Week 2: Onwards in all weather!
We had a real variety of weather this weekend!
Last week we started the 10am session at low water and it was a bit of a walk to find water deep enough to swim in, but when we did it was calm, albeit slightly below the normal temperature for this time of year.
This week we started close to high water and had two completely different days of conditions. Saturday saw strong winds and horizontal rain! Along with the winds came lumpy water. Sunday saw thunder, lightening and hail a couple of hours before we started but fortunately had cleared completely in time for us to swim and what a beautiful day it was. I know I suggested a tropical theme, I was hoping for just sunshine and not the monsoons, I guess I need to be more accurate with my language!
Week 2 saw water temperature more closely aligned to a typical week 1, so not that far behind the curve really.
My over riding impression is that the Class of 2021 is possibly one of our best groups yet. OK so I probably say that every year, but what I am seeing is amazing enthusiasm, team spirit and support and a willingness to trust the process.
Your pod leaders’ observations
Sometimes I just stop and watch. I watch to see how you’re all coping with with what’s asked of you in training. I watch to see if anyone is a bit too quiet. I watch to see who’s nervous or excited. I have to say that I love what I’m seeing. I’m seeing the pods gelling together very well. I’m seeing people chatting to new swim buddies having found someone who is just the right pace.
I’ve seen you encouraging and supporting each other.
I’ve seen smiles, a lot of smiles.
We’ve seen you achieve things that you didn’t know that you could.
Your pod leaders have seen conversations start on WhatsApp and continue in person.
We’ve found it easier to get to know people as that process has started way before you got to the beach and hopefully those of you who are new have also felt that you already had friends on the beach before your first session.
We were impressed by how well you handled the challenging conditions on Saturday and these would have been a first for some of you. You supported each other.
Last week I mentioned that Mandi gave me Mandi minutes when I got in at the end of the session. During the break today, your pod leaders got together and decided that you were all doing so well that a surprise of a few Mandi minutes at the end of your second swim would be a good opportunity to show you that you can do more than you previously thought. We were impressed that you took it very well and the chips on the way out seemed to make up for the surprise!
#Expecttheunexpected
Community
We have a very special community full of people who dare to dream, who dare to plan amazing adventures and who are prepared to do the work necessary to achieve that dream.
Those of you in pods know that your pod leader is there to answer your questions at the weekends and you have your pod to chat with on WhatsApp during the week.
Did you know that all members, whether you pay for your training via a subscription or pay as you go are able to join our weekly community call, free of charge? It’s a good opportunity to stay connected mid week and ask any questions that might have cropped up after the weekend.
Swim stats
Note: Water temperature taken during the swim session in the harbour. Air temperature, wind direction & wind speed taken from the Port of Dover app.
Saturday:
Swimmers: 32
Water temperature: 9.5C
Air temperature: 10C
Conditions: Heavy rain, strong wind. F6 gusting F8 from the south. Waves with white water.
Sunday:
Swimmers: 32
Water temperature: 10.0C
Air temperature: 13.7C
Conditions: Partly cloudy, flat water. F2 from the south
The lumpy water made for some dramatic exits from the water. It was nice to see some helping hands.
It’s a team sport
I thought I’d capture the starts of both days, listen out for the singing in the water!
Volunteers & beach crew
Thank you to the volunteers who signed up for the rota this weekend: Mel Tyrrell; Richard Brant; Elaine Henderson and Louise Marshall. All DCT alumni.
Thank you also to everyone else who helped out. It’s fantastic to have so much support on the beach.
Pod Ponderings: Are your weaknesses undiscovered strengths?
When you think about the wider context of swimming, what kind of swimmer are you? That make seem like a strange question, as so many in this community only identify as a open water swimmer, but I still identify as a pool swimmer, one who’s best event is 800 free and who used to do 200 butterfly. I also know quite a few channel swimmers who come from a sprinting background, or maybe other aquatic disciplines like water polo.
So, what kind of swimmer are you?
Are you an open water only swimmer?
Are you a distance swimmer?
A butterfly specialist?
A swimmer who is deadly on a kick-board?
A swimmer who is ace with a pull buoy and paddles.
We each have our own ways of identifying within the sport.
And it’s usually within the boundaries of our strengths:
I’m a distance freestyler.
I love doing kick sets because I’m a good kicker.
I’m the kind of swimmer that loves to race anytime, anywhere.
I can keep going forever.
But just as often, there are the things we identify with that we are not so awesome at:
I’m the kind of swimmer who does well in training but not on the big day, whether that’s a competition or open water swim.
I can’t sprint or change my pace
I’m rubbish at tumble turns
I can only breathe to one side.
I don’t like the pool
We all have weaknesses in the sport.
Most of our weaknesses are irrelevant. A channel swimming aspirant probably doesn’t need to worry too much about learning to tumble turn, and as a result can safely ignore this “weakness.”
Other weaknesses, however, are super relevant. A sprinter with a slow reaction time off the blocks would have a highly relevant weakness. Or, a wannabe channel swimmer who can’t change pace, may find a problem if the pilot asks for an hour of power.
But as we will cover, working on those relevant weaknesses can produce outsize benefits.
Why are you ignoring working on your weaknesses?
Plenty of reasons.
But mainly: We gravitate towards the things we are good at.
The things that come more naturally to us are more enjoyable to do.
If we are good at something, we tend to get a kick out of it!
The things we are good at solidifies our confidence.
Simple as that.
