Computer say "No" (amidst Olympics, Floods and the usual summer madness)

Hi there, so after an uncharacteristically quiet and unusually dry summer ( in swimming terms), I find myself in the rather unenviable position of not having swum since I left the swim down pool in Riccione way back in the middle of June. 

That's not to say it's been a dry summer, far from it; in fact it has been punctuated by one or two moments of extreme wetness. I am of course referring to our fabulous weather.

Most notably this included a flood during the Geordie Monsoon season which was mercifully short this year, lasting perhaps 3 hours on the 29th June, but with devastating consequences as our driveway turned into a raging torrent, sweeping away, amongst other things a wall, about 4ft of road, 3 wheelie bins, the cat's hutch and my dad's car. For one short moment it looked like I would need to do some serious open water work across the garden if I wanted to access my house, which was at this point under about 9inches of water.  

However all this palaver, the Olympics, a pretty awful chest infection and post world championship blues all contributed to about 12 weeks without a swim, now that is highly unusual because even on holiday I can flop up and down a leisure pool somewhere with the best of them. But as my summer holidays were spent in London, (I am forever indebted to Lesley Cook who very graciously provided us with somewhere to crash) our hectic schedule didn't allow any surreptitious dips, and tonight provided the first opportunity to get back on track with the 2012 swim challenge.

I turn up at Blaydon, dived in, or rather jumped (for elf and safety reasons) and set off up the pool, that first 25 felt pretty good, strong and sensuous; but oh dear elephants, pianos and any other entity of large mass you care to name came crashing down on my back just after the turn. I became completely demoralised when in a set of 5 x 200's I swam 3.10, (encouraging,) followed by a 3.25, (oh dear,) and finally after a 3.35 (woeful) I decided that discretion definitely was the better part of valour and called it a night.

If that wasn't demoralising enough I returned home, fired up the laptop and clicked on "2012 swimlog" my absence has caused havoc with my mile a day schedule I not only find myself having covered only 40% of my challenge in 66% of the year, but the question "Is it a sensible target? is now answered with a rather resounding "NO" and my forecast distance for 2012 is a mere 371,000 metres... 

Need to get my act together, but somehow I know this is going to be very painful; Olympic inspiration is needed but as Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu said " a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step"
I feel a mega binge coming on.
Tonight's session for what it was worth:-

300m Warm up
3 x 200 @ 3.30 free*
100 swim down.


* should've been 5 of these but called it a day after I missed the repeat time....Wuss

Binge at the Olympics Day 2

View from the Aquatic Centre.

Wow what a night at the Aquatic Centre some phenomenal swimming Dana Vollmer going sub 56 for 100 fly, Kitajima well and truly eclipsed in the 100 breaststroke, and pay back time for the French in the 4 x 100 freestyle team.

That's not to mention a fabulous swim from Becky Adlington, to claw herself a bronze medal. The noise levels were truly unbelievable as she tried to swim down Muffat and Schmitt in the final 50.

The home crowd's favourite had emerged onto the pool side to a primeval roar, and obviously meant business. Swimming  from Lane 8 she had worked out that she would have little time on the pool side, to compose herself,  she had already shed her tracksuit, removed her shoes dumped them in the box and before you knew it they were off.

Lanes 4 and 5 set a blistering pace and were well under world record schedule for the first 100 with Adlington trailing in 6th. You could feel the atmosphere and the noise build as she gradually worked her way past the other swimmers. At 125 meters everyone (and I mean all 17500) was up on their feet screaming at the top of their voices...not sure I've ever been anywhere, where the atmosphere was so visceral and certainly never in a swimming pool.

Astonishing! what a gutsy swim, I won't be there to watch her 800 but I think that's going to be very  special. What a competitor.

Anyway first stop this morning Boots for some Strepsils

Binge at the Olympics

Hi I'm still alive and currently pottering around London with Teenage Triathlete. We're suffering from a bit of sleep deprivation having spent last night in Victoria Park watching the Opening Ceremony about 4 hours sleep and back to Stratford for the opening session of the swimming.

I think LOCOG are obviously considering "the queue" as the debut sport in 2016 and Team GB are going to wipe the floor with the rest of the world with all the training we're getting in.

All good humoured though and met some Canadian Masters Swimmers in the queue as well as Tam Jaggs and Susan from Swiss Cottage.

Oh here we go MEN'S 400IM more later.

Binge's Adventures Abroad Day 7 (live as it happens)

It's all over, a real lack of commitment in the 200 Breast this morning a very relaxed and unmotivated 3:23. Put me in 10th place for a putty medal and another rubbish swim from Lane 1.

