We staged the first of a series of informal Time Trials on Tues 17 May. We are planning to hold them once a month through the Summer. It was a great turnout of 21 intrepid swimmers. Thanks to all of you who took part for giving it a go, these things are more fun the more people do them.
The conditions were best described as ‘invigorating’. A pretty strong SW wind pushed up quite a bit of chop. Our forecast of ‘flattish’ water proving a little optimistic. It was a bit of a battle swimming into the chop, but with a strong push on the return leg. Splits were about 1/3 slower into the chop. The positive side being, almost certainly everyone’s times will be quicker next time, automatic improvement!
The aim of the Time Trials is for everyone to get the chance to push themselves a little bit harder than they would in a normal swim session. It’s more a battle against yourself than anything else. However it would be remiss not to mention the fastest swimmers.
The ladies stormed home to victory in both events. Di Keen led the 1km home in 22:46 with Paul Wishman in hot pursuit. In the 2km Emily Clarke powered to victory in 29:03. While we were all in hot pursuit, we were not very close…to say she put some clear water between her and the rest of us, is a bit of an understatement, it was a 6 min gap to #2! So well done Di and Emily, and a big pat on the back to everyone else. Also thanks to John and Joan for organising the timing.
The next time trial will be on 21 June. Please everyone give it a go if you can. You can do 1km or 2km. It would be especially good to try and get some people who can get a bit closer than 6 mins to Emily, you know who you are!
There are probably two lessons from the first one.
- We will probably try and let the TT go off 5 minutes before the general swim session to avoid the chance of any collisions as the ‘red mist’ descends!
- If the wind is a bit lighter we may try and stick a couple of buoys out to mark either end of the course to give people a bit of practice swimming round them.
Reults follow:
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