Day 36: Colac bay coached sea swim

Today I decided to try a different swim venue: Colac Bay. I got the idea a few weeks ago when hubby and I went there for a picnic and I saw a water quality sign. So since the tides were wrong for Awarua bay, I decided to take it as a golden opportunity. 

Nutrition:

Breakfast: Strawberry oatmeal smoothie (see below for recipe)
Lunch: flatbread and humous, apple,
Dinner: Parmesan encrusted smoked hoki, steamed veg, bananas and yoghurt

Exercise: 1 hour open water swim (nuts and cheese snack afterwards)

Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie

Ingredients

1 cup frozen strawberries
1 banana
1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup plain non-fat yoghurt
1/4 cup water
1 tsp honey
Directions

Add all ingredients and blend. (Makes 2)

This smoothie is a winner, both hubby and I liked this one, so I would recommend it if you wanted to try it. This alone was enough to last me till lunch time without feeling hungry at all.

A new open water swim location always feels apprehensive and a little exciting. Specially since it will take me quite some time to get used to the rock up and just swim idea, which no one finds odd at all. Colac bay is a lovely wide sweeping sandy bay with a shallow shore making gentle rolling waves a constant norm no matter what the tide. The mouth of the bay is way out between two headlands making it large, wide (almost 2km) and safe.

I took a client with me today, who hadn’t swum freestyle in the sea before, in fact hadn’t really swum in the sea at all before. There’s a lot to learn! I think he summarised the learning curve a bit like this:

• It’s vital you sight off a large land based object or you will end up swimming a lot further than you intended
• A lot of muscular based corrective measures are needed in order to simply swim in sea water
• Yes, you do float, so no, it’s not imperative you can feel the bottom
• Do NOT swallow the water! (You will only do this wrong once to remember this rule!)
• You need to be able to breathe both ways and be adaptable to cope with rolling waves and wind.

We actually had some good fun. I love this bay, I think I’ll go here more. Once you get our past the breaking waves, it is relatively flat, and there’s no traffic or currents to worry about.

Once I got Ben’s toes OFF the ground, I think he secretly enjoyed it, although I did wonder if I might have to adapt shouting coaches voice because he looked very apprehensive at first. Well done Ben, some demons put to rest, and a few fears conquered!

And then there was the wet suit race off!

Every open water swim is a chance to practice wet suit transitions, and this was no different. Coach V athlete. Who would win? I haven’t cut ally practiced these that much in recent years so didn’t actually expect to win it. However I had noted a schoolboy error – socks over wet suit, so I knew I could take the win. And of course I did, while Ben got caught up in an ankle tangle!

Good fun in the sea 🙂