Kyodo and welcome to Swim Chat's, a podcast about
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There's a link in the episode Show Nights.
Where should we start? I've got lots of questions.
You have some very exciting plans coming up, an exciting
swim. Do you want to start by telling
us what your what your swim is and where you're doing it?
So hopefully in about 05:00 to 15 days, I'm going to swim the
distance of Lake Toggle. So from South Little Wahy N
hopefully to the Yacht Club I think is the ending point.
Yeah, so it's been a long time to get here, but I'm I'm fully
in taper. And although I don't like a
taper particularly, I'm really looking forward to, to doing it
now. It's it's getting closer and
yeah, very much looking forward to getting it done.
Yeah, that's really exciting. And I was thinking, this is I've
last year, I recorded a few dozen episodes and I talked to
some people who had swim like Taupo.
But I think this is the first time I've talked to somebody
before their swim, which is really cool because yeah, I'm
really interested to talk to you about the the training and the
preparation that goes into something like this.
Because obviously when you talk to someone afterwards, that's
more you know what happened on the day and how it felt on the
day. But.
Of course, that's a much longer time to the to actually prepare
for the swim, whereas the swab itself as as a day.
Yeah. So I'll I'll start off by asking
what what made you decide to swim like Topo in?
Particular, I think I'd had a bit of a personal kind of
bubbling away. Could I swim longer?
Our mutual friend Brett was very good at kind of slowly planting
seeds around. Should we do this?
Should we go a little bit longer?
Shall we just, you know, I swim around to this Bay and I always
really enjoyed it. I was always very intrigued by
endurance sport mentally as well in terms of, you know, what
drives athletes in that kind of personal challenge, motivation,
space. So that kind of combined for me,
I had a bit of a moment, I think, where I was contemplating
doing something a bit longer. I had kind of been talking to
Vicky and Brett and certain other people, kind of peppering
them with questions every now and then around what what it
would mean. But I went to the funeral of a
family friend and that was quite a key moment for me.
He had done something amazing in his life which I actually didn't
know about and it kind of made me reflect on the fact that, you
know, life is for living whilst, whilst you have it and whilst
you're able. And so kind of why shouldn't I
give it a go? So yeah, that kind of was the,
the real start of it. It wasn't out of the blue
though. I'd been swimming for a long
time. Well, a fair few years kind of
getting longer and kind of working on technique and things
like that. So just kind of came together
then. So that was probably about,
well, it was just just on a year ago that they've passed.
So kind of from then onwards. Yeah, and also, I'm sorry for
the loss of your friend. And I understand how sometimes,
you know, losing someone special to us can inspire us to do
something that that has meaning for us.
Yeah. And.
And as something that they've inspired us to do.
Yeah. So definitely.
And that, and that's that's why I have this other side of my
swim, which is around the creating awareness for dementia,
because, you know, that is the condition that he was affected
by and that our family friends, our close family friends were.
So we know all came together and very much made sense for me to
do this and supported that. So that's hopefully I'm, I'm
having little inroads with the people that I know.
So that's also been a, a really great thing to have come out of
it. No matter what happens on the
day, you know, I've had some really good conversations and I
know that other have and that's really cool.
Yeah, that's, that's great. And I'll, I'll talk a bit more
in a minute about your give a little campaign.
And I imagine that, you know, deciding to do something like
this gives it gives it a lot of meaning, but also gives you some
added strength in terms of how it will feel on the day, which I
know hasn't happened yet. But also just in terms of
persevering with the the training that it's like just
having that sense of purpose would be a huge motivator.
Like even when it feels hard and challenging on Sundays.
Yeah. And I think, you know Phil, his
advice as well was to prepare for that.
He talks about the third quarter.
So, you know, I mean, I think you've talked to John Hancock or
there's there's lots of other podcasts around where he talks
about different things that he's done.
Phil's talked about how he deals with that in terms of I think
mentally he goes over his rubbish bin rush or something
from when he was a kid. I can't do that.
Like I can't count. I can't, my brain is not there.
But if something's linked to a purpose for me, it's very
motivating. So in anticipation of
potentially getting to that point, that's it's a bit of
planning around that too. I know I have a purpose that's
bigger than just me. So can I carry on?
Let's carry on. Let's go to the next speed stop,
let's, you know, deal with the next half an hour of crappy
water or chop or whatever and just carry on and reassess at
that point. So there's a bit a little bit of
strategy involved there too. Yeah, I remember talking to Phil
has he's got his own episode at this podcast.
