Cold Water Swimming

A recent report on Cold Water Swimming by yours truly.

http://www.blueseventy.co.uk/blogs/stories/9169243-how-to-conquer-cold-water-advice-from-guy-crawford-aka-captain-awesome

How to conquer cold water - advice from Guy Crawford, aka 'Captain Awesome'

Guy is a Professional Triathlete from Auckland New-Zealand who specializes in half iron/70.3 distance. He currently lives in the beautiful city of Perth in Western Australia and spends most of his racing season in the USA. Guy is a longtime blueseventy athletes and in the second of his blog series he talks about how to conquer cold water.

While cold water isn’t something we should fear, it is something we should respect and prepare for. Like any swim race or triathlon we do the work before hand, preparing yourself for a cold water race is exactly the same.

Below are a few facts I’ve learned over the course of my racing career. All of these helped me not only survive the cold water, but thrive in it when others floundered.

1) THE WETSUIT: We’ll start off with the gear needed to make cold water swimming more bearable. The wetsuit, no matter the make, should fit well. Not too loose! This will cause ‘flushing’ through the suit, basically allowing the cold water to flow through the suit bringing your core temperature down with every minute that passes. By the same taken, having a wetsuit that fits to tightly will cause shortness of breath; this will be amplified by the cold water and is a combo you really want to avoid. The sizing / fit Issue is easily solved; when you purchase a wetsuit make sure you have it fitted professionally by your local dealer.

In my case I never look past my blueseventy Helix, for a few reasons. It fits great, has big 5mm panels through the torso to keep me warm and it’s super flexible allowing me to swim with my normal stroke. (triathlon wetsuits aren’t allowed to exceed 5mm in thickness, so you won’t find anything thicker)


2) SKULL CAP: A skull cap is a neoprene hat that you put under you swim cap. This insulates your head a lot better than a silicon or latex swim cap. It’s 3mm thick and a real advantage in colder waters. If by chance you can’t wear one the next best thing is to wear two swim caps.


3) BOOTIES, NEOPRENE SOCKS AND GLOVES: Extended exposure to cold water often times results in an awful throbbing feeling in those extremities. Having neoprene on your hands and feet allows you to slowly adjust to the temperature and avoid this painful annoyance. I will add that you don’t want to race in the swim gloves if they are webbed as they aren’t legal, however they are a fantastic training tool. Neoprene socks are perfectly legal to race in. A few pro’s that I’ve spoken with use socks as pre race warm up accessories and take them off once their bodies have adjusted to the temperature.

4) EAR PLUGS: Probably one of the most underrated items for cold water swimming. If you have ever felt dizziness, sickness, vertigo or nausea then this may be the answer to all your problems. Doctors such as Jeff Shilt who shared this information with me some years ago, often drip small amounts of cold water onto a patients ear drum to test for things such as vertigo. Most open water swimmers and triathletes will experience some form of discomfort/vertigo when the cold water hits the eardrum. The way to remedy this is to simply buy earplugs and stop the water from entering the ear canal.


5) PRACTICE and PRE-RACE WARM UP: Once you’ve got all the gear, we then need to head to the water! Practicing in the cold water makes perfect sense. Ideally you want to get into the water at least 2-3 times before race day. This lets you and your body know what you’re in for. You don’t need to spend hours in the water, 15 minutes at a time is plenty.


The ‘ice cream headache’ is something we have all experienced. This occurs when your face is submerged in water - remember its important to exhale when swimming - this will reduce the effect and shock of the cold water. Don’t hold your breathe when your face is in the water. This ‘ice cream headache’ effect causes you to hyperventilate and adjusting to this is an important part of your swim session and race day warm up. Take your time pre-race, wear your neoprene socks, skull cap, ear plugs and have your wetsuit fitted. Do a good warm up, make sure you get your face and body adjusted to the water temperature and you’ll have a great swim.


If you need any of the gear listed above, please visit our website and find your local dealer. http://www.blueseventy.com/

Good luck and happy swimming.

