time ended up being 32minutes and 38 seconds. Another disappointing time.

Because I had entered both races, I could only choose one which would eligible for placings. I chose the 800m as my main event. For the 1.5km swim I wasn’t placed in my age category, but rather was lumped into the Open category. I didn’t improve on either time from last year’s results. Oh well. I’ll just have to do better in the next one. At least I didn’t sink. I will admit that after the swim at Lake Toya, my arms were a bit sore and my shoulder and back muscles were a bit tight. Doing non-arm strokes for over 45 minutes is kinda tiring. Also it’s kinda funny but I also got a sore neck after this race.I think it might have been from straining when looking up to find the buoys and water markers. During the race, a couple of swans even crossed the course. I was careful to get out of their way.

With the two swims behind me, it was time for lunch which was a delicious spread put on by Jojos. The lunch is worth the swim. Of course, most sane people would skip swimming 1.5km and just go to Jojos instead to eat their food. This year’s NAC t-shirt was also a really nice colour compared to last year’s grey t-shirt. Swim number 2 done and dusted. This Sunday I’ll be off to Chiba for a beach swim. That’ll be swim numero 3. I much prefer beach/ocean swims. It’s a standard 1km swim which is the minimum distance I swim whenever I go to the pool. I would like to do it in under 20 minutes as a personal goal but will prepare myself for a time anywhere between 15-25 minutes. Will let you know how it goes. I believe rain is forecast for this weekend though.

race gear

getting my race number texta-ed on my arm

Lake Toya on summer Sunday morning

in the water

Off to Hokkaido for swim # 2

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Most people get woken up by an alarm. This morning I got woken up by an earthquake at 6am. Such is life in Japan. Awake and albeit reluctantly, I hauled my ass to the pool for one last “training session” before the weekend. Open Water swim race number 2 for summer 2010 is this weekend, on Sunday. It’s been a fortnight since my last open water swim race. I’m travelling up to Hokkaido for this one heading up tomorrow morning.

This event is the only open water swim race in Hokkaido, and I use the term ‘open water’ deliberately in this case. This swim is not an OCEAN water swim. It’s in a lake. More specifically a volcanic caldera lake – Lake Toya, a beautiful lake in a nice onsen town. Here are some interesting facts about Lake Toya: – Lake Tōya is said to be the northernmost lake in Japan that never ices, – and the second most transparent lake in Japan. – The 2008 G8 Summit was held here This particular swim event is a private/non-official race in that it is not endorsed or organised by the Japan Open water swimming association. This race is run by a local adventure/outdoor company in Hirafu/Niseko.

This swim is kind of close to my heart for several reasons. Firstly, Hokkaido was my first experience of Japan ever. I first came to Japan as a uni exchange student and I was placed at Sapporo University (not my first preference at the time). Our flight from Sydney was to Chitose airport in Hokkaido so I never even landed on Honshu before arriving to Japan. I lived in Sapporo for one year. It was where I first fell in love with Japan and knew that I would return. After graduating from uni I was back to Japan on the JET program. I also visited Hokkaido again during that time.

After finishing JET, I then moved back to Hokkaido and lived in Hirafu, Niseko (a major ski resort town) for a year and a half. Sunday’s swim race is called Big Swim Toya and it is hosted by NAC (Niseko Adventure Centre). I lived within walking distance of NAC and spent some time there. They have a great restaurant/cafe called JoJo’s – it’s a beautiful casual, spacious restaurant with delicious food to boot. They have a little shop and an indoor wall climbing facility too. They also run heaps of activities and tours all-year round like rafting, snowshoeing etc. In addition to the Big Toya Swim event, they also put on the Hirafu 10km Trail Run which I also competed in last year – the most gruelling 10km run over. It’s not a road run, it’s a trail run – up and down mountains and ski slopes. I also competed in this same swim last year, so it will be nice to do it again and hopefully improve my time from last year. So there you have it – me and Hokkaido go way back. I always like going back to Hokkaido – it’s also one of the most prettiest prefectures in Japan in my opinion. In fact, Hokkaido is awesome – great climate, powder snow, awesome coast line, great onsens, majestic mountains, delicious seafood and miso ramen, gigantic national parks, festive festivals, pretty flowers (Furano and Biei), home of Sapporo Beer and Royce choco, etc etc, stop me now… So this Sunday’s swim at Lake Toya will be a little trip down memory lane.