And I remember him talking about how, you know, every storm it is
different. And so he has to come up with a
different way to, I guess, sort of help help the swimmer get
from point A to point B And and that's that's different for
every single person. So like you said, some people
benefit from counting or thinking about something
repetitive and other people, you know, it's something else
completely, which I, I find really interesting.
And I, yeah, I can totally imagine how that would be the
case. So with with Phil Rush, does he
write your training program or is he more sort of the on the
day like how does it work with him?
So I think I'm not sure what he's done for other people.
I think he can be involved in terms of writing for me
particularly. I met with him really early on,
partly to go, is this even going to work?
But he really gave me the high points.
I do train in a squad with him as part of City Swim, so I see
him kind of once a week when he's not out on the straight or
whatever. But he gave me the high points,
you know, make sure you do a six hour swim beforehand, Try and
aim for this many kind of peak weeks leading up.
And then I kind of took that and with a little bit of help from
the likes of Britain, Vicki and my husband, who's also a trainer
and has lots of experience and altruism, things like that, kind
of worked on what a progressive program would look like, came up
with that kind of circulated amongst a few people.
When people say, yeah, you know, that that seems like it'll be
OK. And then that's what I've done.
So it's it's interesting because in this week of taper, that's
probably one of the hardest things to come to terms with is
have I done enough? I've delivered what I said I was
going to do. But I hope that what I said I
was going to do was sufficient for the end result.
And I just have to have faith that it will be and, and also a
bit of flexibility and I guess humble, be humble and
understanding that things will change and it'll go up and it'll
go down. And, you know, might turn out to
be a horrendous start off beautifully and then turned out
to be horrendous because that's what the weather gods want to do
and just go with it really. But I'm very clear that I've
delivered what I said I was going to do and I'm really proud
of that. You know, at times that's really
hard when you're a busy person and you have children and family
and work and all these other responsibilities.
So I'm really, I think that's why I'm really looking forward
to doing the swim. It's because that's just the
icing on the cake. Now I've done all this other
work and I've done the distance, which at the beginning I didn't
think I potentially was going to be able to do.
So that's really cool. So really so.
That's the ball in itself. Yeah.
That in itself is a big achievement, right?
Just yeah. So when did you start your
training? Like, was this sort of a, an
official start time? And what what level were you
already at with your swimming when you started your program?
I was already swimming kind of three to four times a week, so
probably more like 3, but I'd been swimming quite consistently
for quite some time. And then I asked that to be
consistent at 4:00 until probably about July.
And then from then on it kind of ramped upwards from from July
onwards, July, August onwards. So, and it would generally
involve swimming in three squads a week and then individual
sessions. Since probably I would say
November, I've been swimming kind of six days a week.
Partly that's because of my life and the structure and schedule.
I can't, as the distances got bigger, I couldn't necessarily
always swim one big block. So I had to break things up and
do mornings and afternoons and and so on.
So that Phil was instrumental there in terms of saying make
sure you do big distances, you know, back-to-back on a weekend
as we get closer. So you're swimming the next one,
fatigued, you're dealing with lactic acid, all of that sort of
stuff, which I think has really helped.
And I should ask with the the current situation in the harbour
with the unfortunate, so which lake has that, has that affected
your training? Are you?
Not so much now, quite fortuitously, I think because
I'm mainly holding in a pool, so, and that's because it's the
lake and salt water gives you extra buoyancy.
So at this time I'm just trying to hold what little pace I have.
I'm not very fast. So what little ways I do have,
I'm trying to hold that and hold my aerobic endurance and
swimming pool essentially something lots of sessions at
tonight and I, which we're really lucky to have out here in
the Hut. And and also there are kind of
different summer pools which Wellington's blessed to have, I
think. Yeah, that's right.
And if you're comfortable sharing, is there a certain pace
that you have to hold, like what what is your sort of 100m pace
at the moment or is it over a long period?
I think about a 3.2 / a long period if we don't take into
account all itself. So so that that I fully expect
to be much slower than that over the whole distance.
And that's with it. It'll be what it'll be.
It'll be. It's more about the the
distance, isn't it then? Yeah, yeah.
It's not a race. Yeah.
And with the, I'm interested to know about the nutrition side of
things. And I imagine people listening
will be interested as well. Like it's there.
