{"id":7483,"date":"2021-03-13T11:21:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T11:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2021-03-13T11:21:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T11:21:26","slug":"lucy-charles-talks-ross-edgley-kona-2018-and-the-magic-powers-of-chocolate-brownies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=7483","title":{"rendered":"Lucy Charles talks Ross Edgley, Kona 2018 and the magic powers of chocolate brownies…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Edgley completed the Great British Swim on Sunday 4th November, conquering a world record-breaking challenge that saw him swimming 1,792 miles over 157 days. There to meet him at the finish line was Ironman Hawaii 2018 silver medallist Lucy Charles, who had given Ross some swim tips during his epic adventure! We took the chance to catch up with Lucy, as well as to collect a very special 220 Triathlon<\/em> competition prize. Read on to find out more\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

220 Triathlon: You gave Ross some tips during his challenge \u2013 what were they?<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019s just amazing isn\u2019t he! I used to swim the 10km and that felt like a long way \u2013 two hours of swimming \u2013 but he\u2019s been swimming 12 hours a day! I don\u2019t know how you prepare for that. I mean physically it\u2019s tough, but I can\u2019t even comprehend the mental side.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I tried to give him some tips, but I\u2019m no mega-ultra swimmer! I always say anything to do with swimming is about staying relaxed. It\u2019s about keeping your mind relaxed, about letting it wander and think about stupid things \u2013 like what you\u2019re going to eat when you get out! He\u2019s certainly been eating a lot on that swim as well, which is good!<\/p>\n

220 Triathlon: Was this swim going to be won or lost based on controlling the mind?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes. If it had been me I would just try not to think about how far was left and just to be in the moment, to hopefully think about other things. It\u2019s about keeping your stroke rate nice and relaxed and like I said, I think I would just be food motivated! I\u2019d be thinking \u2018when I get out I can eat that massive brownie\u2019!<\/p>\n

I actually went to the Red Bull centre and I knew some of the guys were heading from there to see Ross, so I packed up some homemade brownies for them to take up to him to help him out a bit! A few more calories! I don\u2019t know how they managed to fit all the food he needed on the boat, let alone how he ate it. He was eating a lot of bananas and I heard at one point he requested Big Macs \u2013 you\u2019re probably craving everything during a swim like that!<\/p>\n

Lucy chats to Ross following his epic swim challenge. Image: 220\/Gavin Parish<\/em><\/p>\n

220 Triathlon: What technique advice did you give Ross?<\/em><\/p>\n

The best benefit you can get as a long-distance swimmer is from the wetsuit, so it\u2019s about making use of the wetsuit and the kit to help you, to get that extra buoyancy. I don\u2019t actually kick my legs now when I swim, it\u2019s about just letting your legs drag and trusting the wetsuit to give you that buoyancy. You burn more calories if you kick too much, so just keep them relaxed.<\/p>\n

Ross had some shoulder issues as well, so it\u2019s about managing that. I heard he had a good physio who helped him, but god knows what pain he must have been going through. I had shoulder injuries when I was swimming more distance, but I never did that kind of mileage in a day! I think Ross actually benefited from going without sleeves on his wetsuit at one point as that would have given him that mobility back in his shoulders.<\/p>\n

I just can\u2019t imagine what he must have endured and what muscle strains he must have picked up though! Then there was the wetsuit rubbing, the jellyfish stinging, god knows what else!<\/p>\n

220 Triathlon: As a fellow open-water swimmer, were you surprised by the affects on his body?<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh god yes! Things like the salt on his tongue for example\u2026 I wouldn\u2019t even have thought of that and it happened really early on! Then there was the chafing on his neck and he was wearing wetsuits day in day out aggravating it. I mean, you can get quite a bad chafing in a triathlon even doing a short swim but when you\u2019ve got that every day\u2026 He\u2019s got the nickname rhino neck and with good reason!<\/p>\n

I think he\u2019s immune to jellyfish stings now as well. I\u2019m not actually a big fan of the sea believe it or not, my thing is to get in and get out as quick as I can so I don\u2019t see the things swimming about! He\u2019s far braver than me!<\/p>\n

220 Triathlon: How are you feeling after your amazing result at Kona last month? <\/em><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t have been happier really! If someone had said to me \u2018you\u2019re going to do an 08:36\u2019 I\u2019d think I\u2019d have won by 10 minutes \u2013 so to do an 08:36 and still come second\u2026 I couldn\u2019t have done anything more!<\/p>\n

This year we were so lucky with the conditions, too [Lucy set a new women\u2019s swim record]. Next year we might have crazy winds and god knows what in the sea, so that definitely helped. I think it will be difficult to beat the swim time again. The run might be possible though, that\u2019s the part of the race where the conditions don\u2019t affect things too much. I think if I\u2019m going to improve it will be on the run section.<\/p>\n

I feel like I\u2019m still quite young in this sport and there are ways we can still improve so hopefully next year we can go one better! I haven\u2019t been in the sport that long, but even in that time the standard of the women\u2019s racing has improved so much, it\u2019s great to see.<\/p>\n

The bike was a big change this year [Lucy rode the new Specialized Shiv] and I think it definitely benefited my race, because you can carry so much nutrition on the rear of the bike now. On the latter part of the race I\u2019d saved that so I didn\u2019t have to use aid stations which helped.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m with Roka now, too. Last year I tested swim skins by a few brands as I didn\u2019t have a sponsor and the Roka was the one I really liked, so having that definitely helped as well!<\/p>\n

220 Triathlon: Where can we see you racing next?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019m having a bit of downtime now! I\u2019m getting married! But I think Ironman South Africa will be my next race in around April time. So I\u2019m looking forward to that one!<\/p>\n

Read our swim finish interview with Ross Edgley by following the link here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lucy Charles presents 220 with the signed swim skin one lucky reader will win! See link below\u2026 Image: 220\/Gavin Parish<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Edgley completed the Great British Swim on Sunday 4th November, conquering a world record-breaking challenge that saw him swimming 1,792 miles over 157 days. There to meet him at the finish line was Ironman Hawaii 2018 silver medallist Lucy Charles, who had given Ross some swim tips during his epic adventure! We took the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}