Post Holiday Blues
Another Month is upon us and this year just seems to be vanishing before my eyes.
There has not been a hell of a lot of activity on this site for the last 3 weeks but, there is a good reason for that. I have been in Africa for the last 3 weeks. It was great to get some sunshine and also to catch up with the families and In-laws. The plus side was the fact that it was mostly sunny nearly every day. Even when it was not sunny it was still warm and, when the rain did come it was generally over in about an hour and then the weather returning to nice blue skies.
As you can probably gather, there was not a whole lot of serious excercise done. I did however get to go back and do some swimming at St Georges College in Harare. This was where I have, in the past, spent many an hour ploughing up and down the pool. I only managed to get to go three times and the first time was utter hell. I just could not understand how, just a week of no training, could have such a mammoth impact on my fitness, or lack of. I first started off with a length underwater, my usual way to start a set. Okay this pool was a 33m pool as opposed to a 25m one that I normally train in. My lungs were nearly bursting by the time I got to the end. This is a pool that I could comfortably do 2, sometimes 3 lengths underwater without bursting my lungs. I didn't think much of it. I then proceeded to time myself over 100m and my times were a fair bit slower than usual. Alarm bells were getting a bit louder.
Anyway on my first outing I managed a poultry 2.5km and I was ABSOLUTELY shattered. I thought "man I am unfit!" I was not very pleased with myself. The nice thing about training in Africa, outdoors, where the sun shines, is that if you forget your towel, all you need to do is sit in the glorious sun for a few minutes and you are dry pretty quickly.
Whilst I was not in the pool, I took advantage of the glorious weather to do my Pilates, either on the lawn, verandah. or im my bedroom with the sun beating through the window. I would wake at about 5 in the morning, listen to the amazing dawn chorus and then head into the sunshine to do my sessions. I was either joined by the dog or the family to do my pilates. I was quite good and managed to do this most mornings.
The second time I went to the pool, it was the same, I ploughed onto 3km and thought, "this is absolutely ridiculous!" how is it, I can be so buggered after such short distances?
Whilst out there I also did some walking but nothing serious. I ventured out to the pool a third time to experience the same problems.
After my trip, the realisation dawned on me as to what the problem was. After an 18 hour flight back from Africa, I went down to my regular gym to do some training and jumped into the water and hammered out 3km and was feeling absolutely fine. It was after a fair amount of thought that it dawned upon me what the issue was. Harare is a landlocked city that is 1483m above sealevel, as compared to 9m for London. it then became acutely apparent as to what my problem was - ALTITUDE!! Thank God for Altitude. here I was thinking that I was just becoming fat --well, I am still fat, in fact hovering in the obese category. and lazy!
I did not realise exactly how much affect it can have but, for me, it made a huge difference. At least I felt a bit better about the fact that I thought I had become SO unfit.
I did try to get some triathlete friends to come and train with me but they were all uttlerly gobsmacked that I was going to plunge myself into cold water at the start of winter wearing only my very fetching budgy smugglers. They all thought I was utterly silly. Bear in mind that the average temperature in Zimbabwe at this time of year is about 24 Degrees celcius (75 Degrees Fahrenheit) with the water Temp about 16 degrees celcius (60 F) With the sun beating down on you that temp is lovely.
On that note, I am a bit disappointed to arrive back in the UK and see that the lakes, specifically the one I use, is still closed and they will not open it until the water gets to 11 degrees celcius (51 F). We so love Health and safety in this silly place!
Moving forward
Well, I have been back two days and already had a good session in the pool and a wonderful pilates session so far. I will be heading somewhere, if I can find a lake that is open I will go there otherwise a pool tonight to get into my 4 -5 km sets again. I am now just over a month away from my first proposed 9 mile swim so I have to really start pushing hard again and getting my distances up again.
On the weight side, I never lost, or gained, any over my holiday, even with my Mums cooking and trying to beef me up, which I am a bit upset about. I was hoping to put on a bit to keep me "warm whilst wallowing." Next problem is to try not to lose anymore weight. I am looking forward to the lakes opening and I might even venture down to Dover to get some cold water swimming in. I need to be ready for the cold, I do not think I will have a problem with it. I took part in the South London Cold water swimming Championships - anything abouve that 3 degrees celcius is postively tropical.
I cannot say that I am glad to be back, but that is always the case when I come back from visiting my family. It will take me a week or two to get used to reality. With all my training that I need to do, it will make the transition back to reality all that much easier. At least I have my sport to throw myself at to keep me focused.
A very good friend of mine is talking me into doing a bit of running as well so I might sign up for a few short runs - even though I despise running. That is for people who can't swim. I will give it a go, I am sure I can waddle/walk this weight around 5km colour run later next month.
On that note, I will end this post with a quote. I hope you enjoy reading my blogs and please feel free to leave comments.
Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
Heywood Broun
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