Coaches Report - May 2011

The solo channel attempt is creeping up on us fast now and in my mind, this is the time when I really want to 'go for it' training wise, but everything seems to be against Karen.  The work is the biggest issue, late shifts, traffic, early starts etc. just keep getting in the way of training.  So the past month we have made the best of every spare moment we have available, albeit its small.

I've set Karen a weekly target of 15 miles and she just managed to squeeze in 14.5 two weeks ago and now this week, work has prevented her from managing 10.  It's a tough challenge that she has ahead and although there is always the saying 'you can never train enough for a channel crossing', there is certainly the worry at the moment, that you can certainly 'undertrain' for it.  So, calling anyone that has any influence at all at the hospital where she works, please, give her some space over the next month to train pretty please.  She can make up for it afterwards!!!!

This aside, the 6hr continuous cold water attempt is looming now.  Hopefully, maybe we can squeeze in a couple of them during June at Dover to make up for lost time.  She certainly has the strength and endurance to continually swim, but the cold-water distances have not seen us exceed 3hrs yet, so this will be a big test.  As the channel may take anything up to 14 hours to get across, we should be building the time up now.

Last weekend saw us in Southend sea for almost 3 hours but unfortunately the tide had turned.  I am confident that if it wasn't for the tide, we would have gone well past 3 hours.  We swam to the pier from the Crowstone and intended to swim back again.  But the strong tides/winds had other ideas.  There is Peter Pans playground on the horizon near the pier and the hardest thing was watching the Helta Skelter image for over 20 mins of continuous swimming, and not managing to get past it.  That was demoralising.  I paused to look back at her and just because I wasn't swimming for a few seconds, I drifted back in her line in an instant. We were stuck in some kind of rip-pool.  She looked up and by the time she had said, "Why cant I do this", I realised she was almost back at the pier.  Not being able to 'chat' so to speak, as we were being carried away, all I could manage was "Just Shut Up and Swim Woman".  She later asked me, "Was I really trying to compete with Freda Streeter for the Scariest Coach Award".     "No, I just thought, if I took the time to say anymore, you would have been in Shoeburyness".

So, hat's off to Karen, she put her head down and swum forever, but hardly got anywhere.  Good training though, as we have read all sorts of stories where channel attempts have seen people swim for over an hour and only gaining 400metres.

I, by now, was getting cold so was choosing to swim to a 'Hat' as we call them, (the markers at the end of the wooden posts, periodically placed along the sea front) and grab hold of it till Karen reached it.  "Lets just take one hat at a time, I instructed".   I was getting cold and struggling to hold onto each 'hat' waiting for her and felt so guilty that as soon as she got there, I pushed off and instructed "OK, to the next hat".

Imagine this in the water, it was EXACTLY how strong the tide was.

Finally, Karen announced, "acclimatisation wise Lorraine, I'm done in".  We still had over a mile to get back to the car but it was obvious it was going to take too long to swim it.  I made the mistake at this point of saying, OK, lets see if we can get in to shore.  I realised later I should have just pushed her to 'one more hat'.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  So there we were, one in our 40's in a swim cozzie and one in her 50's in a torn wetsuit, walking the promenade to so many funny looks from people as the weather was appalling.  Bonus - we got lots of 'toots', haven't been tooted in years!  It was a case of, head down, don't think about what we look like, and march back to the car.  

Nick had swum with us this day too, but being a strong swimmer, he did not see much point in two of us holding back and struggling with the cold and a groin strain, so he decided to head back ahead.  Without telling us!   Tut Tut!   We were relieved to see his bag gone from our spot on the beach when we got back coz this was the only way we knew he was back and hadn't drowned.  A lesson he will not repeat as he quickly suffered with the telling off from two nagging women when we got back, I'm sure he thought, god this is worse than being married and more agony than my groin strain.    We were seriously worried about him though as we had no idea if he had made it back or not.