Are you given advice on what sort of food to eat while you're
training? And do you have sort of a plan
for what you're going to eat in the morning or the night before
the the day? Yeah.
So I think we're really blessed in our Wellington swim community
in terms of the amount of information that some of the
ultra swimmers have shared like Karina and Rebecca and John and
Brett and Becky, They're all very open in terms of saying,
you know, kind of this is what we did in terms of nutrition or
so on. So I've been very blessed and
that that formed a really good starting point in terms of what
nutrition over the event day might look like.
And then I was also lucky that my husband's cousin is a high
performance nutritionist for ultra runners in particular.
And so I reached out to her and says, you know, is there any
tips and guidance you can give me?
And I've worked with her quite consistently and that's been
more around making sure I get to now uninjured, healthy, happy,
able to sustain such a training load without my, you know,
immune system breaking down or suffering injuries.
So she's been able to really help me unpick.
I had like a missing lunch syndrome and a missing afternoon
tea syndrome, just busy didn't do it.
So and I had and I'd been like that for a really long time.
So, you know, all of a sudden I'm having to increase it my cab
kind of intake to make sure that I was fueling appropriately for
the swims that I was doing, you know, back-to-back and
back-to-back on the morning of. I am I'm planning on just
sticking to what I would normally have nothing that
upsets my stomach same the night before, but just as Phoebe would
say, increasing this doors of glycogen in my muscles.
So having a drink of juice with my dinner or having a yoghurt
with Maple syrup was her tip before I go to bed just to top
up those stores. So I'm starting from a kind of
full glycogen muscle fullness situation and then kind of
keeping their sports stuff going at regular intervals that that
next day. So gels, bliss balls, what else
are liquid fuel? So Tailwind, all those types of
things. I may also have Mama and chippy
sandwiches. It's on my fielding list.
I don't know how Phil's going to go with that.
But anyway, he said I could have one, so that's what I want.
But such a Kiwi thing, isn't it? That's cool.
Yeah. I've heard other swimmers talk
talk about needing some sort of reward, like when they're sort
of almost at the end of the swim and it can be something
completely random, but just something for them to look
forward to. And.
Yeah. And something I think different,
I'm anticipating, and Phoebe's talked to me about it, and other
swimmers have talked to me about it around, you know, you're
taking on so much sweet stuff because basically all your fuel
over the course of the day is just sugar, sugar, sugar.
And that becomes really fatiguing in your mouth even,
you know, doing 6 hours of it was enough.
So figuring out what you can take to kind of cleanse that
palate quickly as well as being that's probably been a
challenge. I've supported my husband
through ultra running and in a way that's easier for them
because you can say, would you like the salt mini sandwich or
would you like this Marmite thing?
Or and they can choose be kind of don't have the ability when
you're being feed from a boat at 30 minute intervals and it's all
kind of planned out so. Yeah, we'll see how and and
they're not allowed to the people on the boat aren't
allowed to touch you like it's part of the the rules of the the
distance swimming. So how do you receive a
sandwich? I've got actually actually here.
So so like Tupperware container? Tupperware containers and the
lid. This is Vicky Tates.
So who's great. Thanks Vicky.
You know the lids attached and then that get us attached to a
rope. So open, shut in.
Probably won't be very elegant to be fair.
Just shove it in and then keep going.
Hopefully that's it then. Having an attached lid, that's
genius. Sometimes it's, it's a little
things, right? That.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's.
Cool. And you mentioned earlier, you
know, the importance of being flexible when you're preparing
for a big swim. And so I know that you have a
weather window or sort of a like a week or so.
You can't plan the exact day that this one will happen yet.
It depends on the conditions. And so how does that work?
Like are you, are you sort of on standby for a week or so?
You get the call from Phil, you get up to Taupo, and then the
next day you start. Is that how it works?
Yeah, I think so. So I'm on standby effectively
now, which for me also includes packing my children's camp
clothing, all sorts of. But bags are packed, food is
ready, planners did it, done all of that.
I understand that Phil will just ring me and kind of say, OK, the
weather looks good for the day after tomorrow, Get yourself out
to Tapo tomorrow. I do know that other swims
swimmers sometimes go and stay up there, but that's an option
for me. So yeah, get yourself to Tapo
tomorrow and we'll go the next day.
