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Thank You, Awesome Bournemouth Swimmers!

I haven’t done a thank you recently, which is a shame, because there are so many people that I appreciate and without whom this would be so much harder/impossible. Today, I want to thank all of the British swimmers who have welcomed me with open arms. It may not always be readily apparent (mainly because my lips are numb and/or it’s early in the morning), but I am really enjoying swimming with all of you!

The Return of Bad Jokes

I haven’t done a bad joke in a while, but I found this one and it was so appropriate. (Although you need to know a bit of French and I had to read it out loud before I got it. You know, the best qualities of a joke.) 

In honor of Blythe (I haven’t forgotten!):

English v French cat swim race

An English cat called one-two-three challenged a French cat called un-deux-trois to see who could swim across the English Channel fastest.

Which one do you think won?

One-two-three won as the un-deux-trois cat sank.

Taking Stock

My goal for the week was to write a coherent post. A goal that seems so very achievable early in the week, before I’ve jotted random things down at random times throughout the week (semi-coherently and most ungrammatically). I instructed myself not to have so many thoughts this week, in order to decrease the blogging workload, but it appears my brain didn’t listen. And heaven forbid I NOT share all my entertaining (to me) musings with you.

My theme was supposed to be “taking stock.” I’m past the craziness of arrival and (a term I’ve kinda come to loathe) “settling in.” My schedule is more regular and, with the kids starting school this coming week, my workload should be easing up a bit. It’s time to look at where I’m at and plan for where I need to go. My swim is now an insanely short less-than-three-months away.

A lot of what I noticed this week has to do with how much I’ve learned. For instance, knowing when make a practice a recovery workout when you need to. And how much more time injured shoulders take to get back to top form than shoulders that have just taken it easy for a bit. And how letting your ego get in the way of doing what you know you need to is just flat out stupid. Stupidity I’m sure I will continue to be guilty of from time to time, but I do learn.

There is something about being at your limits that offers the opportunity for great clarity. When I drive up a grade, I couldn’t tell you its percentage within 10 points. When I walk up a grade, I’d only be slightly more accurate. When I bike up, it really starts to matter to me. When I’m running up and struggling, as I was on the way home on Wednesday, I can perceive a 1% change in grade. My heart rate, already high, climbs up to max. My breathing goes from sustainable to ragged. My legs inform me that, in their considered opinion, stopping is the only sane option. But I’d never know that the hill had gotten steeper, were I not already at my limit.

I suspect that this doesn’t just apply to sports… The more difficult things get, the more you perceive, and the more you can grow. I believe they call this character.

And I think that this is part of what makes me enjoy the company of endurance athletes so much – they tend to be above-average in the character department. And those who also deal with the elements – they don’t tend to be the type of people who waste time banging their heads against brick walls. In sport or in life. Obviously other people can have these characteristics as well – but endurance athletics are a pretty effective selector for them. This group tends to be a calm, easygoing, good-natured bunch, and I enjoy being around them.

It is interesting – swimming the Channel seems easier, more doable here. I don’t know if that will be a good thing or a bad thing in the end, but I don’t feel like I need to believe in myself as hard. Just do the work, and then swim. And enjoy myself. Everybody knows about it here. Everybody knows someone who has done it, or they have done a relay, or made an attempt. And I’m swimming in the Channel, and it’s not so tough. Some of that is false confidence, but I think that sucking the marrow of the confidence that I can get is not a bad thing. I hope.

I don’t know if I’ve taken any stock here – but I’m glad to be where I am, and excited about the path to where I’m going.

It’s OK, folks, I can always stop

A few of you expressed concern over my “Collapse and Revival” post. I 1) thought that the “revival” part made it clear I was okey-dokey, and 2) got to thinking about a great talk I once heard from a professional triathlete when I was working at Sports Basement in San Francisco. I wish I could remember who it was, and so credit him, but alas, I do not.

He talked about suffering. There was a custom amongst the cyclists he trained with to describe particularly killer rides as “sufferfests.” And he had always done the same. But then he did a benefit for cancer patients. And what occurred to him, as he met and talked with these patients, was that that was suffering. Suffering that they couldn’t turn off or get away from or even mitigate sometimes.

And what he said that I have taken with me all these years was this, “As an athlete in training, you are not suffering… you are uncomfortable. You want to be comfortable? Stop running, get off the bike, float in the water and, boom, you are immediately comfortable again.”

In the Channel, in training, anytime I want to stop, or slow down, or stay in bed, I can. I don’t, generally… but just knowing that you can makes all of the difference in the world. 

The people of Ukraine are suffering. Full Stop. I am doing a recreational sport. And homeschooling the kids. I am doing it at a high level, but entirely by choice. And likewise with the kids – exactly zero of our work is life or death. And we may have to walk a mile to get food, and carry it home ourselves, but we know that we’ll be able to get it and that all of us will get to eat. And that no bombs will fall on us on the trip. Displaced Ukrainians would love to be on hold with the electric company – because it would mean a chance of electricity. 

So, yes, what I am doing is hard – as energy-demanding as anything I’ve every done, and I am frequently uncomfortable – but it is completely in perspective as basically a vacation (with a really odd sense of “fun”).

I could quit tomorrow, and really nothing bad would happen to me. Very few parts of our lives offer this luxury.

And I’m really, really enjoying the heck out of this entire experience.

