May 2012

I had some free time today so thought I’d do up my next blog to let everyone know what’s been happening lately.

Training’s been going really well, my brothers and I have been putting in some big kms recently as this is going to be my last real ‘big’ block of training I’ll get in before my record attempt of the English Channel in September.

Normally when I’m in big blocks of training like this I always lose weight. This block of training I’ve been trying harder than ever to put weight on. It’s ridiculous how much food I’ve been eating! I’ve put 3 kgs on since March and I’d like to put at least another 6 or 7kgs on before I take on the Channel. Everyone I’ve ever talked to who has swam the Channel in the past has told me the most important thing is to put on extra body weight in the lead up. Obviously the more body weight you have the warmer it’s going to keep your core body temperature and the lesser chance you have of suffering from hypothermia.  When you’re swimming in cold water (16 degrees) for close to 7 hours, suffering hypothermia is a real chance!

Five weeks ago Ridge (my youngest brother) and I started our Personal Training course - Cert III and IV in Fitness at The College of Health and Fitness. It’s an eight week full time course, so we only have three weeks to go, the finish line’s in sight! Doing this course has honestly been the best thing I have ever done. I’ve learnt so much about the human body that being a professional athlete I guess I should have already known.

Two weekends ago I competed in the Eyeline Noosa Blue Ocean Swim. Now this is the richest ocean swim in Queensland at the moment so the competition is always tough at this event. For the third time this year my brothers and I got a clean sweep of the podium - Ridge was third, Codie second and I won! Click ‘here’ for the post-race article.

Mel Groman and I after the Noosa Blue Ocean Swim

The next day was the Byron Bay Ocean Swim. This year the race drew around 2000 competitors. This is normally a great race and organized really well, however this year the organizers had waited until everyone was on the start line in togs with cap and goggles in hand before they announced the race would be called off due to bad conditions. You can’t have close to 2000 competitors on the start line before you call off a race and not expect them to still swim. In true ocean swimming sprit about 1000 people still swam regardless… I was one of them.

I’ve had a few changes lately. As of last week I have started with a new strength and conditioning program. I’ll now be doing all my strength and conditioning out of The College of Health and Fitness, being overseen by Tony Attridge and his team.

I have also teamed up recently with Glen Duggan from VoloSport. Glen will now be looking after my management side of things, while I can do what I do best… race hard!

Next week I’ll be traveling to New Caledonia with the Australian Swim Team to compete in the 2012 Oceania Championships. I’ll be racing in the 5km and 10km Open Water events as well as the 1500m freestyle. For me Oceania is not super important so I’ll be training through but it is always good to have a hit out while in hard training to see where you’re at. I think i'll still swim pretty fast though!

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination -Tommy Lasorda

Peace’

Trent Grimsey

Persenting the Trent Grimsey trophy at Lawnton Swim Clubs presentation day!

March 2012 - Australian Surf Life Saving Championships

It’s been six weeks since my last blog and what a busy six weeks it’s been. After our Australian Open Water Nationals I returned home to Brisbane to have a week off swimming completely. For that whole week I did absolutely nothing, it was great. I just laid in bed and watched tv… The most exercise I did in that time was walks to the kitchen to get food!

The week after I started back training but only once a day. I’d train in the mornings so I could then have the rest of the day free to relax. I think this break was exactly what my body needed, especially after the marathon in Argentina earlier this year where I got sick from swimming in the dirty water over there.

As much as I would have liked another week just training once a day that couldn’t last so the next week I was back into full training again. At the end of this week was a race in New Zealand that I thought I’d do to see what level of fitness I still had. The race was in Mt. Maunganui and was part of the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series. I really like competing in this series as the races are ran well and the distance of the races are only 3km, still a sprint. I won this race by 30 seconds over New Zealand’s top open water swimmer Kane Radford. Click 'here' for the post race artical.

The next weekend was another ocean swim. The Mooloolaba Eyeline 1000 Ocean Swim. This is a race I have won the last 3 or 4 years.  I knew this race was going to be tough as I had both my little brothers (Codie and Ridge) in the field trying to also win it. I ended up winning with Codie and Ridge in second and third. It was a Grimsey top three finish which was pretty cool. We did the same thing in that race last year too! Click 'here' for the post race artical.