Guy
blueseventy
www.guycrawford.us

XTERRA Les Bois

My first XTERRA experience is now over and yes all my bones are intact (thankfully)!

Arriving home from Lake Steven's 70.3 on Wednesday night then racing on Saturday morning was going to be a tough ask on the body!!

But I was confident I could go well just as long as I stayed wheels down. (Not so confident about that)

The setting couldn't be better, Lucky Peak Reservoir is a fantastic and stunning place for a race.
With the added bonus of being 15 min from my house. Racing close to home is the best!

Race morning conditions were perfect, the Lake was perfectly calm, the weather was cool and the wind was light.
The swim went off without a hitch and I exited the water 20sec back from super fish Kevin Everett.

We then rode together for the first 5 miles and eventually Kevin came undone on a techincal section and I got away.
My lungs were screaming and legs burning, I thought I'd settle into a rhythm, but that rhythm never came.
The only thing that settled in was a large helping of PAIN!!

Off the bike my lead had been dwindled down to 1 minute on Chris Ganter who had passed Kevin during the ride, I started running hard, but was only able to hold off the hard charging Ganter until half way up the rock grind. (The dam wall)
I ended up finishing in 2nd place and really hurt for it.

1 Chris Ganter 1 35 M 3 25:38.0 3 0:58.0 1 1:16:38.0 1 0:46.8 1 34:07.7 2:18:08.5
2 Guy Crawford 3 34 M 2 21:14.0 1 0:45.0 2 1:20:35.0 2 0:48.0 3 36:43.3 2:20:05.4
3 Kevin Everett 2 38 M 1 20:53.0 2 0:48.0 3 1:30:33.0 3 0:48.4 2 36:23.0 2:29:25.4






In the end I was happy to finsh in 2nd, but a little disapointed the body didn't respond better to doubling up races!!
I will say XTERRA racing is loads of fun and XTERRA Les Bois put on a great event. Special thanks to the race organizer (John Shilt) for putting on such a well run show. This is definitely a race to put on your hit list for 2014.

Next up Ironman Louisville in 4 weeks!!

Thanks
Guy

70.3 Lake Stevens

Well it's been a wild ride!!

So we left Boise on the Friday the 19th before 70.3 Lake Stevens (on the Sunday)
When I say we I mean, Kate myself and our awesome friend super Ruth!
Ruth flew in from Perth Australia a few days before hand and drove from Denver to Boise with Kate after 70.3 Muncie.
Then it was back into the car and off to Lake Stevens.

We arrived late Friday night after battling some heavy Seattle traffic, Then hit the course on Saturday Morning. We did a bit of course recon, Ruth went quiet while we drove the course I think she was having a panic attack because of all he hills. "I wasn't far off"

We then registered and I caught up with The VISION team, thanks for taking care of me Mike and Dan. Fresh from the Tour De France and they still have time for me, that's a cool company!!

We didn't have enough time to stress as before we knew it race morning had dawned and we were surprised by fog and a lot of it.
In the swim warm up I was trying to sight the bouys and failing.

The gun went off and we took off like squirrels after an accorn. I had a medium swim as I lost Luke Bells feet, but I was in a great group with Crowie and Matt Lieto. Still unsure of where my fitness was I was expecting the unexpected. I rode with Crowie and Matt for the first 8 miles and knew I was riding to hard for my current fitness, I dropped off and fell into my own rhythm. Towards the end of the ride and spotted Barny and Matt coming back to me and thought I'd had a good even paced ride.
Onto the run and again I was expecting the unexpected, I started running and I felt good. I held a very even rythum and only had to battle with a late charging Chris Leigh who ended up pipping me to the line by 17sec. Still a 1:19 and change off the bike is a step in the right direction and I'm stoked to be having my best season yet! Good things are on the horizon.

