I’m back!

Well – here I sit at Heathrow Terminal 2 on my way to the Triathlon World Championships in Edmonton. So much has happened, both good and bad, since I last posted. In fact the bad is why I haven’t posted for so long. A bike fall at the ETU European Championships and the resulting broken left clavicle and a few broken right fingers has severely restricted my posting. However I did write some notes on my activities before the crash and now, hopefully with some time in transit, I will catch up quickly with the Life and Times of Maelgwyn Gwynedd.

"You are an Ironman!" (ok - I was one once)

I came across this feature article on my Australian Ironman experience back in 2007. It seems such a long time ago now. After six years I haven’t changed my mind – I won’t be doing another one any time soon!

 

Rip it up and start again (for 2014)

My triathlon season for 2013 officially ended 11^th September. It ended as a damp squib with two DNF’s at the most important sporting event I have ever taken part in – a triathlon world championship. It ultimately ended due to a flat tyre in heavy rain. But that masked an Achilles injury I was carrying which would have, in any case, resulted in disappointment for me.

The season had all started so well.  5km Parkrun PB’s in Jan/Feb/Mar which saw me improve my PB at every run.  A half Marathon PB by over 5 minutes at the Llanelli Marathon in March and then a Marathon PB at the London Marathon in April by 25 minutes. OK – this last one was from a not very fast first marathon. In May for my first tri of the season an 8min PB at the Llanelli Sprint, even with a longer swim than normal. Then finally 1^st June British M55-59 Sprint champion at Nottingham and then 6^th at the ITU AG European championships Olympic distance event in Alanya, Turkey 14^th June.

I guess that’s really where I should have stopped as a week later my Achilles tendonitis started and progressively got worse through July and August to the extent that I wasn’t run training at all and just doing an easy jog around the tri races I’d entered. In the end I didn’t even do the runs and pulled out after the bike. All this despite twice weekly physio, massages and constant strengthening exercises for over three months to try and get me to the start line at the World Championships in London.

After London I had an overseas business trip planned and therefore decided on complete rest for my Achilles. No training whatsoever for a month at least. And after all that rest my left Achilles was still swollen!

 

So here we are at the end of 2013 and the current scenario. I’ve started to do some light running again. No more than a couple of easy 5-8km a week. I’m still not sure which way it’s going to go. After running my left Achilles is still tender to touch but I’m not getting any pain or inconvenience when I run or walk. I’m still doing all the strengthening and stretching exercises, icing after the run and I now sleep with a foot brace, as was recommended to me. That all seems to help but I can’t help wondering what’s going to happen when I up my run intensity. This I will have to start doing quite soon.

I managed to blog through most of 2013, which was my objective. The idea being that, with my goals set, it would motivate me to train and train better.  I think it just about worked. Without really knowing if my body is going to stand up to 2014 I’ve decided to keep the blog going through 2014. My “A Race” for this year being the ETU Age Group sprint race at the European championships in Kitzbuehel, Austria in June.  I qualified via being British champion, rather than through one of the qualifying events.  I’m pretty certain that the AG at Kitzbuehel will be fairly flat. Not like this year’s elite race, whose bike profile was something like this!

 

 

 2014 is not going to be as “focused” for me as 2013 was. Apart from the injury I’m going to have more family, work and travel commitments and I put myself up for couple of administrative rolls in the sport that will cut into my training time.  So we are just going to see how it goes. One positive that did come out of my injury and lack of running during the last part of 2013 was the improvement in my swimming.  I think my increased running, and probably cycling, reduced my flexibility for swimming. Also training for 750m or 1500m frontcrawl tri swims doesn’t exactly help for shorter swim races. As 2013 went on my swimming times got worse. But then with the rest and very little time in the water I managed in December to do three “all time Masters” PB’s in 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly and 100IM. By “all time Masters” I really mean any time after I was about 17 years old and faster than when I was at my Masters best about six years ago. If the running injuries are still there in the next few months I can always concentrate on swimming again.

DNF Times Two - My London Story

It wasn’t a case of all’s well that ends well for me. I set off on a business trip to Australia just after the World Champs so I’m just getting around to putting my thoughts down. In the end, it was all a bit disappointing.

