Monkeysee-Monkeydo

Channel relay… achieved!

We did it! We completed our channel relay swim on Saturday 27th August at 1:08pm (UK time), just south of the tip of Cap Gris Nez, in Audinghen, France. It was 13 hours and 52 minutes after we set out from Samphire Hoe, England, the night before. Our relay team had agreed that we needed to be in Dover on Friday afternoon as the conditions were looking terrible for the entire week of our swim…

As a female, I’d grown up with the view that exercise is for losing weight. Therefore it’s something you do to burn carbs and calories. Certainly not something where you’d think about putting those calories back. And even worse, having some carbs before you start! I have had this relationship to exercise since I was a teen. However, to think of exercise as a performance sport rather than a weight…

I’d booked to train in Dover harbour on Sunday 24th July. Some of my relay mates had met up on the Saturday and had swum over 7K, in two swims. Mentally preparing myself for my session, I thought I should try to do 90 minutes at least. Push myself a little. As I walked from the train station to the beach, spying my Arena swim bag, a young man approached and asked if I was going to DCT (Dover…

Guidance from the best!

In trying to feel part of the bigger world of OWS, I wrote to Marcia Cleveland, who is from my home state and is a champion OWS. I only found out about her since I was given her book, Dover Solo, for my birthday last year. Better late than never I guess, given that she has been quite a famous swimmer for several decades now! She posts on her webpage insightful stories from her various swims.…

“She rose, she fell… she rose again”

As preparation for English Channel sea swimming, I entered the 3K distance in the Active Life Pier to Pier Swim in Herne Bay. With the warmer temperatures in the air and sea, it did not assist much in cold acclimatisation, but it certainly was good training for jelly fish awareness and disentangling seaweed! My husband and I decided to make a weekend of it, so we arrived Friday night and were…

Returning to the source

While I was testing my limits on the peripheries of Dover Strait in June, my mom was undergoing some challenges of her own. She had fallen and broken her wrist back in May (coincidentally, the same weekend as our third group training session). Living alone, at 87, with her dominant arm out of action, had become glaringly unworkable. So she agreed to move out her home of 56 years and into an…

Final group swim, Dover

In its support for training relay swimmers who can meet the distance, SwimTayka set up a series of four group training sessions throughout the past year. We met for some pool swimming in December and February, and then for some open water swimming in May and June, both in Dover harbour. The final two sessions were weekend events, facilitated in conjunction with Dover Channel Training, who…

I booked with Dover Channel Training for another session on Saturday, 28th May. My doubts were strong. When I got back last weekend, I started checking out the water temperatures around the country to see if there were spots which never went above 16 degrees C. Some of the Lake District lakes never do, so I felt I had a back up plan that did not involve a trip to Iceland to qualify. My SwimTayka…

Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold

Committing to the Penguin challenge from November to March was a positive incentive to swim outside over the winter. It got me in cold water twice a month and helped me acclimatise to the experience of ‘ice swimming’. Although it was a challenge, I kept up my two swims and 1000m distance a month over the five months. Once April came, with no more incentive and distracted by swimming on a squad, I…

Unbelievably, I have achieved my Penguin Challenge by swimming at least 1000m per month over two swims, throughout the winter in open water. Albeit this was while wearing neoprene, predominantly over my entire body but on a few occasions, only on my hands and feet. A big shout out to Pauline Barker, aka MamaBear, for organsing this challenge and offering encouraging words throughout – especially…

It would be untruthful not to admit that I started doing some core strength training late last year. This additional exercise regimen has not been by choice, however. A few months ago, some things started going wrong in my body, particularly in relation to my pelvic floor and the organs it supports. After looking online, I found some research articles, which suggested that physiotherapy can…

In addition to swimming a lot, to do a Channel swim, whether solo or by relay, swimmers have to pass a medical exam and a qualifying swim. The qualifying swim is different for those doing a relay or a solo crossing. And it also differs depending on which swimming association you are joining. For the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, rule 10 states that: Your Swim Assessment Form must…

Beaten, but not broken

I joined a coached swim club earlier this month. They have an adult group – “masters” – who swim alongside the kids, albeit in a different lane. Masters’ training is three evenings a week for two hours at a time. Though I will often swim three times a week, the two hour sessions with specific drills to undertake is a huge step up from doing laps in the public swim sessions that run for an hour or…

Reflecting on the past

I had been on the diving team for my high school in my junior year. This came about coincidentally. All sophomore students in my hometown had to do swimming as their gym/PE. For those who were keen, some of the swimming lessons were dedicated to diving as part of the whole package of being a competent swimmer. At 15, I was keen. It turned out that I wasn’t too bad at diving and the diving coach,…

Second training day – in Dover

We had our second Channel Relay training event with SwimTayka down in Dover earlier this month. We were not in the ocean, as that would have been far too cold, but were at an indoor swimming venue about 2 miles from the coast. It was good to meet with our Channel swim mates again and to have another coached session in the pool. Back in January, Brian Avery, the founder of SwimTayka, had sent us…

Joining a swim club

I mentioned that when I was in the USA over the Christmas period I swam for the first time with a swim club. It was liberating to be swimming with a group of people all dedicated to swimming well and taking on the tasks set by the coach. It definitely felt like a step up from figuring out own routines during public swim sessions, whilst navigating the paces and swim styles of the other…