Another 24 hour swim

I woke on the morning of the 24 hour swim to the sound of rain pounding against the window, I opened the curtains hoping my ears were playing tricks on me and that the sun would come blasting in.  Alas, the rain was hammering down.  The good news though, my ears were in perfect working order. 

Down at the Lido there was a lot of hustle and bustle as swimmers and support teams got themselves ready for the start of the event.  There was a sense of anticipation and a little trepidation at what lay ahead of us.  The challenge was simple, swim 1 mile every hour for 24 hours.   This would give me between 30-35mins rest between each mile.  Sounds easy enough, but add to the fact that the lido is only heated to around 18 Celsius (standard swimming pool is 28-30 Celsius), the air temp was only just creeping into double figures and the wind was out to play, made it all the more difficult.

 At last it was time to stand at the edge of the pool and get this crazy challenge underway.  Looking around, some people had decided to start with wetsuits because it was such a miserable day.  As I stood there waiting to begin, I questioned whether I had done enough of the right training to be able to complete the 24 hour swim.  I knew that I was leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I stood in this exact spot 2 years earlier. Plus I had put on some weight in preparation for the Channel, which I had not done last time, so thought this would give me extra fuel and insulation from the cold.  I decided that I was in a good place and just needed to focus on the mile in front of me, one at a time and not think too far ahead.

Jumping into the water I was not prepared for quite how cold it was and got a bit of a shock, I yelled at the guy in front of me to get going so we could get swimming and get the blood pumping.  After a bit of a sprint on the first lap I slowed down to a comfortable pace.  It passed pretty quickly, I felt happy with the pace and the water temperature wasn’t a problem.  Getting out of the water afterwards was the tough bit.  I quickly sorted out my routine of getting dried and into warm clothes as quickly as possible and try to take in a little food. 

I had brought far too much food; a mix of sandwiches, cereal bars, sweets, chocolates, even some pasta.  The plan was to eat little and often to ensure that I didn’t run out of fuel, but didn’t over do it and make myself sick.  Along with the food I was drinking carbohydrate drinks and had some carbo gels to add to the mix. 

The day passed pretty smoothly with the miles ticking off nicely, no problems with my pace or niggles in my arms or shoulders.  Throughout the day I was lucky to have a number of people pop in to wish me well.  Mel had brought me down in the morning and ensured I got off to a good start before zooming home to sort the kids out for the day.  I hadn’t expected to see her again until the evening once the kids were in bed.  However, at around mile 4 as I was getting to the end I heard a voice shouting ‘daddy, daddy, daddy’ and thought that’s nice that someone has their children there to cheer them on, only to look up to see Jack, Ellasofia, Mel and her mum there with big cheesy grins.  It was a fantastic surprise to see them; Jack threw himself at me as I got out, almost knocking us both into the water.  Once at the tent and dressed I could concentrate a little more on the kids, who thought the tent was amazing fun and also liked the look of my stash of chocolate and sweets!

Back in the water more wetsuits were coming out, but I was still feeling happy with the temperature.  The sun even made the odd appearance a few minutes at a time, which lifted our spirits.  At the 8 mile mark I had a little mental dance at making it a 3^rd of the way without any issues.   Having said that, getting in and out of the water was getting harder each time and my swim times were starting to go up a little, which was a sign that the distance and cold were starting to have an impact.  Rich, my lane buddy and fellow finisher from the previous event, popped in to wish me well and give me a little motivation to keep going, which was great.

By the halfway point I had setup camp in the communal marquee which was a much better place to be than the tent, as it was more sociable and warmer.  Sue had popped in earlier in the day to see how I was getting on and as it got dark she sent some hot pasta over with Dave, which was a welcome distraction.  I struggled to eat much of it, but it was good to have and Dave was excellent company for the 3 or so hours that he stayed with me, keeping me focused and motivated at the crucial point.  Mel came back and took over from Dave at around the 14 hour mark, this was a really tough point, the start of the night, knowing that there were still plenty of hours to go before the sun came up and it was only going to get colder and more difficult.   Having friends around certainly helped and a little banter was always good.  Which picked up as Paul dropped in with a hot chocolate, which I tactlessly said, ‘thanks, but if I drink that I’ll throw up’.  By that point the filter between my brain and mouth had stopped working. 

At 3am Chris came down to help me, through the really tough period of the swim.  Chris is someone that I had never met before the morning of the swim and had volunteered to help me out.  This was a completely selfless act, there was no personal gain for him, he was there to help me out when he should have been at home in bed sleeping.   It was awesome to have him there to help me between each mile, making sure I was warm and kept me distracted and motivated with positive comments before getting in the water.   Truly awesome to be on the receiving end of such human kindness.

