I think I may have a new nickname. From the swimming fraternity at least.
About 90% through our training set this morning, we paused for breath before the final high intensity stint of 400m. Chris paddles up and matter of factly says to me "I liken your swimming this morning to that of a drunken mermaid. You're all over the shop!"
Fair comment actually. When I up the intensity I have a bad habit of meandering along the river. I nearly swam down a backwater on monday morning because I wasn't looking where I was going. Now that would be disastrous mid channel to be paddling off in the wrong direction!
Anyway, with that said, I can see the backprint for my team t-shirt already!
Just a reminder, donations to the RNLI can be made through my just giving site www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Lovell-Davis
donations to the RVCP can be made through my Dad as per the blog post from 4 August.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
You know the channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world....
This is a wake-up call! I found this linked to a channel swim website. It is a real-time vessel tracker for UK ports. The linked page shows the traffic in real-time between Dover and Calais, through which we're going to be swimming.
Hilarious!!! What should a channel swimmer's icon look like? A small floating rubber duck?
http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=1&map=folkstone
Hilarious!!! What should a channel swimmer's icon look like? A small floating rubber duck?
http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=1&map=folkstone
Australian Royal Volunteer Coast Patrol Donations
I have been asked by more than one person how it might be possible to make donations to the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, Ulladulla Division.
Coastal Patrol in New South Wales provide a volunteer service to all ocean users; ocean vessels in distress, passing vessels on the radio providing information about the shoreline, recreational boats out for a spot of fishing, of course providing a rapid response for swimmers like me and many many more activities.
In 2008 the number of volunteer hours provided in NSW was 759,502 which equates to a benefit to NSW alone of $22.8 million! That’s a lot of support.
According to the 2008 stats for NSW, there were 1,157 reported incidents with 2,634 people rescued, a staggering 7 people per day for every day of the year.
Breakdowns and searches required 721 outings of a rescue boat of some sort, with the fuel bill alone reaching $170,294.
The RVCP is a 100% charitable entity and maintains phenomenally high standards of care and service to the Australian beach-going community. Without contributions, there would be no coastal patrol. I realise that cash is hard to come by for all of us right now, but if everyone can make a contribution of a few dollars and send this message to a lot of their friends, then the dollars will stack up in the end.
Coastal Patrol in New South Wales provide a volunteer service to all ocean users; ocean vessels in distress, passing vessels on the radio providing information about the shoreline, recreational boats out for a spot of fishing, of course providing a rapid response for swimmers like me and many many more activities.
In 2008 the number of volunteer hours provided in NSW was 759,502 which equates to a benefit to NSW alone of $22.8 million! That’s a lot of support.
According to the 2008 stats for NSW, there were 1,157 reported incidents with 2,634 people rescued, a staggering 7 people per day for every day of the year.
Breakdowns and searches required 721 outings of a rescue boat of some sort, with the fuel bill alone reaching $170,294.
The RVCP is a 100% charitable entity and maintains phenomenally high standards of care and service to the Australian beach-going community. Without contributions, there would be no coastal patrol. I realise that cash is hard to come by for all of us right now, but if everyone can make a contribution of a few dollars and send this message to a lot of their friends, then the dollars will stack up in the end.
May I say a big thanks to my Dad who has taken to the volunteering life and is helping me co-ordinate this element of my channel challenge! He is a qualified for radio operation, navigation, seamanship and first aid as required for all crew members and he is current under training for Skipper Level one.
Given that the RVCP are not connected to something like Just Giving, we’re taking a more manual approach here so bear with me! This is important if you’re an Australian tax payer and you can claim back the tax effect of the donation.
If you would like to contact the RVCP Ulladulla crew directly, you can get in touch with Doug Musker, the Division Commander through their website:
http://www.rvcpulladulla.com.au/
Please make cheques payable to RVCP Ulladulla and send them to my Dad who volunteers for the RVCP (see the Ulladulla write-up that I attach to this email and how he pulled together the Charity Golf Day) and he can pay these into the Coastal Patrol account and arrange to have your tax receipt sent to you from the RVCP which is a registered charity in Australia.
Send your cheque to
Barrie Lovell-Davis
7 Skillman Place
Mollymook Beach
NSW 2539
AUSTRALIA
with a short cover note saying;
"Jezz Lovell-Davis Channel Challenge - RVCP Ulladulla Donation"
"YOUR NAME and ADDRESS"
If you have any questions about this, please get in touch on the blog or my email jezzld@hotmail.com
Given that the RVCP are not connected to something like Just Giving, we’re taking a more manual approach here so bear with me! This is important if you’re an Australian tax payer and you can claim back the tax effect of the donation.