We headed off to the river Chelmer last week coz

So, now, as well as scary looking things on the bottom of the river bed, I want to organise a night swim with glow sticks.  Hopefully, this will be done in next week or two.  To be extremely cold and it to be dark, I think it will have to be the River Chelmer, with Roger in the kayak.  Oh joy !!

8 weeks to go

So how did training go in week 9, initially not well.  I have had an ongoing problem with my shoulder since last year which has been treated by physio.  Unfortunately after competing in the 2swim4life 24 hours swim it aggravated my shoulder and by the time I got home I was not able to lift my left arm, it was so painful my husband had to undress me, bath me and wash my hair.  On Monday I was able to move my arm about 12 inches from my body but only if I had taken plenty of pain killers. 

Back at work on Tuesday and managed to get to see David the physiotherapist who has been treating me, he had me lift my arms out to assess the damage and let me know that my left shoulder blade was winging (sticking out instead of flat), he promptly spent the next five minutes pushing with all of his weight on to my shoulder to loosen it and realign the shoulder blade, boy did I say ouch or words to that effect.  I was also working a long day so no training that night (oh dear what a shame).

We were due to swim in the pool on Wednesday, how glad was I when Lorraine informed me she was not going to be able to swim as she had a possible ear infection and was getting a lot of pain, although my shoulder was now moving more freely it was still buring with pain at the joint.  This was the same for Thursday.

Friday swimming in the crouch I was due to meet Lorraine and Nick in the water as they had finished work before me and were already swimming.  So there I was in our usual spot where they launch the boats, no kayak support and getting into the open water on my own for the first time ever and I remember thinking what do I do with my shoes, normally there is always someone available to take them from me (who do I think I am the queen of Sheba).  I found a bit of grass to leave them, hoping they would still be there when I finished swimming (walking on pebbles/stones really hurts).

I started swimming or should I say attempting to swim, the water was colder than it had been recently and it took quite some time to acclimatise.  I was in for about 5 minutes when I met up with Lorraine and Nick.  Lorraine had to get out as her ear was beginning to hurt, so she was going to walk along the river bank to keep an eye on me.  Although he had already swum for an hour Nick said he felt ok and would continue to swim with me.  We swam to the mile point and I chose to turn around knowing I was getting cold and had been in less time than Nick. 

Nick is a much faster swimmer than me and regularly laps me in the pool so how much was I surprise when we turned and he remained behind me, very quickly I realised that something was not quite right.  I made sure that I was aware of where he was all the time thinking that the cold must have got to him and he was very quickly becoming hypothermic.  Lorraine had been watching us and had come to the same conclusion, we had a quick conversation and she went back to the cars to get his towel. 

Nick and myself continued to swim and I made sure I was close to him should he need support.  As I was swimming I was going over everything I had seen or heard about rescuing someone from the water convinced that I might have to rescue Nick.  Eventually Lorraine was back with his towel and we managed to get him out of the water.  Lorraine took him back to his car to warm up and I continued to swim back under Lorraine's watchful eye.  It just goes to show how dangerous open water swimming can be and why you should always have a swim buddy or boat support.  One minute you feel fine the next you become totally disoriented and unable to function properly.  But I must admit I did gloat quite a bit when I knew that Nick was ok that I was in front of him for a change.

Saturday first day back at Dover under the watchful eyes of someone more scary than my coach Lorraine, I think she even scared Lorraine.  Freda Streeter who has been organising and bullying channel hopefuls for years her own daughter has swum the channel approx 43 times and has even completed a couple of three way swims.  We arrived late so we missed the briefing, I got in the water with the sun shining having planned to stay in the water for over an hour, I managed 1 hour 15 mins.  Feeling really pleased with myself got out to be told by Freda that I was due to get back in at 11.30, it was a bit of a shock to say the least but lesson learnt don't be late for the briefing again, so back in I got for another 30 minutes.  You can see how cold I was if you look at the photo at the bottom of Lorraine's report.

