I have 3 races planned for next year. The first is the Kapas Marang in April. Palau Kapas is a small island off the east coast of Malaysia. It is about 6km from the mainland and the race is simply enough to get to the mainland.
The official race distance is likely to be made a bit more difficult as a result of waves, current and navigation. at Langkawi in February I covered 4km in 90 minutes so an initial estimate for a straight swim is to add another 50 minutes on and estimate something in the 2 - 2.5 hour range.
The 2 hour range is fast - around the leaders time and doesn't take into account increasing tiredness. Another factor is that from the race reports I've read the current kicks in in the last 3rd of the race, slowing you down and pushing you off course.
One of the key things then will be to ensure that I have sufficient strength and endurance to push hard and fast through this. That will pay very significant dividends in race position and timing.
Energy and hydration are things I've never really considered on a swim before. At 6km of swimming I will have depleted glycogen stores and won't have any way to replenish them by half way through the race. Do I taake gels/water. How?
Fishes, sharks and sea lice. A body suit of some kind seems a good idea here. That should give some protection against beasties, and give some streamlining benefit - better than a nip and tuck. I always get frightened of sharks nibbling on my toes but I guess I'll just rely on the rescue boats to keep them away.
Pacing. No laps, no buoys, no useful markers to judge distance. How am I going to pace myself? How do I know when to pick up the pace. From experience an hour and a half in the water is a long time, but the most I have swum in a single direction is 45 minutes.IMMY is an out and back course. So I have to swim 4 times as far and keep track of time and everything. Using the finger lap counter will help as it will tell me how long I have been going. But..... Can I have a support boat? Would that be cheating, and if not is it in the spirit of the event?
Lots of difficult and interesting questions to answer. A 2.5 hour target seems about right for now. Let's figure the rest out once I get a bit closer (and also revise the target). Now to go and do an exam :)
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4 comments:
Hi
Am planning on doing this too. It will be my first long ocean swim. I have done a few 1 and 2km swims. Am very concerned that I will just get lost with the current and might end up miles down from the finishing point.
How do they mark the course? I have read other blogs which say not so well.
Might be a ridiculous question but as I'm not doing it to break any records just simply for completion. Any chance of taking someone in a canoe to just keep me on track and for moral support?
Thanks
Jo
Hi Jo,
As far as I understand there are a bunch of rescue boats out there. Given most Malaysian races an additional person with a canoe shouldn't be a problem - but I'd guess that they should be an experienced ocean canoeist. They don't ant to have to be rescued as well :)
Current - yes it is a bit of a problem but not hugely so. The coast downstream from the main landing point is all shallow sandy beaches - so to a certain extent - who cares if you don't land at the exact spot. You'll have done the swim.
I guess from your experience that you should be pretty comfortable with the swim. It will be tiring but certainly doable.
Does this help? I have similar thoughts to you - but as my wife can't swim I'm just making sure that I do the miles before the race :)
Well I guess I'll just keep training and hope for the best. Am training now with another lady here in Kuantan who wants to have a go at the big race. Training with someone else certainly helps and we train together we break it up a bit to make the time go much faster.
Keep me posted on how you're training comes along, you never know the 3 of us could swim together and take it in turns to pace of each other.
That sounds excellent :)We head to the coast at Cherating fairly regularly so meeting up for a long training swim before the race would be great. I'm always very nervous of swimming by myself away from home because of the currents and other ocean threats.
I'm doing 2.5km ith paddle and pull buoy on Mondays and about a 1000m of sprints on Thursdays at the moment. Doubtless it ill increase :)
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