Channel swim 5 – Swimming in the dark
I’ve a bit been worried about a sore elbow.
I’ve started training with a plan properly, and on a couple of days I’ve had a very mildly sore right elbow. It really was a very slight issue and quickly passed each time but after all my assertions to Hannah that I’m more swim fit than my summer schedule would suggest and that I could easily meet her distances doubt started to creep in….
I had no idea what was causing it and started to fret.
What if it got worse?
What if it wound up stopping my training and I lost weeks or maybe even months letting it recover?
I suddenly realised just how fine the margins are for a training plan that’s starting this late, even with the swimming ability I’ve already built. Before I knew it I was convinced the elbow was the first sign of a huge joint issue that was going to wreck everything.
I eventually worked it out. As a triathlete, I don’t often tumble turn, and I use my right arm 90% of the time in the pool to swing myself around at the end of each length. I’ve been working hard and using a lot of force to speed the turn. As soon as I realised this and eased off on the turns, the problem disappeared. I hope all the challenges that crop up are as easy to resolve as this.
Training to the plan
I’d sat down with Hannah the coach, and she handed over the swim plan for the first three weeks. I looked at the plans then gave her a long, hard stare.
She knows I hate sculling. Two out of the three plans had extensive sculling drills.
‘Go on, tell me you didn’t giggle when you put the sculling drills in?’ I asked.
‘I practically wet myself laughing actually. Still laughing ten minutes later’ was the brutal reply.
I am having to develop a thicker skin. I’m swimming drills from a plan that has me hammering up and down doing a fast 400m crawl then switching to 300m of alternating doggy paddle/front crawl in a shared lane. I’m getting some properly filthy looks from the other swimmers that I’ve just ploughed through as I suddenly change gear. I haven’t actually been verbally abused yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s coming.
I’m sure they have me pegged as a weirdo at the local pool for other reasons as well. For example, at the end of each swim I hit the shower button and step under the flow for a few seconds, then sigh and move onto the next shower and repeat the process.
I know I’m religiously following the ‘No hot showers’ edict and as soon as the water warms up I’m moving on, but they don’t. I wonder what theories they are coming up with?
Hannah has quickly proven how well she knows me.
‘So, how many surprises are we going to have while you are training?’ was her initial question. I tried to deflect by pretending I didn’t know what she meant, but eventually came clean and admitted I’d last minute signed up for a cross triathlon that weekend.
Hannah just looked at me.
I can’t imagine her being cross, but I think that was probably as bad as it gets. I definitely felt guilty, even if I didn’t really understand what the issue was.
48 hours later as I leaped from a muddy rutted gravel path onto a equally muddy rutted road and the bike bucked hard beneath me coming closer to throwing me off for the third time that day than I’ve experienced in years, I got her point. I cannot go down on tarmac and damage a knee or worse a shoulder – this would at best halve my chances of getting across, and I need to weigh up everything I choose to do, not just wave it off as ‘cross training’ and assume it will be ok.
The training block for the first three weeks is as follows:
- 3 sessions at the local pool with various technique and fitness improving drills
About 2800m a session - 2 Thames acclimatisation swims a week
About 2000m of swimming (once you factor in the river current) - 1 club swim session to give me people to chase and so Hannah can keep an eye on what I’m doing.
About 2,200m
The mp3 player has already paid for itself in the swimming pool, and I’m actually really happy stroking up and down the lane while listening to podcasts.
River Swimming
Hannah was really happy for me to keep up with the local swimming group – she’s a firm believer that this is what’s going to keep me going through the winter and surrounding myself with as many people as I can who really understand what I’m trying to do will be critically helpful.
I’ve managed half a dozen swims with them now – and they are mad, but in the best possible way. I’ve been on midweek early river swims where we were swimming in the dark the whole time (the photo at the top of the page was after we’d got out of one of these), and a few swims where the sun came up halfway through. This was one of the most spectacular experiences of my life as it went from total darkness (not many lights in the river) to full daylight in about ten minutes. I’m told mornings with a early fog on the river are even more spiritual.
Its fascinating – the world we live in has so much data freely available that from my phone I can have a pretty good idea the night before what the weather, the river temperature and the flowrate is going to be which makes a huge difference to the swim.
That first swim with Ian was with a river flow of about 20m3 per second and I still found it tough to get upstream. Since then the swims have been at 40m3 per second, and I’ve learnt that when they say ‘get close to the bank’ they really mean it. There are a couple of points in the river where I was swimming flat out on the spot for ten minutes before switching to breaststroke to allow me to move under some of the trees and almost immediately start making progress.
Most of the crew are faster than me. I keep reminding myself I can maintain this pace for hours. I know they can too, but it still helps a bit. I’ll be watching closely to see if the training plan starts closing the gap.
Today it’s running at 105m3, so on the one hand I’m not sad to be missing out as I pound out a timed baseline pool swim, but on the other I did miss a large fish swimming straight down one of the groups cleavage before getting trapped in their swimming costume, terrifying them both equally while being generously hilarious for everyone else.
My biggest issue is still the first five minutes – the experienced swimmers don’t hang about, but disrobe and throw themselves into crawl immediately. I’m finding the first shock of swimming really tough, but so long as I breaststroke halfway across the river while dunking my head I can start to swim fairly quickly, but my breathing is still all over the place for those first few minutes, before eventually settling down. The temperature is now down to 10.8 degrees and still dropping fast – I’m hoping I can keep up with the fall as I acclimatise, but so far so good.
Having noticed Hannah and Ian sipping from a thermos both before and after the swim, I’ve added a mug of tea myself and it does seem to stop the attack of the shivers I was having forty or so minutes later.
Offsetting this, It is great fun swimming with a brilliant bunch of like minded (but very different) people. We turn up, quick chat, swim, quick chat then disappear as fast as the darkness did moments earlier, but the shared desire and ability to push beyond what could be suffering seems to quickly connect people.
It also doesn’t matter if you are swimming in the dark or the day, everyone comes out every single time with these huge smiles that last all day. Fortunately the goggle marks seem to fade a lot quicker.
Hannah the swimmer has picked up on one thing I’ve been doing and has a very firm opinion on. When people ask what I’m planning, my response is usually ‘I’m going to attempt to swim the channel’. I genuinely think I’m going to make it and every time I picture it in my mind I’m succeeding, but I’m very aware I haven’t done anything yet, and don’t want to claim credit I don’t deserve. Hannah hates the qualification and strongly feels I should be saying ‘I’m going to swim the channel’.
I know she’s right. So from now on, if anyone asks, I’m going to proudly tell them ‘I’m going to swim the channel’. Hannah the coach was right. It’s good to have people who’ve been through it around you.
Next: Channel Swim 6: Nutrition
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