I competed in the 800m and the 1.5km swim back to back last year, and will be doing the same again this year. Lake Toya is a freshwater lake, so again these are different water conditions to what I’m used to. For one, the water temperature is a lot colder. Wetsuits are a given at this one. I don’t wear a wetsuit. I don’t own one, and even if I did, I wouldn’t wear one. Plain old togs do me just fine. Also, there is no salt content in the water, which means less bouyancy than an ocean swim. I know my times are definitely going to be slower. On the upside, there is virtually no current. The water is very flat, still and cold. It also means that the water is also quite pleasant to drink should you accidentally gulp some of it. I recall from last year that the water was quite tasty. Cool, clean and fresh – the way water should be. So it’s been two weeks since my last race event. I’ve done a little bit of training. Not as much as I would have liked. The first 800m event I’m not too worried about. I will be fresh so my time will hopefully be ok. My goal is to improve on my 800m swim time from last year which was 14 minutes and 39 seconds. The catch-22 here is that the faster I swim the 800m the greater rest time between that race and the start of the 1.5km swim. But the faster I swim, the more tired I’m going to be for the 1.5km race. From memory last year, I had about a 20min break between the two which was not too bad. As for the 1.5km I don’t expect my time to be so great, just average. After having already gone flat out in the first 800m event, I’m already going to be a little tired by the time I have to compete in the 1.5km. All up, it’s 2.3km all on a Sunday morning. The 1.5km is basically two laps of the first 800m course. If I can improve on last year’s time I’ll be pleased. Not 100% confident that I can pull it off though. Here was my 2-week swim plan in the lead up to this event after the first Atami race: In bold was my planned training schedule (i.e what I told myself I should do). In parentheses next to it is what I actually ended up doing.

July 12 2km swim (nothing. did not go to gym -I was actually sick after the Atami swim)

July 13 1.5km swim and 45min walk(1km swim + 250m swim)

July 14 1.5km swim and 45min walk (nothing)

July 15 1.5km swim and 45min walk (45min walk (4km) and 30min cycle)

July 16 2km swim (45min walk (4km)

July 17 3km swim and walk/cycle (1.5km swim)

July 18 Walk (5.5km walk) J

uly 19 1.5km swim and 45min walk (nothing)

July 20 2km swim (45min walk (4km))

July 21 gym closed nothing

July 22 1.5km swim and 45min walk (1.5km swim and45min walk (4km) – stuck to the plan – yay)

July 23 2km swim (1.1.km swim)

July 24 no swim. Never swim the day before event (will be sticking to the plan)

July 25 Lake Toya Swim Day Race event: 800m and Race event: 1.5km

The above suggests that:

a) I am way too optimistic when I plan my training schedule

b) I am an unrealistic goal setter

c) I am an underachieving lazy human being

d) I spend way too much time blogging about swimming than actually swimming

e) I should take up walking as a sport because I spend more time walking than I do swimming

f) all of the above I blogged a breifly about the Lake Toya swim last year. You can read that old post here. If you should feel so inclined to participate in this swim next year, info can be found on the NAC website here. If you email them (English or Japanese) they can send you an application form in the post. You can then pay by furikomi. Application form, documents etc are available in Japanese and English. double entry for both swims is 8500yen. One event is 5500yen. This cost includes a t-shirt and yummy all you can eat bbq lunch feast and a participation certificate. Also the chance to win heaps of lucky dip prizes. Placings also receive prizes. NAC do a great job of putting on this event. Super organised and friendly staff. You can even camp at Lake Toya the night before. Kudos to the competitors who sleep in a tent and then swim the next morning. I prefer the comfort of a bed the night before a swim race.

Bex made a video of last year’s Toya swim race. You can watch it below: WARNING: A most unflattering video of me. All my wrong angles (why is it always the side angle???) and I’m wearing a swimsuit in pretty much nearly every scene…not a pretty sight coz I ain’t no skinny bitch. I like my food and lots of it too! You were warned. Oh, and I hate my voice too. Maybe I should go drown in Lake Toya rather than actually swim in it. Clearly I belong behind the camera rather in front of it. So apart from me starring in the video, the video is great. Very entertaining and big kudos to Bex for making it. Thank you, Bex! It was actually a fun day and I’m looking forward to doing it again this weekend. I’ll be sure to be blogging about it next week. Here’s hoping for better weather this time around. Last year was wet and rainy, grey and overcast. The lake was kinda eerie with its low mist. So at the risk of personal embarrassment I am going to upload the video. (Video duration: 5min, 24 seconds – – – 5 minutes and 24 seconds that you will never get back from your life again). (Just tried uploading directly onto my blog. Exceeds my blog media file limit. Will upload to Youtube)