Although my Achilles felt slightly better in the few days leading up to the World Champs, even if it did hold up the fact that I hadn’t run for over three months precluded any real chance of doing anything except trying to finish. After I had qualified for London there was a plan with family and friends for a bit of support and a party in London but as my situation deteriorated I really put those ideas on hold. As I was an early qualifier I had managed to secure a “cheap” luxury apartment on Hyde Park for the family to stay, so in theory, that would be ok, except I had qualified for the Aquathlon on the Wednesday. Registration for the Aquathlon was on Tuesday this meant traveling up to London on the Tuesday and staying with friends outside of London and travelling in both days. In fact doing two events was getting a bit complicated with various times to register, be briefed, have photos, massages, team get together etc. and getting on the right trains/tubes at the right time I had to develop quite a complex Excel spreadsheet to track it all!

Made it to London and signed in on the board

 

 

 Nice thing about Aquathlon - minimalist equipment in transition!

 As mentioned in my previous post I was pretty sure my Achilles wouldn’t stand up to two 5km runs in three days so I had already decided to pull out of the Aquathlon after the swim. In fact I was only doing it (apart from already forking out £95 entry) to get some practice on the swim as no pre-race training on the courses was allowed. It was a good idea as I learnt so much of the system and where to place myself in the various pens to get the start position I wanted on the pontoon for the Sprint. There were 46 “Aquathletes” from 14 countries in my age group. The swim was 1000m rather than the 750m for the Sprint tri. It was the same course but with one further extra buoy to swim around near the end. I was pretty happy with my swim. We were combined with a younger age group and I was about 6^th out overall. The times show I was 3^rd out in my age group. The plan was I would try and do a quick transition and then pull out. I did do a quick transition, 7^th fastest and only 4 seconds behind 1^st fastest. The problem was this was in front of the stand. I didn’t really want to stop there in front of people so I ran on (slowly) for a bit. My Achilles didn’t actually feel that bad so I decided I would go very slowly and do a run recce. I would do one of the two 2.5km laps. This I did and resigned myself to all these guys passing me. I stopped just before the start of lap two, went to the ITU officials, reported my withdrawal and handed in my timing chip. As it turns out Brits got 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd. On reflection if I had run hard without thought of the Sprint two days later I probably would have placed 3^rd or 4^th. But hey – I was saving myself for the Sprint tri race.

Calm before the storm

I managed to get a massage right after the Aquathlon from the BTF support masseurs, which was great and I and now I thought I would at least finish the Sprint. However the next day DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) set in – in my quads! I remembered I hadn’t run for 3 months. And my Achilles “tweeked” a little bit. Oh dear.

Thursday came. The day of the Sprint registration, team briefing, team photo then official gear checking and bike racking etc etc. Except I had already registered and was feeling a bit of an old hand at all this AG “World’s” stuff. Met the family off the train at Paddington and walked them the short distance to the apartment. Dinner was of (pre) homemade pasta Bolognese and a few beers and then an early night. Now the whole time I’d been in London they had got the weather predictions wrong and this was even only two hours ahead. Friday dawned and it was supposed to clear up by the time of the race. Except to cut it short – it just rained the whole race. This wasn’t too pleasant. I put all my gear in transition. Nothing extra was allowed except what you were racing with so no towels or covers so of course everything got wet. But it’s the same for all. You had to be out of transition by 7.30am and my AG start was only 11.00am so I went back to the apartment (10mins) and went back to bed for a while before a second breakfast.

Is my elbow that high?

The build-up was the same as for the Aquathlon so I was well prepared, got my pen positioning right and was exactly where I wanted to be on the start pontoon. 94 triathletes from 23 countries started the M55-59 AG sprint race. Again I was pretty happy with my swim with a good clear start and then a good draft (off a German as a turns out). I was 7^th out of the water and also had a reasonable T1.

 

Out of the swim

  As we were an age group on our own in the 500m or so to the start of the three lap cycle course I could see 4 or 5 guys in front of me. I had caught a couple before the getting onto the course proper and then flew past a German and Australian on the first long stretch of the three lap bike course. I was feeling really good. I guessed I was probably now top three and I knew that I could catch the GB guy would I knew would be first out of the swim.

