1 Million Metres...

This is my final week of preparations before the beginning of the window of tides for my swim. I don’t think I can effect my fitness in a positive way now, its just a case of eating well, resting between shifts, checking the administration side of things and keeping up the acclimatisation by frequent dips in the sea (I swam yesterday evening (Sunday3rd August) and again at lunchtime today in the North Sea) nothing severe just relaxing swims at around 14 and half degrees C, which is good as it is around 17 mid Channel now. The lifeguards at Seaton were in attendance and they handed me a good luck card…I was touched thank you.

I had a nice chat with Enda Kennedy this morning who has already arrived in Dover ahead of his swim. There seems to be lots of people on this tide besides Enda and myself there is Kevin Murphy, Megan Turner, Maggie Kidd, Vasanti and Rob to name a few… those are just the ones I know of but there are many more, who like me, are no doubt watching the weather and the long range forecasts trying to predict when the conditions may improve. I realise it is pointless ME checking the weather but its hard to resist. When all is said and done it will be the pilot who will decide if and when the time is right.

I am becoming increasingly anxious and excited at the same time, ideally I will not be Dover for the whole week as I will miss Charlie terribly, that said it is hopefully a once in a life time mission. One that will raise lots of pennies for the charity and one that has been on my mind everyday for years. One that Charlie may well get a taste for too in the future. Even though he strongly suggests otherwise at the moment!

Other concerns as well as being homesick will be the waiting around that all Channel swimmers experience, the worry of my support crew arriving on time bearing in mind some of them have a 7 hour drive to contend with minimal warning, can I handle the cold water for maybe 14 hours plus especially the cold water washed up from the depths by passing ships, marine life?…I have read some scary stories of certain things accompanying swimmers across the Dover Straits, seasickness for both me and the crew, and of course will my body hold out.

It is a mammoth task, I don’t think I could have done a lot more by way of training, today’s training swim pushed my total distance since the Ironman last July over 1 million metres.

I was telling a colleague yesterday (who has finished IMAustria a couple of times) that nothing compares to swimming in cold water, no amount of pool work can prepare you for the pain of all kinds you have to deal with in the sea, physically its easier doing and Ironman triathlon in say 12 hours than swimming for six hours in a cold choppy Dover Harbour.

No one said it was going to be easy and it certainly hasn’t been, however the real work and pain is yet to come.

No time now for anything but positive thoughts.

Almost there

It is now twelve months since that logistical nightmare otherwise known as Ironman Austria...for those who don't remember, Good old Air France delayed our flights for nine hours, then they lost our luggage including race kit, when we finally arrived at the hotel it was locked up so we had to sleep in the car, at dawn I had to re buy everything needed for the event the next day by which time all we could get to eat was pizza! Not ideal preparation.

Well that was a year ago now, albeit I was training for the English Channel prior to the Ironman, real training began immediately afterwards...in what seems like a flash of time I have now been training exclusively for the big day for 52 weeks. Having covered over 900km, and previously been pushed to extremes in the military and other events, I feel that I am now finally getting into the zone and hope for two more successful weekends of training at Dover. Followed by some good weather and finally putting myself in the hands of my pilot.

This weekend has the potential to be the most difficult yet with possibility of a split channel swim comprising 7 hours Saturday followed by 6 Sunday. My arms/shoulders are still recovering from last weeks battering by waves and walls of water. So its fingers crossed for reasonable weather, If I can adopt the right mental approach things will be manageable.

I am just off to pack the car now for our usual drive to the south coast in an hour or so. I will report back with Dover4 as soon as possible.

Good luck to all those swimmers and pilots who are waiting for the weather break. You are almost there...

What do we have 'ear'

About two weeks before attending Austria to take part in the Ironman in July 2007, I was blessed with a very painful ear infection in the right ear. I had a series of ear drops prescribed after having a wick soaked in tar packed into the canal for a week (not nice). Eventually the inflammation eased and the drops could reach the source of the pain. I was told no swimming and that the only prevention was to never ever let the ear get wet. Great…some advice that was to a Channel Aspirant. Anyway, I used the setback to begin my swim taper for the event and swam through it albeit keeping the sessions very brief so as not to loose the feel of the water.

I mentioned at the end of the last post that I had been getting some grief from the left ear, well on Friday (05.10.07) I visited my GP and received some drops, but as usual it didn’t help due to the swelling and the canal being more or less closed, so today I popped to the ENT at hospital where again I had them suctioned and guess what …they told me the only cure was not to swim. Some help that is. I do have some moulded swim plugs that cost me a small fortune, but I have also learnt that the hospital will provide me with a set free of charge !! Well that’s got to be a result.

I can still swim, though it is kind of fortunate that I had planned a easy recovery week before a tough weekend in the Lake District. I have another appointment next week when hopefully I will get the all clear. I know swimmers ears can be very problematic so I just wanted to sort early this time and continue to take as much prevention measures as possible.

Wet n Weedy

So... we got back from a logistical nightmare at Ironman Austria on the 9th July 2007 and have been hitting the 25m pool at the gym most days. We re started the open water swims on, yes you guessed it Friday the 13th! The location being a small lake really close to home, the pic to the right shows how still the water was that day, with a temperature of approx 17 degrees, however that wasn't the whole story, the lake in places was almost overgrown with weeds, so I didn't particularly enjoy the swim, the proximity to home makes it easy access but I think we will stick to the North sea as that's only about ten miles away. After all there is no subsistute for the taste of salt water in the mouth.