If you would like to contact the RVCP Ulladulla crew directly, you can get in touch with Doug Musker, the Division Commander through their website:
http://www.rvcpulladulla.com.au/
Please make cheques payable to RVCP Ulladulla and send them to my Dad who volunteers for the RVCP (see the Ulladulla write-up that I attach to this email and how he pulled together the Charity Golf Day) and he can pay these into the Coastal Patrol account and arrange to have your tax receipt sent to you from the RVCP which is a registered charity in Australia.
Send your cheque to
Barrie Lovell-Davis
7 Skillman Place
Mollymook Beach
NSW 2539
AUSTRALIA
with a short cover note saying;
"Jezz Lovell-Davis Channel Challenge - RVCP Ulladulla Donation"
"YOUR NAME and ADDRESS"
If you have any questions about this, please get in touch on the blog or my email jezzld@hotmail.com
A little background knowledge
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!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A long swim at Liquid Leisure
Laying down challenges, Chris, Heath and I decided to put ourselves to the test and hit Liquid Leisure http://www.openwaterswim.co.uk/ this morning for as long as we could. The lake just outside Datchet is open to swimmers for two hours between half 6 and half 8 and becomes a splash-fest for open water swimmers and triathletes. The water in the lake is hovering around high nineteen degrees, so the need for wetsuits is pretty low but regardless of that all but us and a couple of others are rubbered up in full suits. I shake my head.
Hitting the water just after half six we reckoned on completing as close to two hours as we could. It’s a reasonable test I think, swimming solidly for two hours, even if the water’s not as cold and this won’t cause the muscles to cramp up anywhere nearly as quickly, but if you think about it, it’s a test for the shoulders. Eighty strokes per 100m. Eight hundred strokes per kilometer. Four kilometers per hour, that’s 3,200 strokes an hour. I ended up completing about 6.5km in 1hr 40mins this morning, that’s 5,200 strokes. 2,600 rotations of each shoulder. Forgive me, I am an accountant.
After about 5.5km my right bicep started to tighten up, feeling a little torn, which is never a good feeling in anyone’s book so I’ll be looking after that for the next 36hrs. It could be worse, could be chaffing under my armpits, now that’s sore! Still, I’ll take it easy the next couple of days, don’t want anything letting go now.
Running through my head this morning, for the majority of the swim, was about four bars from the chorus of “The Whole World Reminds Me of You” by Thirsty Merc. I must learn more catchy songs to be able to hum along to. The ocean’s a quiet place.
I have an apology to make here. When I said we were swimming at “old-man-plod pace” on Friday morning, what I MEANT was “reasonable training pace”. It’s all relative really, depending on how you feel when you pitch up to the deck. Friday morning I felt pretty sore, this morning I felt really good and was able to test myself a little, pushing the pace on every alternate kilometer.
I reckon that ability to change pace for a good 15-30 minutes will be crucial when we come to the channel. The tides change so quickly and so dramatically that if you miss a positive tide and get hit by an adverse one it can add hours to your time as you battle against it. In particular we hear the tide that rushes along the French coastline is fierce and it would be the last thing you want to hit when you’re tired and sore. Regardless of what pace you swim at, I’m sitting and watching the world champs from Rome this arvo and the stunning results coming out of the pool are a marvel to watch. Really exciting stuff. And to finally hear the british national anthem at a swimming event, it’s a good thing!
While I have your attention, I wanted to say many thanks and the best for the future for my friend Jonny Loose who owns the Healthy Deli in Henley. He has had the store open for a couple of years now and built it up to be a well known and exclusive center in Henley for local cheeses, cured meats, condiments and chutneys, wines and beers and an assortment of wonderfully tasty goods. It is with great sadness that we walked into the Healthy Deli today to find Jonny in a shirt and tie for his last day of trading. Jonny will be moving onto different things after a period of R&R. I look forward to hearing about your new venture!
Happy trails and here's to the rest of the weekend!
Hitting the water just after half six we reckoned on completing as close to two hours as we could. It’s a reasonable test I think, swimming solidly for two hours, even if the water’s not as cold and this won’t cause the muscles to cramp up anywhere nearly as quickly, but if you think about it, it’s a test for the shoulders. Eighty strokes per 100m. Eight hundred strokes per kilometer. Four kilometers per hour, that’s 3,200 strokes an hour. I ended up completing about 6.5km in 1hr 40mins this morning, that’s 5,200 strokes. 2,600 rotations of each shoulder. Forgive me, I am an accountant.