What I talk about when I talk about swimming…

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Before there was Murakami, there was Carver – Raymond Carver that is. I can totally see how Murakami was heavily influenced by him. If you’ve ever read Murakami Haruki’s “What I talk about when I talk about running”, you’ll know that he borrowed that title from Raymond Carver’s collection of short stories called “What we talk about when we talk about love”. My favourite short story in the collection is “The Bath” which also appears in Murakami’s short story collection “Birthday Stories”. Bath…pool…water…swimming. Everything is connected. So you know that I love food and eating, and to look at me I am no athlete by any definition, but all this eating can take a toll on one’s physique. I try to maintain this balance by swimming. Funnily enough, all that swimming makes me wanna do, is eat more.

Lately, I’ve been swimming…a lot…sort of…trying to?… My summer goal for this year is to get back into some ocean swimming races. I used to do it (ir)regularly back in Sydney in my uni days. I had a couple that I liked to compete in, in particular the Bondi Cole Classic (from North Bondi to South Bondi beach and back – I believe this has now been moved to Steyne/Manly Beach) and also the Sydney Harbour swim. The Sydney Harbour Swim is the only sanctioned swim that allows participants to swim from the Sydney Opera House to Fort Denison and back right in Sydney Harbour. It’s pretty iconic. Ocean swimming as you guessed it, takes place in the ocean. It’s probably more accurate to describe it as Open Water swimming (that is, not a pool) – these Open Water swims are usually in oceans, harbours or even lakes. They involve swimming long distances usually between 1 to 5km. I have been swimming since the age of 5. I practically learnt to swim before I could even speak English (English being the second language I learnt).

As I kid in swim school from the age of 5 – I used to dread going to swimming lessons after school at Guildford Pool. Butterflies would literally swim in my stomach. I liked the pools, and I liked water but I hated swimming lessons! The teachers were old and really strict back in the 80s. As I grew older, I learnt to love swimming. It was something I had grown up with, and it was something that I didn’t totally suck at. As is typical in most Australian schools – swimming lessons at some point are compulsory. I remember compulsory swim lessons in Yr 5 and Yr 6, and when I got to high school – our school had its own pool, so again swimming was a part of the curriculum. In the junior years of high school I also kept up swim squad training, clocking up several km’s a week and then Saturday morning competition. The problem with all this swim training was that I was always ravenous as a teenager. I had an insatiable appetite (I still do). Swimming really stimulates the appetite. I wasn’t really that good a swimmer competition wise. I’m not really a fast swimmer – more an endurance swimmer. I am cursed with slow twitch fibres which means I will never be good at sprint sports or speed. Endurance is more my thing.

As I got older – Yr 10 onwards, I gave up all competitive sports (swimming and netball). It was the time to focus on studies, School Certificate and HSC etc, and also time to get a part time job after school and on the weekend – leaving little time for sports. That said, though, I still enjoyed swimming for leisure and would often swim on my own on a regular basis. I refused to give up swimming altogether. Later in uni, I got my AustSwim and Bronze Medallion qualifications etc, and become a pool lifeguard and qualified learn to swim instructor. I worked at various pools in the my local district. Every now and then I would compete in an ocean swim, or a team triathlon with my friends in which I naturally do the swim leg. Swimming is one the things I love I do and always try to make time for. When going on a holiday I will religiously pack my swimmers and goggles – just in case.

When I moved to Japan, one of the first things I did was suss out all my pool options. In Sapporo, as a uni exchange student it was the Konami Gym centre, in Namie it was Refure pool, in Hirafu it was the Alpen Hotel. I was even teaching swim classes during my summer in Hirafu. Pools are my little wells of life. Now in Tokyo, it is the local fitness chain centre I have joined. I love swimming. And the body loves swimming. It’s so good for you. It’s good for your breathing, it’s an all-body workout – your legs are moving, arms are moving, head and neck are moving. It’s a good aerobic exercise and whilst it’s not the best for strength (better off with weight training), it’s a decent resistance work out with your muscles working against the water it can be quite a body toner. And it’s no/low impact and stress on the body. I’ve never known anyone to have suffered from a swimming injury (unless of course you don’t know how to swim, in which case results in drowning). The water is cool, fresh and invigorating. Swimming is a great stress reliever too (although occasionally I am prone to pool rage – more on that later), and helps regulate your respiratory system. It’s also therapeutic and one of the best exercises you can do for physical rehab.

