Jack Marriott - Blog

We were only back in the UK for a couple of weeks before we were off again, this time to the south of France. We had a week training camp in Canet followed by some racing before we caught a flight to the Adult Disneyland that is Monte Carlo in Monaco for some more racing.

This was to mark the beginning of my taper for the second round of Olympic Trials in Sheffield. Yet again we were extremely lucky with the weather. However, I was not so lucky with injury and illness.

In the first week I got an infected lymph gland in my left armpit, which meant I could not use my left arm. After five days of antibiotics it began to heal, but I then immediately proceeded to tear a muscle in that same shoulder, so again I could not use that arm for another two weeks. I had an MRI scan which showed that the damage wasn’t too severe and should be healed by trials. However by the time trials came around it had been almost three weeks since I had used my left shoulder and even though it did not hurt it felt quite weak.

I was also experimenting with a shorter taper which was definitely a mistake, I felt like I could have definitely done with another week or two of rest to get myself feeling really fresh for the race. Anyway I was trying to stay positive and get myself in the right frame of mind.

The day of the race crept up on me out of nowhere – I simply did not feel prepared. I tried to swim a comfortable heat, as the finals were that same evening. I qualified fourth for the final and even though I was going fairly easy, the time I posted was still slower than I had expected. It was then that I realized that I was definitely not race-ready.

At the London trials I swam a similar effort for the heats and went over one second quicker. And sure enough in the finals when I gave it everything, I finished in a time that was over half a second slower than London. Antony James, who was in the lane next to me, won in a time of 52.46, but missed the required time which was 52.36, so there was disappointment all round! However, to my horror, they then announced that they would take the second fastest time from this year, and the time that I went in London was 52.49, so they took Antony James to the Olympics and I missed selection by 0.03 seconds.

To try and understand how small this is, take a stopwatch and double click the start/stop button as quick as you can, and see how small a value you can get. I was absolutely devastated. I have never felt so cheated in my life. If our selection policy was like every other nation in the world and had one set of trials, then I would have got that spot. I have looked back at videos from my race at the London trials in March and helplessly watched my terrible finish, and unnecessary breath on the last stroke, countless times which would have cost about a third of a second, easily getting me on the team to London.

I’m still struggling to accept it, and every time I see a Panasonic, Coca Cola, P&G or McDonalds advert or the huge Olympic Rings hanging in St Pancras train station, it feels like the knife is being twisted and the wound re-opened. Recovery will have to wait until after the games are over. For now all I can do is bury my head in the sand!

It was extremely warm during our stay in Florida. However, occasionally in the afternoons we would get spectacular tropical thunderstorms, and actually we had to postpone one of the sessions due to lightning risk.

I thought this was a little melodramatic, but Grant told me that when he was training on the offshore camp in Australia, during one of the sessions lightning actually hit one of the blocks at the end of the pool, leaving a smoldering wreck of melted plastic and broken concrete! Luckily none of the swimmers in the pool were electrocuted. Anyway we had to come back at 9pm until nearly midnight and train under floodlight. It was so hot during the day that the cooler conditions of the night were extremely welcome.

We had another session while we were out in Florida where we were trying to get used to swimming fast at our race stroke rate. We all found a song with a beat that matched our rhythm. My choice was Carly Rae Jepsen’s groundbreaking single Call Me Maybe which I have also chosen to listen to before my Olympic Trials race in a few weeks time, for inspiration and motivation. We would listen to our chosen song before swimming a length as fast as we could, trying to keep to the beat of the song in our head.

The next set of trials is in June, so we have been getting back to fitness after a short holiday. A couple of weeks ago we headed out to Florida for a training camp. Being outdoors in the sunshine makes the training so much more bearable!

It is no surprise that the USA, Australia, South Africa and other warmer countries have such strong swimmers. The weather has been extremely hot and a few of the swimmers are on the redder side of brown. We are out here for another week so hopefully when we get back to the UK we’ll all be nice and tanned!

As it’s early in the season we’ve been doing some cross training too – gymnastics, kickboxing, running, and pilates – which has kept things interesting.

I’ve been busy most weekends, and I came down to watch the Varsity Boat Race. As Oxford University Sportsman of the Year, I was fortunate enough to be invited on a barge at Putney Bridge for the day. We had lunch, I did a short Q&A, and I got to meet Rowan Atkinson! Then it was time to watch the race.