So there's been a way bit of logistical planning at my end,
you know, working family. But hopefully it will all come
together. Fingers crossed yeah,
flexibility, I think I'm not focusing on the weather now.
I can't control it. It's completely out of my
control. It's all up to those gods and
fell as to when I go. So I'm just continuing to swim,
making sure I'm hydrated. I'm sure I'm having still having
lots of carbs, trying to just make sure that those bits that I
can control all are all ticked and ready to go and then yeah,
hopefully the call will come and I'll get to go.
And if it doesn't allow, I can't do that either.
I can't control that either. So you just got to be flexible
and. Oh wow, yeah, yeah, that's a
good way to think about it. And I imagine as a Wellingtonian
as well with that, you're very used to training in all sorts of
different conditions. So cold in the winter you'd be
swimming with breath before sunrise and 10° water.
And also in Wellington we get the chop from the prevalent
northwesterlies and Oriental Bay.
Was that something you were already doing before you started
training for this or have you had to sort of do do more of
that sort of thing it? Wasn't something I started off
doing, it was probably about trying to think.
Now probably about 20-4 months ago, maybe a little bit longer
than that, I decided I dropped my wet suit.
So I got to the end of 1 summer and I think it's Adrian and
James have been talking about the freedom of not swimming in a
wet suit and I thought oh right, crack on, I'll give that a go.
And ended up swimming through that whole winter and really
loved it. I think there's something so
exhilarating about free freezing initially and then and then
coming in it. So it does sound a bit sick
doesn't it? Does sound like.
But yeah, there is something really amazing about that.
So I've been doing that for quite some time, I guess, and
it's kind of just become a new normal.
The really early morning swims with Brett.
I don't like my morning sleep. So that's something that kind of
has only come about kind of this summer.
As such. I'd swam with swam with him for
a long time, but perhaps not that early, early it was.
But I love it. It's it's so good and it works
for me, family life and, you know, I tried to make it as less
impactful as possible. So yeah, that's been good.
And how do you find swimming in the dark and sea?
I actually have only done that a couple of times and yeah, I
really enjoy it, which I'm, I don't think lots of people do.
I do, to be fair, I don't know if I would in the open ocean
that might be a bit, I might start worrying about what's
beneath me or not. But in the harbour, no problems
whatsoever. One thing I tend to ask people
often is because I, I'm sort of getting better at swimming in
the chop, but it's still quite a challenge for me in the sea.
So how do you find the, you know, keeping your streamline
and breathing when the waves are sort of all over the show and
and it's a washing machine kind of a day?
I don't know. I really enjoy it.
So I spent a lot of time in my end of youth, so my late teenage
years in the surf out north and I really, really do enjoy it.
I like swimming into the chop rather than a following.
Is it called a following sea basically?
I think so. I'm not, I'm not so good at
that. I don't have the core strength,
can't keep myself, can't keep myself straight.
I think, yeah, you know, Bob would say making sure your arms
are a bit higher and you're driving in your stroke rate
probably increases a bit more and you're really driving in a
bit shorter, which is something I've had to work on anyway.
I did have a shoulder kniggle. So I kind of, I used to glide a
wee bit too much. So I've tried to shorten that
up. So similar to that, I think is,
is kind of the, the advice. I don't know whether it was I
just get out there and get into it basically and learn to learn
to swim. I learn to learning to breathe
bilaterally. I think that's the other key,
right? If so, that then if you're
getting smashed in the face by, you know, horrible Wellington
Harbor chop, then. Do you have another option?
Yeah, yeah, same baby with that. Yeah, yeah.
So you mentioned you were, you were getting in the sea as a
teenager and then did you, did you sort of have a break before
you got back into swimming later in life or have you been getting
in the sea the your whole adult life?
No, so I knew to swim as a kid. I didn't competitively swim.
I think I did a couple of chocolate fish rices.
I grew up in the North White Kettle thank primarily.
I learned to swim so I didn't drown.
I grew up on a farm so I didn't drown in the Creek or in a
through. There's a chocolate fish race
where you get a chocolate. Fish for yeah, it's like an all
comers. I used to be up there.
It used to be like an all comers carnival.
So kids that pets had been through the learn to swim
program and who had kind of that next step of in a squad, but
maybe not competitive. So not trying to kind of go to
what do they call them division ones or just that.
