Made it to France - PART I

I am proud to say that our English Channel Relay was the first to France for the 2010 swim season.  Overall it was a great learning experience!  It was true test of what the body and mind can withstand and overcome.

Here is a recap:

I got the call confirming the swim for our pilot just before 1800 on Sunday June 21st.  I made my way down to one of my team members house in Tunbridge Wells.  Got to bed about 2230 for a 0330 wake up call.  We both did not sleep at all and a lot of tossing and turning.  Jumped out of bed before that time had breakfast and we were on our way to Dover Harbour which was a 45 minute drive.  It was long and very tense ride!

Got to the Harbour went for our parking permit for the day and turned around and my other team mates showed up as well.  Got their permits and waited on the dock for our pilot Eric Hartley from the Pathfinder.  We also met our swim official, Peter from the CSA.  He was about 5 minutes away which was perfect timing!  We piled on the boat had our safety briefing, CSA Rules dictated, and money exchange.  We were finally on our way to swim the channel!

We started a little west of Samphire Hoe Park.  People usually start at Shakespeare Beach but the pilot read the tides and decided on Samphire.  This is a crucial call!

Here is the start!

I started the relay at exactly 0525, Monday June 21, 2010.  The way it works on a relay is each member of the team must swim a full hour and the order must not be changed at all.  If one of these rules are broken the swim is nulled and we turn around, oof... 

Our established order would be myself, Patrick Reedman, Janina Dowding and Mike Russell.  Since I was the first swimmer, I had to swim to shore and walk up on land to make the swim official.  Once on land the CSA official gives you the thumbs up and you are off to France!

Since my swim was first, I was in the water a bit longer than my team mates.  The first hour felt like an eternity and at several times, I kept saying, "Fuck this is going to be harder than I thought".  The water was around 13C/52.5F, the clouds were lingering, and the sun was not fully out.  So with wind chill and water temp, I was freezing and did not think it was going to go well.

I saw Patrick hit the water behind me and I kept going afraid I was going to freeze if I stop.

Patrick coming up for the change over.

The change over happen, and I could not be happier to get back on board!  It had a shiver and got my clothes on fast.  Pilot told me that I got about 2.2 miles out, that is not my best showing but knew what we had in store for the trip. I briefed my team mates, Mike and Janina that it was friggin cold, had to tell em like it is, no holds barred...  Got some tea in me with toe warmers and felt a ton better by time Janina jumped in.  At this point things started looking very good for us.  The clouds were breaking up and the sun was coming out FULL beams on summer solstice.  You could not ask to swim on the longest day of the year with sun all day long!  This were looking much brighter now...

Part II in coming soon...

Yards Vs Meters

So glad to be back in metric land.  I was just getting dizzy swimming in yard pools.  I usually swim in either 25m or 33m pools which are really great for a good work out.  Here is something I lifted from another site.

Totally Agree with this:
1. Much more continuous swimming. Half as many walls to turn at, simulating open water swimming better than a shorter pool.
2. More time to focus on your technique while you swim without interruptions.
3. Training is slightly more challenging, resulting in better preparation for an open water race (or any swim race).

Stats:
25 Meters = 27.34 Yards
25 Yards = 22.86 Meters
25 Meters = 75 Feet
25 Yards = 82.02 Feet

The difference is not much looking at numbers but when your down in it you will notice you lost about 2 or 3 strokes.  Which makes a bit of difference in my book when doing long distance swimming.

Egypt swimming

Christmas week was brutal! Lots of travel and seeing the sights. Had
no swimming even though was on the Nile at one point for a couple of
days. Asked to swim out in the Nile but was told about the crocs put
there. So that did not go over well!
However got over to the Red Sea in a resort town called Hurgadha.
Have a 55m at it's longest part freezing cold pool all to myself! It
is 17c and always training ground! Go out twice a day in the pool and
usually once in the red sea at blistering 20c for salt training for
Perth. The best part about the training here is about a 300m lazy
river! I swim against it for kicks and it is a great trainer wish I
ha one back home! Some points it must kick up to about 4kph!
Will post pics when I get back to home base!
Happy New Year!

First Case of Hypothermia

Swam on Saturday morning at 6C/42F. 

Did 1.4k of the perimeter of the lake and 550m of the buoys with a wetsuit!  Can not tell you how cold my hands and feet after this swim.  They throbbed at first and quickly after that there was absolutely NO FEELING AT ALL!

I wanted to get  a quick dip in without a wetsuit just so I can acclimate to the cold.  I went to do a 100m but as always in this situation I want to push myself to the limit.  I was able to get a 550m and about 100m.  I was fine getting out but 15 minutes later, I was shaking uncontrollable, slurring, and talking gibberish.  Took me about 45 minutes to warm up.

Next time I am going to do a before and after temperture of my core body to actually see how much my core body temp dropped.

8 Weeks and Over 200 Miles

In the last eight weeks, I have swam 206 miles or 288 kilometers!  So far I am on track to hitting my goals of 15 miles or 25 kilometers per week by the end of the month.  I have 11 more weeks of training til Rottnest Channel Swim with each week getting harder and longer.  The only set back was a quick cold that I came down with over the weekend.  Was forced to call out of practice yesterday.  I don't see tonights practice going very well though, still a lil congested :(

Long Distance Training Started

Last nights practice was tough. I was at my local pool which is around 30C, which is boiling hot. It takes me an entire K just to aclimate my body to the warm water. It is also quite exhausting.

Was able to get in a little 5.5k, and was quite sore and stiff today. So that is good.

Just keep thinking 20k in one shot is going to be TOUGH!

Chillin in training.

Saturday 21-11

Water Temp was between 7/8 C around 45F, was cold stuff! We did 2.5k w/ wetsuits in great conditions. Hands, feet and face could have fallen off and I would not have even known. I really like going for a long swim and than taking off that wetsuit! I really don't like the wetsuit at all but I really need some distance and to make it worth while I put it on to get that mileage in. So did about 750m w/o a wetsuit and really went off w/o a hitch except for hitting something while swimming. Scared this shit out of me, I am convinced it was one of those monstrous carps from the deep that did not see me coming!

Friday is always empty... UNTIL!

Got out of work a little late today and tons of traffic. So instead of driving I decided to ride tonight but could not find my pants and walk the dog in adequate time to get to York Hall. See I train at three pools, Tiller, Mile End and York Hall. Mile End is the best, York Hall is a long pool but far, and Tiller is really close but too warm to train in. So I decided to just got to Mile End thinking Friday would be totally empty as it usually is in the evening. WRONG. It was so decent from 2000 to 2100 but at 2100 it got obscenely packed and the usually issue. Slow ass swimmers who think they are fast even though they are getting lapped rapidly. Just why... There is two people in the medium lane and 3 in the slow. Ah, more your speed. Could not deal with it and had to leave after 2.5k. It was good though to get in the speed bike there and back, got 8 mile ride in. Well it was a start.

Tomorrow cold water training! Under 44F/8C, YIKES...

Fast Lane is the New Slow Lane...

Training is hard enough but training during open pool hours just plain sucks! Some people don't realize that the fast lane is designed for people that are going to actually swim. Breast Stroke and stopping at the walls does not constitute "FAST" swimming.

So why does one think that is ok?

If you do flip turns on every wall and they seen you do at least 4o turns while they were there, why would one think it is perfectly fine to extend them self across to entire lane wall?

I just have to find a better Monday night pool!