Figures....

I would not say I am one for figures (numbers not curves) or clock watching, however, everything at the moment seems to revolve around them. What with metres covered in the pool, minutes in the open water, not forgetting time before the big day. Its already day 95 of 2008, I have only 18 weeks that’s 125 days remaining until the beginning of my tides. Pretty scary in some ways, not only the short amount of time remaining to prepare and to gain some more fat, but also the fact that almost a third of the year has gone already, grief, it will be Christmas before we know it!

Headed off alone to Bishopton Lake again this morning after the school run, got there to find a strong head wind as I looked out onto the choppy water, as it lapped around my feet. I reasoned that it would be easier on the return legs. I stripped and readied my self for action, must say, it is much tougher getting into the water when there is no one else around, hopefully it forms part of the mental training. Managed to swim much smoother and stronger today and remained in the water for 40 minutes. I was surprised at the reading on my watch indicating 50 degrees F, that is an increase of 2 degrees F since Monday. However the lake is reasonably shallow and I expect it will drop just as quickly during the anticipated poor weather this weekend. The air temperature was lower today, so that coupled with the wind left me feeling satisfied with todays open water effort, granted it is not the sea, but I explained the safety reasons in the previous post regarding swimming in the sea.

Once warmed through I attended the pool where I completed some sprints and drills, a good week thus far, pity I am nights all weekend, that said I am happy enough with the totals for the week and two swims at the Lake. Consistency in the key….I think?!

Bishopton Lake

Over the weekend, like every other day for the last year (at least!) I was chatting with KGB about the swim, training, nutrition etc when the subject inevitably came around to acclimatisation. I was expressing a little concern re future plans as we build towards August with particular reference to open water sessions, the question being: would we have time to schedule sufficient, without too much disruption to her own regimes of gym, pool, work and motherhood.

After some debate we fully agreed that I will not swim in the North Sea no matter how good the conditions appear to be, without the presence of a shore walker/post swim carer. However..I am allowed to swim in Bishopton Lake. On the understanding that I inform the Surf Store of my intentions and that I report back afterwards. Without further ado I called the boss at the store to confirm permission re use of the Lake, as last year, he kindly agreed without hesitation.

Monday 31st March I awoke to a frosty windscreen on the car (I don't actually sleep in the car but you get the message) the sky was clear and very blue, even the sun was shining, amazing, a day off work with decent weather.. a rare combination.

Just after noon I drove the 3 miles to Bishopton, where I re-introduced myself to the staff having not attended since last July (see first blog entry) and was given the go ahead. Being that it was such a pleasant day the lake was free from any other wind related activity. I strolled the very short distant to the waters edge through a field of young lambs, it was silent but for the bleats of the sheep and quacks from the ducks/geese on the water.

I secured my clothes in the dry bag in order to prevent theft by Mr or Mrs Wool, and waded into the very still water, it felt rather weird in comparison to Seaton. I am quite used to getting a face full of salt water and a bashing from the waves, but this was bliss in comparison. I breast-stroked through a little weedy patch in the shallower water, then began freestyle. I soon forgot about the geese who I initially expected to be annoyed at a swimmer in their lake.

The sun was blinding, and I was wishing I had tinted lenses. The lake is relatively small at around 380 metres but it was so much better than the pool. My watch was registering 48F (around 8.9C) it was therefore about 2C warmer than the North Sea which surprised me. The only interruptions were the odd weeds around the throat! After 35 minutes I returned to the tranquility of the shore. I hadn't taken a flask as I thought, with the short drive home it wasn't worth it. Big mistake. I got major shivers during the drive home and should really have waited before setting off. A lesson learnt but all in all a very beneficial session.

Aerial view of the lake and route of swim (numerous laps).

19 weeks....That's all..

Easter came and went with the same alarming momentum that has built since the onset of 2008. I was having a glance over my swimming figures and was happy enough to see last weeks 25 km coupled with another twenty minutes in the North Sea at 44F.

