At the end of the month, Castlebar swimmer, Nicholas Quinn, will be looking to live the dream once more and put in a time that will see him qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo later this year.
Swim Ireland will hold their trials at a five-day meet from April 20 to 24 in the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin and the Mayo man is just finishing off his preparation for the meet in his base in Edinburgh, where he is completing his studies.
This time last year, everything was turned on its head with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and it was the same for elite athletes like Quinn, who was out of the water for a number of months for the first time since he was a child. But since he got back in the water, it has been all go for him to try and make it back to the biggest show on earth.
Life away from home during a crazy time
The Mayo Advertiser caught up with Quinn this week as he prepared to get ready to go for glory again, telling us that over the past year and in terms of life in general, it's been much like it has been for everyone else: "It is grand, it is as well as it can be with everything going on - I am ticking along training away and keeping out of trouble. I don’t have a lot to complain about."
Quinn continued: "I think, the vaccine roll-out over here - they have got lots of things wrong, but they are doing the vaccine roll-out well and that definitely makes a difference. Even in the last few weeks, everyone is back at school here now and as soon as that happens, you see more people about and the roads are busier and the traffic is busier.
"I almost want to say it feels semi-normal - but it doesn’t; sure, there are no shops or nothing open, so it is the same as at home in that regard, but there is more people about here than I imagine at home."
Keeping fit was one thing, but trying to keep swimming fit was a challenge during lockdown last year, he explained.
"Yah that was it, we were in that first lockdown from March until July until we got back, we were out of the water and that was a completely new experience. I haven’t been out of the water that long since I started swimming as a child.
"For sure, swimming is one of those things, you can’t replicate it, no matter what you do on land, because unless you’re in the water - it is such a feel thing, you have to be able to feel the stroke and that is a huge thing; to be able to feel the water and apply pressure at the right times; so we couldn’t do that, so it was about just aerobically keeping things ticking over and trying not to lose too much of that. I was running a few times a week and was lucky to have a spin bike here and was on that a couple of times a week, but that was just keeping a bit of an aerobic base.
"Then we got back in the water and it was all about, right, this is a really slow, gradual build-up to where we need to be; it was all, the first five to six weeks, very low level. When I swim, I’m in twice a day most days, and normally, at most, you’d have the odd weekend off. All of a sudden, you’re out of the water for four months and then you get in, everything you do feels strange.
"It is an opportunity, like, if you try to change something like a technical aspect in the middle of the season, it feels really weird; whereas back in July, everything felt weird; so it was like, OK, let's try and tweak things that we have looked at before or find different aspects that feel strange, when everything feels strange - and then hone in on that for the season. The other thing is, we are back in July, and that is normally when I’d take my break and into August, so in a roundabout way, I’ve had a longer season going into this trial than I would have in a normal season."
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Getting back in the swing: After a number of months out of the pool last year it's been all go for Quinn since. Photo: Sportsfile
Haven't seen the best of him yet
Having already tasted what the Olympics is about and what it has to offer and all the effort it takes to get there, Quinn took some time out after Rio 2016 to decide - did he want to do it all over again for another four years, which has turned into five now due to Covid.
"I think in 2016 when I came home after the games and I relaxed and calmed myself down, I was like, is this something I want to do, is this something I want to put myself through for another four years? And now it is five years.
"The big reason was, I didn’t feel like I was done. I didn’t feel like I’d seen the best of me - and things haven’t gone to plan since then. I think if you had said to me in 2016 I would be looking to qualify for Tokyo, having not swum any faster than I have leading up, I would probably say to you - there is no chance that will happen, either I will have improved or I won’t be swimming at that stage.
"But things change as you go along, and in 2018 and 2019, I don’t know, 2019 was kind of the start; in January 2019 it was the start of my cycle, it was when I really began, I came to a crux; was I going to do this or not? And I took a few days and I thought about it and said, no this is something I want to do, because I’ve not seen the best of me. A second olympics is obviously an aim, but it is not really the aim; the aim I have is that I still don’t feel like I’ve seen the best of me, and if I do what I am capable of, well then, a second Olympics will come as part of that; so the aim for me is to go and swim and peak perform and do what I am capable of and then everything else will fall into place after that."
Getting back in the pool
From March last year until the middle of the Summer, there was no swimming allowed, but since then it's been all go, Quinn explained.
"We’ve been very lucky here, we got an elite status and if you meet that criteria, then you can train. We got back in last July and have not been out of the water since. There have been different changes during different levels of restrictions - they come with their own challenges and you’ve to change a little bit, but I’ve consistently been able to train since last July. In that regard, I can’t complain at all."
While they are back in the pool, it's all very different from how it used to be done, says Quinn.
"It has fluctuated depending on the restriction levels. At the minute, we are down to 12 of us, there are two-a-lane, but you start at opposite ends and we don’t come into contact with everyone else.
"It is very different; in years gone past when you go into training, you kind of would do everything as a group, but you don’t do that now; while there is 12 of us in at the same time, everyone is at a different placement in their own thing - because of the nature of it. It is different, but I am lucky to have lane space and get to do what I need to do.