I’m sure you don’t need me to recount the events that followed, but the atmosphere on board was one of increasing confusion and shock as mishap after mishap took place. My sympathies go out to the athletes from both universities; to have trained so hard for so long to obtain what was essentially a ‘non-result’ would have been devastating for both teams.

We recently headed down to the London pool to race the Olympic Trials. My race, the 100m Butterfly, wasn’t scheduled until the end of the week.

We were staying in a hotel next to the Olympic Park and I was rooming with fellow butterfly swimmer Tom Laxton from the Loughborough University squad, so we spent a week trying to stay relaxed so that we would be ready to race when the day finally arrived. We basically watched TV all week, with a short break once or twice a day to head down to the pool for a dip and get used to the feel of the venue. Gradually the nerves started to get to me and I had a few sleepless nights before the race thinking about it.

Eventually Thursday arrived. I had a comfortable heats swim in the morning, posting a time of 53.16, going through to the semi-finals that evening as the fastest Brit. After the heats I went out for lunch with family and friends that had come to watch. I was sitting next to my cousin in the restaurant who asked to try on my racing hat and goggles to see what they felt like. It had not crossed my mind, but my cousin has an enormous head so he ended up stretching my goggles!

When it came to the evening race, I went out pretty confident that, if I swam near the time I set that morning, I would be going through to the final ranked in the top few spots. However, I had not expected my goggles to slip on the dive and fill up with water. From the very first second of race, I was swimming completely blind. I could not see the line on the bottom of the pool, the lane ropes or the end of the pool. I panicked. Race strategy, technique and focus instantly left my mind and I was desperately trying to work out where I was. As a result, I completely scuffed the turn and finish, and bounced off both lane ropes on the second length.

The top eight from the semis qualified for the finals. Thankfully I qualified, seeded eighth for the final in a time of 53.76, 0.02 seconds ahead of ninth! After the race it took me a while to get my head straight again. I had 22 hours until the finals the following evening. Luckily I managed to get some sleep that night. The next morning I went down to the pool with a new pair of goggles to test them. I did a few starts and they stayed on fine.

I went back to the hotel room to chill for a few hours before returning to swim the final. I think that much of the battle is how you deal with the nerves that come when you’re about to swim a big race. This was without question the biggest race I had yet swum in my relatively new swimming career, and at times I definitely felt the pressure get the better of me and my legs and arms just feel like jelly, and just the thought of stepping up on the block is gave me uncontrollable butterflies and made my stomach turn.

Having qualified for the final I was in an outside lane, far from the big guns together in the middle lanes so I was just going to swim my own race without any influence from the strong competitors. This could be regarded as a good or a bad thing, but at the end of the day that’s the way it was and all I could do was go out and swim my best. Here is a link to a clip of the final.

There are two spots at the Olympics for the 100m Butterfly. Even though I came second, British Swimming requires that to make the GB Olympic Team I have to go faster than the time that ranked 16th in the world last year, which is 52.19. I only achieved 52.49 so I did not qualify and only one of the spots was taken for the event.

However there is a second round of trials in June, so in order to make the team I need to drop 0.3 seconds in the next three months. I’m now faced with the decision of whether to return to university and finish my degree or carry on with the swimming and rusticate another year. I am leaning towards the latter. Since I started training 11 months ago my time has dropped 3.7 seconds.

Obviously my rate of improvement will begin to plateau but hopefully I will continue to get quicker and secure a spot on the Olympic team for the London 2012 Games.

A couple of guys from the Speedo Aqualab came out to Tenerife for a few days for us to test their new kit in the flume. This is a tank of water in which you can swim, but you remain stationary while a current of water moves against you. I really liked the new FastSkin3 Super Elite goggles, which might make you look like something from outer space and feel very strange, but once you get used to them they really do make the flow of water over the face noticeably smoother.

Newcastle United Football Club came out to Tenerife for a few days for a training camp. They used the same training complex as us and their manager, Alan Pardew, came to watch us in the flume.

Ian Thorpe was also training at the same pool as us. Even though he has only just returned to training after being out for so long, he has not lost his feel for the water or his extraordinary stroke. I was tempted to challenge him to a 50m fly race, but when I spoke to him on the poolside he was so cool and relaxed that I decided not to and just speak to him instead. He’s currently training with a group in Switzerland with his old coach. His best chance of qualifying for 2012 is in the 200m Freestyle Relay.

