The Swim is On

News
At last the end is in sight.  The weather is gradually settling down, the sun is coming out, but most importantly, the wind is dying down.  I talked to my pilot Paul Foreman and I will swim most likely at 9am Saturday morning, the 21st July.  He is taking a relay out Friday morning, and if they are delayed, then my swim will be delayed. I will know at about 9pm Friday night.

Crew
In the meantime, Liam & Lisa are flying into London tomorrow and will be in Dover at 4pm. Along with Riana, they make up a super-crew that I know will support me all the way, and if necessary throw things at me if I whinge or slow up. They will also be doing the very important updating of the Twitter machine so that you can keep track of progress.

How do I follow the swim?
The boat has ShipAIS tracking, which updates constantly during the swim.  Click here, and then scroll down to the map and enter Dover for the port, and Pace Arrow for the vessel.

You can follow messages on the Twitter feed on this blog site, or directly here.

Thanks
Thank you everybody for your great support and encouragement. I will do my best to get in touch with you all, but there will be too many things to do in the coming days, so I won't be able to respond immediately, sorry!  After long months of hard training I have travelled an amazing and sometimes difficult road -  I am looking forward to giving it a real shot on Saturday - to just keep swimming until I hit France...

Dover - Day 4

Today is the first time we can see France since we arrived

On Sunday morning we left a calm and sunny Rosslare and boarded the ferry for Pembroke for a very flat and relaxing crossing of the Irish Sea.  Four hours of driving through Wales, across the New Severn  Bridge, and the weather changed from sunny to cloudy to wet.  Sunday evening traffic meant traffic jams on the M25 but at about 8:30pm we finally arrived at Varne Ridge Holiday Park, a caravan park half way between Dover and Folkstone, and a traditional waiting spot for Irish Channel aspirants.  Craig and Donal had been here for two days already, and we were soon to be joined by Liam and Catherine on my crew, Jen Lane and her crew, and Lisa crewing for Craig.

Pace Arrow

On Monday I met with my pilot Paul Foreman and, along with fellow aspirant Fionnuala who is swimming next month, Paul showed us his boat Pace Arrow and answered all our questions.  Pace Arrow is not a big boat compared to others, so it is fast and shallow - good attributes for getting close to shore and getting back home to Dover quickly.  Paul is a very nice guy and we all got on well.  He said not to worry about the technicalities too much - just get in and keep swimming 'until your feet touch the deck' in France.

Friday's weather forecast

A lot of people have been asking how to follow the swim.  Pace Arrow uses AIS on his boat and this is how people can keep track of the boat during the swim - I will put a link on a new blog entry when I get the go-ahead for a swim, hopefully with a bit of notice.  People can also check out my Twitter feed here, and I now have tweets displayed on the right-hand side of this blog, as you may have noticed.  Twitter is probably the best way of keeping in touch.  Internet access isn't great but I will update when I  can, if I have news.  At the moment the weather has been very bad for swimming - lots of wind.  It doesn't look great before Saturday, and not great even then.  A Dublin swimmer John Downes has today left for home, as his pilot doesn't think he will swim before Monday and he has run out of time for this tide.  It is quite possible that the weather may be too bad for me to swim.  After that, I will have to come up with another plan.  In the meantime, we wait and watch the weather...

The Prom - Spot The Difference

These two videos were taken at the diving boards in Blackrock, Galway. See if you can tell the difference. Answers on a postcard please..

December 24th 2011

July 1st 2012

One Last Lap

There is now less than a week to go before my Channel tide opens.  I'm leaving on Sunday for Dover, the crew (Liam and Catherine) arrive on Monday, and the tide opens on Tuesday the 10th, for a window of 8 days.  If the weather is good, I will swim.  It has been a long time coming, but the day is nearly here.  The work has been done, the preparations have reached fever pitch, the plans ready, the packing imminent.  All that's left to do now is to enjoy the tapering - only an hour swim a day rather than 4, 6, 8.  Time to rest, get the mind in the groove - swim swim swim. Then swim some more.  And then some more.

Cork aspirants 2012

Yesterday we had one last lap around the island to celebrate the departure of the first batch of Cork-based aspirants.  Four of us go on next week's tide.  Here's a pic of coach Eilis' swimmers who have trained in Cork.  About 20 of us swam around to the back of the island and waited at corner 2 but no-one had a camera for the opportune moment, so that sight will have to be stored in our collective memories.