At some point during the night I started to have pains in my right shoulder and left elbow which I felt on every stroke, it was at this point that I seriously considered putting the wetsuit on, not to deal with the cold but to help me swim more easily and take some of the pressure off.  When I realised that the reason for wanting to put the wetsuit on was to help make swimming easier I knew that I could not put it on, otherwise I would be cheating myself.  I will not be able to use a wetsuit in the Channel so I cannot succumb to the wetsuit on a difficult swim, if this is a chance to push on through and make it to the end unaided.  It was a good moment of clarity  Also a chat with Marcus helped, he was doing 3 hours on 3 hours off with as a relay with a friend, we were at about mile 18 when he said, ‘you have completed two thirds of the swim, the next time you see me the sun will be coming up and there will only be 3 more miles to go’.  It really helped to break the event down into smaller chunks. Although my brain was struggling at some points through the night, I realised this when I got to the side of the pool still with jacket on and towel around my waste, about to strip off only to realise I had forgotten to put my trunks back on, could have been interesting!

And before I knew it I was walking out of the marquee into the early dawn, the night was receding and the new day was starting.  Alas, it wasn’t any warmer, but it was a sign that the end was close.  Interestingly though this was the hardest mile of the lot, after the usual 50m sprint to start the mile I settled into a comfortable pace, but then suddenly the wheels fell off, the tank was empty and I had nothing left.  I couldn’t put any power into my stroke and felt like I was barely moving forward.  The rest of the solo swimmers in my lane were by now in wetsuits and lapping me.  I didn’t let myself panic, just thought about each stroke, not even able to contemplate the length in front of me, I just told myself to keep going and get to the end of the mile and then I could eat something. 

I duly got to the end, but I could see the look of concern in the face of Chris and Marcus, they could see how much I was struggling.  I managed to put some clothes on and then stumbled to my tent for a sugar rush, I stuffed my face with chocolate mini rolls, jelly babies and nuts.  I had to stop myself from eating too much, I just needed the fuel.   I was a little worried when I got to the penultimate mile, I just didn’t know how it was going to go.  Thankfully the sugar rush had kicked in and I was able to sprint the first 50m and then get into a nice pace that took me to the end, the same on the final mile.  At this point Mel had come back and was able to see me safely into the water for the final mile.  I was able to push through at a better pace than the previous mile and finish comfortably.    

At last it was over and I had done it!!  24 miles in 24 hours without a wetsuit, get in there!

April (T-minus 3 months)

This month the focus of my training has shifted toward a more immediate goal of doing the 24 hour swim, again.  I have continued to do similar training sets, but have worked towards doing multiple swim days.  At the beginning of the month I did my normal daily sets but added a second swim set in the afternoon on 2 consecutive days.  The following week I added a triple swim day followed by a double and finally started to taper with a double swim day in the middle of the week, on top of the normal swimming routine. 

The sessions were mixed, some of them I felt great and some I just felt awful and had to really drag myself to the end of the set, with very little energy.  These sessions are always worrying as they are a big psychological hit and make me question my ability to complete the challenges I have set myself.  However, on the 5^th swim session within a 36hr period I finished the set with a PB over the 1km reps, knocking a couple of seconds off of my previous time.  This gave me a massive positive boost and increased my confidence for the 24 hour swim.

I also did my first couple of open water swims this month, which were long awaited. The Serpentine finally warmed to a swimmable level – 7 Celsius in the middle of the month, so I headed down and did a 2km on the Saturday and a 3km on the Sunday.  I was very happy with how well my body coped with the cold water.  It was obviously a bit of a shock getting into the water, but after a few seconds my breathing was under control, I got used to the feeling of my skin burning and I could get into a rhythm and almost enjoy the experience….almost.  After both swims I the shakes kicked in, but not too badly and I was able to warm up much quicker than I had last year, all good signs that my acclimatisation to the cold has been getting better each year.

Over the duration of this month I have started to notice quite a few new aches and pains, mainly in hands and elbow joints.  I suspect these are overuse injuries that just need some time to heal. This is a bit of an issue as my training is due to increase with the sea swims starting next month and the 24 hour swim isn’t going to help matters.  I’ll just have to go carefully and try to be sensible and not push myself too far before it gets serious – easier said than done.

With this in mind I have to be very careful going into the 24 hour swim.  The last time I did the event, completing it was all important and not too much of a problem if I overdid it a bit, as long as there was no long term damage.  This time however, nothing matters except the Channel.  I cannot jeopardise the Channel by going all out in the 24 hr swim and doing some serious damage. 