This week has started OK too, surprisingly the pool I usually use was open on Easter Monday so I managed to get there for a rather rushed (65mins) 4000m around 6pm, whilst Kelly kindly looked after Charlie. I took Tuesday off from Training having swam for 8 days consecutive. Being that I am nights tonight (Wednesday 26th) I decided to get the pool early for a reasonable session this morning. On arrival I was disappointed to find the water temperature up to 31 degrees, uncomfortably warm for anything more than a sprint. Then, after an hour or so the pumps started churning something out that clouded the once clear water, after two more hours, I again experienced some irritation to my throat and chest due the over chlorinated water. That was enough for me to call it a day rather than risk trauma to the respiratory system. 11km -3 hours and 5 minutes. Not what I had planned but better than nothing. No adverse effects to the shoulder.

The fluctuating temperature, over chlorinated water and the lack of policing/management of the lanes have in fact resulted in me cancelling my membership, it's due to expire at the end of April, by which time hopefully I will be doing a lot more open water swimming. In addition to that, as luck would have it, a 50metre pool is due to open in Sunderland at the end of April. Whilst it's a 45 mile drive am sure it will be well worth a visit.

Looking at the calender its now only 19 weeks 'til the beginning of my tides to swim the English Channel. I have been training exclusively in the water for 36 weeks, to date I have swam just short of 700 kilometres. I realise the hard work is yet to come as the cold water season begins in earnest in May, but feel reasonably relaxed at the moment with the knowledge that everything is now arranged.

Many thanks to those who have began donating online, I really appreciate your generosity as does the Joining Against Cancer in Kids Charity. Also a big thank you to all of my Corporate Sponsors especially those who wish to remain anonymous.

It's Not a Fashion Parade You Know!

Last Sunday I emailed Joni Storer, letting him know my open water plans for the coming week; I had been working nights on Monday and Tuesday followed by a quick return (onto afternoons) for Wed and Thursday, as a result of which, training has been a little bit of a squeeze. Figures are okish but I had still been looking forward to a Sea Swim on Thurs.

From my bed on Wednesday night I could hear the wind and rain against the windows, I feared the worst for the following morning. Sure enough it was still raining when I dragged my self up to try to eat before a scheduled 10am swim at Seaton. After sending Joni a text (to confirm his attendance) KGB and I were enroute.

On arrival at the car park rendezvous I approached Joni’s car, where he tells me he had nodded off ! The rain was pouring; it was a completely miserable day. Joni wound down his window and said something along the lines of “Its not too nice for this ..there are other options you know!” I told him it was just something we had to do… Before long we headed off to the water, quite a walk today as the tide was more or less at its lowest. Stripped and ready for action the conditions were far from ideal. It seemed like a marathon to get from the dry kit to the waters edge. The breakers didn’t look too bad from a distance but upon closer inspection, we found them to be around head height. No sooner were we waist deep than we were under water, due to the swells. That in itself actually helped matters since it did not allow for any messing about! We breast stroked to a point beyond the worst of the breakers and then got straight on with some freestyle.

Joni and I swam a reasonable distance out to sea; with a constant eye on KGBs location in order to keep my bearings, I swam with Joni boy in tow (more or less). We stayed out for twenty minutes again at 44F (about 6.7C according to my watch), my hands and feet were frozen by the time I exited the water. I walked out to find Kelly, soaked to the skin looking colder than a frozen pizza! She again, took it upon herself, to take our guest under her wing and helped Joni into his leather shoes which were full of water, up the beech and to the cars.

Once seated in the car, with hot drinks to hand, I got a fit of the giggles and couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at Joni as he tried to don his cotton shirt and jeans! Once I calmed down, I gave some advice regarding ideal clothing and footwear, for use in future. This clearly had the desired effect as shortly after our arrival home he text me with his new purchases. Well done today Joni, even KGB has warmed up now. Twenty five minutes next week so make sure you are dressed accordingly!

Unfortunately, KGB was unable to take photos today due to the conditions. It wasn’t necessarily the rain which prevented decent shots, just her frozen stiff fingers! Need better gloves fit for the purpose next time, not fashion accessories!