I used to be a volunteer swim teacher at the Children’s hospital in Sydney for the NSW Asthma Foundation. Swimming was deemed to be good therapy for kids with asthma. On Saturday mornings, at the kids hospital – asthmatic kids could receive breathing and swimming lessons from volunteers as part of their asthma management. Also good for knocking over a hangover too, although you don’t want to be too hungover. When I injured my arm snowboarding, I was off the ski slopes for a good few weeks. The pool was my saviour.

With swimming there’s options – you can freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sidestroke, or just walk in the pool. With jogging – you can either run or walk only. Furthermore, swimming can be enjoyed all year round because it can either be outdoors or indoors. As far as most sports go, it’s also a pretty cheap one to take up. A pair of togs, goggles, a cap (all of which won’t break the bank) and the couple of bucks for pool entry. Now sports like skiing, snowboarding etc require expensive gear and safety equipment. Every pool I’ve ever joined also offers membership or bulk coupons which give you a little bit of a discount or saving. Pool entry is what people would spend a cup of coffee on each day. It’s affordable. I think that those who do not have private health insurance should at least get a yearly gym membership. Both are investments in your health, especially in the day and age of rising obesity and health-related problems. If you can afford both, even better (luckily I do!). Why plan for the day when you suffer from cardiovascular disease when you could prevent it altogether with daily exercise.

Now, just a quick word on pool rage. This is the part where I vent a little. The “pool” experience in Japan can be somewhat frustrating at first. I have (reluctantly) learnt to deal with it. Here are some things that really get up my nostrils (thereby “irritate” me) about swimming and pools in Japan:

– no jewellery or accessories are allowed in the pool. This means no rings, earrings, necklaces or watches. You will be chased down by the pool attendant and be forced to remove them. If you can’t remove them, they make you tape it up. Believe me, I have seen Japanese men with wedding bands that can’t be removed from their finger so they have to cover it with tape. The tape is provided at the pool too. Occasionally when I have forgotten to remove my earrings, I’ve had to tape them up. How could they even see my earlobes when I’m swimming up and down the pool?? I’m actually pretty sure that one of the obasans that were slowing me down, dobbed me in. (Do people say “dobbed in” these days??? Wasn’t sure what to use in the alternative. Any suggestions?)

– the wearing of swimming caps is compulsory, but the crazy thing is, is that they don’t make waterproof caps in Japan (well I think they do, but they’re really hard to find). Swim caps in Japan are not made from latex or rubber or whatever is. They’re made of a nylon fabric. The whole point of the cap in Japan is to prevent hair getting in the pool, rather than to prevent your hair getting wet.

– everyone must swim in the “right” direction. Up the pool on your right, and down the pool on your left. I once went to this insane pool where you had to swim up in one lane, duck the rope and go down in the next lane. So one lane was for one direction, and the other lane for the other direction. Yeah, sure this meant that two swimmers could go side by side (swim abreast) in the one lane, but having to switch lanes to return in the opposite direction is crazy!!! That doesn’t make for very productive lap swimming when you have to stop at every end, and duck the lane to go back.

– showering/rinsing is mandatory prior to entering the pool. Valid for hygiene reasons (although I maintain chlorine is gonna kill any germs that are in pool). This isn’t something that is compulsory in Australia.Pools in Japan, have a shower walkway/doorway that you have to walk through in order to enter the pool. This means that towels cannot be brought into the pool area. because they’re ultimately gonna get wet when you go through that walkway. Leave them in your locker or shower room.

– overtaking of another swimmer is not allowed. At various pools, if I’ve ever overtaken a slow swimmer, I have always been chased down by the pool attendant. This countlessly means that I am stopped by slow swimmers. I am forced to walk or stop swimming. The majority of pools however usually have a slow and a fast lane, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s one lane fits all. This is even more frustrating because you’ll get backstrokers in amongst the freestylers! The pool I go to has only three lanes. One lane is a walking only lane. The Japanese love just walking up and down the pool. So much so that there is a lane dedicated to that. The other two lanes are swimming lanes, but if there happens to be an aqua class, all lanes swimmers are then lumped into one lane. And if you can’t overtake a slow swimmer, this is very painful, not to mention a disruption to my laps.

