Coach profile - Penny Wilkin







Tell us about your swimming background.

I swam as a kid but nothing serious and I just loved anything to do with water sports. I started triathlon in about 2003 when I got fed up with getting slower at running and that’s when I started to do some more swimming again.

As a triathlete I want to be faster! In the beginning, I was so bad at cycling and running I thought I needed all the help I could get. So that’s what initially prompted me to go for some Total Immersion swimming lessons. I made so much progress in 6 weeks just by focussing on improved movement that it sparked my passion for swimming! 

Since then I’ve swum Round Jersey in a 3 person relay and completed 2 English Channel crossings with a 6 person relay team. I’m still obsessed with triathlon  and have raced at all distances all over the world including 6 Ironmans with the most recent being Barcelona Ironman in 2019.

Since the swimming pools are still closed in the post-co-vid restrictions I’m swimming outside several times a week and am on a mission to swim somewhere different every week.

Tell us about your coaching

I offer one to one lessons and small group courses for adults in Coventry. I regularly run a 6 week learn front crawl course as well as one-day workshops in Birmingham and around the UK.

I coach all abilities from complete non-swimmer through to channel swimmer but I specialise in triathletes and open water swimmers.

What has been your favourite swim? 

Recently I swam in the River Avon at Welleford-on-Avon at the crack of dawn one sunny morning before work and the combination of the river and the picturesque thatched cottages made it quite special and the perfect tonic amongst the co-vid restrictions.

What is the most exciting swimming thing you have coming up?

I have a 10km swim planned down the river Thames from Radcott Bridge to Tadpole Bridge as well as another 6 person channel relay at the end of August.

What is on your bucket list of swims to do? 

I have a long list of swims! In 2020 I would have been in San Francisco to run the marathon and couldn’t turn down the opportunity to swim Alcatraz! While planning that trip I discovered that Lake Tahoe has some beautiful swims. But other things on my bucket list are Lake Zurich and of course the English Channel. But for the time being I’ll settle for a 10km stretch down the Thames and hopefully another Channel Relay at the end of August.

www.youcancoaching.co.uk
penny@youcancoaching.co.uk
07971627428

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