RESULTS
Alexander, Craig AUS 00:24:01 02:16:28 01:12:49 03:55:23 1 1
Bell, Luke USA 00:22:57 02:17:36 01:13:22 03:55:59 2 2
Holtham, Elliot CAN 00:24:02 02:16:28 01:17:09 03:59:40 3 3
Matthews, Paul AUS 00:22:54 02:23:36 01:16:15 04:04:44 4 4
Lieto, Matt USA 00:24:02 02:20:43 01:19:58 04:07:13 5 5
Legh, Chris AUS 00:27:03 02:21:56 01:17:16 04:08:21 6 6
Crawford, Guy USA 00:23:57 02:22:50 01:19:46 04:08:38 7 7
Stein, Daniel AUS 00:23:55 02:23:20 01:21:14 04:10:48 8 8
Bagg, Chris USA 00:25:15 02:23:35 01:21:43 04:12:56 9 10
Bovee, Grant USA 00:28:41 02:24:46 01:17:32 04:13:30 10 11

Since the race we have been in Seattle hanging with the great blueseventy crew, especially Pigeon man A.K.A Mike Orton.
Then it was off to Eugene to hang with the equally as awesome team from Rolf Prima. A bit of site seeing was in order to check out where Steve Prefrontaine trained.(I'm a PRE fan)
Kate and Ruth are still there and will be racing Rolf Prima's own "Tri at the Grove" this weekend.
As for me, well it's back to Boise and time to do my first XTERRA,"XTERRA LES BOIS" I'll be sure to let you all know how it's goes.

Thanks once again for the support.

Untill next week.

Guy

The Trip and Chaos

So it's been a busy time since hitting US soil, I'll try and limit the words and increase the pictures.

We arrived in Boise and got into an easy training routine. I borrowed a mountain bike and hit the trails,
You can climb for hours and decend for minutes. I'm excited to



As soon as we arrived it felt like we were leaving again. This time we were heading off for a vacation/hoilday with Kates Family.

A few quick flights and we arrived in Calgary and drove to Banff.

Pic's below from our Hotel room, the Hotel "Banff Springs Hotel" and a view of the town from the top of the Gondola.
A beautiful place.





Then it was off to Kamloops...Kate and I, Canadian Geese.



And then it was to Vancouver airport and onwards to Alaksa
First stop Anchorage.

We raced a 12K running event the night we arrived. Mental note to self don't run with 4 Kenyans on running scholarships for the first mile or the next 7 miles you will feel like a dead man walking..(true story)
Other Pic's of a small town "Whittier" just south of Anchorage. It was still COLD there in June.



And then it was off to Denali State Park. Picture of our hotel



And then we flew into the Arctic circle to a community of 13 people that live there year round.
CRAZY!! It's winter 8 months of the year. We had a tour with a resident called Jack and he was HARD CORE!! But normal at the same time.






And then we were off to Talkeetna, This is a cool town with it's own local brewery and great locals.



And then back to Anchorage and off to Vancouver for a few days.
A trip to Whistler and a few nights in downtown Vancouver. We even had time to run the famous Grouse grind.
3km took me 45mins...INSANE!!



And then?
well and then it was back to Boise and back into normal training.

It's been a wild month, but I'm happy to be home and happy to be training and getting ready for the next race.

I'll be hanging out with the blueseventy crew at IM Coeur D Alene so hopefully I'll bump into a few of you there.
Next race 70.3 Lake Stevens.

Cheers and Thanks
Guy

Doubling UP at 70.3 Busselton

WOW

The double, doing a full distance 3.8K Swim, 180K Bike and a 42.2K run and then backing up a week later and doing a 70.3 ..OUCH and OUCH...

The pain side of things didn't disappoint .

We arrived home from Challenge Taiwan Late on the monday night and drove down to Busselton home of the 70.3 on Thursday the 9th before racing on the 11th.
It was an exciting week with "School Visits, Chat with the pro's, A charity breakfast for this madman Mark Simpkins running 400K from Albany to Perth. But all for a great cause in "Cerebral Palsy".

The week produced some quite wild conditions, the ocean looked like a shaken up iced coffee and the wind was lashing at the trees.

Race day once again dawned and I dragged my weary body out of bed had my morning coffee and brightened up.
Kate and I didnt have too much stress leading into the race as it was going to be the "unknown" for both of us, so with that my pre race nerves weren't as high as usual.
Into transition we set up our bikes, put our wetsuits on and walked down to the start and YES the ocean was flat and the wind was at a whisper.