– Another thing I have noticed about a few pools in Japan (not all though) is that they are poorly designed with the locker/change rooms and the pool on separate floor levels. I’ve been to a few pools in Japan which involve a flight of stairs. I think that this is one of the most dangerous designs for a pool. Wet, slippery stairs. I mean really!!! It’s a real hazard for people to going up and down stairs that are wet and slippery. There should be a minimum amount of distance between a pool and the change room. The less distance, the less chance of injury. I mentioned earlier that swimming is one of the safest exercise you can do. This is the exception. I reckon more pool accidents happen outside the pool than in the pool (i.e. by running or walking on slippery surfaces).

Phew. What a vent. In fact, I think I need a swim in order to relieve some of that stress. And thus that nasty vicious cycle begins. I go swimming to relieve stress, only to get stressed at the pools, and then needing to swim to relieve that stress…. Ah, yes – there is so much to say about swimming (despite the above vent).

I love water. Drinking it, bathing in it, showering in it, floating in it, washing with it, swimming in it. Water is vital to my life. I’m an Earth sign (being a Taurus) and the earth needs water to survive. Water is the earth’s nourishment. I think that is where my attraction to water stems from. The innate astrological desire to be near water. I love going to the beach and some of my favourite destinations in the world or places that I have lived are either port/harbour cities, or are along the coast (eg Hamburg, Sydney, Namie, Yokohama, I’ve lived in island countries – Australia and Japan). My favourite animals are also water creatures, my favourite animal being a penguin. (I also like fish, and dolphins). Water is so freeing, cleansing, purifying. Swimming too is all of this – for the mind and body. Metaphorically, I am an island (the earth) with the need to be surrounded by water. Ocean swimming is also a lot more challenging than pool swimming. You can’t fear depth. (Pools in Japan are also really shallow – they are usually at a depth that can be walked i.e feet touch the ground, the whole length). The thing about ocean swimming is that it’s a lot more unpredictable than swimming in a pool, for obvious reasons. The main factors are current/tide, absence of swim lanes, a lot more backwash, and colder water temps.

My local pool in Tokyo is an indoor heated pool with a water temp of 31 degrees which is way too warm for my liking. It’s almost like a tepid bath. Ocean water is usually about 19 degrees. Swimming in cold water is a bit of a shock to the system and your body struggles that little bit more to move. The body’s muscles are lot more flexible when warm. Cold water temperatures are going to work against you. The current or tide too can either work for you or against you. I’ve been in some swims where the current is so strong, that no matter how hard or fast your arms and legs are going, you’re not moving anywhere, the current keeps pushing you back. This wears you out and slows you down. For example, I’ve swum a 1.6km swim in a harbour. My time for that swim was in the 40minutes. A pretty slow time for me, considering that in a pool in 40 minutes, I would have been able to rack up 2km. In the open water, there are no swim lanes, and your sense of direction is warped. It’s really hard to see where you are going and where you are headed, with only a bouy or two off in the distance over the waves. You could be swimming off an angle which adds metres to your actual distance swum, and then you struggle to get back on course. There’s no black line on the bottom of the ocean floor to direct you. Also there’s no pool walls to push and kick off from every 25 metres. In an ocean swim race, you’ve also got a lot of people which means that people are kind of swimming over the top off each other and it can get a little rough with arms and legs flying about, getting kicked, or elbowed. I’ve had my goggles kicked off my face before. A beach start, particularly at an Aussie beach, can also be quite tiring. You have to run from the sand into the beach and into oncoming waves. It can take a couple of minutes before you even get out pass all the waves to start stroke swimming. Ducking and jumping the waves is all part of an ocean swim.