So that was kind of me. And then I stopped swimming like
that because I played another sport and that took over all of
my time. So I didn't kind of swim meaning
more than that. I spent a lot of time in the
surf, primarily because I had friends that surfed and so I
really enjoyed just being out and being with them.
I didn't serve so much but liked being out there.
And then I came back to swimming and kind of the mastery of
technique of swimming. I think that's a bit that I
really like that continual seeking of mastery of
improvement. Kind of came back to that
probably about Howard's Latina 8 probably about nine years ago or
eight years, no, seven years ago after my the birth of my second
child. And then, yeah, I was really
lucky that I met someone who swam with Bob's crew.
We did a swim round Matthew Psalms and he turned out to be
my neighbor. I just moved into a new house.
He convinced me to go to Barb's squad.
And then it's kind of just blossomed from near.
The Wellington swim community is so amazing.
And yeah, I've just kind of found a crew of people that I
really enjoy swimming with. They've got really similar kind
of interests and we're all from different kind of walks of life,
but we like adventure swims and and things like that.
So yeah, it's been great to come back to that kind of community
side of swimming. It's awesome.
And you get inspired by the people around you, right?
Like no matter what level you are, if you see other people
doing things that sort of plant a seed, like you said earlier,
or, you know, you think, oh, that's cool.
And then you think, oh, maybe I could do something like that.
And then, yeah, it just sort of grows from there, doesn't it?
Yeah, and I think something I really love about our community
is that it doesn't matter what your goal is.
So it doesn't matter if your goal is to swim to the pontoon
and back or to, you know, the big one for lots of people is
making it to that lighthouse, you know, and, and everyone is
really supportive of that in terms of, you know, there's no
kind of underlying competitiveness or anything like
that with with the cruise that I swim with anyway.
And that's really awesome to just as we wholesome to want to
see people succeed, and that's cool.
Yeah, it's such a good, it's such a good vibe, doesn't it?
Yeah. To, you know, go have coffee
with people afterwards. And people say, you know, how is
your swim? And.
Yeah. And no matter how far you've
gone, people, that's awesome. You know, this.
That sounds really good. I think something we've noticed
because we come in, you know, when often lots of barbs crews
going out is the growth in numbers because now I've run
with the, you know, your pink tail, whatever it is, your float
toe float. Yep, Yep, mine's pink and we
call it my pink tail. You know, seeing there used to
be a handful, but now there are so many that come out because
we're coming back into it and it's so great to see.
That's so good to see. Even if it creates a bit of
slalom swimming, you know, coming back in it.
Yeah, really awesome. All different types of people
getting to just love it, love being in the ocean, and that's
fantastic. If you're just going for a fun
swim without any sort of distance or goal in mind in
Wellington, but where's your favorite place to swim?
I really used to like scorching day, which is interesting
because I live in the Hut. I really like wolf jumping with
my kids off the Eastbourne Wharf.
That's been a ritual that we've done after days by wolf.
We've done that every every year since they were quite little.
I think recently though, the top thing for me would be you have
to be a bit, wee bit of a swimmer to, well, you do have to
be a swimmer to do it. But as a Bay swim from Shelley
Bay around to into Tahibay, we've done that twice this
season and I love it, absolutely love it.
How far is that? It's I think it's about 5
kilometers and it is a bit challenging, I guess in terms of
because it does feel very exposed when you're going round
the point. But if you're with the right
group of experienced swimmers and so on and you've got all
that safety stuff too, it's it's a really great swim because
there's big cow forest, there's fish, there's an amazing drop
off at different points as well where it just kind of drops off
and it's like the cook straights, this beautiful blue
color and so crystal clear. Yeah, phenomenal.
We're really blessed to have those sorts of environments and
so hopefully Wellington Water gets its stuffed tea there and
winds up that mess. Exactly.
Yeah, yesterday I swam in Plummeton with Bob's.
Group. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah. Did you enjoy it?
Yeah. I loved it.
Yeah. I hadn't swam out there before
and it was lovely. Yeah.
And so we might at some point swam in Tea Tahi Bay as well,
which I hope. Yeah, you should.
It's cool. We were talking just about how
cool it is to swim in a different location, you know,
just good for the brain and and it just yeah, you know, we all
love Oriental Bay, but there's just something special about
swimming in a different area. Some people for the first time
that you see, you see the world and you see you're sitting in a
different way. Yeah.
And I thank you also get to experience different coffee
shops. Is that a good thing to?