Sandycove crew

After the lap there was lots of coffee, cakes, scones, cards, channel chat, good lucks and best wishes.  A very enjoyable training session, perhaps the best yet..

Sandycove 10 hour swim

Sea pinks on the island

Cork Distance Camp was recently held here.  This is an annual 9-day extravaganza of swimming, sleep deprivation and cups of tea organised and run by the inimitable Ned Denison, long distance swim guru based in Cork.  There were swims every morning at 6am and every evening, in interesting local locations such as Sandycove, Inniscarra, Myrtleville, Fermoy, Garnish, Lough Hyne.  Swimmers from the UK, US and the antipodes joined locals for the week, and in a short number of years it has become an important training camp for swimmers to rack up the kilometers in a short space of time.  Last week the total was probably 120km of swimming, finishing up on the Sunday with a 6-hour swim.  This is very handy as it can be used as a channel aspirant's 6-hour qualification swim.  The Cork aspirants had already done our qualification swims last month, and coach Eilís wanted us to do more.  I had done 6 hours in my wetsuit in May and was planning on a challenging 8-hour swim this time, but coach said no.  I was doing 10 hours. Right..gulp!

The walk to the 1st corner, tide out

For once the weather was actually quiet nice for a long swim, and actually got sunnier as the day went on.  The Cork aspirants started at 7am, preparing feeds, and moving them onto the island.  And then off we went, around the island, swim swim swim.  Neither the water nor the air temperature were particularly warm.  I was glad I was in a wetsuit and felt sorry for the others in togs.  After an hour the rest of the Distance Camp swimmers arrived and suddenly there were loads of people in the water.

Feeds ready to go

At each lap of the island I swam to shore to get a feed of Maxim carb drink from Riana, and each time the water level was lower and lower as the tide went out.  More rocks appeared in view,  liberated from the sea, and it eventually required a walk of 20m to get to water deep enough to start a new lap.  Feeds involved opening my mouth and throwing back 300ml of fluid as fast as possible, then moving on, practicing to keep going all the time.
 

Swimming in for a feed

What did I do for all that time in the water?  Laps and more laps of the island - 7, 8, 9, 10.  Looking at the waves.  Looking at the goats.  Looking at the trees that aren't there.  Listing all the houses I ever lived in.  God, how long more to go?  This would drive you mad!  Then Ned wanted us all to stay inside the island, so I swam down the creek and did a lap of the yacht 'Aikido' moored there - one lap, two laps, three. Time passed. Verrrrrry slowly. And people finished up one by one, and I met fewer swimmers in the water.  Cars at the slip disappeared over the hill and around the corner - gone.  The helpers on the island also became fewer and eventually got in a boat and left!  Another lap of the island.  My arms complained and demanded to stop, and by hour 9 I was done.  This of course was too late to drop out though, and with the help of Riana and Liam swimming with me I plodded through the last hour to finish with the only other two people in the water, Lisa and Carmel.  A 10 hour swim - there's something I don't do too often (TG).

Coping with The Cold - a decision

Cuskinny

"Nothing great is easy".  That's what they say about swimming The Channel.  How right they are.  Since the sea training schedule started on the 1st May I have struggled to keep up.  I've always kept up. In the pool I spent hours and hours ploughing up and down doing the training program that coach Eilís has mapped out for her channel aspirants - 142km in February, 165km in March, 146km in April.

Sandycove the day I swam 4:20 hrs - before the rain.

Then May arrived and I swam twice a day to keep up the mileage - 6:30am in Inniscarra lake, 45 minutes in 11C water, 6pm in Sandycove, 45 minutes on an overcast, windy day.  Sunday 1 hour at Inniscarra ploughing through chop, Monday at Myrtleville, 31 minutes swimming through jellyfish of all description, Wednesday 7am at Cuskinny for 64 minutes in fresh, cold water.  Every day trying to increase the time in the water, every day feeling the cold, the cold, the cold, getting cramps in the water and afterwards shivering and coping with muscle spasms.  A 45 minute swim would mean 30 minutes of shivering before I could drive home or to work.

Garrettstown

With a lot of effort, Maxim and the help of Riana and friends I pushed out my times to 1 hour 25 minutes, 2 hours, 4:20, 4:40.  That's about 14km, but it took everything out of me physically, mentally and emotionally, and it wasn't enough - the qualification time to be allowed to swim The Channel is 6 hours.  I was exhausted and battered, took a break and contemplated giving up, but with the help of coach, Riana and friends, came up with a decision - I would still do the swim, but I would wear a wetsuit.  I contacted my pilot and CS&PF and they are ok with that - it just won't count as a Channel swim - it will be an 'unorthodox' swim, so no qualification swim, no observer, and no certificate at the end.  But swimming in a wetsuit allows me to swim without the cold stopping me, and for that I am grateful and actually excited about the swim again.  Onwards and upwards from here...