"My coach has been able to come in as well. There have been challenges to overcome, but I know I am very, very lucky to be able to do what I have been able to do over the last - however many months.
“We are little restricted on that (time allowed in the pool ), in normal times I’d go to the pool a half an hour before the session and do pre-pool activation and that, but all of that is gone.
"We train between two pools - the University pool, which is a short course 25m and the 50m pool in the city, and it took a long time before we got access to the 50m pool, with all the restrictions; and then we were down to a 90-minute time slot in there because of the restrictions.
"90 minutes sounds like a lot, but in terms of the sets that we need to run, you would be tight on time; you have to be on it - have to get in a warm-up, get suited and get in and get it done; it makes it pretty tight."
Getting back into the 50m competition pool was key as that is the pool length competitions take place in. Moving to this level has made a big difference to Quinn's training routine.
“Of course, there is a big difference. We were short course (25m ) training the whole way from September till almost the end of January, we only got in really in February and that was almost a bit of a momentum block; I was really keen to get in long course as soon as we could.
"But it was almost more of a bigger thing in my head, because once we got back in, after a week or two, I was like, oh yah, find the rhythm of the long course; because in normal years, 70 per cent of what we would do is long course - whereas that has come back to about 50 per cent now, which is grand. It takes a little bit of adapting to and we are a little shorter in times when it comes to long course - it is about condensing what we do and structuring that, while the key things that we need to do long course and then modify and say maybe we can do short course, it doesn’t affect it and we can organise the training in the week a bit.
“We’re in five long course and have four or five short course - depending on how we are doing in a week and it all depends on the week."
Getting back in the pool after a long time out also gave Quinn the chance to try and implement a few changes to his style, as it was almost like he had to relearn what he knew all his life when it came to competition swimming.
"You had more scope to feel and learn and to really get a different perception on everything, re-learning; and when you’re re-learning, you can change and have subtle tweaks which are harder to do mid-season; they are harder to maintain in-season - where they are not as hard to maintain early on, because you are not falling back on things you’ve already created, because you’ve already lost them a little bit already."
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Trials and tribulations: The Irish trials will take place later this month for Quinn. Photo: Sportsfile
Finishing off the preparations
When we spoke to Nicholas on Tuesday it was just 21 days in advance of getting back in the pool for the first of three trials at both 100m and 200m breaststroke, where he will have to try and make the qualifying time. From now on it is about tapering down and getting ready to have his body in the best shape for the trials.
"I’m three weeks today from when I start racing, that’s the 100s and the 200s on the Friday, so pretty much three weeks out. This is my last big push of a big week and even during the end of the week, I’ll gradually start to see things come down and then next week, it will be less again, when you are two weeks out.
"All the work is kind of done then and it is down to freshening up, ticking boxes we need to hit and not switching off and keeping it going; but it is kind of the fun time now to get fresh and not feel fatigued."
As for hitting the time he needs to qualify - as there haven't been proper races in a long time, it is hard to know what will happen, but Quinn is confident in the training he's done.
"Swimming is tough in a sense, because we don’t rest and we’ve not really raced and I’ve not repped it into any competition; we’ve done time trials and stuff; when you're in the middle of hard training and you can gauge off them where you are at compared to previous seasons - I am happy with where I am at.
"At the end of the day, until you start to rest and get to that focused meet and peak performance meet, you really don’t know. You can have confidence in training that you’ve done and the place you’ve put yourself in, but there is still an element of the unknown until you are standing on the blocks; because a lot - but not all swimmers - will only peak two or three times a year. The peaking part is also a little bit different; how you peak when you are rested and fresh, your stroke can feel a little bit different and can change a little bit; so you never really know how far it will take you until you stand on the blocks and you start to race when you're rested.
"So like I said, I’m confident in the training I’ve done, I’m confident in where I am physically, but at the end of the day, you don’t know till you stand on the blocks and you race."
Making the most of the chances
The trials this month will see each competitor get three goes at each event to try and reach their desired time and this also provides an opportunity to fine-tune during the trials, which doesn't normally happen, Quinn told us.
"For sure, that is the great thing about having three chances; you get the opportunity to fine-tune it; we’ve not raced, nobody has raced, so people are going to be a bit rusty and you are going to swim that first race and go, you know that second 50, I went too hard - or I have a little bit more - or technically, I did this or a turn didn’t go well; you try and replicate all the different sections of your race in training and then use visualisation as you’re leading up to it.
"But then having those extra chances just gives you more scope to figure things out, and again, I have been saying this for a while, you only rest two or three times a year, so you have to take those chances when you are rested.
"There are huge opportunities to improve and learn and I have six opportunities to swim a rested swim in April; I’ve not swum a rested swim since the Summer of 2019, because Covid all happened in March, which was this time last year, three weeks away from trials; so I was just getting ready for a rested swim last year. So I’ve got opportunities here and I’m going to take them, learn from them and see what I can get."