Yes, yes. Yeah, we did that as well.
Yeah, I'm very good. Wonderful experience.
This summer is my my trip to doing Taupo really has been
made-up of so many highs that no matter what happens, I'm super
sorry to have got this far. Like earlier this summer we swam
with dolphins and Tatahi Bay. And, you know, I don't mean they
worry they will. They were swimming in and under
our arms and, like, that was phenomenal.
Just so amazing. And lots of Stingrays and stuff
like that. So yeah.
Very much incredible. Yeah.
Cool. Very.
Experiences like that, you just don't forget, right?
That's just part of the the magic of the sea.
Yeah. I was going to ask who's going
to be with you for the like top or swim?
Like who's going to be on the support boat?
And yeah, is that all planned or does it sort of depend on what
day you go? Now I've been really lucky and
that I've got a core group of good mates now.
So Brett's coming and Vicky is coming as well, which I'm hugely
indebted to them because they have lives.
This is, you know, this is my folly, albeit for really good
reasons as well, but you know, and it's hard for them to carry
that uncertainty of is it going to be this or is it going to be
that and their workloads and so on.
So they're coming along with a really good long time friend of
mine, Kate, and I played sport with her.
That's how I initially met her. So she's saying me at my best
and at my worst. So my cousin might be at my
worst. So.
So that's good. My husband would have been on
the boat, but my youngest has a school camp that he is going to,
so right in the middle of the window, unfortunately.
So he is on ground crew if he can come.
Yeah, which which is good. So it's a bit sad in a way that
he can't be there, but it's just a timing thing, unfortunately.
Yeah, yeah. And this, this might be a good
time to talk about. You'll give a little page
because you are already fundraising for Dementia New
Zealand. So before you swim during and
assume a little bit after. Yeah.
So I will link to the give a little page in the show notes
and I will link to your Instagram page, which has swim
under score dicor where you're updating and sharing pictures of
your preparations and and everything I liked with the give
a little page, how people can do just a one off donation or they
can also pledge per Is it per kilometer per stark?
Per kilometer and probably per Happy Stark might be back
random, but yeah, per kilometer, per hour.
And we thought that was, you know, a bit old school in terms
of going back to your kind of famine kind of days.
That'll make it a little bit interesting.
I've got some friends who are doing a wager on how long it's
going to take me, provided I can do it.
But yeah, that's that's kind of the options.
Yeah, that's a good idea. And yeah.
So Kiwis from the 80s will remember the 40 Hour Famine.
I remember it from my childhood. Yeah.
Where people sponsor you and pay per.
I think it was per hour per. Hour.
I think, yeah, yeah. Where we could eat lollies and
yeah, that's right, yeah. So I just have a look through my
list and see what else is going to ask.
Yeah, I think this, as well as this being the, like I said
before, a bit of a personal journey, a personal growth thing
for me, because that's fascist. Face it, You wouldn't sign up to
do something like that if you weren't motivated in that kind
of way. You're either mad or, you know,
want that, probably a bit of both.
But also it really has been a great opportunity to talk about
dementia and how much of an effect that has not only on
people who are diagnosed with it, but also families and
caregivers. And actually the ripple effect
that happens, like I said, with with Dave, his daughter Lorna is
a really close friend of mine and I really didn't know how to
support her and her journey with her dad.
And then so if we can have the conversations about, you know,
yes, it's not something that's just kind of over there has this
really long term effect for people that really does append
lots of things in people's lives, both their relationships,
potentially with their parents or their loved ones, but also,
you know, their work life, their ability to parent, their ability
to just be social, everything that those ripple effects are
enormous. So, you know, if if me doing
something crazy enables people to kind of have those
conversations with their friends or their colleagues or whatever,
then that's a real win for me. Like irrespective of whether we
raise money or don't raise money, since I've been doing it,
it's been amazing to me how many people I work with, for example,
who have been touched by dementia, either because of a
parent or they're actually going through it now or yeah, it is,
you know, over 70,000 New Zealanders are affected by it.
And I don't think that includes the ripple effect.
You know, and it's, it's going to get more and more prevalent
as our society gets older. So yeah, you know, within our
groups of friends, having those discussions now around kind of
ways to support and so on, I think is really valuable.
I was going to say, it touches a lot of people's lives, doesn't
it, in New Zealand. And I know what you mean about
the ripple effect. How?