Cork Table Quiz

The Cork version of SleepSwim's diabolical table quiz was held in the South County, Douglas last Thursday night, attracting an exotic array of very brainy swimmers, musicians, athletes, educators, card-players and friends.  Surmounting various interrogative hurdles as naming monotremes, the number of Michael Phelps' gold medals, the world's largest island or all five children visiting Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, an intelligent "Poco Piu Mosso" won out against a tied "Team Viola" and one of the two confusingly-named Judean teams.  A monster raffle produced a number of lucky happy punters as well.

In total the night raised €1,132, a great achievement to all participants and to those who donated even if they couldn't attend.  All of this will go straight to Marymount Hospice and St Vincent de Paul, two very worthy charities.

Lots of thank yous again - Liam Maher for acting as question-master and taking the blame for the tough questions. The South County for the venue, food and raffle prize. Bernard Lynch at Centra Crosshaven, Cork Coffee Roasters, Bramley Lodge for sponsoring prizes, as did Fota Wildlife Park, Source Health & Fitness, Old Killarney Cottages, The Shelbourne Bar, Catherine Sheridan, Liam Maher and Alan Craughwell. The staff of Glounthane NS also did great fund-raising and I am very grateful for their support. I hope I didn't miss anyone there - a very well done to all.

Sea Swimming

Something has changed.  Friends, work colleagues and family have noticed it.  My physio has remarked upon it.  The swimmers at Source Health & Fitness have commented upon it.  There has been a change.  There is a disturbance in 'the Force'.  That disturbance has been caused by coach Eilís handing everyone their sea swimming schedule on the 1st of May.  No more pool!  Outdoors from now on, and not only that, but a huge jump in the mileage as well - 55km, 75km, 88km etc etc.   Ok, deep breath, how can I make this work?  I need to habituate myself to the cold water (about 11 C at the moment) even though the Channel swim will be much warmer (hopefully 14-16 C), but as I am a skinny person I am currently having huge problems with lasting a long time in the water, and endure shivering and muscle cramping after each swim.  Mentally and physically this is exhausting, and my muscles are paying the price, as my physio has seen.

In order to keep up the mileage, though, I have to now swim twice a day, and do long swims in a wetsuit when I have the time or opportunity.  It's also not advisable to swim on my own, so a bit of organising with others is required as well.  So since the 1st of May I have been doing a lot of driving to do relatively short swims, lots of shivering, then repeating again after work, while keeping an eye on the tide times so that I have enough water in which to swim.  Then home to prepare enormous quantities of food and prepare for the next morning's 6:30am swim.

Needless to say this has consumed an enormous amount of time, and I have been worried about increasing my duration in the cold water, and how to maintain the mileage when this duration is still short.  This is the real challenge.

The real training has started.

Galway Table Quiz

Last night, 11th May, team SleepSwim held a table quiz fundraiser in Lohan's at the roundabout in Salthill, Galway.   A very intelligent crowd showed up on the night, ready to answer all variety of challenging and bizarre questions.  In total 13 tables battled it out for prizes of wine, chocolate and vouchers for cakes.


It was neck and neck for a long time, but then the Food & Drink round allowed team "2swimmers2 gingers" to nudge ahead of "The Zoomers" super-team and claim victory.  A mega-raffle for 20 prizes allowed many who found that the questions didn't suit them to walk away with something interesting, useful or alcoholic.


In total the quiz night and other donations raised €1,232 for St Vincent de Paul's vital work in the Galway region.  The Cork quiz is Thursday 24th May - please come out and support SVP and Marymount Hospice. The pressure is on Cork now to beat the Galway totals..

A big thank you to those who turned out on a lovely sunny evening - lots of swimmers, paddlers, musicians and relatives of Riana.  Thanks also to Quiz master Alice Parsons, helpers Riana & Ciara, and to all those who provided gifts for the prizes & raffle - especially Lohan's, Sheila's Hostel, McCambridge's, River Deep Mountain High, Briar Hill Vet Clinic, The Great Outdoors, Gourmet Tart Co, Catherine Walsh, Orla Parsons, Aengus Parsons, and all the Blackrock Swimming Ladies.

