Week 2 - Meet yourself where you are
So this is an interesting experience, doing a weekly write up when I wasn’t even there! Before I go on, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Paul & Mandi for so ably holding the forte (or beach) whilst I took some much needed time out.
Thank you also for all your kind & supportive comments and messages about my covid recovery. One of the challenges of our sport is that we train ourselves to push on when we’re tired. There’s a time and a place for that. This was not the time. As much as I tried to deny the fact that there were lingering effects of covid, my body told me otherwise! I tried ignoring it. That didn’t work. It was time to listen to it and give myself time to recover.
More about that later.
I may not have been with you, but I did create the plan for the weekend and I was in touch with the beach crew so I felt like I was still involved. It was lovely to see your updates on social media too!
Weekly Review
NB Please scroll to the bottom for a selection of the photos taken
This episode of Sesame Street was brought to you by the colour green and the number 75!
You never cease to amaze me. It’s the things that I think should be easy that turn out to be complicated!
At some point in the training build up we move from measuring in minutes to measuring in hours. We do it every year. This weekend included numbers like 75 or 90 minutes, somewhere between minutes and hours. Oh the confusion! 1¼ or 1½ hours made sense, but not 75 or 90. It seems that open water swimmers work in the currency of hours and parts of hours but not minutes! It’s like being back in the pool as an official when young swimmers ask me before their race, how many lengths is 400m?
The colour green I assume referred to the skin tone of those impacted by the chop 🤢.
Shout outs
Congratulations to:
Patrick for your 6 hour North Channel qualifier on Saturday followed by another 3 hours on Sunday.
Andy for your 4 hours on Saturday
Ady, Claire, Hayley, Mel, Drew and Wookie on your relay qualifiers
Felix for your longest skins swim yet
Learnings
It seems that some people are struggling with balancing life and training in the form of good rest and recovery both before and between swims. It can be a challenging part of the season as we adjust to a new schedule including big weekend swims. Take some time to reassess your daily plans, and work out where adjustments are required in order to ensure sufficient recovery and avoid over training.
I understand that some have learned the importance of test driving environment, clothing and fuelling in training was also apparent with some very clear individual learnings.
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: 22
Water temperature: 12.5C
Air temperature: 12.4C
Conditions: F4 NE. Choppy. Cloudy to start, sun & cloud later
Sunday:
Swimmers: 14
Water temperature: 12.5C
Air temperature: 11.1C
Conditions: F5 NE. Choppy. Sunny, clear blue sky, large swell and chop. Breakers near the beach.
Volunteers & beach crew
Yet again I have a debt of gratitude to Mandi & Paul. Last week I was present but on light duties. This week I was absent for recovery time. Your support is much appreciated.
Our training only works when there is a team to support you.
If you have appreciated the support that you’ve received in the past, why not come along and volunteer for a session or more. Whilst we’ll accept any help on the day, it is really helpful to know that we have support.
If you want to join the fun, why not pick a date and join the fun on the beach!
The adventures of Dover Dave
Dave is living his best life! He had a fantastic week with Andy, including both training and recovery sessions. He’s now shadowing Patrick for a week. I wonder where that will take him?
If you’d like to host Dave for a week, please let us know on the beach. We’d love to see a photo diary of Dave’s summer in our Facebook Group.
Paddlefish Ponderings - Meet yourself where you are
“Explore yourself in silent contemplation. You will find a breathtaking person you were completely unaware about.”
One of the questions that gets asked the most is what training should I do to prepare for my swim? That’s a very sensible question, but it can’t come with a straight answer.
I need to meet you where you are.
I am here
Let’s for a moment consider that you are an outstanding and fast swimmer who swam competitively as a child. Your technique is great and you have trained with a swimming club for the last few years and do around 8-10 hours of interval training a week.
Or, perhaps you are someone that came to swimming later in life. You didn’t have a history of swimming drills and either have found your own technique or have worked with a swimming coach later in life. Your swim 2-3 hours a week, mostly continuous swimming.
Do you think that my answer would be the same for both swimmers?
It wouldn’t.
Do you think that Trent Grimsey would need the same long training swims at the peak of open water training as someone who is more of an errr ‘value for money’ swimmer? Think about it, a 7 & 6 weekend would be almost 2 channel swims for someone of Trent’s speed, but if you’re making a bid for the longest channel swim, you wouldn’t be half way.
Let’s start with where you are.
I used to be here
It can be frustrating to remember back to times when you were faster, fitter, recovered more quickly, had more free time etc, etc.
This is often more of a challenge for someone who has a history of pool swimming or previous open water swims. In the world of pool swimming, we tend to get slower as we age. It’s normal. It can be hard to remember those good old days and want to back in that form again.
Always looking backwards can deny you of the pleasure of the now.
I am someone who came to swimming later in life. I worked hard to improve and my fastest year (2005) culminated in competing in the European Masters and World Masters games. It was also the year that I did my first channel relay. That was a year to remember. But I digress.
After that year I declined in speed massively and with it went my motivation. I almost gave up swimming altogether. Instead I decided to train for something completely different, a channel solo. I completed my first channel solo in 2009. It wasn’t fast.
It didn’t mean that it was a decline in all aspects of my swimming though. In 2014 I had the most amazing year again and whilst I was still slower than I had been in 2005, I was 9 years older afterall, I had my fastest open water year.