Back on track

All things considered it has been a reasonably productive few days. I resumed normal pool training after what I will term a recovery period. I only swam 10.5km last week as I was letting my right shoulder rest. The injury is going to be a long term issue, it is under control, with a few adjustments, some treatment and a little luck I can keep it in check.

I eased back into things with a couple of shorter sessions Monday and Tuesday then had a nice steady swim of 10,000m yesterday, no real issues after this longer swim which lasted about 2hour 45 minutes. I did not get to the sea on Tuesday either, I dare say we could have squeezed in a visit, but it would have been a mad rush so I opted for the pool instead.

A week or so ago, Jonathon Storer (top violinist) emailed the Channel Group asking for suggested swim locations in the Tyneside area, now whilst we in the region of an hour south of that location, I thought it reasonable to invite him to Sunny Seaton when we made our next visit. We arranged to meet at 9.20 am today (Thursday 13th) weather permitting. At 08:15 I called Coastwatch Redcar to be informed it was a lovely day and the sea was slight but more or less flat. I sent Joni a text and before long we met up in a desolate car park to have what would be Jonathon's first sea swim of the year.

He was very positive in the car park and new the conditions were do able, we entered the water under the watchful eye of KGB, at which point Jonathon realised just what he had let himself in for...it was showing 44 degrees (6.7C) on my wristwatch...after a little verbal encouragement he began to breaststroke and before long we were both front crawling parallel to the shore. I was very aware this was going to be tough (for us both) and was a little more relaxed when Joni was back on terra firma being looked after by KGB. I swam for fifteen minutes then joined Jonathon and Kelly on the beech where we dressed before returning to the cars for hot drinks (and shivers) before we parted. Joni made and excellent start and promised to return soon.

Sandycove and Storms

I received an email tonight from Ned Denison, no script but a nice aerial photograph of Sandycove Island, its only about eleven weeks before we have to swim in the region of 10.5 miles in the Atlantic at 9 - 14 degrees. As you can see below it ain't small and it kind of brings home just how tough a day this is going to be.

I am hoping to get to the coast in the morning (Tuesday 11th) for another little swim, but as I type this post, Britain is being battered by the worst storm of the winter. The south coast is suffering the brunt of the weather, and Dover Port was closed today due to the sea conditions. I will decide in the morning if it is feasible to swim outside, the chart below shows the surface water temperatures; around 7 degrees for our location, 8 for Dover and 9 or so for Cork, fingers crossed for a nice morning after the school run before I have to disappear to work.

Every Cloud.......

At the start of the week I decided to allow my shoulder a little respite and made the firm decision to stay away from the pool for a few days, maybe even the full week. Not that it was going to be a complete lay off you understand....I read/heard somewhere that cold temperatures be it cold water or air affect the body in may ways, one of which is the increased blood supply and associated accelerated healing which can result.

So with this in mind and the shoulders more or less feeling OK, I fought the urge to return too quickly to the pool. Instead, Kelly and I took the first window of opportunity to travel to Seaton and re commence the acclimatisation process proper. Now Tuesday was not warm, there was a possibility of snow forecast and the wind was strong and bitter. See below..

When we arrived at the coast it could clearly be seen that the westerly wind and the sea were in battle as a result of which the conditions were far from ideal. I got into the water for the planned dip, with the figure of ten minutes in mind, I had great fun diving under the breakers and swells though I almost lost my goggles a few times and the ice cream head was a killer! I had a reading of 43 degrees (6.1C) on my watch, and exited the water after 12 minutes. My hands were painful as we walked back to the car, but the warming didn't seem to take long at all and soon the hands were fine. A good start...........

