We had the chance to meet a good channel coach this morning, Greg Whyte. He has swum the channel several times, working with Andy King our pilot and also coached David Walliams in his solo channel effort for Comic Relief. Meeting Greg mid-channel of the Thames, just downstream of the Marlow weir danger sign, me going one way, him going the other, we exchanged glances under a high-arm.
By the time we’d all turned round and swum back to the jetty, he and a friend, Richard, were already toweled down and were warming up. We got their photographic skills working for us and finally took the team photograph for both the Maidenhead Advertiser and my work’s local newsletter. I’ve added the shot here, left to right are Chris Newell, Heath Freeman, Peter Frost and me, the hairy one!
Catching up with Greg again for breakfast, we shot a bunch of questions at him. It was pretty enlightening to hear of some of the oddities of the channel swim. For example we HAVE to wear speedos because the CSA does not allow any suits larger than that, in light of the FINA acceptance of the hyper-technical suits, it does seem at odds.
Confirming what we thought, keeping warm is the biggest thing for us as a relay team, so make sure we’re out the water, dry, warm and get a hot drink in as the number one priority. In respect of the swimming, it’s one hour, head down and go as hard as you can. With three hours of rest time, we can afford to go hard. It might be that we can get a good time out of this. I found it a really useful chat to have over a healthy breakfast of poached eggs on toast. I’m noticing more what I’m eating now, making sure it’s healthy and with a good energy count. I’m forcing myself to drink more as well to keep hydrated. It’s simple stuff that we all know but with three weeks to go I’ve got a heightened awareness of it now.
I wanted to say thanks here to my manager, Pearl Ford, who is being phenomenally positive and encouraging about this swim. I’m not into the office quite as early in the mornings because we’re finishing our sets in the river and I’m trying to get out at a reasonable time to make sure I can put some ks down on the road on my non-swimming days. It’s a balancing act. Most importantly, we’ve got a huge presentation on 27 August to get dialled and there is a high chance that our swim happens on the 28th which could make for an interesting taper week!
By the time we’d all turned round and swum back to the jetty, he and a friend, Richard, were already toweled down and were warming up. We got their photographic skills working for us and finally took the team photograph for both the Maidenhead Advertiser and my work’s local newsletter. I’ve added the shot here, left to right are Chris Newell, Heath Freeman, Peter Frost and me, the hairy one!
Catching up with Greg again for breakfast, we shot a bunch of questions at him. It was pretty enlightening to hear of some of the oddities of the channel swim. For example we HAVE to wear speedos because the CSA does not allow any suits larger than that, in light of the FINA acceptance of the hyper-technical suits, it does seem at odds.
Confirming what we thought, keeping warm is the biggest thing for us as a relay team, so make sure we’re out the water, dry, warm and get a hot drink in as the number one priority. In respect of the swimming, it’s one hour, head down and go as hard as you can. With three hours of rest time, we can afford to go hard. It might be that we can get a good time out of this. I found it a really useful chat to have over a healthy breakfast of poached eggs on toast. I’m noticing more what I’m eating now, making sure it’s healthy and with a good energy count. I’m forcing myself to drink more as well to keep hydrated. It’s simple stuff that we all know but with three weeks to go I’ve got a heightened awareness of it now.
I wanted to say thanks here to my manager, Pearl Ford, who is being phenomenally positive and encouraging about this swim. I’m not into the office quite as early in the mornings because we’re finishing our sets in the river and I’m trying to get out at a reasonable time to make sure I can put some ks down on the road on my non-swimming days. It’s a balancing act. Most importantly, we’ve got a huge presentation on 27 August to get dialled and there is a high chance that our swim happens on the 28th which could make for an interesting taper week!
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