MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Coach Bartram keeps my head above water – Featured Blog

By

Today’s posts from our featured Port Elizabeth Blogger:

Coach Bartram keeps my head above water by Look Sharp in Lycra:

Today saw my first step to take on what I’ve been calling “the fear” – the 2.3 mile swimming leg of Iron Man. I’m not a terrible swimmer, and in fact I used to swim three or four times a week. But I’ve never been confident in the water, and my two experiences of open water swimming have both been bad ones: constantly swimming off course in a claustrophobic wetsuit while being clawed at by other swimmers in water that’s way to deep to stand up in. Does that sound like fun?

A mental challenge then, rather than a physical one.

So who better to turn to for sympathetic expert help than one of International Workplace’s associates, first aid trainer Tanya Bartram. Tanya’s a qualified swimming instructor and has taken on a few challenges of her own in recent years as a Strongwoman competitor. Which is how I found myself at the Lord Butler Leisure Centre in Saffron Walden at 6.30 this morning, nervously wondering what Tanya would make of me.

Something of the aristocracy about Saffron Walden's pool ...

Something of the aristocracy about Saffron Walden’s pool …

The first thing I realised is that any expectation I may have had of sympathy was almost entirely misplaced. After swimming two lengths the most obvious trait Tanya pointed out about my swimming style was that I swam like I had a puppet on my hand! I recreated this unique style at work later, as captured by colleague Nick Webb below.

It's a puppet ...

It’s a puppet …

Then Tanya neatly got to the crux of the issue in that, while I could obviously swim ok – and with a style that didn’t involve too much leg action (a good thing for Iron Man) – I seemed to rather like to hold on to the side too much when I was in the deep end. Cue Tanya teaching me, for the first time in my life somehow, to stop panicking and not to get short of breath, and to learn to properly tread water.

I can’t explain the panic and why I can’t control it readily, but I do know it’s the root of “the fear”, especially out in the open water. It happened at the Great East Swim in Ipswich last year, when I made the rescue canoeist nervous by asking to hold on to his canoe so I could get my breath back (not in the coaching manual for a half mile swim).

I actually really enjoyed the session, and it was interesting to see what Tanya did to help me move on – not exercises I’d have thought of myself, which shows you the benefits of having an experienced coach. But I also learned (if I didn’t know it already) there’s no messing with Coach Tanya: if she says it, I do it.

Coach Bartram: "Don't mess with me or I'll chop yer balls off"

Coach Bartram: “Don’t mess with me or I’ll chop yer balls off”

So a big thanks to you for this first session Tanya. I promise to be coachable (unlike some others!) and I look forward to the next sessions as you help me in the coming months, in your own words, to “swim like a frog”!

 

 

 



Read more here: Look Sharp in Lycra

Help is at hand by Look Sharp in Lycra:

Help image made up of gel tubes

You might have seen me write about the fact that I couldn’t seem to get my nutrition and hydration right for longer runs, either carrying and drinking too much liquid, or trying to eat bars and flapjacks with a mouth so dry I couldn’t swallow anything. All pretty normal for newish runners, I’m sure.

So big thanks to fellow runner Cat Cameron for suggesting I bought a shed load of gel tubes, and also International Workplace’s resident marathon man Lee Calver for recommending SIS amongst others. I’ve tried them a couple of times now and they really work.

The gels work really well in combination with a couple of these bad boys both before and after the run.

Chocpea

Fine when you’re running, for giving you an instant energy boost (carbs) and replenishing muscle tissue (protein).

But to be avoided in combination with ice cream, as experienced during a holiday to Florida some years back that saw me go up a bra size and put on more than half a stone in a week (nom, nom).

BJ

Or maybe as a treat, for one night only, for when I’ve crossed the finishing line … ?



Read more here: Look Sharp in Lycra

Click HERE to submit your blog to be part of this daily feature.

CLICK HERE to get a daily digest of PE Goodness straight into your inbox with the MyPE Monday to Friday Newsletter.

The following two tabs change content below.

Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.