There was also an olympic distance triathlon up at Mooloolaba the next day that Codie thought he’d enter having done no cycling or running what so ever. He rode the 40km bike leg on my 15kg mountain bike, it was a very hilly bike course too which made it was hilarious to watch. Needless to say his overall ranking was way back. Classic Codie!

This month I have been lucky enough to get two new sponsors on board which is great. They are Premax and Legal Muscle:

Premax is an Australian company that manufactures premium quality Sports Performance and Massage Products. The Sports Performance range includes Sweatproof Sunscreen, Sport and Muscle Cream, and Anti Friction Cream. A link to their website is here: http://www.premax.com.au/

Legal Muscle is now going to be supplying me with all my supplements. They have a huge range of supplements and deliver to anywhere in Australia. Check out their website here: http://www.legalmuscle.com.au/. Remember to support the people who support me!

The Australian Surf Life Saving Nationals were last week and tragically a young 15 year old boy lost his life while competing in one of the events on the first day of competition. My thoughts are with all his family and friends at this time, it’s absolutely devastating.

I have raced surf a couple of years earlier but never any big carnivals. Late last year I joined Northcliffe Surf Club. This was my first Aussies and I was excited to race and see what I could do. I had three big races there: the surf race, surf team race and the taplin relay. Unfortunately none of these races really went to plan for me. There were a few events that got cut from the program on the last day because there just wasn’t enough time to run them and the final of the surf team was one of those events, damn!

In the individual surf race I placed 4^th in the final, which I was disappointed with. I had a great start but swam too far wide on my way in (back to the beach) however I don’t want to take anything from the other guys in front of me, they are all quality swimmers. In the Taplin relay I was in the A team with Mark Bint, Shannon Eckstein, Dev Lahey, Joel Simpson and Tate Smith. The Taplin relay is the blue ribbon event at Aussies. There are hundreds of people watching and cheering, the atmosphere was awesome. After the surf race I was adamant I wasn’t going to make any more errors than in my swim leg of the taplin I swam around one too many buoys, ahhhhh. Even though I cost my team around 15 meters we were still good enough to win with my clubs B team coming in second. Apparently that’s the first time a club has ever gone first and second in a Taplin relay at Aussies. I would like say a big thank you to the McDonald family for letting me stay at their place while Aussies were on. It saved me having to constantly drive back and forth from Brisbane to the Gold coast every day.

My next big race is not until the Italian Grand Prix in June. The next 3 months are going to be a really solid training block for me. I’m going to be even more of a hermit than I normally am; whenever I’m not training I’ll be at home resting. This block of training is especially important as it’s what is going to set me up for the English Channel attempt I have coming up in September. I'm really looking forward to it!

For those that don’t know my brother Codie has moved back up from Melbourne and we are training together again. We are always pushing ourselfs to new limits when we train together as be both hate being beaten. If you’re one of our competitors this is worst case scenario for you…

“To achieve something out of the ordinary, one needs to accept that they must be a bit different!”

I'm off now to play with my new GPS Hydro Tracker from FINIS!

Peace'

Trent Grimsey

Argentina Grand Prix Races and the 2012 Australian Open Water Championships

Wow what a busy few weeks it’s been. I went to Argentina to compete in the world’s two longest marathons swims. The Santa Fe – Coronda Grand Prix (57km) and the Hernandarias – Parana Grand Prix (88km).  After that I flew back to Australia to compete in our Australian Open Water Nationals in Perth.

One week before I left for my Argentina trip my friend Pilar Geijo emailed me with a few tips and advice. One of the tips was that I need to be very flexible with things in Argentina. I didn’t fully understand what she meant by that at the time but now I look back and can see it was some of the best advice I’d ever been given.

Below is a picture of the pool we trained in the days leading up to the first race. Needless to say my FINIS snorkel was given a solid work out that week, as there was no way I was opening my mouth in that water. When I touched the bottom of the pool with my feet, all I could feel was slime. I'll never complain about the Lawnton pool being dirty again after having to swim in that...

Training pool in Santa Fe

The first race I had over there was the Santa Fe- Coronda 1.5km sprint race. These sprint races are put on to get the city excited about the main race and to keep the sponsors of the race happy. The race came down to a sprint finish between me and an Argentinian. I had a feeling I'd touched first though all the organisers said the Argentinian had touch before me. Fortunately for me one of the Russian coaches had taped the finish and it showed I'd touched first. When the organisers saw the video they too agreed I'd touched first, then they went and had a little meeting. When they returned they told me 'we are changing it to the swimmer who swam under the touch pad first wins and that was the Argentinian'... Now I was starting to realise what ‘be flexible’ meant.