Wednesday was Charlies club night at the pool, where all the young ones were doing a sponsored session to raise funds for the club. Charlie swam his first full kilometre, so I was really pleased and proud for him..Well done son x

Today (Thursday the 6th) I managed to get away from work a little early and again we made a visit to Seaton. The conditions were far calmer, though the water was much the same temperature wise, I obviously had the previous twelve minutes in mind, so entered the water hoping to stretch to 15 on this occasion. After twenty minutes I swam to shore feeling great, my body/core was fine though my hands and feet were telling a different story. The warming took a while, probably not helped by the fact that as we returned to the car for some hot sweet tea, the HiFi turned itself on and began to play the 'Foreigner Track' 'You're as Cold as Ice !' now that was funny..I was delighted to have swam for longer and figured out how to fight the brain freeze after advice from Ned Denison last night on the phone ...cheers Ned, it works a treat.

So there we have it, the cloud lying over my head regarding the shoulder that was causing some concern was indeed silver lined, it feels normal again now and two cold swims as an added bonus..more next week as and when other commitments permit..

Thanks again to Kell for watching over me and listening to my moans and groans that you are so quick to point out !!x

February Fly By (23 weeks)

February 2008 seemed to arrive instantly after the New Years celebrations to the extent that I wondered what on earth had happened to the first month of the year, feeling a little seasonally affected with the depths of winter upon us, even the surface of the river and patches of the lake were frozen a couple of times. Then, in the blink of an eye, whoosh.... February is gone too, its still rather fresh, but Spring is without a doubt on its way, the daffodils are flowering really early so I guess its been a mild winter. I have been watching the sea surface temperatures which would appear to have bottomed out around 6.6 degrees. I do expect plenty more cold snaps but looking at the statistics, the averages say the temperatures will now slowly begin to climb...oh yeah, those stats can be wrong and averages are exactly that.....just averages. That said, the charts show a balmy North Sea of 7 to 8 degrees so you never know. The wind chill is still a factor but we hope to make more of a concentrated effort of restarting the acclimatisation process.

My shoulder still isn't 100% but its not a show stopper at this stage. I had an easy week, after advice from Forest Nelson decided to train, but not hard, more just to keep a feel for the water and hit the showers at the earliest sign of pain, I kept the distances and effort to a minimum, which is just as well as I felt really tired all week. 15km over the week is a drop from the figures of late, but I know from last year that its not possible nor ideal to train at a peak permanently, the recovery week should have done my body the world of good ! I have been training for thirty three weeks now since Austria, at times I get a little paranoid if I don't manage to hit my targets, though normally there is a valid reason i.e. an injury/work etc.. so its not all doom and gloom. The 'at a glance' weekly distance graph is below..

I have booked my accommodation at Hubert House for the week of the swim and look forward to the stay, Maggie Kidd also has a reservation, she is no.2 on the same tides as me. There is a good chance we will swim on the same day, her skipper is 'Queen Alison Streeter', to say they have some experience between them is an understatement.

So 23 weeks til the middle of our tides, I think all the logistical plans are arranged now, just need to finalise the crew for the boat, I will do that much closer to the time, I want to be certain to have the best people on board to push me on and not listen to my moaning.

Minor Setback ?

Things have been ticking along nicely with three fairly consistent weeks at 21, 25, and 30km and I have been fortunate enough to get in a few lengthy sessions with no side effects, normally I start all pool swims with a one kilometre warm up, my shoulders usually feel like they are stuffed with rice crispies for the first 15 minutes after which I am sorted...until this morning that is, I had planned to do session before work so was in the pool by 6.30 ish only to have some moderate to disturbing pain in the middle head of the right deltoid. I decided to cut short the swim rather than aggravate the situation. I sat in the sauna a while and applied liberal amounts of tiger balm to the effected area then departed for work. I was on a development day which meant 'death by PowerPoint'. I have now returned home and applied more embrocation and intend to take some nsaids to ease any inflammation and hopefully the pain. Having pencilled in a biggish swim for Thursday before nights I am now in limbo and waiting to see how the shoulder develops over the next few days.

As you might imagine I am disappointed at this set back but hope it is minor...like other injuries, they are inevitable with the amount of training as my body adapts, better for this to happen now than in the summer.

