OPEN WATER HEROES
MARATHON WOMAN
Words: Simon Griffiths | Photos © Speedo TRAIN AND EAT LIKE A PRO
Payne’s training programme consists of 10 two-hour sessions in the pool each week, plus three to four strength and conditioning sessions in the gym. She says she trains “pretty much like an 800m swimmer”, with a mixture of distance and speed work throughout the week. Every Monday morning she swims a set of 10x400m front crawl on five minutes (that’s a total of 4km in 50 minutes, including a brief rest between each 400m) followed by 20x50m butterfly on one minute. “The front crawl set is a great measure of fitness and progress throughout the year,” she says. “As I improve, I see my times dropping, while maintaining the same heart rate.” Payne does very little training outside. “Basically it’s too cold in Manchester so my open water training comes from racing,” she says. However, she occasionally swims a 5km set in the pool with a couple of other open water swimmers where they remove a lane rope and take it in turns to lead, as if they were outside. Competing at the top level requires a punishing training schedule, which means Payne burns through a huge number of calories each day. Still, she says that doesn’t give her licence to eat whatever she likes. “I try to eat a good, balanced diet with plenty of
vegetables and salad – you can certainly feel the difference if you’ve pigged out on a burger or stuck to a healthy pasta dish,” she says. She does however have a particular food weakness. “I don’t usually like cake or deserts, but I do likeGüchocolate puddings.” So, as well as looking forward to those chocolate puddings (remember, you have to swim a lot of miles to deserve one), how else does Payne keep motivated for up to four hours per day? “I’m never swimming on my own. It’s always with other people so usually we stop and take the mickey out of each other, have a bit of banter, or tease the boys, who are doing 10x300m instead of 10x400m – so it isn’t a case of just swimming up and down all the time.”
24
As she gets ready to start her 2012 Olympic training, top 10km marathon swimmer Keri-Anne Payne describes what it takes to become an open water champion. It’s not for the faint hearted
Marathon swimming – that’s 10km to you and me – is about the toughest challenge for any competitive
swimmer. The distance is grueling – equivalent to 400 lengths of a 25m pool; wetsuits are forbidden in water as cold as 16°C, and there are no lanes to protect you. Elbows fly as competitors jostle for position throughout, and black eyes are common as competitors sprint for the finish. To survive, never mind triumph, in these conditions, you
have to be tough. David Davies, who won silver in the men’s event at Beijing, fainted after his Herculean efforts. And last October US champion Fran Crippen tragically died during a 10km event in the Middle East. You need nerves of steel to even attempt such a feat. And
yet Keri-Anne Payne, one of Britain’s top contenders for a 10km medal in London 2012, doesn’t look tough. In fact, she wouldn’t look out of place on the cover of a fashion magazine. However her success in marathon swims proves she gives as good as she gets, coming second in the event in Beijing in 2008, and being crowned world champion in 2009. She's been tipped as one to watch at the Olympics in London
next year, but the 23-year-old – who swims up to 50 miles a week in training – is matter of fact, both about her meteoric rise to the top of the new Olympic sport, and about coping with the physical strains of a marathon swimming. The secret to surviving the scrum? Staying calm, even when
she’s getting smacked her in the face. “I have a rule that once is an accident, twice is OK. The third time you might retaliate, but nine times out of 10 it’s an accident. There are 50 girls all swimming in the same direction, trying to beat each other, so you going to get a bit of argy bargy. You have to go into open water knowing that you’ll get that – if you’re scared you’re in the wrong sport.” After fighting her way to the front, Payne's philosophy is to stay there, even when she could be saving valuable energy by hanging back and drafting off others. “Yes, I’ll be using more energy, but on the other hand the others will be wasting strength trying to fight to get into the best position. “When we get to the end of the race, if someone’s going to beat me they’re going to have to come past. I know I have that body length advantage, and I can see where people are. To me it makes sense. I don’t know why more people don’t do it. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying that…” she laughs. Good natured and calm under pressure, Payne's childhood was the ideal start for a prospective open water champion, although she didn’t see it that way at the time. “I grew up in South Africa until I was 13, and you do everything outside there. I often did 1500m open water races with my brother
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