The weekend that we returned from Tenerife we did some racing in Sheffield at the BUCS Championships. We stayed there on the Friday night and I was rooming with Liam Tancock who is the fastest backstroke swimmer to have ever lived. His current world record time for 50m backstroke is 24.04 seconds!

These were our last races before Trials. It was also an opportunity to try out the new gear available on the market including a new supplement called Sodium Citrate. You take it before a race and it acts as a lactate buffer so the end of the race is less painful. As a result you can hold your stroke better. The new Speedo suit is unbelievably tight and I was exhausted even before I raced just from putting it on, and it actually split along one of the seams down the back! Luckily it held on for the race and my backside remained concealed. The races went well and I swam some good times. In the medley relay the Loughborough University Swimming Club, with Liam Tancock, Joe Roebuck, myself and Grant Turner, set a new British record.

Over the last few weeks, as we got nearer to the races, the sessions have become easier and shorter, to make sure we were fully rested and raring to go on the day!

We had a two day break for New Year and then we were back in the pool on 2 January. But this lack of holiday was bearable, because “Meters Week” was finished. My back, shoulders and arms were so sore I could barely lift them out of the water when I was swimming freestyle, let alone butterfly. But the sense of relief that we were back to normal sessions was so great that this didn’t matter. It was not long before we would be back in the sunshine and warmth of Tenerife for a three-week training camp with a gym and outdoor pool – to really give the tan a boost!

We are staying at a hotel. Because it is less than two months until trials we need to eat well, so the Head Nutritionist for British Swimming came out with us and cooked every evening. Not having to cook for ourselves is a massive bonus.

One of the best pieces of training equipment available to us here is the flume in which you can alter the volume of water so that as you swim you remain stationary relative to an observer at the side of the tank. Cameras can be set up to film you from all angles to observe your technique, and there is a line across the bottom of the tank so you can see if you are ‘losing ground’ as you try out different styles. For example, I found that lifting my elbows higher on my stroke allowed me to hold water better and I would stay level with the line at higher speeds. I also found that every time I lifted my head up to breathe I fell back and had to work hard to get back to the line. It costs £2 million to install one of these flumes, and I imagine that running and maintaining it isn’t cheap either.

For the first week of December we were still out in Florida. One day after a session we had a talk from an American nutritionist about a product called adaptogens, a supplement that helps endurance in training and racing only available in the US. As a 50m swimmer trying to break into the 100m event this sounded like the stuff for me. I tried a few in sessions and they seem to work. It is hard to tell if it is the adaptogens working, other factors or even just the placebo effect, but I am looking forward to trying them in a race.

We returned in mid December to a cold and rainy UK which was not nice. Even more unpleasant was the week leading up to Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Year, which is known as 'Meters Week', even though it is in fact two weeks. I think this is just out of denial, as 'Meters Fortnight' would be too hard to bear. At any other time of year a session would normally be about 5km, give or take a few hundred meters. During Meters Week, all sessions are more than 7km and the occasional one as long as 8km or even 9km. The effect this has on the body is crippling. I had a massage after the first few days and I wouldn’t be surprised if my screams could be heard at the other end of the facility as the physio tried to get rid of all the knots and sore spots in my back and shoulders.

Our evening session on 23 December had a Christmas theme, where it ended with relays in teams of three. One person in each team was Santa, kneeling on a giant float and holding the reins. These were tied to two other swimmers who were the reindeer. The reindeer had to pull Santa on his sleigh as fast as possible down the pool and back! I was in a team with Liam and Lowri, and we would have won except that one of the reins snapped! We would have appealed the case except I had a train to catch home for Christmas!

The sessions are getting progressively tougher. We are swimming harder for longer and getting less rest. One way to help deal with this is to increase oxygen intake, so at a few sessions we are each given a gas canister full of pure oxygen. For example, when we finish a 75m sprint, we breathe pure oxygen for 15 seconds before going again. Some people found it helped, others didn’t notice much difference and others said they didn’t like it but it was interesting to try it.

Personally I found that I did recover a bit quicker when I had the oxygen, but then the next day when I didn’t have it I was struggling to recover because my body had become accustomed to high level of oxygen during the rest.