Links....If you want to see a stack of swim related articles you gotta have a look at the website Swim Like a Fish, its packed with interesting stuff... in addition to that, I recently found Anne Steele's website, it is definitely worth a read, she too swam last year with my skipper Andy King. So I was delighted to again see yet more positive comments, her link has been added to the right hand side together with the others. I have also been keeping an eye on Chris Pountney's website who also swims later this year...... more news when I have it.

Sunny Lowry MBE

email from Mike Read :
Dear All,

Channel Swimming Association Limited

President: Sunny Lowry MBE 2000-2007

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of our President 2000-2007, Sunny Lowry, at the age of 97, she was the oldest living Channel swimmer. She enjoyed life and was looking forward to her 100th birthday. She took on the mantle of President of the Channel Swimming Association on the death of Comdr, Gerald Forsberg, who had been the Association President for 37 years. A wonderful, gentle, kind lady who loved Channel swimming and channel swimmers. She devoted her life to Channel swimming and helping others and only stood down as our President in November 2007. As much as she enjoyed her annual visits to the Dover Regatta and to the CSA Annual Dinner and Presentation evening she admitted that she was finding it hard work travelling by bus down to Dover from Warrington. On her last visit the bus driver kindly stopped outside her hotel.

Manchester born and proud of it, Sunny needs little introduction in swimming circles having been involved in one aspect or another for over 75 years. A visit to the Dover Museum offers a fine display of her Channel memorabilia and will serve as a lasting tribute.

Her knowledge of all aspects of swimming, training, teaching the disabled, lifesaving, pilot lifesaving and long distance was immense and few people today can claim to have been coached by Jabez Wollfe and kissed by Australia’s swimming star, Ian Thorpe. She always said that one of her proudest moments was having the opportunity to present Ian Thorpe with one of his gold swimming medals at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. In the summer of 1932 she undertook her channel training in Dover Harbour always accompanied by the Betts Brothers in a rowing boat. Her first Channel attempt that year was ended after 14 hours when she was a mile from Calais. In 1933 she moved to Boulogne so that she could train in the harbour there. On her second Channel attempt she was caught in a thunderstorm off Folkestone at 03:30 after 9 hours of swimming and the conditions became so rough that her crew decided to pull her out. At her third attempt she was successful landing at St Margaret’s Bay, but not even this was plain sailing. For the final 200 yards across the rocks and to dry land, she had to be escorted by the Betts Brothers in a rowing boat and because of this, her pilot argued that he could only complete her chart to the point were the rowing boat took over. She told us that as a result of this, the very organisation to which she became President, made the days after her swim very nerve wracking. Her swim, from France to England in 15 hours 41 minutes on 29th. August, 1933, was finally ratified and she became the 7th Lady in the world (and the 15th Swimmer overall) ever to conquer the English Channel.
Her success is all the more incredible when you appreciate that these were the days of “leather motoring type” goggles, when communication was by pigeon and local weather forecasts had not been invented.

Sunny married Bill Anderson, both were members of the Swimming Teachers Association. She taught swimming and life saving in Warrington. Bill was particularly interested in helping the disabled and partially paralysed to swim, which he did with great success. With Sunny, he started the Pilot Life Saving Scheme following a tragedy on Lake Windermere.

At the age of 16 she became a committee member of her local swimming club, she was a founder member of three swimming clubs as well as a founder member of the British Long Distance Swimming Association.

In 2005 she was invited to St James’s Palace for the Maritime Reception and had the privilege of being presented to H.M. The Queen and other members of the Royal Family.

The Channel Swimming Association was delighted when we heard that our President had been awarded the MBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours list for her services to swimming in the North East.

Outside of her Channel swimming activities Sunny was a constant and indefatigable supporter of Manchester’s Victoria Baths, turning out in all weathers and at every opportunity to support it’s fund raising efforts. She was delighted to have been one of the people presented to Prince Charles when he visited the Baths. She can proudly claim to have been a driving force in the success of Manchester’s Victoria Baths restoration success in winning £3.5 million in the first of the BBC Restoration programmes.

She was also extremely proud of her connections with Manchester High School for girls.

