Her coach and long-time partner, Craig Walton
Image: Delly Carr / Sportshoot
Zeds
“If I don’t want to get sick, I know I need to have a nap every day. I’m usually up and swimming at 5.30am; I come home and have a sleep after that. I know how important that is: as soon as I start missing out on my sleep, the first thing that happens is I start getting a sore throat, a tickle and a cough, and all the warning signs of getting run down start going off. Sleep is a really important one.”
Race day
“I used to have a set routine on race day – not any more. Races might start at 5am or 2 in the afternoon, so everything gets turned upside down.“My preparation all depends on what time I’m racing. I work backwards. The last time you can take food is about two-three hours before a race, and what I eat varies depending on how I’m feeling, how nervous I am, how settled or unsettled my stomach is. If I’m nervous I tend to go basic – toast with honey or jam or banana. That sits well. Other times, if I’m racing later in the day and struggling to get calories in, I eat a lot of dense-calorie food; chocolate cake or muffins or chocolate bars – things that are going to keep me going longer.
“In those last hours before a race I like to watch a movie or listen to music – anything to tune out. You can run a race so many times in your head beforehand that by the time it comes around you’re exhausted. So I watch anything – a comedy, something to laugh at. Anything so I don’t think about the race.”
– Graem Sims