I love a good weather forecast, and this weekend was nothing like a good forecast!

When I looked at the Saturday forecast for Dover at the end of the week, it showed heavy rain and a force 3-4.

As I was on my way to Dover on Saturday I heard reports of torrential downpours and thunder & lightening, but the forecast for during training had improved to less wind and light rain.

Sunday was forecast to be better but still had rain in the forecast for the morning.

Reality was that we didn’t see a drop of rain and we did see a lot of sun on Saturday. That was a lovely surprise.

Was that what helped several swimmers effortlessly move barstools from previous weeks out of the way? Or were we all riding on the success of many swimmers from the last week or two? I don’t know. I do know that I was might impressed by what I saw.

Your pod leaders’ observations

Progress isn’t always linear

When you train for a big event like a channel swim, it’s easy to start out knowing how many weeks you have until the big day and expecting progress to be linear throughout that time. It rarely is, if only because the early weeks ramp up with the water temperature, but let’s exclude that for now.

Some people do indeed come every week and follow a cyclical plan followed by a late taper and everything feels calm and smooth.

For others there are things that get in the way, be that commitments that stop them training as they’d like; injuries or illness; or demons that scupper plans. It can get tense waiting for that breakthrough moment for both the swimmer and your beach crew.

At the end of the day though, it really doesn’t matter whether you had a slow simmer approach or a rapid boil at the end, it’s still magical to see the moment when we all simply know that you are now ready.

We saw a lot of that this weekend.

Harmless fun?

I’m the first to confess that I’ve had fun in the harbour before. Yes, I’ve jumped off of the slopey groyne at high water. Yes, I’ve tapped the red hats when they’re in reach. It’s at this part of the season that many, but not all, swimmers have either started to successfully complete their swims or are in the final weeks of wind down and tapering. Add this to a good weather weekend and spirits can be high.

Bear in mind though that we are an easily identifiable group with our red & yellow hat scheme, often even branded DCT. Swimmers in our group are identifiable to each of us, to other swim groups, the harbour board and the general public.

This weekend I heard about some antics that meant that not everyone swam for the entirity of their swims. Whilst you are only kidding yourselves, it does have a potential impact within or outside our group. I had an awkward conversation with a swimmer who I had been told had taken an unscheduled break during a long swim. I am assured (and I believe) that this didn’t happen. That’s tarnished that swimmers’ swim and achievement and has left me feeling less than great about life. In this case of mistaken identity, the harmless fun was not quite so harmless.

I’d appreciate not being put in that position again.

Shout outs (training)

When you are involved in a sport like ours, you surround yourself with people who routinely do amazing things. You’re all pretty darn amazing to be honest. These shout outs aim to highlight some of the breakthrough moments or big training weekends that we notice. There are many more. Please please give yourself a shout out in our Facebook group if you had a personal breakthrough moment or are proud of your achievements. I’d love to hear about it.

Channel swimmer on the beach!

It was lovely to see some of the DCT Ullswater contingent back on the beach. Collecting medals this week we had Helen Smith (Windermere) and Jon Southey, Gina Harden & Jane Carnall (English Channel).

Swims to call out this week:

The lateral flows channel relay including DCTers Danny Hanlon & Kevin McCalden on 21st July in a time of 11:56
Girls ALIVE pink channel relay on 19th July in a time of 15:00

Well done to all swims this week, wherever you trained. We enjoyed tracking you. 😊

If your swim didn’t go as planned, remember we’re here if you want to talk it through. Some things are out of our control as swimmers and sometimes there are small things that can be learned for next time. Take the lessons, leave the self-criticism.

A few of our end of session celebrations (more videos can be found on my Vimeo channel). I had a few technical issues this weekend….. I carefully recorded some moments, like end of swims and getting in and went to press stop at the end only to find that I hadn’t started recording correctly. Really sorry about that, must be senior moments.

Weekend Stats

Note: Water temperature taken during the swim session in the harbour. The lowest recorded reading is shown here. Air temperature, wind direction & wind speed taken from the Port of Dover app.

Saturday:

Swimmers: 30
Water temperature: 18.6C
Air temperature: 17.7C (port control)
Conditions: Force 3 WSW. Sunny. Choppy to start, calm later.

Sunday:

Swimmers: 32
Water temperature: 18.4C
Air temperature: 17.8C (port control)
Conditions: F4 ENE. Flat to start, a bit choppy later as the wind picked up. Partially sunny. The forecast rain stayed away.

Volunteers & beach crew

Thank you to the pod leaders and to our volunteers. Thanks to everyone who rolled up their trouser legs and helped. Jane was on the rota for Saturday and Jennifer simply turned up and helped all weekend.

Reminders

Remember to book your sessions online. Bookings close 24 hours before the session, it would be a massive help if you booked by Thursday morning.

The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so please message me if you cancel ahead of these deadlines and I’ll arrange a refund.