So, going into the event I had this to think about, as well as a dilemma as to what to do if I got too cold to finish the event.  Last time I managed 12 hours without a wetsuit and then donned the neoprene to get me through the cold and dark hours to successfully complete the event.   This time I had been told that to put the wetsuit on would be severely frowned upon by the Channel swimming community and would not really help my Channel preparations.  I had to wrestle with these thoughts at the expense of perhaps not completing the event, which was tough.  On the other hand I could also focus on the positives, I have 2 years of long distance swimming under my belt since the last event, I am a faster, stronger swimmer and I am fatter, well a few kilos heavier anyway…..hoping this will make all the difference!

March

This has got to be my best month of training so far, in fact I would have to say, ever!  After a couple of months of focusing on the 5km sets and doing a lot of pace work, my times have come down significantly over a number of distances.  I have knocked 30secs off of my 400m time, over 45 secs off of my 1km time and more than a couple of minutes off of my 4km time…… this just shows how effective my current training is.  During the middle of the month, every time I got out of the pool, I had set a new PB.  I had to double check the times to makes sure I wasn’t making a mistake.

This has been a fantastic boost to my mental training and has really helped to keep me motivated in the pool for every session.  My positive state of mind was reinforced at the end of the month at an amazing Channel training camp held by Nick and Sakura at Eton.  We did a series of benchmark tests as well as the dreaded 100x100m on 100secs and I was right up there with the faster swimmers and able to comfortably hold the pace for those sessions.  It was a very good weekend full of plenty of swimming, a massive amount of information from those that had succeeded in swimming the Channel and a lot of food….I did my best to pile on the pounds in those 2 days eating every sugary snack available!

On the weight front, I had been gaining weight nice and steadily by eating lots and often, but I started to tail off the eating once the pounds started to pile on.  At the ‘Camp Eton’ we were given a number of examples of people that had run out of fuel when they got close to France and had to give up, because they had not fattened up enough.  The phrase, 'don’t be too vain to gain', was used a lot over the weekend.  This has renewed my motivation to put on the pounds and I am eating with vigour again…My target is to try and break the 88kg barrier by the end of April….Easter should help!

The only downside to this month of training is that I have still not done any open water swimming, the Serpentine is hovering around 0-1C which is just too cold to do a descent set.  I’d rather not sacrifice the option of a quality set in the pool for a few mins trying to get through a couple of hundred metres whilst swimming in an ice bath of duck poo… The plan was to start doing sets in the Serps once it hit 10C, which was supposed to be around the end of Feb, over a month on and that is still not the case. 

My biggest concern at the moment is the weather.  If we don’t get some sun soon it’s going to be a very cold training season in Dover, not to mention the crossing itself!

February

A few more changes to my trianing regime this month.  I have been finding it difficult to find a pool near me where I can do a long swim over 3 hours without getting interupted by swimming lessons and other people kicking me out of the lane.  So, I got back in touch with ‘The Orcale’ (Mr Adams) who once again advised me.  This time that there is no need to do a long swim of 3-4hrs, as long as I am covering around 25km per week of quality sets.  So, I have made some changes to my training plan as well as finding a new place to train near work.

Wk	Planned    (km)	Actual      (km)	Time (h:mm)	Weight	CSS Test Pace
1	25	18.5	5:04	86kg
2	25	24.17	7:00
3	25	28.5	8:08
4	20	18.3	5:15	87kg	1:24
Total	95	89.47	25:27

By moving to a pool near work I have been able to change the length of the swim sets that I have been doing from just over 3-4km per set to 5km.  The first couple of weeks of doing these longer sets was pretty hard work.  If I thought I was working hard before it was nothing compared to this.  I started to hit a bit of a low towards the end of the middle of the month, just when my form was picking up I started to get slower again, feeling slow and lethargic.   Yes I have had a bit of a cold and still getting broken nights sleep (I feel like a broken record on the sleep front), but it felt like more than that.  I remember reading somewhere that before a peak in perfomrance there is a bit of a dip as the body is adapting to the increased work load.  I really hoped that this was the case......and then, as if by magic, my form started to improve quite dramatically.  I knocked 4 seconds off of my previous month’s CSS which was awesome, so it was all looking good. 

I have also decided to stop doing weights sessions and instead dedicate the time to doing yoga and more pilates.  Both of which incorporate some form of strengthening exercises, especially around the core.  I have  started to feel looser and more flexible from doing the yoga, which can only help my swimming.  I imagine that it is a combination of stopping doing the weights, becoming more flexible and the increased quality of the sets that I am doing in the pool that has led to significant improvement in form....long may it last.

The eating has been going well this month too....actually a little too well, my target was to put on 1kg per month so I dont have to carry the extra load for too long.  However this month I managed to put on 2kgs which shocked me a little, but then I have been eating massive portions of food as well as quite a bit of chocolate, not to mention the endless bags of nuts.  I’ve actually managed to put on a bit too much weight, so on that front I am slowing down the calorie intake!