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 1st 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.
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