Treading water pt4: the final countdown to Abi’s Arun swim!

It’s just under two weeks until Abi’s 4-mile swim in the River Arun. Here’s how her beginner swim training has been going in recent weeks.

It’s just under two weeks until my 4-mile River Arun swim for Aspire and I’m starting to feel the nerves! Eeek!

I think I’m feeling nervous because my front-crawl training has had a couple of hiccups.

Hiccup 1: The glute injury I mentioned in my last training blog has been… well, a major pain in the butt! The tightness spread up the right side of my back, which I think has contributed to recent pain in my right shoulder during the pull phase of my stroke. However, I’ve been doing lots of stretches and exercises to help ease this discomfort, plus I’ve had regular massages, and I’m happy to report that during my last training session, I felt no pain in my shoulder at all. Fingers crossed all will be fine on the big day.

Hiccup 2: So far I’ve been wearing contact lenses under my swimming goggles, which I know goes against common advice for wild swimmers. I’ve had no problems until recently, when my goggles leaked during a training session and I subsequently suffered with red and inflamed eyes. I’ve since decided it’s best not to risk my eye health and I’ve ordered myself a pair of prescription goggles. I’ve opted for the Sutton SURF goggles, based on Simon’s sterling review!

Despite these hiccups I’ve loved making the most of the warmer temperatures in the lake this summer, working on my sighting skills and building up my stamina. I can’t say my speed has improved much but I’m not considering that a priority at the moment.

I also LOVED doing the Henley Mile back in July at the Outdoor Swimmer Henley Swim Festival. Such a wonderful event filled with joyful, friendly people. It was useful doing a river event in preparation for my Arun swim, and so lovely to see my family walking alongside me on the riverbank, cheering me on. My husband pointed out to me afterwards that I probably swam two miles instead of one, considering the amount of weaving about I was doing! Hopefully my sighting skills have improved since then.

I’ll be wearing a wetsuit for the Arun swim, so a few weeks ago I tried my wetsuit during a swim in the lake. Once in the water I quickly learned that I hadn’t put it on properly – it felt heavy on the arms and shoulders so my front crawl felt very hindered. Since then I’ve given it another try – I spent a good amount of time putting the wetsuit on properly, making sure there was plenty of give around the armpits and shoulders. The improvement was HUGE!

Anyway, in line with Paul Newsome’s advice on tapering, for these last remaining weeks before the Arun swim I’m going to ease up on the training, take it easy, perhaps do a couple more swims and runs to keep my stamina up. Yes, I’m nervous, but I think excitement is outweighing the nerves.

Wish me luck!

Beginner swimmer Abi is training for a 4-mile swim in the River Arun with Aspire, a spinal cord injury charity. Please donate to her fundraising page to help people with spinal cord injury live full, independent lives.