Flying at the start of the first bike lap

The rain was hammering it down but it didn’t worry me. We hit the first technical bit of the course with some turns, speed bumps and more turns and I was now passing lots of other AG’s who were already on the course. I was feeling as confident as I could be that this was going to go well. Then, about 2km into the bike course I hit a speed bump and blah. I’d burst my rear tyre. I looked down trying not to believe what I thought had happened but no, the road was getting rougher, the bike was vibrating and sliding and I was going slower. I knew that was it for me but I remember someone saying that you could ride on flat tubs so I kept going. The bike was sliding more, I was going slower and now the German and the Australian went past. I kept going as best as I could but when I came back to the 90 degree bend before the long straight my rear slid like I was on ice. I have no idea how I stayed upright. That was it. Now a long slow ride back to transition only one lap done (in reflection I should have got off the bike and not risked my v. expensive Bontrager wheel, but I think it survived). I got back to transition and after the Aquathlon, I had experience of what to do.

So – two AG world championships in three days and two DNF’s. That must be fairly rare.

Not flying!  It's all over
 

Tyre pressures - Spot the difference!

Analysis and comparison of times afterwards leads me to believe if I had not had the blowout I probably would have been 1st or just 2^nd off the bike. With the best run I could have done that day I probably could have finished somewhere 5^th -10^th and maybe (just) best Brit. But I will never know and history says I’m a DNF. In hindsight if I had just gone for it in the Aquathlon I might have got a medal or at least a top five but then for sure it would have stuffed me up for the sprint and then would have been frustrated for what could have been for that.

The disappointing thing is the amount of money, time and effort I’ve put in trying to get over my Achilles over the last three months with doctors, physios, massages, exercises, stretches and all to no avail. It’s nearly three weeks since the Aquathlon, I haven’t done any exercise or even walking and my Achilles, although not painful, is still swollen. I have no idea what to do. Everyone and every internet article I find say just rest and don’t put any impact on it. Apart from walking in the course of a working day I haven’t, but there is still no improvement. It’s difficult to know what to do. I’ve already pre-qualified for the 2014 ETU European sprint tri championships in Kitzbühel. The qualifiers for the World champs and the 2015 Euro’s are out and it all starts in earnest in June next year.  I’m also on the NHS waiting list for an op which they tell me should be in the spring. They say recovery from this will put me completely out of action for about two months. I have a feeling this triathlon thing is not going to get any easier as I get older.

Seven Days to London

Seven days to the Aquathlon World Champs on Wednesday. It’s all approaching far too quickly now. For the Aquathlon my race number is 10640 and my start time on the pontoon is 10.20am for the M55-59 age group. However I’m pretty sure I’m going to be the first DNF for the Pru Health world triathlon championships. At this point I’m only planning to do the 1000m swim and then withdraw. My Achilles won’t be up to two 5km runs in three days so I guess I should save my one shot for the triathlon on the Friday.  In reality it’s a risk just doing the swim as having seen the Serpentine a couple of weeks ago there is a good chance you could catch something in it, and I don’t mean fish! But I’ve paid my entry fee so I might as well do it. A DNF gets listed on your athletes’ page at triathlon.org, whist DNS does not.

Yes, Battersby’s Bane is still that. Although, after a particularly bad weekend where it was more swollen and painful despite doing absolutely nothing except resting, the swelling now seems to have gone down a bit and I actually walked today without limping for the first time in 3 months, What an advance!  If it can stay like that for the next week my chances of finishing the sprint tri are looking better. As the footballers say “I’ll take it one day at a time”.