Something else about ocean swimming which differs from a pool, is the water. Chlorine vs salt water. Salt water makes you that little bit more bouyant which is why sometimes you can actually swim a bit faster than you would in a pool. The downside, is that you surprisingly end up swallowing a lot of that salt water – what with all that splashing, and kicking from the other 100 people around you, you’re bound to get some of that in your mouth. By the end of the race, you’re pretty dehydrated. It’s not like jogging or walking, where you can have a bottle of water on you. Salty/sandy water can also give you a rash. I had never thought that you could get a rash from swimming. Learnt this the hard way in my very first ocean swim race. This is why Vaseline comes in handy. Apply to armpits, neck, and inner thighs before the race. There’s also a lot of marine life that you might encounter during an ocean swim. I’ve been in a few swims (in Oz) where you see lots of jellyfish. In my experience, they’re pretty harmless. You just swim right over the top of ‘em. In Oz too, there’s also the very real threat of sharks and bluebottles. I was stung once by a bluebottle as a kid. I was just entering the beach and had gotten knee-deep when one wrapped itself around my knee and stung me. I couldn’t walk for a week. I suffer really bad reactions from stings. (I am also allergic to bee stings). Not everyone will suffer the same reaction. Oh, the joys of ocean swimming. It can be kinda scary sometimes swimming out in that vast unknown liquid vacuum of an ocean. Yes, ocean swimming is a challenge – mentally and physically. I like ocean swim races because there’s a start, an end, a whole lot of time to think about things in between. It’s kind of funny and interesting how many random thoughts and ideas go through your head when you swim (whether in an ocean or pool). If you had a random group of test subjects who were told to swim continuously for 30 minutes and their brain was hooked to a machine that could read thoughts, I bet there’d be numerous random thoughts floating around. Swimming, interestingly enough, is also one of those activities that you have to do alone. Sure, you can go along to the pool with a friend, but the act of swimming is a solo one. You can’t swim with someone and chat to them as you would if you walking or jogging with a friend. You can’t really even listen to music. You swim with yourself, and against yourself. It is best enjoyed alone. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s one of the things I like swimming. Being in a little bubble in my own pool of thoughts without the need to converse with anyone or listen to external stimuli (no iPod, no phones, no tv, no sounds) for a 30 minutes a day). It’s my form of meditation almost. Of silent fluid movement.

This summer, I have decided to compete in at least 3 open water swim races in Japan. Hopefully I will end up doing 4 or 5 though – at a rate of one ocean swim per fortnight, which will take me into the next two months. To compete in one swim per week is a little strenuous on the body and social life. Coincidentally, the swims that I will be competing in are in different prefectures of Japan. This is great – I’m combining travel (weekend trips away with a spot of sightseeing) as well as a swim race (exercise and healthy competition is good for oneself). 3 swims. And 3 prefectures. At a minimum.

I was lucky enough to come across the Japan open water swim association websites which list all the ocean swim races around Japan. I’ve been obsessed with scouring these websites.

The first website is: Open Water Swim Japan (link here). This is my favourite one. It’s pretty and nice. It’s also the most comprehensive one in terms of all races throughout Japan. The Race Information tab lists all the open water swims for the year (the primary months being March to September, with the bulk of the swims in June and July).

The second website is: Open Water Japan. (Link here). This is the Japan International Open Water Swimming Association. The first website, will often refer you to this website. This website however does not list all the swims through Japan. To then enter the majority of the swims, you will be referred to this registration site: Sportsentry (link here). This website lists a whole bunch of sports and events, for which you can enter and compete in. It is not limited to swimming. Some private swims will have their own website and registration method.

For keen runners you’d probably be familiar with Runnet (link here). They also have a Swimnet website (link here) which overlaps with a lot of the information from the first two swim websites. Swimnet however also lists combined swim and run events if you’re into biathlons, and other swim races which are more pool-related rather than ocean swims. There’s a whole world of sports out there to participate in. It’s all about having a goal, and seeing it through to the end. Doesn’t matter if you’re first, second or last. If there’s one thing I believe in, it’s setting yourself challenges and goals regardless of your level or ability.

So far, I have officially registered for 2 swims, with a couple more pending. My first swim kicks off this weekend. It’s only an 800m ocean beach swim in Shizuoka prefecture. Starting off small and building my way up. This is the best way to do it. Don’t want to go out too hard too fast. This swim is the Atami Sun Beach race event. The race options here were pretty limited. The choice was either an 800m swim or a 3.2km swim – nothing in between. I’ve opted for the 800m, but will be ramping up the swim distances thereafter. I bought a new pair of swim goggles just a couple of weeks ago. First new pair in about 6 or 8 years. Made me realise how on earth I ever saw underwater with my old pair. Memo to self: replace goggles on a more regular basis.

I’ve done very limited training for this weekend’s race. I am confident that I can pull a decent time (not great, but decent) without a lot of training. I know that I can go the distance, but unsure of my timing. I would like to do it in under 15 minutes but it really depends on the conditions. Last weekend’s 17km hike was not a good idea a week before an ocean swim. Even four days after the hike, my muscles are still really sore and tight. I’m not in the best condition this week for my first ocean swim in about 5 years, let alone an ocean swim in Japan. My first real swim in a Japanese beach. Should be an interesting summer. Wow. When I talk about swimming, I can talk a lot.