100x100s for a merry Vikings post-Christmas 2019 workout!

Report by Caz Makin, Publicity Officer, Club Recorder and Coach

A few merry Vikings, gathered at Phillip outdoor 50m pool in Woden on the morning of Sunday, 29 December 2019 to swim some or all of an impromptu 10km post-Christmas workout.

The 10k session, delivered by Santa (via Facebook) all the way from the UK, was broken down into 100x100m with a 12-days of Christmas countdown for all that chose to take on the challenge laid down by Coach Caz. The session included all strokes plus the use of fins, paddles, snorkels and pull-buoys to keep things interesting and accommodated all levels of swimmers.

Our President, Greg Gourley, decided the scheduled start time of 8:15am was too late for him, so in true Greg style turned up at 7:00am to begin his own separate version of a 10k swim session, depite the pool not officially opening until 8:00am!  At the scheduled start time, Caz Makin, Nina Maguire, Suzie Gunning, Nicolee Martin, Bill Eversham and Kris Kennedy all rocked up ready for some or all of the 10k challenge.  One late-comer, Richard Phillips also arrived at the pool "just for a small swim on his own" not realising that there was a 10k session organised, but readily joined the others about 1k-into the session.

Greg swam his 10k with fins throughout and mostly Freestyle with some Backstroke intermingled in, and given his 1-hour head start on the others, was finished and out of the water first, and declared he had "earned an extra chocolate biscuit" for his efforts. The others reckoned he deserved a whole packet for being such a keen early starter!

Nina and Bill both achieved an admirable 3k each - Nina declaring her "arms were starting to ache and that she needed to do a bit more regular swimming to tackle the bigger distance"! Bill said the he "enjoyed the morning swim - a modest distance, but was nice".  

Kris was plugged into her music and when Nina and Bill left the lane, continued lap after lap - not following the 100x100m session plan, but instead appeared to be in her own little world of music and swimming and racked up a staggering 8k!

Richard, being time-bound given he had only planned on being at the pool for around an hour or so, and joining in late, still swam 4k before heading off for a late breakfast.

Last out of the pool after the full 10k were the three regular Distance & Pace ladies, Nicolee, Suzie and Caz - who all perfectly executed the swimming of the 100x100m session as written up, and even managed the last 2x100m "FAST" Freestyle swims at 9.6k-in at a pretty nifty pace despite flagging arms, sore shoulders and general weariness!

Greg, Suzie, and Nicolee all agreed it was a very nice session plan that was delivered, and the ladies all enjoyed it and the camaraderie in their lane - even the multiple repeat rounds of Freestyle as 'Easy/Medium/Hard' that were included!

Well done to everyone who took part, in wrapping up 2019 for the club.

Here's to us all being "powered by chlorine" in 2020!