Due to the aforementioned Battersby’s Bane I had my first ever “Did Not Finish” at the Tuska Triathlon in Porthcawl. I’ve competed in all sorts of events; tri’s, marathons, long distance swims, cycling etc, so I guess I’ve been lucky to get to my age without a DNF against my name. Although I had planned to pull out of the run I had a good swim and a really good bike that put me around 10-12^th overall into T2. For a short time I did think about jogging around the run course. Luckily for me Alan Kerr of Pencoed Tri was marshalling by the run exit. Alan is an experienced triathlete (a former AG world champ I think) and in my sprint age group in London. I’d met him the previous day at registration and where we’d compared our various ailments. When he saw me limping out of T2 he shouted – “do you really want to do this before London”.  And the answer was definitely no. What he said registered with me and I realised how bad I was limping and how sore my Achilles was, and I’d only just started on the run.  So I pulled up after about 200m, walked back and handed in my chip. End of race. Even so it had been a good race for me. Although I could have actually swum a bit faster I was really happy with my tactics – start position, sighting and swim line to get the best of the tide & current which I’d studied from previous Tuska races. Only thing was I didn’t get to draft off anyone as there was from the start a gap between me and the swimmers in front. Although, I found out later, it appears I dragged along quite a few behind me from the 1^st turn buoy, including Dan Miles of Cardiff Tri. I didn’t mind this as Dan has been faster than me in the swims. He was 30secs better than me over 1500m in Turkey. Even with no flying start on the bike I did a fast T1. I then flew past 3 guys/girls weaving all over the place trying to get their feet in the shoes. None of them caught me.  Again, I was really happy with my cycle. I only got passed by one person near the end, James Manson of Cardiff Tri, who is a good couple of minutes faster than me on the bike. In an almost direct comparison to previous years (slightly different T exit/entry) I set a cycle course PB by 4 mins 34 secs. Also good is the fact that I think I can go faster still on the bike.  OK – after that it wasn’t so good. Screwed up my dismount into T2 and then ........ the rest is DNF.  As an aside, although I thought my DNF was disappointing it wasn’t as bad as Sam Webster’s DNS. I wondered at the time why Sam wasn’t racing as he was in contention for being Cardiff Tri champion. Just found out from his blog he wrecked his bike on the roof rack driving under a barrier in the car park before the race start. Now that is a bummer! http://www.dontbeasalmon.net/archives/2013/08/end-of-the-summ-1.html

As I’m sure anyone reading this would have already surmised, I’ve written off any chance of actually doing well in London a long time ago. My aim for the last month or so is just to make it to the start, complete the course and hopefully enjoy it. As the entry fees, travel & accommodation are all paid for there is not much else I can do. That’s just the way it goes. A few months ago I was thinking I might be competitive, whilst not getting near a medal (there are a lot of seriously good triathletes in my AG) at least vying to be one of the first three Brits. How underdone am I?  I keep a training log and in the 10 weeks since the Llandudno tri (29^th June) I have run (actually not run but jogged or limped) a total of 22.27km. That’s an average of only 2.23km a week!  Not exactly peak performance training. On the other side looking at the logs I’ve swum 75,57km in the same period. I’ve swum over 3 times as far as I’ve run!

The one saving grace in all this is that I somehow “peaked” in time for the Nottingham tri and became British AG champion. That gives me pre qualification if I want them to both next year’s euro and world champs in Kitzbuhel and Edmonton respectively.  That’s If I can get my Achilles sorted by then.

I think there are ten Cardiff Triathletes at the world champs representing Great Britain and NZ. Some of us managed a photo in Cardiff last night. No doubt we make another photo opportunity when everyone is there together in Hyde Park.

 

Born to Run?

Someday girl I don't know when were gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run

Or not, as the case may be.  But I did walk in the Sun!

Despite Battersby’s Bane I decided to start the Gower Sprint Triathlon. This was mainly because we had planned to camp down there anyway for an extended weekend with family and friends from afar. Also, as I can still swim and cycle, I thought I might as well get some more race experience. The plan, like at the Cymer tri two weeks before, was to swim and cycle hard and just see what happens on the run. I would walk or pull out of the run if necessary.

We camped at the Carreglwyd camp site which is right next to Transition. We camped there because we were staying for a few days more and its user friendly for kids. It also is very convenient to rack you bike as we were only about 200m away from transition. I was up early when transition opened and got the first rack position closest to the bike exit. As Sam Webster of Cardiff Tri commented “no one’s going to miss your bike”.  I went back to bed for a while before a leisurely breakfast and then wandering back to finish transition preparations. I wish all tri starts were like this.

Happy campers but Saturday evening clouds look a bit menacing

I’ve done the Gower sprint tri a few times before so I thought I would at least be able to compare my swim and cycle times to previous efforts. However the tide was further out than in previous years so it meant a shorter swim, a running beach start and worse (for me), a longer run to T1 in bare feet. Not exactly what I wanted with my Achilles. I was pretty happy with the actual swimming bit. Normally, for deep water starts I have a good sprint out to clear the pack and can be in the first few, for a few metres anyway.  With this run start and my running issues by the time I was actually swimming I was mid pack but I soon cut through without too much difficulty and progressed forward during the whole swim. Again, quite a few passed me on the long run up the beach and into transition. Apparently I was sort of limping along into T1. Overall in the swim I was 19^th out of 310 finishers which isn’t too bad and was faster than previous years but that doesn’t relate to anything. If it had been just a 750m swim (and short distance to T1) I might have just made the top ten.