After about 5.5km my right bicep started to tighten up, feeling a little torn, which is never a good feeling in anyone’s book so I’ll be looking after that for the next 36hrs. It could be worse, could be chaffing under my armpits, now that’s sore! Still, I’ll take it easy the next couple of days, don’t want anything letting go now.
Running through my head this morning, for the majority of the swim, was about four bars from the chorus of “The Whole World Reminds Me of You” by Thirsty Merc. I must learn more catchy songs to be able to hum along to. The ocean’s a quiet place.
I have an apology to make here. When I said we were swimming at “old-man-plod pace” on Friday morning, what I MEANT was “reasonable training pace”. It’s all relative really, depending on how you feel when you pitch up to the deck. Friday morning I felt pretty sore, this morning I felt really good and was able to test myself a little, pushing the pace on every alternate kilometer.
I reckon that ability to change pace for a good 15-30 minutes will be crucial when we come to the channel. The tides change so quickly and so dramatically that if you miss a positive tide and get hit by an adverse one it can add hours to your time as you battle against it. In particular we hear the tide that rushes along the French coastline is fierce and it would be the last thing you want to hit when you’re tired and sore. Regardless of what pace you swim at, I’m sitting and watching the world champs from Rome this arvo and the stunning results coming out of the pool are a marvel to watch. Really exciting stuff. And to finally hear the british national anthem at a swimming event, it’s a good thing!
While I have your attention, I wanted to say many thanks and the best for the future for my friend Jonny Loose who owns the Healthy Deli in Henley. He has had the store open for a couple of years now and built it up to be a well known and exclusive center in Henley for local cheeses, cured meats, condiments and chutneys, wines and beers and an assortment of wonderfully tasty goods. It is with great sadness that we walked into the Healthy Deli today to find Jonny in a shirt and tie for his last day of trading. Jonny will be moving onto different things after a period of R&R. I look forward to hearing about your new venture!
Happy trails and here's to the rest of the weekend!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Bit of a reality check this morning
Woke up for training with a headache. Not the best start to the day. With a breakfast of soluble paracetomol inside me, I met Heath and Chris at the Marlow Club and trotted off to the river bank with a group of triathletes in tow. Maybe 7 of them, all wet-suited and ready to go. I’m sure I saw eye-liner on one of the ladies….that’s hopeful. I can’t imagine there’s likely to be much talent down the Thames at half-six on a Friday morning that’s on the lookout for a sporty lady, in a full wetsuit, with goggles on. Then again, it does leave a lot to the imagination, which might be what gets some swimmers through a long session.
What is the collective noun for a group of triathletes? Anyone?
As soon as I hit the water this morning I noticed 1) the water was clearer than at any time this week 2) the stream was stronger after all the rain from the last couple of days 3) the water was warmer, which blew me away to be honest and 4) my shoulders are seriously sore. On top of my dusty head, I’m now struggling with two sore shoulders. Took me 20-25 minutes at a speed which can only be described as “old-man-plod” before the aching started to dull. Note to self, need more painkillers.
The plod took us the normal route, upstream to Marlow weir before back down to the next island and boatsheds before turning back into the current for 400-500m at a harder pace to the jetty. The jetty which we now know actually moves away from you the closer you get to it. One of long distance swimming’s little tricks. All up it was an hour's swim today, which is the benchmark minimum. Tomorrow morning we're going to Liquid Leisure to do atleast 90 minutes.
Reality check continues, Chris has bought a thermometer from e-bay (I only say e-bay as a caveat to its technical specifications) which we’d dropped into the river when we left. Coming back to it an hour later, it’s reading 18 degrees. 18 DEGREES!!!???? That’s warm by anyone’s standards. I thought the river was a little warmer, but the channel’s supposed to be 14-15 degrees. This is not good news and we’re all a little concerned now.
Chris did swim to the middle of the stream with the thermo’ to see if it would drop but it stayed steady on 18. Does anyone have any large ice bricks like they do at Bondi Icebergs???
Even so, with a slight breeze in the air we’re all shivering slightly when we get back to the car-park. This is our major concern: the cold. We’re all comfortable with the swimming, even Heath, who now knows he can continue to breath only to the left because Andy King (our pilot – see http://www.louisejane.co.uk/channel_crossing.htm) wants all his swimmers on the starboard bow. But the cold and staying warm, that’s another issue.
I have copied across a lot of my thoughts that have been posted to my Facebook page here just to back up my history of the swim. They go back about a month or so but are pretty short and sweet.
