A day in the life of Para-Swimmer Mary Fisher

As the clock clicks steadily closer New Zealand’s Para-Athletes are working hard on a day to day basis inspired by the dream of competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. 

One such athlete is Paralympic Gold medallist Mary Fisher, who won a staggering six gold medals at the recent Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships in California. Here the Wellington-based athlete describes a typical day in her hectic life.

My alarm is usually set for 5.30am – and each morning my first action of the day is to try to flick off the alarm switch as quickly as possible, so the noise doesn’t wake up any of my flat-mates!  I’m usually quite prepared on a morning, so I will have already packed my swimming bag the night before and I’ll have my togs ready to jump into.

I’ll then have a breakfast of two Weetbix plus my dad’s homemade muesli. I’ll then brush my teeth and be out of the door by 5.50am.  Because of my visual impairment I can’t drive, so I often take a lift to the pool - at nearby Kilbirnie - from either my parents or a coach.  Sometimes I might set off a little earlier and take a 20 minute stroll to training with a flat-mate, Cameron, who sometimes acts as my tapper for the day. The tapper is needed to tap me on the head, so I am aware I’m approaching the swimming wall, which crucially allows me to know when to turn.

The two-hour swimming session starts at 6am and I begin with 10-15min of warm-up, which comprises pre-hab exercises and dynamic stretching. Depending on what is on the training programme the focus might be on technique, speed or endurance or the total distance I cover can be anywhere between 5-6km of swimming.

My coach, Jon Shaw, is generally based in Auckland, so he is often not down in Wellington to oversee many of my sessions.  Fortunately, I have several people who help me out including a swim coach, Lynn Coetzee, who often acts as tapper.  All my sessions are emailed to me and she will read out what I need to do next in training.

I’m out of the pool at 8am and quickly grab a protein shake or a flavoured milk for a quick boost of energy before jumping in the car with a fellow swimmer for the 2 minute drive to the nearby ASB Sports Centre for a gym session.

I enjoy the variation of training out of the pool and my gym sessions - overseen by my strength and conditioning coach Guy Mothersole - usually start at 8.30am. Depending on the day the emphasis might be focused on power, strength or cardio – which might include one-hour of circuit training. We do a range of activities which include core exercises, pull ups, bench press and also jump squats with a bar to replicate the power needed to most effectively push off the turns.

As a fully carded athlete I’m lucky in that after each gym session I can go to an athlete lounge, where I like to replenish my energy stores by eating tuna on toast with a chocolate milk drink and maybe a piece of fruit.

I’ll then grab a lift home and ether a nap for 45 minutes or catch up on some uni work. I’m studying a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Massey University. I’m currently working on a couple of papers focused on speech, language therapy.  Language is the way we all navigate the world and it is an area I’m keen to pursue more in the future.

I might also carry out some grocery shopping, some washing or whatever mundane tasks need to be done.  Lunchtime around 1pm might be a chicken wrap with some salad, fruit and maybe a muffin.  If I have a double swimming session for the day I might also have a Weetbix later in the afternoon.
At the moment I’m also catching up on a lot of emails - some of which are dealing with a number of forthcoming speaking engagements. 

I’ll then head back to the pool for my 4.00 - 5.30pm swimming session, which will often be in the 25m short course pool. Here the emphasis will be more on sprint work.  I enjoy the short course swims, which entail more turns and are a lot more technical in nature.   I climb out of the pool quite hungry and head back to the flat, where I look forward to catching up with my flatmates' day.  We all take turns once a week – I live with seven other people - to cook dinner, so the meals can be quite varied in content.  If I feel I have a dinner lacking in the nutrients I need, I supplement it with some frozen vegetables I have in the freezer.

The rest of the evening I often hang out with my flatmates and chat and maybe play cards.  We don’t have a TV in the flat so this gives the time to devote our energies to other recreational pursuits.  I’ve recently started to play the Mbira, which is a Zimbabwea thumb piano.  It is only around the size of an A4 sheet of paper and is very quiet, so it is a nice instrument to play at home.

On an evening I might study some more and I also carry out some work for PVI (Parents of Vision Impaired), so I might take some calls from families in the evening as well. 

I’ll then make sure I’ve packed my bag for training the next day and retire to bed at around 9.00 - 9.30pm to rest up for the next day of intense training.