Me about to get passed by more triathletes before I get to my bike

 I had a good cycle, which was directly comparable to previous years. I improved my cycle course PB, which I set last year, by 4 mins 4 secs. That is pretty pleasing and I was 26^th overall for the cycle.  Then the run!  OK, it wasn’t really a run but more of a “walk in the sun”.  Whilst I knew I had to go slowly, it was still quite demoralising being passed by so many, especially by fellow age groupers who I’d beaten earlier in the season. As I was quite recovered by the end of the run I thought I would do a good “finisher” pose down the finish tube.

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up 52^nd overall, but still managed to finish 2^nd in my age group in the Welsh Grand Prix Series.

Last weekend I met up with some friends in London for a lads night out. I took the opportunity of getting up early on the Sunday (ok, with a bit of a hangover) and cycling into central London on my mountain bike to check out Hyde Park and the sprint cycle course for the World Champs. I’m glad I did this because it hit home quite hard the enormity of what is going to happen in three weeks.  The cycle course, because the sprint race is during the week – Friday, is all inside Hyde Park and I was a bit concerned about the track surface, 90 degree turns and 180 degree dead turns at both ends of the three lap course. But the course is fine. It’s actually on the perimeter road that is all inside the park (South, West & North Carriage Roads) which are as wide, or wider, than normal roads and a good surface. With my Achilles I guess it is still touch and go if I manage to finish the run but it has got me exited.

 Hyde Park - Looking down at what will be the swim exit, run course & finish in a few weeks time

Over the last few weeks I’ve been practising my T1’s and trying out all sorts of things. I’ve come to the decision that I’m not going to attempt shoes clipped in the bike – flying start out of transition. The reason’s being that I know that I’m going to get a groin strain jumping on the bike; I’m then not stable (enough) before engaging my feet with the shoes; but the biggest reason is that I get cramp in the foot when I try and put my feet into the shoe whilst on the bike. It happened EVERY time I tried it over a couple of weeks, which was more than 20. So I resigned myself to losing 10-15 secs by putting my shoes on in T1. But will try and claw some of that back by making my T1’s as fast as I can, importantly, getting up to speed as quickly as I can (whilst hopefully passing those less successful in getting their feet in the shoes!).

This weekend is the Welsh Triathlon Championships at the Tuska sprint tri at Porthcawl. It’s also Cardiff Tri’s club championships as well. So just like the last few triathlons I’ve done I’m going to do it for more swim/bike and transition experience. I’ve done Tuska quite a few times before so hopefully I can compare my times. This time on the run I really must be careful and not over do it. I have to consider a DNF because I do want to make it to that start line in Hyde Park in three weeks.

Whats going on

What's going on (Marvin Gaye 1971)

I’m not going to go on about it, but my injury has now been renamed “Battersbys Bane” - as an injury that triathletes get. I don’t know this Achilles guy but he seems to have his own problems. I’ve been on to Wikipedia and the definition will be up soon. Anyway, for my Battersbys Bane problem the physio is still ongoing, doing the exercises, flexi-icing all the time and not running. Although trying to keep going with various step machines. The outlook for London looks bleak.

Anyway it’s been an interesting few weeks. I’ve spent a week in Germany. The family have been staying at the in-laws for a while so I drove over to pick them up. I took my mountain bike with me as there are some great trails in the area. I’d forgotten how pleasant cycling is in Germany. The area where the in-laws live is semi rural but there are hundreds of km of joined up cycle routes that are all good quality and you rarely come in direct contact with cars, and when you do they don’t just slow down, they actually pull over and stop as you go past. Even in the towns the bike paths are all nicely set out. There’s a new bike path built only a few years ago joining the two major towns of the area. It’s about 10km long double bike path set off parallel to the main road on one side. So it’s not just an historical thing they actually spend proper money on these things. This is why most people who can cycle – do.  Anyway, as recorded by my Garmin, I managed to do 270.9km on the mountain bike for the week. Not bad.