We got into the water did our typical warm up and then it seemed we were in the "starters hand"
As soon as the gun went off I found nice clean water and after a few hundred metres drifted onto the back of the lead group of 5 PERFECT... I was waiting for my body to reject the pace, but I settled in nicely and found a good rhythm.
I looked over my shoulder about half way out to the turn around and noticed we had a decent gap, but due to a school boy error I got droped as we turned one of the buoys when my arm got tangled in the rope. I tried to bridge back up, but didnt have the gas to do so... I wasn't too concerned I thought if I had good legs on the bike I could bridge back the 30secs they might gain.
Out of the water in 5th and I heard loads of people cheering for me. (My second home and an awesome local crowd)
I transitioned quickly and got onto my bike, I could see the group just ahead and I went to put the hammer down, but it seemd the hammer had transformed into a teaspoon. OHHH NO!!



I tried to put the watts out but the legs refused. At about 10K the main pack caught me, I sloted into the pack and was sitting at 12metres thinking this is way easier than riding solo. Even at the greater drafting distance of 12 metres you get a benefit.

So there I stayed till the end of the bike. We jostled around a fair bit, but Courtney Ogden and Matty White did nearly all the work while the others (including myself) stayed in the train. Although I beleive most of us were policed quite well.


We came into T2 in a massive pack, I'm not even sure how many of us there were, maybe 10. I had a quick transition and started to run out laughing to myself because trying to run fast felt so very bad!!! I was very comfortable running just over 4min K's but that doesnt cut it when your racing these boys.
Still I wasn't going to let that spoil my day, I ran as fast as my body would let me, but also enjoyed cheering people on, talking to the commentators and pretending I was Ok. (but inside I was in the hurt locker, I was just going slowly)

I saw Kate out there a few times and thought, 1) How the hell is she doing this , 2)I think she's running quicker than me, 3) I'm sure she's running quicker than me, 4)I Owe her a bottle of wine if she pulls this off without blowing into a million pieces... I know she is a bit of a hard ass so I was pretty sure I'd be buying her a bottle of wine.

Down the finish shoot and I celebrated, because WHY NOT? I wasn't first, I wasn't even 10th today. But I tried to fight even though my body didnt want to play. The race itself is amazing and I never want to miss it. The athletes and supporters are awesome, a race I would recommend to all.

I finished in 4:03:29 in 15th



Kate finished in 2nd in a time of 4:22:30. Totally awesome result being she just raced an IM 6 days earlier. Made me feel a bit soft for an average performance. Haha

We celebrated, drove back to Perth, packed our gear and the next day flew to New-Zealand, then Los Angeles, then Oakland CA, and finally onto Boise (Where I sit writing this) "OUCH"!! Not sure what was more painful the double or the flights.
We have an exciting year planned with some 70.3's and Ironman's on the horizon so stay tuned. I might also dabble into a few Xterra's.(On the MTB hunt as we speak)

Thanks again for all your support. It's been an awesome year to date.
My body is the best it's ever been and I'm excited to get back into racing here in the USA.

I look forward to seeing all my state side friends and sponsors soon.

To all my sponsors and supporters, Thank-you and Thank-you. See you soon.!!
blueseventy, Wattie INK, K-Swiss, Ceepo, Infinit Nutrition, Vision, Rolf Prima, 110% Play Harder, ISM, Recovery Pump, Churchill Cycles, Super Ruth Physio, Rocktape, nuun, Challenge Tyres, CompuTrainer, Ryders Eyewear, TriTown, Jeff Shilt, Swimsmooth and Pete Mckenzie at Race Pace Coaching.

Guy Crawford

Challenge Taiwan

This, my first Challenge experience really made me realize what I've been missing. What a great experience with the race organizer Micheal Dhulst and CEO Felix Walchshoefer putting on a great show.