Sunday saw me in the crouch with my faithful kayak support hubby Roger, we did an hour swimming/kayaking against the tide and on the return trip also had to deal with heading into the wind which made the water quite choppy.  So although the week had a slow start quite happy with the achievements. This coming week we have tides nearly every day, so hope to be in the crouch every day.

To close this weeks report don't forget I need your support to get me across the channel so visit my donation site and choose a quarter mile for me to swim just for you.  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Karensbigswim

Coaches Report - April 2011

Finally we are out of the cozy water and toughening up again.  It’s been a long winter, but now the monotity of training in a warm 25 meter pool is finally over.  The first few dips in the River Crouch was painfully taken with the usual ‘brain freeze’ while we tried to acclimatise to the freezing open water.  Thank god Karen manages this so much better than myself.  She’s soon off and swimming while I bob about for an extra 10mins trying to put my face in.  But we have been blessed with such good weather lately, that it has meant that we have been able to swim in the open water frequently throughout April.

So the next two months will see us trying to increase the length of time our bodies are able to cope with the cold.  (Obviously this is not a necessity for myself so it is quite nice that I can say at any point – “I’m getting out now, but you have to carry on”).  Several swims in the River Crouch have all lasted over an hour which is good news.  The only trouble with the Crouch is that it is so tidal.  Good in some ways for practicing swimming against the tide, but bad in others, when the cold kicks in and it’s a hard long slog back to Marsh Farm against the tide.

Last weekend saw us attempt the 2Swim4Life, 24 hour challenge.  I wanted Karen to do this for several reasons.  I knew it would be a good test of the mind for her.  To stay focused and determined when it gets boring and never ending.  And to be freezing cold with no facility to warm up for hours on end – how would she deal with these two things.  We started at 10.00a.m. on Saturday 30 April with the challenge being to swim a mile on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours, so finishing our last mile at 9.00a.m. on 1^st May.  With the air temperature being extremely cold, some swimmers were already giving in to their wetsuits early on Saturday.  Karen and I both managed to stay in our cozzies till late evening before putting on the wetsuit.  The first hurdle came for her at Mile 7.  The mind told her to stop.  It was cold, it was boring, and the end was nowhere near in sight.  The little ‘set back’ at 7 miles was purely mental and I was shocked it came so early.  I knew it was a mental block and not physical, as she would never have managed to get to 18 miles had she been in ill or in pain. So to go on and do another 11 miles meant it was all ‘mind over matter’and she had severely lost concentration.  You need to focus on something, anything, but what you don’t want to focus on is ‘I've still got 17 miles to go, which I believe is where her mind was taking her.  All swimmers have different ways to motivate themselves.  I had music both on dry land and on a waterproof MP3 player.  Each mile was done to a song donated by a sponsor and they had given me a reason to do that mile.  My son kept saying to me, “Mum, you are gonna swim a mile for soandso because etc etc, and this person gave you ‘X’ amount of sponsor money to do it, so you best had.  I’m not saying it works for everyone, but Karen didn’t have any of this when she went into the challenge. But she's taken my theory on board and I really hope it works for her too.  She has broken her 21 miles into 1/4 miles.  This will give me something to think about on the boat too.  I will be yelling at her every step of the way, just do this next ¼ mile for soandso please.  It's a little more interesting than just yelling “You’ve still got a bloody long way to go”.  So please, anyone reading this blog, please help us to get Karen across the channel, please sponsor her for a 1/4 of a mile and give me a lovely comment that I can call out to her to help her to focus while she is doing your 1/4 mile for you.  You can leave your message here on this blog and donate through    http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Karensbigswim   Im sure it will help her to focus.