I could put up any great photo of the bike trails but here is one of an amazing wild flower meadow by the side of one of the trails

With my “Battersbys Bane” on-going I still decided to do the Cymer off road triathlon. The idea was to do the swim and the bike and then to jog, walk or, if it was really bad, pull out of the run. I wanted to do it as I’ve never done an off road tri and I really didn’t know what to expect on the bike leg. I have a reasonable mountain bike but for the last two years it’s had a child seat on the back and a basket on the front!  So to not look too ridiculous I did actually remove them for the race. Cymer is a little village up one of the valleys north of Port Talbot in South Wales. It’s very pleasant and picturesque with the Afan forest and mountain bike centre set all around it. The swim was a 600m (24 lap) 25m pool swim. As I’m a reasonably fast swimmer I prefer open water swims but normally these pool swims go ok, but not in this case. There were four lanes with 3 swimmers in each, with staggered starting i.e. when the last of the first 4 swimmers across the lanes gets out the next wave starts and so on. It’s supposed to be seeded with the slowest in first and fastest (based on the time you provide) last. So obviously at it goes on the swimmers are getting faster and there is the need to pass the slower swimmers still in the lane. With three in a lane this is normally not too difficult to pass at the end of a lap or overtake down the middle. I started and passed one swimmer within the first couple of laps. I then came up quite quickly to the second swimmer in the lane. I followed him to the end of the lane expecting him to pull over but he didn’t. So I thought I would have to pass him in the lane which shouldn’t have been hard as I was quite a bit faster. He was actually swimming near the middle of the lane so I waited until the 3^rd swimmer had gone passed and moved out. But then he completely moved over to the other side blocking me. Again I had to wait until the end but again he just pushed off. Up to now I hadn’t touched him but he knew I was there, but again this lap he did exactly the same thing. I’m pretty tolerant in these sort of situations and this time when I knew I wasn’t really racing for an overall position I left it hoping he would mend the errors of his ways. I would say if I was racing and it was important I would have swum right over him by now, water polo style. This lap I tickled his feet but again he moved out and blocked. Now this was deliberate. Next length I waited for the 3^rd swimmer, who was actually going at the same speed as this guy, to pass (it had nothing to do with him and I didn’t want to hinder him) and I forced my way out and passed. He had moved over again to block so at the tumble turn at the end I made sure I was “strong” and gave a really hard push off and came up. I’m hoping it looked like he was flicked out of the water like you see in those whale/seal nature films but I was probably more a glancing blow. He wasn’t happy.  Until he got out I was gaining one lap out of two on him without too much effort which now really irritates. I’ve put it down to just one of those things; an unlucky draw. But I still can’t understand this guy’s thoughts. It was obvious I was much faster. He knew I was there and he could have moved over without losing any time and in the end he finished middle of the pack (I worked out who he was) so he wasn’t racing for any podium position or anything.

The WORST thing was that because of all this I had completely lost count. When I came to the end I was looking for the “2 laps left” board from the official, but nothing. So off I went again. Next lap I knew I must have done more so I stopped. The official said I had done two extra! I asked about the 2 lap left board and she said she had put it up. It turns out from others that she had – when I was up the other half end of the lap. Not really very helpful. Glad I wasn’t really racing!

Compared to the swim the bike was uneventful except for my own incompetence in going downhill fast on a mountain bike. I put too much air in my tyres and on the hard gravel/rock fire roads I was bouncing all over the place. My hands had already gone numb and I was hanging on for grim life going too fast approaching a 180 degree bend on a steep hill when I struggled to reach the brakes. For a few seconds I thought I was going to go over the edge until fear made me reach those brakes. The 24km bike finished much sooner than I was expecting so I guess I should have ridden up the hills harder. I did finish the run but it was really a slow jog, getting out of the way of the fast racers on their second lap looking for victory. I was about 10mins slower than I would normally be for 5km. But with plenty of energy left I did manage a “victory” wave for the camera. Overall I really did enjoy this format and will do Cymer, or some other off road tri next year.

Next up is the Gower triathlon in Port Eynon. As I write this, “Battersbys Bane” hasn’t got any better so again it’s going to be a swim – cycle race for me followed by a walk in the sun. It’s a nice out and back sea swim which I normally like so hopefully no swim rage. We shall see!