Wow, what an amazing training session this morning. I am stoked for the whole day, whatever happens, i'm up, quids in, ahead of the curve, out in front. Ready.
I have to take you through this one, it was an exceptional morning in the Thames!
For those of you not in the UK, it rained here in the south-east of England all day yesterday. Not just pitter-patter, but proper rain. Constant rain. Couple that with the deluge from Wednesday afternoon which was shorter but torrential to the point of grey-out and you've got waterlogged countryside and a high water table.
When Chris, Pete, Nathan and I got to the river this morning, our plan was for a long steady session, 1 hour plus. What we found was that the water level was now some 15cm higher than it was wednesday morning, and remember that's 15cm across a stretch of water maybe 50m-75m wide. That's a lot of water coming through the gates! You could see clearly from the bank that the current would up the ante for us and this was not going to be an easy session.
Normally our paddle to Marlow weir takes us 22 minutes up to a small boat, Sapphire Blue i think it's called, that is the last moored boat before the weir. This morning the boat was not getting any closer, no matter how hard we swam. It's a disheartening game trying to guess distance at water-level, things just take much longer to get to. No matter, Pete and I cranked it up a notch and slowly reeled this flaming little blue and white boat in, slowly and steadily. I reached it first, maybe 20m ahead of Pete, but when i put my hand out to grab the sides, i immediately found myself moving backwards. I had to resume swimming hard again, just to make it back to the boat and keep swimming with one arm as i reached up to grab a conveniently placed rope. Madness. Looking round, i was astonished to find that Pete's still 20m away and he stayed there for about another minute as he dug in to make the boat. While I'm merrily swinging in the current, gripping this wonderfully secure rope, Pete finally reaches up and gets a fingerhold on the stern, enough grip however to manage a gutsy high-five! It was a good effort to reach the boat and we're both a little out of puff to be honest! Instead of 22 minutes, it had taken us 44 minutes this morning.
Looking further downstream, Chris was still gamefully bashing away maybe 30m off, while Nathan was even further back at about 50m, even with his bouyant wettie. It got cold waiting so we decided to use the Thames as our very own infinite lap-pool, slipped out from behind the boat and continued to swim at the same pace as the current flowing in the opposite direction. It was hilarious to be swimming away quite happily yet knowing we weren't getting anywhere! I estimate the water was running at about 90 seconds per 100m, 4km an hour, which is what we expect to average in the Channel.
After a couple of minutes, we checked in on Chris, still a distance off, so we decided to go out and spot him into the boat. Honestly, five strokes and we'd covered the distance to him downstream, where we collected ourselves, made ourselves known and as a trio dialled it back into the boat. For the second time, Pete and I dug in and reached the stern with Chris in tow, more high-fives between us and the realisation that this was exactly what to expect from the Good Lady Channel.
Now, what to do with Nathan? Knowing he's a gritty competitor, Pete didn't think twice about not making him reach the boat and we paddled off to collect and chaperone him through the current. As soon as the three of us broke the waters and gave him a little drafting room, he started to move forward at a steady pace, crossing the main stream from the Buckinghamshire to the Berkshire bank, finally reaching the boat. Good on the man! Awesome finish!
We were now at something like 55 minutes of battling up stream and thinking that our plan to swim all the way back to the normal boat house might take us the rest of the morning! We hastily revised it, knowing we all had work to get to, and made a dash for the landing jetty. Man it felt good to be moving so quickly! We covered the return leg in about 10 minutes, which says something about the pace of the river we'd just fought with.
Mentally, being able to see your progress, however slow, is encouraging. But in the channel, we'll not have any stationary objects against which to guage ourselves. Will any of us want to know that we're not making headway even when we're pulling as hard as we can? At what stage do the team on the boat communicate to the swimmer that as hard as they're working, they need to work harder to push through a tide? We need to work this out between us. It will make a big difference for sure to the mental side of the swim, which takes on more significance than you would think.
Anyway, enough of swimming upstream. I'm going to try to swim downstream for the rest of the day and make my own positive current.
Again in the words of Og Mandino (god, this man's good with words ain't he??? a quote for everything!!!) "I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit". Well, it certainly did this morning!
Oh, we made the pages of the illustrious Maidenhead Advertiser this week! The journos want to do a follow up after our swim aswell. Somewhat hilariously though, the article states that Captain Webb (the first guy to swim the channel) is taking us across in the boat. They seem to have got their research mixed up with our facts: Andy King will be taking us across.
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/4542447.Marlow_swimmers_take_on_the_channel/
Happy trails!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Donation milestone
A short write-up went out today in the Chalfont News, an e-newsletter that covers the three sites here in Little Chalfont, about our channel challenge. It's been so exciting to just get the word out there and have people hear about it. Obviously the usual response is "you're mad" but then it's followed up with "it's a great cause you're swimming for" and that brings it right back to why i'm going to put myself out there.
So, my donations tally for the RNLI now stands at a beautifully uneven GBP500.98 (forgive my US centric keyboard, no pound symbol) which is a great milestone to hit. That's a lot of money and to make sense of it, it would buy three full wetties and a rescue tube for the Lifeguard on the beach. I'm a little way off generating enough money for a full-on rescue craft, but you know, you can try.
I remember the sentiments from a book called "The Greatest Salesman in the World", written by Og Mandino. It's a short book that I would read daily each morning on the book-field where I spent three summers working whilst at University: "If you shoot for the moon, chances are you'll strike a rock. If you shoot for the stars, chances are you'll still strike a rock, but there's always a chance you'll strike the moon".
Interestingly, the great man has another pearl of wisdom which aptly fits my current situation.
"To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can".
And so I close up for the night, ready to hit the river again tomorrow morning, knowing that it may well be a touch cooler, given all the rain from wednesday and thursday but also knowing that it's one more step on the road to being prepared.
Happy trails!
So, my donations tally for the RNLI now stands at a beautifully uneven GBP500.98 (forgive my US centric keyboard, no pound symbol) which is a great milestone to hit. That's a lot of money and to make sense of it, it would buy three full wetties and a rescue tube for the Lifeguard on the beach. I'm a little way off generating enough money for a full-on rescue craft, but you know, you can try.
I remember the sentiments from a book called "The Greatest Salesman in the World", written by Og Mandino. It's a short book that I would read daily each morning on the book-field where I spent three summers working whilst at University: "If you shoot for the moon, chances are you'll strike a rock. If you shoot for the stars, chances are you'll still strike a rock, but there's always a chance you'll strike the moon".
Interestingly, the great man has another pearl of wisdom which aptly fits my current situation.
"To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can".
And so I close up for the night, ready to hit the river again tomorrow morning, knowing that it may well be a touch cooler, given all the rain from wednesday and thursday but also knowing that it's one more step on the road to being prepared.
Happy trails!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Beware drunken mermaids
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.
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.
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!
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