Another way to deal with the tougher training is to take particular supplements. I have just started taking something called Beta Alanine, in addition to the Creatine, Protein and Carbohydrate supplements that I am already taking. The idea of Beta Alanine is that it reduces lactic acid in your muscles, so you don’t feel so tired and you are able to swim harder for longer. Unfortunately this has a strange and quite unpleasant side effect, which is what feels like a combination of pins and needles and an itchy heat rash all over your body, particularly in your face, hands and feet. This lasts about an hour after you take it too, and I need to take it twice a day! Still, I need to take it to try and level the playing field as the other swimmers are on it, so I’m just going to have to bear it!

In mid November we flew out to Florida for a month of warm weather training, which has been great. We are training at Pinecrest in Fort Lauderdale, which is a brilliant training facility. We’re staying in some two-bed apartments on the beach. I’m sharing a room with freestyle great Grant Turner which is proving fun, except that he always has the air-conditioning on full blast in our room so it’s absolutely Baltic, even colder than the UK! I wouldn’t be surprised if I found a penguin living in our room.

Myself and fellow UK swimmers Grant Turner, Ross Davenport and Liam Tancock cook for each other on alternate evenings so it’s not too bad really, and the kitchens are pretty good too. Also we go out for dinner every now and then so we’re not cooking too often. I also found out that I won Oxford University Sportsman of the Year but unfortunately I was unable to attend the awards evening being out in Florida. Fortunately Joe Northover, OUSC captain, was there to collect it from Matthew Pinsent, who was presenting the awards, and make a speech on my behalf.

Sir Matthew Pinsent, Lucy Spencer (Oxford University Swimming Club Women’s Captain), Joe Northover (Oxford University Swimming Club Men’s Captain), Wayne St Claire and Martin Neale of Walters’ of Oxford, presenting the Walters’ Sportsman of the Year 2010-11 Award.

(Details of the night’s other winners can be read at: Oxford University Sports Awards 2010-11.)

In early October the annual International Training Centre (ITC) induction was held where the swimmers at the Loughborough ITC went to hear a presentation on the forecast for the year and some motivational words from various heads and coaches, and we were given a certificate of membership to the ITC. Most of the other swimmers there had several of these stacked up at home already but for me this was quite a big deal and I was very proud!

I’ve been suffering from an ear infection which, as many swimmers will know, is not a laughing matter. They are agony. I hadn’t had one for years, and had forgotten how painful they are, and for several days they transformed every session into hours of torture, the pain becoming almost unbearable with every stroke. Unfortunately the way to get rid of them is to stay dry, but being in the water most of the day this is not possible!

On top of that I jammed my fingers against the end of the pool twice which was very painful, and also developed ingrowing toenails on both feet from changing to an old pair of trainers as my brother nicked my nice pair and has taken them with him to Newcastle University!

The sessions are becoming tougher too so I am getting a build up of fatigue and my muscles are getting very tight. I’ve been seeing the physios for more massages than ever to try and counteract this and it does seem to be helping a bit. The deterioration in the weather isn’t making things any better either.

I came back to Oxford for the weekend of the end of fresher’s week, which was also the old boys’ weekend. Seeing all the guys from University was a massive boost for me, and we had a brilliant night starting with drinks down at the Hertford Bar, then catching the end of Jazz and Cocktails in Hall, and then on to Babylove for a college bop. It made me realize how much I miss life at Oxford and I am very excited about coming back! This will have been one of my last nights out until Olympic Trials in March, so I am glad it was a good one.

The next weekend was my 200m fly race at the Lincoln Vulcans meet in Sheffield, which was without question the most painful I have ever experienced that has been induced by exercise. As a 50m swimmer struggling to get used to racing the 100m, people were expecting me to really struggle with the 200m, and they were not disappointed! My time was 2 minutes 19 seconds, but I swam the first 100m in a minute so I had a 19 second drop off! Anything more than about a nine second drop off is unusual.

A lot of people outside of the swimming world don’t really understand what it is like, but next time you go swimming just see how far you can go swimming butterfly. Then imagine having to swim 200m of it at race pace! In my opinion it is by far the most savage event on the Olympic program, and I can’t understand why people swim it!

As part of our early season cross training, our squad had a badminton tournament and I won! We also went on a camping trip to Carsington Waters, near the Peak District, for some outdoor activities including cycling, rock climbing and kayaking which was great fun.