Laps of Sandycove Island

Sandycove Island, for those who don't know by now, is an island close to shore just outside the mouth of Kinsale harbour in Cork.  It is about 18 acres in size, is inhabited by goats and one or two small trees, and is circumnavigated fastidiously like a school of hungry sharks by the Sandycove Swimmers, triathletes and of course English Channel aspirants (ahem..).

A swim around the island is a mile in duration and a lot of people swim around the island a lot of times.  Some even count the number of times they do so.  In recognition of the dedication of these people and their swimming stamina a list is kept of life-time achievement counts of 100 laps ('C' in roman numerals), 500 laps (D) and 1,000 laps (M).  Yesterday, however, the list had to be updated.

Here's a group photo of the early swimmers on the slipway (there were plenty more swimmers later on). Carmel, Alan, SleepSwim, Finbarr, Riana, Lisa and Catherine.  We started early because we wanted to do a long swim.  The sun was out, but so too was a rapier north-easterly wind, which whipped up huge swells at the back of the island, and all the way down the inside too.  Water temperature ranged from about 10C outside the island, to a truly tropical 12C at the beach on the island.

Here's Fin enjoying the sunshine at the slip.  In the end Carmel did 5 laps - a new best for her this season, Alan did his first 2012 lap, myself and Cat swam for nearly 3 hours, and Fin and Lisa stayed in for an astonishing 6 hours.  They both clocked up their 100th laps of the year, with Lisa completing her 500th lap, and Fin passing the Red House for the 1,000th time.  Well done to both.

Ten weeks to go

Well, from today there are 10 weeks left to the start of my swim tide, the 10th - 18th July.  After months of training and hard slog, suddenly it's right there in front of me, only 70 days away.  I am 4th on the list for my pilot, and you never know what the weather will be like, so my actual swim date is still an unknown - nothing to do but hope for good weather and a short wait in Dover.

What will happen in the next 10 weeks?  The transition from pool to the outdoors will increase drastically, even though the weather is terrible at the moment and the sea water temperature about 9 or 10C.  Soon there will be no more pool swims - a great relief to the sinuses and lots more space in the pool for the regulars.  There are some organised swims coming up in the next few weeks - repeats of the Round Spike swim, a 6-hour sea swim in 2 weeks' time, and a 9-day Distance Camp with daily long swims in June, including another 6-hour sea swim.

Preparations for the swim will also start in earnest - booking flights, co-ordinating crew, planning swim feeding schedules, making sure equipment and backups are all ok etc.  This is a busy month for fundraising for me also - two table quizzes to hold, plus a few other ideas as well.

Ten weeks to go.  These are the weeks to hold the nerve, look after the shoulders, keep to the training program, enjoy the long outdoor swims, and hopefully watch the water temperature rise and rise.  In the meantime, as Muhammad Ali says - "Don't count the days, make the days count."

Fundraising Events - Galway and Cork

In order to fundraise for my two charities, Marymount Hospice and St Vincent de Paul, I will be holding two table quizzes.  If you are living in either Cork or Galway please support these events, bring a friend (or a table-full of friends) and spread the word.  There will be food, prizes and plenty of fun.  Many thanks in advance.


The first Table Quiz will be held in Lohan's Bar & Restaurant in Salthill, Galway, on Friday the 11th May.

Kick-off is at 8pm.

All money raised will go to St Vincent de Paul West.

The second Table Quiz will be held in The South County Bar & Cafe in Douglas, Cork, on Thursday the 24th May.

Start time is again 8pm.

All money raised will go to Marymount Hospice and St Vincent de Paul in Cork.

Swimming for a cause

I will be using my swim to fundraise for two very deserving charities.  I will be running some events in the coming months, but I have also set up webpages where you can donate from the comfort of your computer at home.  So if you enjoy following this blog and want to do some good, then please consider a donation.  Thank you.

Marymount Hospice

St Patrick's Hospital, Marymount is a Cork institution that has helped countless people over the past 140 years.  They provide essential caring services for the elderly, and palliative and hospice care to those with life-threatening illnesses.  They do great work. You can support them here.

Society of St Vincent de Paul

The SVP deal with the poorest and most deserving in the community, on a personal and basic level.  They provide an essential safety net for those who fall through the cracks of welfare, and are a strong voice for equality for those without power or influence.  You can support them here.