In the Santa Fe - Coronda Grand Prix (57km) race I finished 5th in a time of 8 hours 36 minutes, only 12 seconds behind first place. With three hours to go in this race I made a few silly mistakes that took away from my sprint at the end. It pains me to think what could have been had I just stayed patient. I really learnt a lot from this race though and I don't think I’ll never make the same mistakes again.

During the Sant Fe- Coronda race

Above is a picture during the race. As you can see the water is very brown, you couldn't see anything when you had your head under the water, just black. A few of my competitors say they prefer the water being brown as if it was clear you'd be able to see all the creatures that you're really swimming with, if people could see what was is in those rivers they'd never get in it. Also in these rivers there are so many germs and bacteria. I, along with many of the other competitors, picked up bad gastro after the race. I was running to the toilet every hour, this lasted about three days until I saw a doctor that gave me some gastro pills. Thank god they worked!

My next race was the Hernandarias - Parana 1.5km sprint race. After everything that went down the week before in the sprint race I decided I had to win comfortably just to make sure there would be no rule changes or confusion at the end. I won this race by 23 seconds…

Two days later was meant to be the Herandarias- Parana Grand Prix (88km) race. The organizers had waited till everyone had gotten there togs on and greased up before they told us the race would not be swam that morning due to bad weather. To make things worse I even missed my sister’s wedding back in Australia so I could say I’d competed in the world’s longest marathon, ouch!

At dinner that night we were told tomorrow we’d be racing an alternative 5km race instead of the 88km race, it would not be worth any Fina points and the prize purse would be going from $20,000 down to $7000... When I quizzed the organizer about why the prize money was being cut he was very quick to say if we wanted to complain he'd cancel the race all together...  Again I keep remembering what Pilar had told me, be flexible! I ended up winning the 5km race by 9 seconds...



Presentation for the Hernandarias – Parana alternative 5km race

 

The promotitional girls - who didn't speak a word of english!



Being the world’s two longest professional marathon races you’d think the prize money would be some of the biggest or of an equal value right? They’re actually the two lowest paid races on the circuit. Unfortunately the water safety in both these races were non-existent. There was no one making sure the escort boats or spectator boats kept a safe distance from the swimmers during either of the races. At times boats were running into swimmers and nothing was done about it. This is why unless big changes are made I can’t see myself going back. It’s not worth risking my life and safety doing these races for very little reward.

While I was in Argentina I had Pilar’s father Mario Geijo as my coach/feeder/translator/taxi driver/roomie and tour guide. He was fantastic and did absolutely everything for me. Below is a Picture of Mario (the guy with the beard)!

Ian, Trent, Mario and Alex

I got back to Brisbane on the 11^th of February then flew to Perth four days later for our 2012 Australian Open Water Championships. After returning home from Argentina I was feeling very run down and swimming our nationals was honestly the last thing I felt like doing. My body was screaming at me for a rest but I already had my flights and accommodation booked so I decided to race. I had nothing to lose anyway as there were no big teams being picked this year so we’d just be racing for Australian titles.

In the 10km race my mate Richard Weinberger from Canada broke away at the 5km mark. I chased as hard as I could for a good 1200m but Richard and the other two that managed to catch up to him were only increasing their lead. At this point I turned to see how many guys were on me and to my surprise there were still about ten. I had two choices. Pull the pin and swim easy the rest of the way to save my energy to try and win the 5km the next day or keep slogging away to fight it out with the ten other guys behind me for fourth place? I decided to pull the pin and swim easy. There was no use fighting it out with the other guys, my body was to run down. The next day in the 5km race while I didn’t win, I came in second…



Yasunari, Rhys, Jarrad and Trent



I have to congratulate all my team mates on their great performances too. Our club only had four swimmers competing and we still managed to place in the top ten clubs. Special mention to Zanatta Lovi. She’s one of my training partners and won the 14 year old girls 5km race by about 100 meters, in only her second ever open water race, remember her name. Also big thanks to Dean Sullivan (my physio) for making the time to come over to Perth with team Lawnton to sort out all our aches and pains.

