Food, glorious food

With all this training going on, something has got to give. One of the many side-effects for me, from the first week of training in September, was that I started to lose weight. I know, I know, lucky me, but when you're training it's really not such a good idea - not only did I have problems keeping my pants up, but it meant I felt physically tired all the time. My body of course reacted to all this exercise by giving me an enormous appetite - the Channel Hunger. I now eat huge quantities of food, usually directly related to how much swimming I am doing. Supermarket shopping trips have become more frequent, large quantities of cash have been spent, and I benefit from an extra workout trying to lift the shopping bags into the car. When I eat with friends they may be shocked at the amount of food I get through at a sitting, and I suspect some may be reluctant to invite me for dinner for fear I will eat them out of house and home. I know that it's the same story with other aspirants, famously one whose family food bill went down 90% when he was away for a while.


But of course not all food is the same. The picture at the top is from a recent trip to Dunnes Stores. While it may look like a lot of yoghurt, fish, biscuits, fruit, vegetables etc, to me it's like looking at The Matrix - I look and I see protein, fibre, carbohydrates, slow-release sugars, quick-release sugars (and of course beer - don't tell coach). In the days before a big swim, I consume carbohydrates and protein, though I may eat pasta and chicken. This is the new way I think. In fact, while George Orwell uses the word doublethink in his book 1984 to describe the holding of two contradictory views simultaneously, I use doublechocolatechipthink to describe looking at food and seeing swimming fuel.


And while we're on the subject, Michael Phelps, the dude who won 8 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, famously stated that he ate 12,000 calories a day. This is about 9,500 more calories than the recommended average intake for men, and amounts to a serious quantity of food. In a famous article from 2008 Jon Henley from the Guardian newspaper makes a heroic effort to eat like a champion. It's worth a read - here.

Training

So how do you train for a marathon swim as long as the English Channel? In my case I went to an expert - master coach Eilís Burns. Eilís has been training Channel aspirants for a number of years now and this year she has taken 10 of us under her wing, a considerable commitment, for which we are very grateful. Eilís has set out a training program in order to build up strength, endurance and mental toughness. Training began in September, with weekly distances of about 25,000 metres in the pool and sea.


Those weekly distances have relentlessly increased, and my highest total (so far) was about three weeks ago, when I swam 52km in one week. This involved a number of days swimming in the pool for 4 or 5 hours at a time, sometimes before and after work, so the time commitment is considerable. Also, once a month or so a long distance pool swim was required of all the aspirants. These were between 20km and 24km long - about 7 or 8 hours of swimming up to 1,000 pool lengths. All in all, we have clocked up about 900,000 metres since September, or about 36,000 lengths. Sea swims have continued all winter long as well, in all weather and water temperatures. All of this makes Channel aspirants easy to spot if you bump into them on the street - they are the ones that are hurrying somewhere with a bag of swimming gear, look tired, smell vaguely of chlorine, and are eating large quantities of food.

Newsflash: Channel Swim now longer

Following a collapse of a section of the famous chalk cliffs of Dover, the Mail Online has breathlessly announced that 'Now France is even further away'. This rather upsetting news means that for this year's Channel Swim Aspirants, their swim will now be even longer. There are already rumours on the Twitter machine that coach Eilis is busy creating a newer, tougher training schedule to prepare us for the extra distance. Aspirants have responded to these rumours with what can only be described as a collective, exhausted, sigh..

All-night swim done

Just a quick word to let everyone know that the overnight swim on Friday night went well, with no major casualties. I was in the 1:50 lane, with Carmel, Cat, and Craig (all training for the Channel this summer), Lisa (already done a double Channel) and Niamh (too fast for anyone to keep up with). We were also joined at various stages by Roisin, Rob and Jen - all heading to Dover in the summer. We cruised through 4 hours of 100m sprints and took a break at 2am for 10 minutes. Time seemed to slow to a crawl from 3am to 4am, but then picked up with the end in sight. By 5am we started mixing in other strokes - Rob leading 50m front crawl, followed by Carmel burning through 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke, until sprinting to the jacuzzi at 5:30am after completing about 21km. There were triathletes doing stints on Turbo-trainers, loud music and lots of food and drinks.

Riana did an excellent 6.5 hours for 16km and though tired and creaky there were no major injuries for either of us - no new ones anyway. The swim was fueled by Mi-Wadi, strawberries, blueberries, jelly snakes, minstrels, coffee and chocolate muffins. The two casualties of the night were my togs and my dignity, as I split the rear end of my Speedos at some stage during the swim and was not informed about it until I got out of the pool at the very end. The important thing, however, was that the event raised approximately 3,500 Euro for the Moses Foundation, so a good job done by all.

Endurance Charity Swim

Tonight, Friday the 9th of March, Riana and I and about 20 others are taking part in an endurance swim for charity. The swim starts at 10pm at the pool of Source Health & Fitness in Silversprings, Cork, and continues for 8 hours throughout the night, finishing up at 6am on Saturday morning. Myself and those training for the Channel and other marathon swims will be swimming those 8 hours doing 100 metre sprints (4 lengths of the pool) over and over again. There will be triathletes there as well, swapping from the pool to a bike, or even running around the carpark a few times in the middle of the night.

There will be separate lanes for people swimming those 100 metres on 2 minutes, on 1:50, on 1:40, and perhaps a cool-down slow lane or two. I will be in whatever lane my coach tells me to be in (to be perfectly honest), but most likely I will be doing them on 1 minute 50 seconds. It will be a challenge to keep up the pace and intensity for 8 hours, but the real challenge is the mental one, to push beyond the exhaustion after a week of work and training and sleep deprivation.


The event is organised by our super-coach, Eilis Burns, and is in aid of the charity The Moses Foundation. The Moses Foundation do a lot of good work with schools in Swaziland and Uganda, and the event tonight is expected to raise thousands of Euro for them, a great achievement by one person for a great cause.

The Three Questions

There are a few questions I get asked that pop up again and again. These three are the most common, and I will attempt to answer them below:

1. Why on earth are you doing that?
Well, I like having goals, as it gives meaning and direction to regular morning swims in the pool, and a focus for the year. Swimming the English Channel is a huge challenge that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. It demands an enormous amount of dedication, discipline and determination, but it is essentially achievable. It is also a big adventure, though a little bit surreal at times too.

2. Are you planning on putting on some weight?
You know, I've tried my best, but I don't think my body is built for it. I eat enormous quantities of food, but then swim it all off again. It's debatable whether I need large body mass for the swim, but it's important to get used to the cold water, so I swim every weekend in the sea, and have done so all winter.

3. Is Riana going to swim The Channel too?
No. She has more sense. Riana prefers swims in beautiful wild locations, such as Glandore in West Cork, Inisbofin, and Donegal.