Yeah. Knowing people who are impacted
or who have dementia, yeah. Being able to talk about it and
support other people is massive. And I noticed that, sorry.
I think the other thing for me that perhaps I knew it at some
sort of, you know, very superficial level was actually
how preventable potentially these things, maybe there's no
cure, right? But similarly to lots of other
things, the more active you can be, the, the more you can look
after your brain health, which to me, I prior to kind of doing
deep dives on some of the stuff as part of this journey, I
wouldn't have really had that much of an idea about how to do,
you know what that would mean in terms of, OK, so if I'm, if I'm
exercising every day, does that actually have a good effect on
my brain? Like, OK, maybe I'm a bit
stupid, but but I didn't really put those toe and toes either.
We we talk about physical health in terms of, you know, diabetes
and cardiovascular risk and things like that, but not
necessarily the link I think between brain health and
exercise and stuff like that. So.
Yeah, I was reading the Dementia New Zealand website earlier and
I noticed that they said that and I'll link to the website in
the show notes as well. So.
Yeah, that'll be more about it. Yeah, I noticed that they
they've covered your swim or they've.
Yeah, they've talked about your song and their social media.
Yeah. Have you had other media
attention about this or are you anticipating apart from the Swim
Shots podcast? Well, you are very lucky here,
Shona Dementia and it's a way we didn't do this.
So this is the fundraising side of it.
Is Lorna and I together? So Lorna is the one I talked
about before, my long term family friend, the daughter and
I couldn't have done this part of it without her.
And like there is the dementia stuff, but there is also the
personal stuff in it. Ted, you know, this is not just
my swim, this is my family swim. They've been sacrificing a huge
amount to help me to have the time and the ability to do this
as well. So I don't want to devalue that
sacrifice that they've made by not putting my right focus where
my focus needs to be in the next 10 days.
Which other than talking to you is, you know, about making sure
I'm rested and hydrated and I've taken care of my professional
life and you know, all of that sort of stuff.
So I'm in the best place to give it a, a really good shot because
they did give up stuff. You know, my kids gave up early
mornings, cuddles for a long time.
They gave up me falling asleep on the couch and being a bit of
a grouchy mum from time to time when I was absolutely knackered,
which, you know, I want to honor their sacrifice as well as the
effort that I've put in, yeah. I love, I love that I've got
kids too and just, yeah, talking about kids and yeah, I feel like
even though I'm not a long distance swimmer, my kids still
sort of put up with me getting and my husband.
So yeah, I really love that to acknowledge the family and yeah,
the people around June. Yeah.
I definitely couldn't have done it without him.
You know, it's taken a lot of time and effort and just keeping
our lives ticking along has been a big challenge.
And it's not just my immediate family that some really good
friends as well who've, you know, said, look, if you need me
to pick up the kids or whatever. And they've been, they've been
more than happy and I'm really grateful for that.
So I need to keep that front and center as well I think.
I bet they're super proud of you as well. 1.
Day maybe. No, they are yeah, my my 11 year
old made me this great. She's only just kind of learning
to use devices and she's just made this great slideshow that's
this motivational. Like mum, you have to say you
can do it, you can swim cowboy mum and it's like there's six
slides or something in it and she's just, you know, she's
really into it. And they both swim.
And so my Christmas present from them was they swim by swim zone
out here in the Hut and John, who's awesome, they approached
him and they got AI should have had it with me.
They, they got a customized swim kit with, we've got a schnauzer
with a schnauzer on the one side and, and like they gave me a
nickname and it's got a nickname on the other side.
And so it's definitely been a journey that they've, they've
really got into as well. They love putting their fins on
and doing a kick set with me, which I can't keep up with
anymore. That's a bit of a problem, but
yeah, they're definitely have been part of it, yeah.
I love that support and I love the idea of the customized Swan
kit as well. I don't know if I'm going to be
able to wear it though, they asked the other day.
Because I think it's a bit might be a bit, it might be a bit too
warm. So you can have it with you on
the support? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And last question I was going to ask is, do you know, you've
talked about the physical training and you've got the, you
know, you seem to be at pace, just knowing that you've put in
the work, you've done everything that's in your control and now
it's sort of up to, you know, up to what happens next.
But do you have a mental, a sort of a mental routine that you
will go through that you've sort of planned for the morning of
the swim or the night before? We just sort of get yourself
into the right mindset for this one.