At least the Brits appear to be improving their results. Meritorious Jen smashed the opposition to win the 60 years age group and Dave Milburn also struck gold as he became the first male British Champion (as far as I'm aware)

It is kind of interesting this meet, I haven't fully trawled through the results but there have only been a handful of world records, however apart from the odd phenomenal swimmer (who sadly all seem to be in mu age group) the depth of swimmers has been astounding.

Many of our swimmers who would normally be shoe ins have struggled and British World Champions are very few and far between. With somewhat predictably Jane Asher (the dasher)landing 4 titles to date, and Nic ( we are not worthy) Latty providing a master class in how to beat very tall opponents including Olympic Champions (Claudia Poll). The answer in case you are interested is even pace swimming. Nic went out in a controlled 34 and came back in an even more impressive 34 passing the whole field.

I'm back on the sun lounger at the moment experimenting with blogging on an iPad which explains the poor grammar and spelling and somewhat erratic punctuation.

Binge's Adventures Abroad Day 6 (Altitude Training and the Male Mentality)

Relay day at the Worlds so Binge spent the day recharging her batteries and lounging by the pool, it counts for a swimming day as when I overheated I was able to flop into the pool to cool down and I reckon that I must've covered a whole 60 metres.

Eventually made it down to the pool to collect one half of the Karate Kids and head off for some altitude training in San Marino. It was great to escape what is rapidly becoming an endurance event.

Apart from the huge numbers of entries at this event one of the reasons it has seriously overrun has been the inability of swimmers to estimate their times. I reckon it speaks volumes that the Women's pool has pretty much run to time but as you Binge devotees are aware it's the men's pool that has had all of the problems.

What is it about Men that they have to be overly confident about what they think they can do! I have to say particularly (at risk of being racist and offending our hosts) Italian Men there are huge numbers of them that swim not only slower than their entry times but scads slower than the event entry times, optimistic or what.

One of the other interesting features of this meet is the guy with a horn, or rather a cornet who pops up periodically to serenade the swimmers with such musical classics as the theme from Flipper, the Birdy song and the fanfare which calls American racehorses to the starting line... And they're off...

Well 200 Breaststroke up tomorrow which is going to be exquisitely painful and a further consignment to bl**dy lane 1. So I'm off to bed.

 Flop about 60 - 80 metres

Binge's Adventures Abroad Day 5 (Relentless or what.)

Day 4 of the World Championships and it continues to grind on and on and on, in fact Day 3 didn't get finished till the early hours of this morning with the men's 50m fly swimming thorough the night under floodlights.

Being cheered on by a substantial crowd who stayed behind and packed out the bleachers to support the swimmers efforts. Unreal; Of course most of the sprinters were back first thing for the 50m free (a great piece of scheduling that right?).

Big event for Binge today 50 breaststroke, successfully negotiated the start without a DQ, in fact I sort of stood on the blocks invited everyone else to start and finally it registered I needed to chase them so I dived in after them and was rewarded with a putty medal for my efforts (7th)

I'm sure you are all relieved to know, we've really sorted the trip back to the villa, finally working out that if the traffic is too heavy to try the Italian inspired U turn across the traffic, we can travel 200 metres up the road and turn round in the turn off for the "Sexy Shop" (you know I couldn't make this stuff up could I)  I'm sure there's a joke there but it's late and my brain has atrophied. So we've cracked Riccione. 


600 warm up
2 x 50's 12.5 sprint 12.5 easy
50m breaststroke 39.53
850 metres

Binge's Adventures Abroad Day 4 (in which Binge learns that too much Prosecco does not lend itself to coherent blogging)

Not sure if I can coherently blog tonight as I think I've had a wee bit too much Prosecco, can't say it wasn't needed cos this meet just grinds on and on. I left the pool along with the Karate Kids around 7.30 this evening after a thoroughly pleasant hour or so sitting in the cafe, sipping the odd beer and catching up with Michelle Dige (former Heart of England swimmer now based in Germany) and Ulf. There were still 24 heats of the men's 200 free to get through and then a mere 184 heats of the 50 fly.

200 freestyle was up today, yet again I ended up in the lane of death, what is it about this meet there are 10 lanes in these bl**dy pools and I've found myself in Lane 1 every time I've swum. Rubbish 200 free although maybe not quite as rubbish as I was anticipating.

Didn't even bother warming up cos the 5 lane 25 m warm up pit was just a tad crowded and I survived for a  whole 100 metres post race swim down, then spent the rest of the afternoon chilling on some sunbeds.

50m breaststroke at some time tomorrow night, perhaps the most unpredictable of the events, oh yeah I move from the lane of death to the only marginally better lane 2. Better watch my start!

200 free
100 swim down
300 total