  

But lets not take anything away from her.  What she did at Guildford was pretty incredible.   To be in a semi-hypothermic state for 18 hours, tired and still swimming was fantastic.  I have no doubts that the solo channel crossing is well within her capabilities.  In hind sight, perhaps if I had not been attempting the challenge myself, I would have had the time and energy to ‘kick her butt’ into doing that last 6 miles, but the challenge as it stood, was taking its toll on me. I shivered with the cold and cried my way through the last 6 miles or so and had no energy to motivate Karen.  I needed to pull on all my resources to get myself to mile 24.  Lessons were learnt from the challenge though and that was the main thing.  From the nutrition point of view, to the cold and more importantly the mind set, it was all a worth while exercise. 

This weekend saw us back in Dover.  Suffering from an ear infection, I was unable to swim so observed from the beach as Karen crept into the 11 degree water and managed to stay in for 1hr 15mins.  And then just as she thought it was all over, Freda shouted 45mins recovery and you’re back in.  Something neither of us expected, but looking back, what a brilliant idea.  It was like being at Guildford all over again, with not enough time to get dry or warm before you have to hit that ice again.  The ‘second sitting’ so to speak saw her getting in the water knowing that the resident seal was playing with the swimmers.

The funniest thing I saw during this second dip was all the swimmers bobbing about just 20metres off shore, not being allowed to come back in until ‘time was up’.  Freda’s assistant just kept shouting ‘keep swimming’ keep moving’ you have five more minutes, but they were all lined up like little lost sheep with a begging look on their faces that just said, “Please Mr, can we get out of the sea now”.  Hysterical.  Of course, I can say this, coz I was wrapped up in the trakkie on the beach but I doubt I will find it funny when I’m back in the water keeping her company next week.

Time is going so fast now, but the weather is good and the motivation is back on track.  What we have to do now, is build up that length of time in the open water to 6, 7, 8 hours at a time and master those feeds.  So much to do now as these final 8 weeks start their countdown.

9 week count down

It's now only nine weeks and a few days until my channel swim slot, I have now received my membership certificate from the CS&PF, how scary is that.

We have been in the open water for the last three weeks and beginning to get acclimatised, though I must admit I have been wearing a wet suit to get some distance in.  The good news is that last week I managed one hour in my swim suit.  We have been swimming in the crouch which is the tidal river five minutes from where we live.  It has a wicked tide which is really good for resistance training.

We had a little challenge this weekend it was the 2swim4life one mile every mile for 24 hours in aid of help for hero's.  I can truthfully say I have never done anything so difficult, it took place at the Guildford Lido.  Every hour you got into the cold water and swam 32 lengths (50m pool), there were water jets at each end of the pool which made the water extremely choppy.  I think I must have drunk half the pool.  I was ready to give up at 7 miles the constant getting in and out of the pool was really mentally wearing, but as always Lorraine made me get back in and I am glad she did. 

Unfortunately I only made it to 18 miles and the cold took such a hold I could do no more.  I feel extremely annoyed with myself but I have learnt a lot from the experience and will use it to get me across the channel as I don't want to feel that way again.  Safe to say Lorraine being my hero completed the challenge what a coach.

That challenge has left me with no doubt that I will achieve my goal to cross the channel, firstly I was only 3 miles short of the channel distance and I know distance wise I could have continued, secondly I was wet and cold for over 18 hours, my crossing should only take 14 hours at the most and thirdly  but most importantly my instructions to Lorraine is not to let me out of the water unless I am floating. 

To keep me motivated and help raise money for my channel charities I am asking people to purchase a quarter of a mile and I will swim that distance for that person,  If you wish to be a motivator please provide me with a photo so that it can be displayed during that appropriate distance and a message for my support team to read out when I begin your distance.  Once you have made your donation on my charity site stating which mile you would like to sponsor I will put your photo on my mile motivator Chart which I plan to keep posted on this blog.

I will be updating this blog weekly so that you can all be part of this 9 week count down, so have a good week and look forward to updating you next week. bye for now.

If you wish to make a donation or get me to swim for you then please visit the web site below. http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Karensbigswim