Physically, I have found that in the last few days I have been very hungry. I hope this is on account of my training, but since Tuesday I have been constantly hungry. Now, I’m not saying it’s anything like being in the sudan where people are starving, but I’m always hungry. Must keep a check on my intake, both food and liquids from now on. Less coffee, more water.
Until tomorrow, happy trails.
What is the collective noun for a group of triathletes? Anyone?
As soon as I hit the water this morning I noticed 1) the water was clearer than at any time this week 2) the stream was stronger after all the rain from the last couple of days 3) the water was warmer, which blew me away to be honest and 4) my shoulders are seriously sore. On top of my dusty head, I’m now struggling with two sore shoulders. Took me 20-25 minutes at a speed which can only be described as “old-man-plod” before the aching started to dull. Note to self, need more painkillers.
The plod took us the normal route, upstream to Marlow weir before back down to the next island and boatsheds before turning back into the current for 400-500m at a harder pace to the jetty. The jetty which we now know actually moves away from you the closer you get to it. One of long distance swimming’s little tricks. All up it was an hour's swim today, which is the benchmark minimum. Tomorrow morning we're going to Liquid Leisure to do atleast 90 minutes.
Reality check continues, Chris has bought a thermometer from e-bay (I only say e-bay as a caveat to its technical specifications) which we’d dropped into the river when we left. Coming back to it an hour later, it’s reading 18 degrees. 18 DEGREES!!!???? That’s warm by anyone’s standards. I thought the river was a little warmer, but the channel’s supposed to be 14-15 degrees. This is not good news and we’re all a little concerned now.
Chris did swim to the middle of the stream with the thermo’ to see if it would drop but it stayed steady on 18. Does anyone have any large ice bricks like they do at Bondi Icebergs???
Even so, with a slight breeze in the air we’re all shivering slightly when we get back to the car-park. This is our major concern: the cold. We’re all comfortable with the swimming, even Heath, who now knows he can continue to breath only to the left because Andy King (our pilot – see http://www.louisejane.co.uk/channel_crossing.htm) wants all his swimmers on the starboard bow. But the cold and staying warm, that’s another issue.
I have copied across a lot of my thoughts that have been posted to my Facebook page here just to back up my history of the swim. They go back about a month or so but are pretty short and sweet.
Physically, I have found that in the last few days I have been very hungry. I hope this is on account of my training, but since Tuesday I have been constantly hungry. Now, I’m not saying it’s anything like being in the sudan where people are starving, but I’m always hungry. Must keep a check on my intake, both food and liquids from now on. Less coffee, more water.
Until tomorrow, happy trails.
Lyme Regis
Made it to Relatives in Lyme Regis last weekend. Lisa and I stayed with my Aunty Wendy and Uncle Keith in Axminster and were thoroughly well looked after. It's always a positive time down with them, very very energising it is! Cousin Ian also came down for some R&R away from the craziness of London. Good place to find it i reckon!
Saturday was a good day, sunny for a change, and warm. Aunty Wo and I felt like hitting the water that morning, so went to Lyme Regis. Aunty Wo has been known to dabble in some silly swimming in her time, notably a charity swim on Christmas Day a couple years back for the RNLI. Thoroughly silly but suitably respectable for all ocean swimmers! Her love of the water is what drags her in!
So, in the sunshine of a british summer we marched into the waves at Lyme Regis. The lifeguard board said the temp was 15 degrees, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!! Superb conditions for it, light swell, nothing too dramatic and just crisp enough to make your face and toes tingle. The taste of salt water comes flooding back to your memory and it was like being back on the northern beaches of Sydney. Good times.
I knocked out a couple of km along the bouys before heading back in. While we warmed up we chatted about it being LifeBoat week at Lyme and I decided to go and find some lifeguards and chat about what they actually find themselves doing on a daily basis.
I found Becky and Charlotte manning the beach that morning. See top pic here. They had just performed a couple of demo rescues to illustrate how they are used to keep an eye on the general public. Surprisingly they are fully salaried life guards. Apparently there are not enough volunteers in that part of the world so they have to have full-timers on patrol six days a week. See, that's where the money is needed, full time professional staff. Charlotte told me that in Lyme it is not so much the rescuing as the first aid that is the needed skill. as there is a 25minute response time from the nearest paramedic, it is vital for them to have the skills to resuscitate and revive while the paras arrive. Tough job and a lot of responsibility. It was good to meet them and they wished me luck for the swim. Check them out at:
All in all a good morning out on the beach.
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