You don’t need to sign into the website to book a session - just pop your email address in to the booking system and it will remember you. Remember to click into the discount code box if you are a subscriber and it will auto complete your discount code. If you are a pay as you go swimmer and are also a member, remember to use your discount code to get your membership price.

Long swim opportunities

We will be running 10 hour swims on Saturday 7th August. If you are tempted and want to find out more, please get in touch. There will be a different start time for these swimmers only.

Paddlefish Ponderings: Labels & limitations

Many decades ago, at the end of my last year of junior school, my school report said….

Sport is not Emma’s forte

My teacher put a label on me.

To be fair to him, sport wasn’t something that I was interested in at that age.

When I started secondary school I stumbled across the sport of trampolining. I honestly can’t remember how that happened but I’m so glad that it did. From the age of 13 to 24 I was a trampolinist. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t brilliant, but I loved it. It was a passion of mine. I could somersault and competed a few times at a local / regional level.

I also became an advanced coach, a judge and a special needs coach.

I was asked to be sports captain in secondary school. A different teacher, and one who saw potential in me.

I’ve enjoyed many sports. I also found netball and was a mean shot at a goal attack or goal shooter. I played in an adult league once I left school.

I’ll probably skip over my diving… Whilst I did win a club trophy, it was more falling off a board in multiple different ways rather than being any good at diving!!!

Over the years I have gained teaching / coaching qualifications in trampolining, diving, football, lacrosse, swimming and open water swimming. I have been a British Swimming Referee.

I’ve enjoyed participating in many sports including skiing, tennis, squash and table tennis.

When I went to college I did an HND in Business & Finance with a diploma in Sports Coaching.

Swimming is something I came to late in life.

No, sport really wasn’t my forte.

I don’t actually remember an awful lot from my childhood years. I do know that memories tend to be associated with things that are emotionally charged. So it’s interesting that I remember this particular report.

The same teacher told another classmate that art was not her forte. She went to on to art college.

He placed labels on us that were unwarranted and could have held us back. How much damage did he do? Could this be why I believe that I’m rubbish at sport? Good question.

I find it frustrating and incredibly sad when people project their own limiting beliefs on others. I doubt that this is done consciously and I suspect they always have good intentions at heart, but it’s dangerous ground.

Here are a few things that I’ve heard over the years:

My coach says that I should stick to relays, I’m not good enough for a solo.

I’d argue that says more about the capabilities of the coach than this particular swimmer.

You need to replace the energy you burn swimming in the feeds you consume

We follow the science on this one. A read of Nick Murch’s blog explains the science behind it. I tested this science out on my last solo and had no calories for the first 13 hours. I then had a jaffa cake with a pain killer - whoooo - 45 calories! At the end I needed a boost to get past a tricky point so had two mega feeds. 13 hours on no calories - that busts a myth or two.

There was a training weekend a few years when I was away and I arranged for feed to be delivered to Mandi. The problem was that it didn’t arrive in time. Rather than panic, Mandi fed the swimmers on squash and made it taste strong. Everyone performed exactly as they had before and were stunned and amazed when they found out afterwards that the myth that they had been taught to believe had not been true.

You need to feed every 30 minutes

Unless you can feed super quick (e.g. 10 seconds), that just adds time to your swims. I can show you numerous anecdotes of swimmers who have followed exactly the same pattern that we use in training. I am one of those swimmers. Frequent stops or long stops can add hours, not minutes, to your swim.

You should do big training swims regularly

We follow the science on this too. Recovery is an important part of training and will actually make you faster & stronger.

You need to put on weight to swim the channel

Slim people have crossed the channel. Putting on weight can help with acclimatisation, but regular training is arguably the best way.

The list goes on.

There are some occasions where I do have to have tough conversations about whether a plan is realistic. That’s generally not in a ‘never in a million years’ type of context. It’s generally that there are parameters that need to change in order for success to be a likely outcome.

I’m not suggesting that if someone tells you that you can’t do something that you tell them what you think of them, I would urge you to stop and think. Are they projecting their own fears & limiting beliefs on you?

I’ve not done too badly as someone for whom sport is not their forte. I wonder what else I can achieve despite that. How about you? Which labels that you have been given by someone else or even by yourself? Are you now prepared to now walk away from these?

Photos

A few photos from the weekend….

Spotlight in the shop

With the change in the CS&PF relay qualifier I needed to design a new relay qualifier badge and they have now arrived! If you did a 2 hour qualifier either the existing badge or the new badge works. If you did the split CS&PF qualifier, choose the new one.

We have a whole selection of badges for you to choose from.

We also have medals. If you have a training subscription with us (monthly or annual), you’ll receive yours free of charge. If you are a pay as you go swimmer you can buy your medal from the shop or on the beach. There is a medal for a Channel Solo or a Marathon Swim (10 miles or over).

Why not add to your collection and wear them with pride!

Week 13: Shifting barstools