Thursday 17th April

Get up early again for another go at the swim course.
Arrive on the second bus at 6:40, today were going to try the speed suits, as yesterday I felt really hot in my wetsuit, especially when I put any efforts in.
Most other people seem to be in their wetsuits, water temp is 23 decrees, so should be toasty.
Water temp feels ok on entering, no chill factor at all. Again only small buoy’s out so sighting will be difficult, take a heading on the far bank and start swimming, I can immediately feel more current today, constantly pushing from the right, but because I’m not wearing a wetsuit, I can put more effort in without feeling like I’m overheating. It’s necessary to hold onto the buoy rope as the current is really strong, Lou arrives and we set off, this leg is 500m downstream, should be a fun ride. I get there in little over 6 mins and wait for Lou. That was fun. The next leg is back towards shore, with a
The current coming from the left, we take a heading 30 degrees or so of where we want to get to and start off, again you can feel the current, and we reach the buoy for the return leg against the current.
This is really fun, I try to keep as flat as possible and keep pulling against the flow, I am going past lots of people that don’t seem to be moving, and I count the strokes between buoys to make sure I’m keeping it nice and fluid. I reach the end buoy 400m away in 10 mins. It’s clear to say that the time you get flowing down stream for the longer leg of 500m does not cancel out the 400m into the flow.

On race day theres supposed to be a high tide which will slow the flow somewhat, but I can see weaker swimmers really struggling to make the swim if the flows anything like today.


I pick up a few last minute things at the Bike tech, which have not got any threaded gas canisters, they are supposed to be on the way, at the moment they only have thread less, so we rush into town to pick up a small hand pump, just in case they don’t arrive!
Today’s registration day so we get that done, it’s all getting closer now.
For the rest of the day we chill by the pool, catching up on reading (me) and sleeping (Lou), there’s another rain storm later in the day.
For dinner, the organisers have put on an Athlete evening at a Local Pizza/Coffee shop so we decide to get a cab into town. Whilst there we get to meet Tim Marr, Mathiew O’Halloran (Who has the most impressive sideburns) and a girl called Kim Leoffler who are all racing pro, get a cab back, another episode of Dexter and to bed early