Her legendary swimming achievements (not least for being one of the 'Bikini' Swim Costume pioneers!), her consistent contribution to our Sport and her gracious acclaim of her contemporaries and peers endeavours, was her hallmark. She will be long remembered by long distance swimmers around the world and greatly missed.

Channel swimmers around the world join the CSA Board in sending her family our deepest sympathy.

Progress

Progress has been made on a number of fronts this week, firstly and perhaps most importantly I have received confirmation email from Julie Bradshaw MBE, (CSA Ltd secretary) confirming receipt and process of my swim registration. That more or less completes the administration side of things, all that remains is the reservation of accommodation for the tidal dates and training weekends in Dover, the Lakes and Cork. I have emailed a couple of recommended hotels in Dover but am yet to receive a reply.

Secondly I am delighted to say the facility to donate online to J.A.C.K. is now live, I have distributed a number of sponsor forms at work and at the pool, there are a lot of pledges, Thank-you all. I would however much prefer where possible for people to make use of the Justgiving widget thus enabling the J.A.C.K foundation to benefit from the 28% it can reclaim through gift aid, the monetary advantages speak for themselves.

Training wise it has been a reasonable week, I am already over the 20 thousand metres, have had a dip outside at 6 degrees as per the previous post and had a 10km time trial, I wanted to swim the ten kilometres on a specific time, I managed to keep every 1000m within 15 seconds of each other with times of 15:45 to 16 mins. I took 15 seconds rest between each km to feed and flip over the counter. A great improvement on this time last year when I had never swam more than 4km in a session, I felt good afterwards with no shoulder pain.

The most stressful area at the moment is weight gain. It is difficult for me, when training most days burning calories in the warm pool to take in sufficient food to compensate, as well make gains. I am using supplements but don't expect great weight gains until such times as the swims are restricted to long weekend swims only? Any advice on this issue would be appreciated!

Had a little check of the calendar today too, its just 25 weeks til the start of my tides, and about 14 weeks until Cork... to make it worse below is a photograph of the swim start at Kinsale, Cork, do you think Ned is trying to frighten me!?

Naughty Boy!

Tuesday 12th February was a frosty, foggy morning. Kelly had a physio appointment for her spinal problem and I was due to start work yet again at 3pm after a weekend of nights and a quick return on Monday. I was tired out to say the least. Looking out of the window at 7.30am to find the cars frozen solid didn't inspire me to go training, we had arranged to meet at the gym just after ten. I had around 90 minutes to either, go back to sleep, start a session at the pool or just sit and fill my face til she arrived.
Coffee in hand, I had a quick check of my emails and favourite websites to see several pictures and write ups of swimmers braving the cold water. I decided to make use of the spare time and headed to Seaton. It was really thick fog and took much longer to travel the ten miles or so due to the conditions, however, on arrival at the beech, there was not a breath of wind and the Sea was pan flat! it looked so inviting....but I was alone...I could just imagine the reaction of KGB if she knew what I was contemplating, the beech was deserted so I wasnt going to alarm any dog walkers. I 'toe tested' the water through my crocs..Yep it was about the same as expected.. COLD!
Jogging up the sand for 50 metres to generate a little 'inner fire' and get my head together, I returned to my dry bag stripped and walked into the 43degree F water (around 6.5 degrees C) getting to chest height I dipped under to completely submerge, the worst was now over, initially breast stroke followed by regular freestyle, my breathing took slighty longer than normal to control but settled eventually..around the same time as the arrival of my brain freeze! I then spent the remainder of the dip switching between breast stroke and freestyle to save the ice headache. Just ten minutes today after what seems like ages away from the open water, I am completey delighted I made the return and my paranoid guilt has left me once more.
I returned to the gym met KGB and told her where I had been, got the expected reprimand and headed for a pool set, it was worth the telling off, though I would not do it if it was rough. It was just too nice to resist.
Almost forgot, Kelly then had a freestyle lesson and made massive improvements, she will be making waves in the fast lane before we know it!