Nienke Lijzenga from ES1 is an up-coming swimming Athlete based here at ES Culham, the following article gives some insite into her participation in the NJK (Dutch Junior Championships) in her own words.....
There are 3 parts to the Dutch Junior Championships:
There are the winter championships in a 25m pool, in the spring there are the long distance championships, and there are the summer championships in a 50m pool. This time it was the long distances. This is 800m freestyle for girls, and 1500m freestyle for boys.
This year it was in Drachten in the north of The Netherlands. I went there to swim the 800meters. This was in a 50m pool, which meant swimming 16 lengths.
We arrived at 12am to do a warming up and them I watched the boys doing the 1500m. When the boys had finished there was a half an hour swim down for the boys, and another warm up for the girls and presentation for the top 3 boys in every age group.
At three o’clock it was time to swim. I had to swim in the second heat and the two other girls from my Dutch club in the fourth heat. I was a bit nervous because it was one of the first times swimming in a 50m pool doing an 800m. I got a time of 10 min 45.15 sec and I came 8th out of the 24 in my age group.
The photo shows the three girls and coach of my Dutch Swimming club LZ1886 from Leiden.
My Training:
To get to this level you need to train a lot. I train 14½ hours in the pool a week divided over eight sessions. I swim:
- Monday evening 6:30-8:30pm,
- Tuesday morning before school 5:45-7:00am and in the evening 6:30-8:30pm,
- Wednesday evening 6:30-8:30pm,
- Thursday morning before school 5:45-7:00am and in the evening 6:30-8:30pm,
- Friday evening 6:30-8:30pm and
- Saturday morning 7:00-9:00am.
 I also do 1½ hours Land-training Thursday evening 6:00-6:30pm and Saturday morning 9:00-10:00am. Land training involves skipping, sit-ups, weights, lounges, stretching etc. and is intended to improve strength and flexibility.
A training session in the pool includes a warm-up, a preparation-set (most of the time), main-set and swim-down. I swim about 5km in a two-hour training session. The main set can be aimed at technique, speed or endurance, or a combination of these.
Main competitions:
The training changes to build up for the main swimming event in the year.
From September to February the training is for the County Championships at the end of February and early March. The county I am swimming in is Oxfordshire and North Buckinghamshire. The next event for the faster swimmers is the South East Regional Championships at the end May beginning of June. This year they are in Crowley near Gatwick.
For the really top swimmers there are the GB National Championships at the end of July and for the swimmers going there special training sets are given. To swim in these events you must have times, which are faster then the qualifying times, which are set for these events. I am unlucky with the GB National Championships because these are 2 weeks after my birthday, so I need to have qualifying times for the next age-group, and even without that you need really fast times.
 The Dutch Junior Championships are in January 25m pool, April long distance (1500 and 800m) and in June 50m pool. The qualifying times for these are not quite as fast as the GB National Championships, and the age groups are better for me.
Between the main events in a year there are the events organised by the clubs. Abingdon Vale organises 3 events. Other places where we go to events are Newbury, Oxford, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Swindon, and sometimes a bit further to Coventry, Aldershot or Taunton.
Food:
Sometimes I have to eat loads of carbohydrates (pasta) in the week before a competition and sometimes a lot of proteins, like eggs/ red meat after a competition. After training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have some pasta, to give me some energy for the next morning. Before morning training I have two rice cakes with peanut butter and a smoothy and then have my normal breakfast (cerials with fresh fruit) after the training. During the training you also need to drink a lot. I normally take a 1L bottle to training filled with some freshly squeezed orange juice with water for the evening training sessions and just water for the morning training sessions. You actually should drink 1L for every 1 hour of training.
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