So it's holiday time; what most people do is get on a plane, lay on a beach, stretch their livers to the limit on the all inclusive bar and then limp back home to recover their hangovers, shed their peeling skin and start saving for next year.....
....but by popular opinion I'm not "most people"
My Requirements: Somewhere sunny, something to swim in, at least the opportunity to not eat crap all week and well that's pretty much it.
Physio's Requirements: "You need to get away, don't do anything stupid....."
The Answer: A week in France.....
Me: "I'm going to France via Switzerland for a week. Also I might be going to the Lake District for the weekend...... "
Physio "Oh nice...."
Me "Ummm there might be this little French swim thing that happens to be the same week..... AND I'd quite like to do a training session with Triathlon England in Lake Windermere.
So can you please make my shoulder work.....?"
Physio *puts head in hands*
Anyway as usual physio and Rock Tape do their best to patch me up before one of them swans off to Portugal and the other get's packed for France.
First day of "holiday" finds me waking up in a strange bed, peering out the curtains and discovering, miraculously, it's not actually raining in Cumbria!? Well with that piece of news anything is possible, including finding myself climbing the stairs to a room branded "Triathlon England" and being met half way down by a formidable athlete who looks like "Triathlon England" all on her own :-/ After briefly considering running back to the car park, I conclude that the woman with the iron grip is more than capable of chasing me down, throwing me over her shoulder and returning me to the classroom taking the steps three at a time so it would probably be better to walk into the room of my own volition.
I'll admit that the voice in my head was at this point shouting "WHAT are YOU doing HERE!?"
While trying not to appear like I was talking to my alter ego I kept telling myself "You're here to get better." Not mentally I might add, there's no hope of that, better at swimming apparently.
The course was actually fantastic, initial nerves over, there was lots of great advice, it was not that scary having found I probably had at least as much experience as everyone else, in some cases having actually done a couple of races I had more.
I've been looking at transitioning to freestyle for well, most of this year. I'd just not done a huge amount about it. I'd just about decided to do free for the last triathlon in July but then the freakishly warm weather saw us landed with a wetsuit ban so not wanting to cripple my legs entirely I reverted back to the tried and tested old faithful breaststroke. I know for the most part I'm "good enough" with breaststroke; it sees me in the middle of the pack, swimming in a straight line, not traumatised by having my face in with the fish for 10mins and not too knackered for the next two disciplines, the second of which being my weakest. It's not worth saving a minute or so by using free but exiting the water totally spent for the bike when in theory by improving my running I can knock off about 5mins. So it's a dilemma.
Lesson 1: Sculling face down in the lake with my face in with the fish, seriously trying to find my "happy place"
It can only get better right!? Well yes but while the lessons get psychologically easier the weather decides to give us a run for our money. We're advised that if we intend to compete in England then actually the 20ft high waves are "typical conditions for an English lake" so we might as well get used to it. Train hard race easy and all that.
They later admit that it's the worst conditions they've run one of these training sessions in but we survived and felt stronger for it.
The open water training sessions run by swim smooth for Triathlon England are not just for triathletes but they are mostly aimed at freestylers although I was told that the novices session was aimed at all abilities. We all really learnt a lot in a supportive environment and it was a great experience. Upcoming dates can be found on the triathlon England website. Taking part also means I now own one of these.......
........which is usually enough to clear the swim lane of muggles
Second scary thing this "holiday" is that this arrived in the post:
Who on earth saw fit to issue ME with one of these!?
It's part of my mission to finally accept that I am now a triathlete and that it's OK to use the word athlete in a sentence with my name in it ........but lets face it, it's also a bit of added bling which does have some advantages. One it covers your liability insurance while training and racing, so if like one of my friends just did you crash into a stationary car while blinded by the sun you're covered for the damage. Two it also means you don't need to pay day registration at events ....but it does kind of imply you're planning to do about 10 events in the next 12mths to justify it cost wise. The main reason I have one however is that it also covers you to race abroad and was a requisite of the French swim (that or a Drs note) and my French is rubbish. I didn't want to fork out 50+euros for a French Dr to sign me fit to swim or £10 for an English one to. It saves trying to translate the English Drs note in my terrible French while stood in a registration line with a lot of impatient French swimmers behind me. It also looks cool in my wallet.... Ok not a valid reason but it does ;-)
Third Scary thing was an email that started:
Registration confirmation
Name: Miss Sarah Bosomworth Event: Traversée du Lac d'Annecy à la Nage
Category: 1000m / Traversée découverte
Followed by a lot of stuff in French that only made slightly more sense having been cut and pasted into Google Translate.
