Over the weekend, I competed in the SA Short Course Champs and I’m pretty happy with the results.

In the last year, however,  I have swum more galas than in the last 30 years.

The dives and fast turns that are an integral part of short-course racing are not something I regularly practice. My strategy has basically been to show up early for the galas, do a long warm-up and practice a few dives.

Note to self:
Include diving and fast tumble turn practice once a week from mid-January.

Anyway, my Short Course times were:

200m Freestyle 00:02:24

50m Butterfly 00:00:33

400m Freestyle 00:05:04 (a provincial age-group record)

50m Breaststroke 00:00:40 

50m Freestyle 00:00:28.1

100m Individual Medley 00:01:23

And this is the reason I started this section of the Swimming Blog. 

As I prefer long to short-course swimming, I love open-water racing and there is an opportunity to swim in one of my favourite fresh-water reservoirs in a beautiful part of the country, I have set my sights on swimming the National Master Long Course Championships in March 2023.

This section of the swimming blog will be a review of each week’s training with links to related posts to explain or flesh out ideas I will be implementing along the way.

First things first.
Make the commitment!!

1. Book accommodation.
2. Download the program to check the scheduling of the events.
3. Enter pool events.
4. Check where the open-water swim is and enter.

The accommodation has been booked and confirmed by the proprietor.

I booked a self-catering BnB within 8 blocks of the pool. Self-catering means I can eat at my normal times (05:30) and I can eat my normal diet, steak and eggs for breakfast.

The gala is over 3 and a half days with the open water race in the afternoon on the 4th.

In my first draft of events I want to swim, I picked far too many. At the bottom of the program in small print, it says I am limited to 6 individual pool events.

In my second draft, I favoured the long-distance Freestyle events, 800m, 400m and 200m, with the 50m and 100m for extra team points. I included 1 indulgence, the 200m Breastroke just to do something in the afternoon of the second day.

Also, I must plan each day’s meals as there are relay events on each day too. I’m sure the team captain will sign me up for every single one of them.

When checking the open water venue, I got very excited for 2 reasons:

• I get to swim in one of my favourite freshwater reservoirs, and
• there is an additional 4 x 1km open water relay.

The total race distance for the four days is 6500m and is divided as follows:

• In the pool, I am preparing for 6 individual events and 5 relays
• In the open water, I am preparing for 1 individual event and 1 relay.

One last thing, Friday the 17th of March is St. Patrick’s Day.
I am obliged to drink at least one Guinness…. and dance a jig.