I've done this event for the past 3 years now, personally I think it' one of the best open water swims out. Even though the distance isn't on the same scale as the other events I'm doing this year, it still gives me a chance to stretch my legs speed wise and open up the throttle a bit instead of the steady pace for my longer swims.
Brownsea Island is in the middle of Poole harbour .Because of it's position there is a strong current which flows past the island on the East side of the island. This gives a fair bit of assistance on the start and on the sprint into the finish. The conditions this year weren't as calm as they had been in previous years. The first kilometre or two are always choppy, but this year, there was only a small portion of the swim where it was relatively calm. The rest was fairly rough, waves breaking over my head and being thrown around quite a bit. It was still very swim-able, but just more challenging.
Despite the conditions, this was a strong swim for me. I got a good position on the mass start, right out the front where I had clear water. I didn't get any knocks during the start, just thrown about by the waves. I got a nice tight line around the island and managed to avoid the sandbank of the west side of the island in the last 2k where I usually beach myself due to it being so shallow.
I managed to hold people off on the sprint into the finish and actually pick up some considerable speed. Although I probably should have drafted people more off the start, this was still the best I've done in this event. I came home in 19th place overall (5th skins swimmer) in a time of 01:33:04, 14 minutes quicker than the previous year! Safe to say, pretty chuffed with that result. Will be entering for next years event for sure!
WHAT'S NEXT;
The next few weeks start quietening down a bit event wise, giving a great opportunity to get some solid training in. I've upped the amount of pool work I'm doing to keep my speed up and stop myself from becoming a single-speed swimmer. This allows me to change my pace during the races. Next week I'm heading back up North to Gloucestershire to train from home till the lease on my new house in Plymouth starts. Also will be heading down to Dover for 5 days to do a bit of observing on channel swims and meet my relay team I'm swimming with tide starting 17th August '14 (excited much!!!!).
Hope you've enjoyed the blog so far!
Happy swimming and will update you all again soon!
NEXT EVENT: Plymouth Breakwater swim
Brownsea Island is in the middle of Poole harbour .Because of it's position there is a strong current which flows past the island on the East side of the island. This gives a fair bit of assistance on the start and on the sprint into the finish. The conditions this year weren't as calm as they had been in previous years. The first kilometre or two are always choppy, but this year, there was only a small portion of the swim where it was relatively calm. The rest was fairly rough, waves breaking over my head and being thrown around quite a bit. It was still very swim-able, but just more challenging.
Despite the conditions, this was a strong swim for me. I got a good position on the mass start, right out the front where I had clear water. I didn't get any knocks during the start, just thrown about by the waves. I got a nice tight line around the island and managed to avoid the sandbank of the west side of the island in the last 2k where I usually beach myself due to it being so shallow.
I managed to hold people off on the sprint into the finish and actually pick up some considerable speed. Although I probably should have drafted people more off the start, this was still the best I've done in this event. I came home in 19th place overall (5th skins swimmer) in a time of 01:33:04, 14 minutes quicker than the previous year! Safe to say, pretty chuffed with that result. Will be entering for next years event for sure!
WHAT'S NEXT;
The next few weeks start quietening down a bit event wise, giving a great opportunity to get some solid training in. I've upped the amount of pool work I'm doing to keep my speed up and stop myself from becoming a single-speed swimmer. This allows me to change my pace during the races. Next week I'm heading back up North to Gloucestershire to train from home till the lease on my new house in Plymouth starts. Also will be heading down to Dover for 5 days to do a bit of observing on channel swims and meet my relay team I'm swimming with tide starting 17th August '14 (excited much!!!!).
Hope you've enjoyed the blog so far!
Happy swimming and will update you all again soon!
NEXT EVENT: Plymouth Breakwater swim