Right so off to France we go........
It occurred to me at the last minute that doing a cross lake swim was all well and good but doing it on your own how were you meant to get your clothes from one side to the other!? My French extends about as far as "Où sont mes vêtements!?" Several suggestions included towing them behind me but being health and safety minded decided I would probably get disqualified or entangle some French champion and end up on the French 6 0'clock news.
"Formidable", a minor problem, we wont worry about that till err Thurday morning :-/
The morning of the swim was cool but clear, the lake was a whopping 24DegC but getting up at 6.30am (5.30amGMT) reminded me why I wasn't a competitive swimmer anymore.
I gesticulated to the French woman at what turned out to be the finish line rather than registration that I would like to acquire my swim cap "Je voudrais un bonnet" while pointing at my head. After claiming she spoke English but then being fooled by my Yorkshire English the response was something like "Là *points repeatedly at far shore* fou dame anglaise"
I managed to find the entrance to the private beach (Where the big white towers are) in front of the Hotel Imperial (Plage de l’Impérial). The gates were open, they allow free access to swimmers for the start (La départ), another piece of information you may wish to translate on google was
"Les vestiaires servant uniquement de lieu pour se déshabiller..." incase it occurred to you to do something else!
A fairly critical piece of information was:
"Une navette sera proposée pour les transports de matériel jusqu’au site d’arrivée et ce sans aucune garantie quant à la valeur des marchandises transportée....." Clearly used to unaccompanied mad English women after doing it 82 times, it turns out they provide a van at the entrance gate to transport your bag to the finish line which you can collect from a "transition" style barrier area after you get your t-shirt, prunes, piece of chocolate, coffee and bottle of water "Tres Bon!"
After putting my race license to the test for the first time, I received my swim cap and timing chip, which apparently has to go on your LEFT wrist (poignet gauche) or you will get repeatedly told off in French until you change it. You also need to find one of the club members with a marker pen to mark your shoulder and left hand with your number. Tip: Put wetwipes in your bag in order to remove marker pen at the finish or the sun will leave you branded with the number 1139 on your shoulder for much longer than intended....
Most people did the 1000m swim in swimming costumes, a couple in wetsuits and a couple like me in tri suits. I was not in contention to win so it wasn't that critical, there are FINA rules which may apply, if in doubt a normal swimsuit is best, 24degC really isn't cold.
The "Traversee du lac D'Annecy" is allegedly the biggest open water swim of it's kind in France and there were around 1400 or so swimmers in total, 509 of which registered for the 1000m crossing. Most swimmers were French, most were swim club members, some were elite, some were just having fun but what we all had in common was we were doing it for the love of the sport. It's easily one of the most stunning venues I've been too so that "love" was not hard to find.
Not having spoken French for the err 20 or so years since my GCSEs however it made the safety brief fairly irrelevant. Something about "put your hand in the air if you think you're about to die and put your bag on the minibus over there...." (Clothing problem solved 15mins before the swim!) was about all I got. I also decided that directions were irrelevant as there was more than likely going to be a few hundred people in front of me to follow. Aim for the castle/ water jets/ right side of the island if you find yourself at the front! Not entirely sure the French H&S person had "Les nageurs anglais" on his risk assessment. There were however several girls with helium balloons tied to the back of their swim suits and a dog swimming so probably the "European approach" to H&S applies here!
There were four races 500m 1000m 2400m and 5000m with the 500m children's race and the 5000m Arena cup race requiring you to be FFN/FINA registered.
......2nd and 3rd being fought for in the 2400m
.....the finish line behind the island of swans
You can take a look at the 2013 race on YouTube here:
......there must be easier ways to get a "free" T-Shirt
Just to give you an idea, I came 398th in 24mins38secs (non wetsuit / breaststroke) but the 16yr old winner did it in 11mins16sec and the top ten finishers were separated by about 5secs. So surrounded by those guys and considering I was supposed to be using it as a "long training session" rather than a race having not tapered or really trained up to that distance, I was happy not to have come last .....I also beat the dog!
It's a really beautify part of the world if you get chance to visit and a fantastic well run swim event. 
If you are considering taking part then take a look at the Annecy Dolphins website:
http://abcnatation.com/natation/dauphine-savoie/74/annecy/
and their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Travers%C3%A9e-du-lac-dAnnecy/128381117279297?fref=ts
OK Jolly over, someone mentioned somewhere that a month today I'll be "competing in the Brownlee Tri" so time to get back at it!
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