We cycled 20 miles over very hilly terrain with some pretty dangerous turns. Joe Roebuck went over his handle bars at a very sharp corner on a steep downhill and ended up in some bushes. He was very lucky to walk away with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises. We all thought he’d broken something, which would have been a tragic way to begin/end his Olympic season!

The kayaking was also great fun – we spent the entire time trying to push each other over into the cold water! Dinner was provided each night at the campsite by Ross’s mum who lives nearby – she cooked at home, brought the food to us and we heated it up on the BBQ which was fantastic and extremely kind of her. All the dogs came as well – Ross’s golden retrievers, Grant and Jo’s French bulldog pup, Lowri’s Labradoodle and Ben’s Chihuahua!

The following week we went to Tenerife with the University Squad. This was during the Loughborough University Freshers’ Week – a clever tactic to prevent swimmers from catching the inevitable Freshers’ Flu that by getting them away somewhere hot and sunny.

It was very hot and really nice training outside because all the time we are strengthening our tans, which are especially important to swimmers! We trained at a facility with a very nice 50m and 25m pool and an indoor and outdoor gym.

The sessions were really tough. Most were more than 6k whereas so far this season most of our sessions have been under 4k, so this was a bit of a shock. One of the best things was that we didn’t have to cook for ourselves! I’m pretty sure all of us got our money’s worth of food! It was also great to be part of a much bigger group rather than just the eight of us in the Intensive Training Centre (ITC) group, and mix with the other university swimmers.

We played football but regretted it the next day in training, as we were all knackered and our legs were sore! Another afternoon I went exploring with Liam and Lowri along the coastline and found a cove where people had moved permanently to live in caves, huts and tents. They were self-sufficient and reliant, eating the fish they caught off the beach and drinking rainwater. It was amazing to see people living like this so close to a town, but they all looked fairly comfortable and happy.

On the last day I went surfing. The waves were perfect, about nine feet, very clean and breaking at least 100m offshore. The only problem was that it was very rocky which is a bit dangerous. I think if the coach had seen it he probably wouldn’t have let me go! The week was a great success and we were sad to leave.

For more instant updates follow me on Twitter @jajmarriott.

I joined Ben Titley’s Intensive Training Centre (ITC) Group in April following a two week trial period: one week at the pool in Loughborough and one week at the BEST Centre in Majorca. After that I started full time training.

Unfortunately, due to commitments I had made prior to joining the ITC, I was having to miss days of training at a time. For example, I had to go to CERN in Switzerland with my project group from University to present a design of a piece of machinery that we had been working on that year for their Large Hadron Collider.

Gradually though, these became less frequent and I was able to settle into the routine. The cycle went from April up to the end of July, culminating with the Irish Nationals where I swam personal best times in all my events. During the cycle we went to Barcelona and Rome to get some experience of racing at an international level which was great.

Experience definitely counts for more than I had imagined in swimming. At the first one in Barcelona I swam the slowest times I had ever done! Then in Rome I improved considerably, and then in Dublin my times were quicker again, swimming 24.26 for the 50m Fly and 54.37 for the 100m Fly.

After that I flew from Dublin to Solwezi in Zambia where I spent a month doing an internship at Kansanshi Mine. I had organized this before joining the ITC, and was supposed to be out there for three months. But we had to be back in training by 23 August so I had to cut it much shorter – just four weeks – which was a shame. But the next cycle is the Olympic Trials season, more than six months long, and I will be aiming towards the most important race of my life, so I want to take it seriously.

Thankfully we won’t be spending much of the winter in the UK, as that is one sure way to get ill if you’re training hard. We’re going to Tenerife for a week in September, Florida for a few weeks in November/ December, and then we’re going away again for a few weeks in January/February but I’m not sure where.

It was great seeing everyone again back at training in August. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t done any training during the break! It seemed that everyone had taken a good holiday and we were all back to square one with fitness!

Early season is actually really good fun, as we do a lot of cross training. We’re only in the pool once a day and have only a couple of weights sessions per week. Otherwise we’re doing lots of other activities like kickboxing, gymnastics, ballet, pilates, circuits, running, cycling, basketball (and even a visit to Alton Towers!), and in the pool the focus seems to be on technique and short speed bursts rather than heart rate sets. I think that since this is a very long cycle we are starting, we want to ease into it fairly gently and get a really solid base to work on later in the season, without anyone getting injured.