We arrived into Taiwan, Taipei on the Monday night before the race, the following day we had media appointments, a lot of fun in a mellow atmosphere. Following that we had a swim in the awesome local facilities. (See the Pic of Dylan, Myself and Kate) Not sure why we look so shocked...







We were then treated to a trip up one of the tallest buildings in the world. 101 stories.



The Tuesday night we all flew to Taitung (the race venue). The plane had most of the pro's on it, and once we landed we headed straight out for dinner and ate some interesting local cuisine.



We arrived at our B & B which was a house where most of the pros stayed. Despite the different nationalities we all got along great. There were some interesting stories, many revolving around how Petr Vabrousek can race back to back iron distance races so often. Challenge Taiwan was his 125th full distance!!!!! errhh....I have done four.

Wednesday we explored around the local city a bit, this is a picture of Kate and I getting lost looking for a local super market.



During the week we met up with Joe Tanaka and the Ceepo crew for a signing.
Athlete Signings can sometimes be a quiet affair, but at every one Ceepo have put on it has been awesome. Stacked with people asking questions, taking signing cards etc. Big thanks to Ceepo, Megan and Joe for making it great fun.

(Kate and I with Joe Tanaka)



We also had an extra Media event with the Major of Taitung who's really into sports and triathlon.
Picture of all the pros with him promoting the race.





The RACE (Photo's Courtesy of Darryl Carry "the legend" www.darrylcarey.com)

With a 6am start it was the typical early start.
We were collected at 4:30AM by officals and headed to the swim start.

The usual business of pumping tires and organising nutrition was done and it was off to the swim start for a warm up.



A dive start made for a change.



The swim was taken out super fast by Dylan Mcneice and I was left swimming solo from the start. I settled into a comfortable pace and was quite happy to truck along alone.

I exited the water in 4th place just behind Little George. I made my way out onto the bike and was relieved to find I had good riding legs. It's always a bit of a gamble.

Pic's of me rocking my Ceepo.



I was riding well and started to bring back a little time to the guys in 2nd and 3rd. Then suddenly my shifter decide to detach itself from my bike and bounce along the road. I would like to say I handled this like a champ, but I was blurting out a few words that shouldn't be repeated. I rode backwards on the course and got off my bike to hunt for my shifter, lucky for me I found it and even luckier the bolt was still in it.

I then proceeded back along the course to the next aid station some 20K away to get it reattached. Unfortunately I was in my 53/25 at the time, so I was losing time. I was stoked that I kept myself together enough to make the right decisions. At the end of the day I'm not sure how much time a lost, but it would have been a bit.
That's long course racing though, at some point something is going to go wrong, your bike, your nutrition, your head or other. Shrugg it off and keep on trucking.

I came off the bike with Jamie Whyte (Fellow Kiwi) in 4th and 5th nearly 12 minutes down on Dylan.

I headed out on to run just behind Jamie and settled into a easy pace, letting my legs find a comfortable rhythm.
I really wanted to take it easy as the marathon scares me. To my surprise after about 2K I started to feel good and dropped to my goal pace of a 3 hour marathon.



As time and miles clicked by I started to hurt more and more, by the 30K point I was deep inside the pain cave, I dropped off my goal pace but managed to hold on to finish in 6th place overal. My soul still in tack. YES!!

My Time 8:46:07



Afterwards I found myself a place to sit and chill with some German style beer and food. (classic recovery)



Challenge Taiwan was an awesome experience, and a race I will return to. The organisation and course were great. A must do race in Asia.

Next up is 70.3 Busselton this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how the body backs up. I'm excited to race this weekend and feel I very relaxed.

Once again to my family, sponsors and supporters. Thanks for being the legends that you are.

blueseventy, Wattie INK, K-Swiss, Ceepo, Infinit Nutrition, Vision, Rolf Prima, 110% Play Harder, ISM, Recovery Pump, Churchill Cycles, Super Ruth Physio, Rocktape, nuun, Challenge Tyres, CompuTrainer, Ryders Eyewear, Jeff Shilt, Swimsmooth and Pete Mckenzie at Race Pace Coaching.