Yes. So I think if I can take you
back a bit to go forward a bit, I'm very much of an advocate of
a sports psychologist who I I think I met when I was young for
playing another sport and then rear kind of reacquainted myself
with as I was older. And so that's DJ and he talks
about like baking a cake, essentially figuring it out,
figuring out what success is and then what the ingredients of
that success are. And then at the end of that, and
I'm hugely simplifying this. And at the end of the day,
whatever the event is, whatever the whatever it is, you've done
all that work. And that really resonated with
me because I have. And so irrespective, that was
the goal. So irrespective of what happens
is like, yeah, I really want to do it and I'm going to work my
back off hopefully to make it happen on the day.
But I'm OK with it because I've done all of this.
And that's just that really is the icing on the cake.
He talks about baking it and then you can have all the
sprinkles and you know, icing and whatever after that.
So that's really good. In terms of the beforehand, the
immediate beforehand, I kind of want it to replicate what I
normally like to be. I don't want to.
I don't I. Don't need to make it more than
it is. I'd like to do a bit of quiet
reflection beforehand, but mentally I've been kind of
mentally trying as we've gone along, like if I've had a
position to join. I've been feeling a bit rubbish.
Rather than making it easier, I've tried to make it harder.
So I'm in the hat, you know, I'm in a grind in something and I'm
doing a session and it's not going well and it's feeling like
the grind off on. OK, let's flip it, let's do
something harder so that then when I get out of I've got that
mentally I can unpack if I need it on the day.
OK, I've been here before. I know what this feels like
hopefully, and I can just keep chugging through a bit of quiet
reflection. I do have a bit of a reputation
of being a massive swearer when I first get in if it's cold,
which makes me always feel bad because of my friends that I
generally swim with who don't swear, but I tend to have a bit
of a sailor's so I'll probably get in and swear like crazy.
Yeah, just let it out. They.
Try to convince me so often it's all in the mind, don't say it's
cold, etcetera. But I think I just have to go
through that period of whinge first and then I'm and then I'm
happy and off, off I go. Doesn't Just because I'm winging
doesn't mean I'm not going to do it.
I'm just going to. I just need to offload the
whinge first, yeah? And have that, that sort of
physical response to the, you know, the water and yeah.
And then just carry on. And that cathartic feeling,
right? Like, yeah, I mean, by the time
I always think about our Angel, by the time are you to the raft,
you can't feel anything anywhere.
Half time. Phil has warned me about weed, I
think at the beginning, but I'm not, I don't think, who knows?
I'm not really that worried. I'm not going to overthink it.
I just carry on. I'm expecting to be a little bit
antsy that first bit, but he's so experienced with swimmers
that I'm sure he's got ways of, you know, allowing me to settle
down if I need to or giving me an extra feed or, or not or, you
know, just so I can get in some sort of rhythm well.
Thank you so much for your time, Danielle, for you're welcome
sharing your your training and your preparations with me and
with my Christmas. As I mentioned, I'll I'll like
to swim type or your Instagram. I'll link to Dimension New
Zealand and you'll give a little page when you have a tracker on
the day. Most on the same to yeah.
Yeah. So I'm going to have a track.
Well, yeah, tracker on the day which technology allowing will
pin to the swim top or page and also to the website because some
of my older friends don't have Instagram.
But it was the easiest way to kind of, you know, let people
know. So hopefully that will all be
visible for people if they're so interested and they want to
watch a dot for quite some time. Some surprisingly for for a
small dot, you know, as I'm sure you've followed along with other
people when especially when you know the person.
Yeah, it's it's pretty exciting to check back in regularly and
be like all the dots. Moved, you know, Yeah, yeah, I
remember Brett's well, both his cook and his Bobo, actually.
And I had multi screening in my office.
I think it didn't even like towards the end, I wasn't even
watching the work screen. I'm just watching this stuff
like come on, come on, you can do it.
You know, you get so invested, like come, please keep swimming.
And there's lots of chat going on, which is really nice.
Yeah, that's really awesome. Well, yeah.
Oh, it was a pleasure talking to you today, Daniel.
And all the best for your big swan.
Thank you and I hope that we get to meet in person.
I'm going to when I swim. I'm sure we will show now.
Show now. I have a pink toe flirt too so
we can look out for each other. Thanks for listening to this
episode of Swim Chats. Please remember to follow or
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Enjoy the water and we'll see you next time.