If you consider yourself good at kicking with fins, odds are high that if you swim in a club and a big kick set comes up in training that you are over the moon.
However, if you don’t really have a kick or you feel uncomfortable with fins, I bet your face scrunches up and you sidle to the back of the lane.
If we are good at it, we tend to like doing it. Mastery is fun.
We don’t like the struggle that comes with not being good at something.
Because it’s a weakness, it requires work.
Which means failing, being not so good at the outset, and having struggle with no guarantee of mastery.
Why bother struggling when we can just stick to what we know and what we are comfortable with?
For you perfectionists out there, this is a particularly vexing situation.
Your pursuit of excellence demands that you fix your weaknesses, but that same high standard keeps you from performing the necessary flailing to master a weakness.
We downplay the impact our weaknesses have on our strengths.
We view them as being separate, or we tell ourselves that if we just keep focusing on our strengths that this will overpower the weak areas in our swimming. That they’re actually not all that relevant.
Example: I’m a slow swimmer, so I’ll simply train so that I can carry on for as long as it takes.
But weaknesses typically present the biggest opportunities for improvement.
One of the things that happens when you get really good at your strengths is that you realise that getting better is progressively harder. When you are a newbie swimmer, the improvements come fast and furious.
But as become longer in the sport, those massive gains start to dwindle.
This is the reality of mastery—the more proficient you get at something, the harder you have to work for progressively smaller gains.
On the other hand, we all remember the thrill of how fast you improve when you start something new.
So if you turn to your weaknesses they will provide the opportunities to make big leaps of change and improvement.
Weaknesses often act as a ceiling for your strengths.
Those relevant weaknesses will impact your performance like putting on the brake in a car.
We can ignore them all we want, but they aren’t going anywhere, and no matter how hard we work in other areas it’s not going to budge that brake.
For example, no matter how hard you work in the sea, you can’t really out-perform bad technique or sleeping habits.
No matter how long you can swim for, if your technique is poor, you run the risk of injury and your stroke falling apart at the critical point in a marathon swim.
Our strengths and weaknesses aren’t compartmentalised.
They interact with each other.
By spending some time and effort on improving the soft spots in your training, you are actually giving your strengths more of an opportunity to improve your chances of success on the big day. So if the pool isn’t your thing, but that is where you need to be during the week to improve your weaknesses, shouldn’t you bite the bullet and help yourself to improve?
You can learn to love new things
I swam the channel for the first time as a soloist in 2009. I found the whole journey and big day challenging physically and mentally. By the time I got home I couldn’t even get my own hoodie off!
It took a few years before I wanted to venture into a big solo event again. The curiosity did come back though. In 2013 I embarked on changing my stroke. I worked with Ray Gibbs at Swim Canary Wharf. We went back to basics. I did drills, a lot of drills. At first I didn’t like it, but over time they became enjoyable. Eight years later and I love to do drills. Why do I love them, well it’s easy to love something that clearly reaps rewards.
I swam the channel for the second time in 2014 in a time that was over 4.5 hours faster than the first swim. Nothing hurt! I was back in training the next day and seven days after the channel I swam round Jersey.
It’s easy to love drills when they have an impact like that! My weakness was my technique. I didn’t have a club swimming background as a child and had a lot of catching up to do. I still don’t identify as an amazing swimmer but the transformation in my technique and the impact that has had on my events is something that I am proud of.
Weaknesses are just undiscovered strengths.
Here’s your challenge for the week.
What is something you have been avoiding in the pool, at the gym or even in your lifestyle?
What is something that you would be willing to spend ten minutes a day on? No goals, no expectations, just ten minutes with a “first draft” mentality?
Don’t set any expectations beyond spending the full ten minutes on it.
Maybe you want to devote ten minutes to improving shoulder mobility.
Or meal planning your dinners.
Or visiting the pool for the first time in a long time.
Search through your swimming to find something that if you could do it better, would make the biggest improvement across your swimming.
Nothing crazy.
No expectations.
Start with ten minutes, each day for a week, and let me know how it goes.
Reminders
Remember to book your sessions online. By far the easiest way is through the app. You’ll have received a QR code along with the confirmation when you booked via the website.
Bookings can be made up to 24 hours ahead and be cancelled or rescheduled up to 24 hours ahead too. The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so please message me if you cancel ahead of these deadlines and I’ll arrange a refund.
Those of you with training subscriptions, enter your email address when you get to the booking system and click in the discount code box and your automatic voucher should appear. Let me know if you have any trouble with this.
Those of you who are members and are choosing the pay as you go, remember that you are entitled to a discount on each swim. If you’ve forgotten your discount code, please let me know and I’ll remind you.
Remember to cancel any subscriptions when you no longer need them.
Next Week
Next weekend will be the last of the online safety briefings, after that we’ll revert to safety briefings on the day.
Aspire are running their first training weekend, so expect to see a load of green hats in the water.
After that, it’ll be swimming and I’m sure there’ll be some sort of twist!
Photos
A few photos from the weekend….
Spotlight in the shop
A monthly printed journal to record all your training. It contains pages for 31 days and 4 weekly reviews as well as the starting and ending steps.
Available as a single journal or select the option for three journals to get a discount.
Also available as part of a bundle
If you want to track your training, why not use our journal. It’ll track your swimming, but also track other factors that will contribute to your progress such as fatigue, sleep quality, muscle soreness, stress levels, mode etc.
When you step back from individual training sessions you can often see useful patterns that will help you improve.