Swimming Spots - Blackrock, Galway

Blackrock diving boards

Any time I visit Galway, a trip to the diving boards at Blackrock is pretty much compulsory.  Blackrock is at the end of the famous Salthill Prom, a pedestrian path along the shores of Galway Bay that is very popular with runners, speed-walkers, rollar-bladers, dog-walkers, strollers, and anyone looking for some exercise and fresh air.  The Prom is almost 2km long, with a fabulous view of the Bay, County Clare, and the Aran Islands.  A promenade is completed at Blackrock with a kick of the wall at the end of the pathway, and an about-face for the return journey.  Except, of course, for the swimmers.  These people, usually with a small bag under the armpit and a firm gaze to seaward, take a left turn and head for the diving boards.

Changing area

Blackrock is very well set-up for swimmers.  There are benches at a changing area with hooks on the wall to hold your towel, and a roof over your head that offers protection from the wind and rain.  There are toilets, a fresh-water shower and lots of steps and ladders into the sea.  There is a constant stream of swimmers arriving, changing, swimming, chatting, departing - no matter what the time of day, the tide, or the season.  There is always water for swimming, there are always swimmers for the water.

The Rocks

Achievement is measured by rocks here.  Along the Salthill Prom a number of rocky outcrops separate the different beaches.  A swim to the First Rocks is a round trip of 250m, to the second and back is 450m, to the Fourth Rocks,  Ladies' Beach and back home is about a kilometer.  Of course nobody is counting the distance, just the number of Rocks.

Bird's eye view of the Rocks

 The next time you're in Galway, stroll down to Blackrock and come for a swim..

Around Spike Island Swim

The first of the season's long training sea swims took place today. Danny's father has a boat and has kindly offered its services on a number of long swims for us. First on the list - a circumnavigation of Spike Island, the former naval fortress guarding Cork Harbour, and sometime prison. Danny's father lived on Spike for 23 years, so he had plenty of local knowledge of where he was going.


The day was a beautifully sunny spring day, but with a lazy north wind. The thermometer on the boat gave a constant water temperature reading of 9C for the duration of the swim. Jennifer swam in togs (respect!) but Danny and I were happy to don wetsuits. I think it's fair to say that between the three of us we don't have an awful lot of body fat to spare, so we were happy to see so much of the sun on our way around. The swim was about 5,300m long, swimming in an anti-clockwise direction.


Here's Jen, Danny and me, all looking very contemplative on the way to the start.. Plenty of cold wind here.


Jen at the start. More smiles at this stage, as the north wind is blocked by Great Island behind us. A jump from the boat here, and we're off..


Swimming past the gun position on Spike. We were well matched in pace and stayed together for the whole swim. The public can get tours of the island during the summer and see the extremely large gun which points out to the mouth of the harbour. In the old days they used to tow an old boat or some such target into the harbour and have the navy fire live rounds from the guns to try and sink it - an interesting day for the locals living in the harbour area..


Heading back to Cobh at the end of the swim. We were benefiting from an incoming tide at this stage, and calmer waters were much warmer than cold waves at the back of Spike. We even got a small crowd of people at the finish point. All in all a great swim and another rung in the confidence ladder.

One million metres

Yesterday I swam my millionth metre since training started back in September. That's Cork to Dublin and back. Twice. Like most swimmers I keep a log of how much I am swimming - a very useful document to track how much I've done, and how much I need to do in order to meet the training program. Passing the million metre mark is a nice boost to morale, and it's interesting looking back on the training done so far - all 'money in the bank' for the big swim in July. In general, training effort increased as a monthly coaching review meeting drew closer, and sea swim times expanded and contracted in harmony with the sea temperatures. Sea swimming continued almost every weekend through the winter. Sea swims are a rough estimation in distance, but here are some stats from the past seven months -

o Number of days - 221
o Days in the sea - 42
o Days in the pool - 142
o Metres in the sea - 52,000
o Metres in the pool - 948,000
o Pool lengths swum - 37,920

100 days to go

Today is an interesting day. There are now one hundred days left to the start of my Channel tide of 10-18 July. That's just over 14 weeks. It's unlikely that I will swim on the first day, as I am number 4 on my pilot's list of swimmers for that tide, and you never know what the weather and swim conditions will be like, but at the same time, who knows? It's just as likely that the weather will be perfect, someone may pull out between now and then, or the swimmers on the list in front of me may choose to let me go first. So, I may after all be swimming in 100 days' time - a sobering thought. After 8 months of hard training the goal is in sight, the weather is improving, the sea is getting warmer, and the end of pool swimming and chlorine-filled lungs is within reach. It's all good..

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.