Now I’m on my break and it’s going great, it’s good to have some time off to just relax every now and then. Tomorrow I’m getting a small surgery on my arm and I’ll be back in the water again next week training hard for my next lot of races I have coming up!


Sweat plus sacrifice equals success - (Charlie Finley)


Peace’

Trent Grimsey

January 2012 - New Zealand Open Water Nationals

Hello!

I had some spare time on my hands today so thought I’d do up a new blog…

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! My Christmas was very relaxed, just how I wanted it. I ended up eating way too much to the point I felt physically sick, but then I guess it wouldn’t have really been Christmas if I didn’t… Christmas afternoon my brothers and I did do a long ride with our new bikes - long for me (about 6km with more wheelies and trying to do tricks than actual riding) to try and work off some of those Christmas calories.

Every year, most swimming coaches give their swimmers a super hard session the day before Christmas that is known as their Christmas session. Mine was a 15.5km session (50m pool). 30x500… 10 on 6.15, 10 on 6.00, 10 on 5.50 (there was no extra rest between each 10). The last was max effort. I went 5.32. That was followed my 3x100 fast on 1.30, I held 62, 62 then 61. That was followed by 200 swim down, then a four hour sleep!

The whole week before New Year’s I was adamant I wasn’t going to go out partying, instead opting for an early night - but come 9.30pm New Year’s eve, I got dressed and headed to my buddy’s house  - Sam Speechly.  We cabbed it to the city to party - it was a really good night!

My first race of 2012 was the Dicky Beach Ocean Swim on the 3^rd of January. It was just a 2km race and the field wasn’t great, but a win’s a win.

My second race of 2012 was the New Zealand Open Water Nationals that were held in Lake Taupo (11^th of January). Because none of New Zealand’s open water athletes made the cut for the first Olympic qualifier, they still have a chance to qualify at the second qualifier in a couple of months’ time. This is why Swimming New Zealand decided to put up $5000 for the winner of both male and female 10km races. They wanted to attract more competition to compete against their best in a hope it would make for a better level of racing. Conditions were very tricky and with the water being 18 degrees it made for a very tough race. I ended up winning with the top New Zealand swimmer Kane Radford coming in second. Kane and I swam together for the first 7.5km of the race before I managed to open up a 3 minute lead on him in the last lap. Kane will now get a chance to qualify for the Olympics at the second qualifier in Portugal in a couple of months’ time.



'Lake Taupo, New Zealand'



Here is a link to a story of the race by openwatersource.com:

http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2012/01/aussies-win-but-kiwis-keep-olympic.html

On the same day there was an amateur race held on the same course, in which a man lost his life.  My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.

The rule for the Open Water Olympic event is that the field can only have 25 athletes and not necessarily the best swimmers in the world are in that field, but that as many different countries as possible are represented. In the mens field for the London Olympics, Germany and Russia will be the only countrys with two athletes in the field. As I was not well at our Australian trials (in February 2011) when our team was being picked to compete at the first Olympic qualifier in Shanghai, I was not selected by Swimming Australia to race at that event in which another of my countrymen Ky Hurst qualified -meaning no other Australian men could qualify.

It must be noted that in the Olympics the running marathon (the equivalent to the swimming marathon) there is not a cap of 25 athletes in that event. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics there were 92 entrants in the running marathon in which 76 finished. This has me scratching my head as to why there is only allowed a field of 25 athletes in the swimming marathon… There needs to be a shakeup of the whole system in which at the Olympics you see the best verse the best, not just a field with a different swimmer from every nation. 

On the 23^rd of January I fly to Argentina where I’ll be competing in two of the World’s longest marathon swims, one week after another. The first will be a 57km in Santa Fe-Coronda, the next an 88km in Hernandarias- Parana. Even though I have never raced distances like these before, I think I will swim very well. I’ve talked with a few of my friends who have raced these races before and have been given some great advice. For these races I’ll be having Mario Geijo as my feeder/coach and I’m very excited to be working with him. Mario has been involved in these races for many years and his experience will be invaluable.

I’ve had a good start to 2012 so far and can’t wait to race in Argentina. I’m pretty sure I’ve covered everything. Feel free to leave comments and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can. I have to go, I don’t want to be late for my Pilates class!

"Challenge the known and embrace the unknown"

Keep training hard!

Trent Grimsey