Channel Swim 10: Making steady progress
10: 37, 18th January 2020, Parliament Hill Lido
I’m sat beside the Lido watching swimmers lower themselves gingerly into the water and to be honest, I’m bricking myself a bit.
I’m at PHISH (the Parliament Hill Icy Splash Hootenanny), an invite only cold water swimming event. On the edge of Hampstead Heath, the stunning Lido nestles in among the tall London terraces. The water temperature is usually around 2-3 degrees but this year, after an unfeasibly mild winter and despite a last ditch icy blast over night the water is clinging to 7 degrees. Many of the more experienced Phishies are good naturedly moaning that ‘it’s not the same and it’s not right’.
I should be fine with seven degrees, but I hadn’t prepared myself for how seriously everyone is taking the racing. Swimmers jump in, pause for the gun and take off in (usually) a brisk crawl. Even the few breast strokers are fast.
Once again, I’ve turned up for a dedicated swimming event and been surprised that it’s stuffed to the gills with people who can swim well. You’d think I’d start learning.
Adding to my concern, I’ve signed up for the ‘Double After Dropper’. This innocuous sounding name masks a cruel event. I have to get in, swim 244m, get out, spend a mandatory 5 minutes in the steaming hot jacuzzi, then repeat. It looked hilarious back in October when I signed up for it.
I’m not laughing right now...
Lots has happened since the last post. I attended the Dover Channel Training two day seminar and met loads of other aspiring and successful channel swimmers. I also learned loads, but more on that later.
My training load has increased significantly – I’m now swimming five 6k sessions a week, so by the time I’ve inevitably lost count my weekly distance is approaching 35k. Making the time for the swims is proving a challenge but dispatching the swims themselves is proving to be no problem. I found myself with two swim sessions to do on the friday before the seminar, and after banging out about 13k in two swimming pools eighty miles apart I felt good. Not exactly fresh, but not destroyed like I would have been back in October.
I found myself questioning my life choices as I got off a plane from New York and drove directly to the pool rather than home, but all in all, it’s proving surprisingly manageable.
I was worried overtraining was beginning to bite as I found my pace dropping and nothing I could do put it back where it was. Hannah the swim coach watched me for two lengths while running a group session, yelled ‘You aren’t rotating properly on your non breathing side!’ and bang, I was instantly going 30s/100m faster. I’ve never questioned the value of having the experts around me, but I don’t think I could come up with a better example of the difference they are making.
11:55, 18th January 2020, Parliament Hill Lido
Thank all the gods for that. They’ve just run through the process for the Double After Dipper and I’d misremembered what I’d booked. It’s 244m in total, so a 122m swim, jacuzzi and 122m more. Not entirely surprisingly, they just ran the first heat and every single swimmer completed the second stint significantly faster than the first leg.
Jumping in still looks horrible though.
Its not long since I’d taken a good few minutes acclimatising for a swim anything below 15 degrees. These guys were taking no prisoners… ‘Swimmers in the water…. Ready…. Go!’. That fast. It looked brutal. Most swimmers leapt in, surfaced and grimly grabbed the wall for the start, however a few gasps and some loud and profane swearing here and there did suggest it was tougher than most were letting on.
Coming back to the Dover Channel Training weekend… Most valuably, they had nearly 100 people in the room who were either successful channel swimmers or planning to do so, either solo or as part of a relay team. They were all really lovely people who understand what you are trying to do, why you are trying to do it and what you are going through as part of the preparation.
It’s not until you immerse yourself in the endurance swimming world that you realise just how small it is. I’ve already had a number of warm greetings and catch ups with swimmers who are also here at Phish and had the privilege of cheering some of my new friends in as they finish their races. Being able to compare notes and experiences with people is such a positive thing and gives a real lift. One of the crew, Sarah, was gently chastising me about overtraining while feeding me hot water and snake sweets in the sauna.
Almost secondary in terms of value was the information shared by the Dover Crew; but that shouldn’t be seen as understating how much I took from the weekend. One of the things they talked about was the ‘Dovercoaster’ – the wild fairground ride that you experience while waiting for your swim to start during your window. I experienced a Dovercoaster of my own that weekend – Saturday evening I felt strong, prepared and confident. The crew there really know their stuff, and swim after successful swim has let them build a number of techniques and training to make the most of your chances. A lot of the stuff I’d heard from other swimmers was now out of date and it was fascinating to get the latest info from the undisputed experts.
I don’t think the seminar team had realised quite how many of their stories were about failure, however glorious (and some were indeed glorious). By Sunday lunchtime I was wondering what the hell I was thinking and the sheer scale of the challenge had come crashing home. A couple of phrases had stuck so hard I was struggling to see around them:
‘If you’re having a bad day in a marathon, you can always just walk. That doesn’t work in the channel’
‘Your swim only starts as you exit the French shipping channel. The rest of it is just getting to the start’
I managed to recover a bit before the conference finished, but I still have work to do rebuilding my confidence. I cannot wait to get down to Dover when they start their training season in May as I think this is going to make a huge difference. Its not that far away either.
13:00, 18th January 2020, Parliament Hill Lido
‘Swimmers in the water…. Ready…. Go!’.
It was properly shock and awe. I had a second to adjust my goggles then we were going. It wasn’t actually that cold, but the instant start meant I was really struggling to get my breathing right. As it was a race and I was trying to go too fast this was quickly magnified and I found myself doing a mix of crawl and breaststroke as I gasped for air. Not surprisingly I was last out of the Lido.
I trotted to the jacuzzi and crawled in; it felt so hot I stung all over my body.
Some minutes later we were herded back to the start; the water did not look inviting, but jumping in felt no worse than the first leg. I actually managed to crawl most of the first length before gasping took over; I was last again, but by a much smaller margin as I swam the second leg significantly faster.
Hauling myself out of the pool I quickly made my way to the sauna (none of the usual cold water swimming rules seem to apply at Phish) and as I soaked up the heat, I thought about what I’d learned. Phish is amazing – it’s clearly an event for proper cold water swimmers run by proper cold water swimmers and I loved everything about the atmosphere and the organisation.
I still can’t just leap in sub ten degree water and start sprinting, but I didn’t feel really cold and I didn’t even suffer an afterdrop. I think I picked the wrong event.
I’m going to try the endurance race next year. And see if I can wangle invites for my mates.