It had taken a while to let go of the memory of the form I had in 2005 and once I was able to do that, I was able to welcome a new horizon that was better than I could have ever hoped.
I met myself where I was and let go of where I used to be.
I wish I was here
I’m sure we’ve all had times that we wished we were in a different position. In 2020 I was training for Catalina and 20 Bridges. My training was going very well indeed. It felt like I could have a repeat of that amazing 2014 year. I couldn’t wait!
Then along came Covid. The pools shut. They stayed shut for a very long time. Not training caused my back to become problematic (it still is today). It seems that training was what kept me healthy and that was taken away.
I’m not the person that I was. I suspect that I’ll never be that person again. The moment has passed.
Do I wish that I was back there? Absolutely. Does wishing for it make it happen. Nope!
I eventually let that go and decided to focus on a new plan - let’s starting competing in the pool again. My training focus changed. I rebuilt the training habit that I’d need to make it work. It started to work. My speed increased. My fitness improved. I was making plans to go to the European Masters Championships again.
Along came Covid! This time rather than lockdowns, it was me contracting it. It wasn’t particularly bad when I was positive. However, I’ve been negative for a month now and I am not yet recovering.
I can’t swim. Yet again, I can’t swim.
I wish I was back in the pre-covid world again, but I’m not.
I need to meet myself where I am and plan again.
So back to the original question, I do have a standard methodology for creating training plans. After all, the end point is fairly well understood. We then meet you where you are and create a plan to bridge the gap. There’s no off the shelf plan, just a method of creating a plan that’s the right shape for you.
Meet yourself where you.
This doesn’t just apply to channel swimming, it can apply to everyday life too.
Reminders
Remember to book your sessions online. By far the easiest way is through the app. This QR will take you to the app where you can book directly and see what you have already booked. You can cancel and reschedule.
Bookings can be made up to 48 hours ahead and be cancelled or rescheduled up to 48 hours ahead also. The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so if you would like a refund, please check out our refund policy and get in touch if you would like a refund.
Those of you with training subscriptions, enter your email address 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, please remember to cancel your membership when you no longer want it. You can do that within a membership period and still have all the benefits of it, this will prevent it from auto renewing next year. You can do this within your account, by following the link in the confirmation email when you took out your membership, or by asking me to do it for you.
Keith Oiller is the Swimmer Liaison officer for the CSA and can often be found on the beach during training. If you are a CSA swimmer or are thinking of booking a CSA swim, Keith would be delighted to chat with you.
Looking ahead
On Tour - Please note, we are on tour this coming Saturday
Back in 2017, we were forced to train away from Dover on a Saturday due to piling work going on in the harbour. It turned out to be very beneficial with swimmers experiencing a variety of conditions. Dover harbour fantastic as it provides a degree of shelter from the conditions meaning that we can continue training in 99% of conditions. However, it does mean that there are some conditions that you don’t often experience in Dover. In particular long, even swells.
So, in 2022 we will be On Tour on on Saturday a month (these dates can be found on the Dates & Altered Sessions page of our website):
Saturday 14th May - at the time of writing the location is likely to be Ramsgate. Look out for further details on Thursday / Friday
Saturday 18th June
Saturday 16th July
Saturday 20th August
Saturday 17th September
The location will either be Hythe or Ramsgate, depending on the weather forecast. Hythe will be our preferred location. The final decision will be made on the Thursday evening before this swim.
Intensity week
Back by popular demand, we have our mid-season intensity week. If you’re looking for a fun environment to get a solid block of training in, why not come along and join in. We’ll be blending some long swims with some creative ways of training at a variety of intensity levels.
Night swims
We’re offering two night swim opportunities this season.
Late start on Friday 20th May: this is an opportunity for a short swim (maximum 1 hour) late on a Friday evening. Training on the Saturday remains as normal.
Early start on Saturday 11th June: this is an opportunity for a long swim (maximum of 6 hours) swimming from the dark into daylight
On both of these swims you’ll need to wear two green adventure lights.
As we are not able to assess new swimmers in the dark, we do not accept new (to us) swimmers on these swims. If you want to join us for one of these night swims, you’ll need to join us before as well.
On these swims, during the hours of darkness, we will have additional safety measures in place with a restricted swim zone. This will be explained during the mandatory briefing.
Spotlight in the shop
Night lights
Lights for swimming at night. I only stock green as this is by far the best colour to use. Clip one to your goggles and another to the base of your costume or top of your trunks. I advise to set them to flashing on your goggles and constant light on your back (this way it's easy to tell which direction you're pointed in), this can be done by turning the batteries over.
Note: This is the price for ONE light.
Anyone who joins one of our night swims will need to wear two green adventure lights.
The batteries last for absolutely ages, something like 270 hours. That’s plenty of time for a whole load of adventures!
If you’re like me and have done a lot of swims, then we do also sell replacement batteries. Or maybe you use the lights for late night dog walks too!
We have plenty of stock, feel free to order online in advance for collection at the beach.
Green is the colour that we recommend. We do have a couple of red lights in case that is the colour your pilot has asked for.
Rather than replace your adventure lights when they grow a bit dim, why not just replace the batteries!
These 2x Plastic wrapped CR2032 batteries create a single battery, just as they were when you first bought your lights
Photos
A few photos from the weekend….