A Spoonful of Sugar

I would imagine that those who have followed my adventures in not eating sugar will be interested to know that a combination of extremely high training volume and lack of kitchen paraphernalia have led me to dip back into the world of added sugar. I don’t think the training volume alone would have done it, as I did not eat any added sugar during Christmas training, with the exception of a few chocolate milks (spread over 2 weeks) during actual swimming. (These I think of as practice for feeding during my Channel swim anyway. I drink chocolate milk in the ocean from time to time as well.) But now, making my usual non-sugar-containing go-to’s would require equipment I don’t have and take time I’m not anxious to spend.

So I bought a bunch of stuff at the store, trying to get as many calories as possible with as little sugar as possible. Most of them were a total bust. The biggest problem is that anything processed tends to taste really terrible to me now. Turns out that processed food is a vice that requires near constant practice to maintain. In addition, most things are just far too sugary for my de-accustomed palate. So far, sultana scones with clotted cream and no-sugar-added jam have been the best. But part of what I’m looking for is something I can grab as I’m headed out the door – scones are both a bit too crumbly and a bit too dry on their own.

I may have to break down and buy a pan – with that I should be able to make my banana peanut butter casserole. Although this will require braving the British room-temperature-storage eggs. Are you guys sure these are OK? They are just sitting on the shelf there, next to the cereal. The cereal!

I would normally count jam as added sugar, but the amount of calories I’m going through means that sugar processing isn’t really a concern for me right now – anything I eat before, during or after workouts pretty much vanishes immediately, not getting involved in the more troublesome biochemical pathways downstream. Right now it’s just the taste and the experience, and too much sugar and processing taste bad and feel bad.

I’m continuing to look, if anyone has suggestions. But I will be unsurprised if the depressing conclusion continues to be – if you want healthy, you’ve got to do the work.

In summation – still love not eating added sugar, but willing to sacrifice for the cause for the next three months. And eating it while exercising intensely (or right before or right after) doesn’t seem to have any lasting effects on me (oh, except my teeth loose that fresh-from-the-dentist feel that I get to enjoy all the time when I don’t eat added sugar).

Videos

4/17

Monday’s swim (4/18) – no videos, just a good time with Hannah!

4/22

Random Thoughts

My newfound commitment to sleep and food is really paying off 🙂

It’s amazing how having a tiny washer and no dryer moves the goalpost from “are my clothes clean?” to “do I smell noticeably bad?”

What a lovely place to live this is… and how stunningly beautiful. And charming. And what amazing architecture everywhere you turn. I feel as if this is the scenery that my eyes were made to appreciate. It gives me a sense of what those who love the American West might feel. Intellectually, I see that it is dramatic and that the sheer size of it is impressive, but to me it just looks barren and brown. But perhaps there are those for whom it gives the same emotional reaction that English scenery does me.

Well, at least I’m getting my ass handed to me by 20-somethings now, instead of 13-14’s 🙂

I hum the Wizard of Oz wicked-witch-on-a-bicycle-tune as I ride the Beryl bike over to practice. Those bikes are so comically ridiculous.

Thanks to reader Molly Eness for identifying the Gorse!

Shout Outs

Shout out to W&L classmate Rebecca Makkai and her talk at the Tom Wolfe Weekend Seminar at our alma mater. It’s easy to think of yourself as thoughtful and incisive… until you come across someone doing it so much better. I loved “The Great Believers” and I loved this talk. And it means so much more in the context of Washington and Lee considering a (long overdue, imo) name change. I also take to heart her approach to revisions… though I’m a bit limited in revisions when it comes to a weekly blog post. (Or perhaps not – I will certainly be thinking about my writing habits.)

Note: This link may or may not work – apparently they are in talks.

https://livestream.com/wlu/wolfe-rebecca-makkai

Completely unrelatedly, I really enjoy reading over Julian Critchlow’s work on Channel statistics:

More lies, damn lies and statistics…

Rude or British

Another in my series exploring that, to foreigners, it can be so difficult to interpret what is going on around you 🙂

With relative frequency, I feel as if people ask me questions and then seem oddly uninterested in my answer, considering that they just asked me the question. But there really could be many explanations for this:

1. I love the sound of my own voice, and if I’m not trying hard to avoid it, I can be long-winded and boring.
2. I have misunderstood what they said, and am answering an entirely different question than the one they asked.
3. They cannot understand me.
4. They are rude.

As I am *revising*, I’m questioning whether, in the land of Shakespeare, I should even attempt to comically highlight misunderstandings amongst human beings? Can I say anything that he hasn’t said, and better? Our inability to every truly understand one another is almost at the very heart of what it is to be human – together, yet eternally alone.

So perhaps I’ll leave off trying to understand misunderstandings. “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

Channel Prep

Texted Pilot Paul to see if we could chat. We could, and had a great talk. We discussed the actual swim and how it would work (nothing that wasn’t to my expectations so far, plus the good news that one tends to see fewer jellyfish on spring tides).

Now I need to decide if I want to do a practice swim from Ramsgate (I think?) to Dover on June 7th. Must consider training schedule, cost, transportation, etc.

Still considering….

It would be nice to start finding a crew… who would like to drive me to Ramsgate on June 7th… and Dover in July…

The [Time Period] in the Water (Sunday 4/17 – Friday 4/22)

Summary

Pool Yardage ~  31,700 M 

OW Yardage ~  5,250 M

Total Yardage ~ 37,000 M (an even 40 K, if you add in Sunday the 24th)

OTHER:

 miles of running – 16

 miles of walking (plus, you know, a lot more) – 11

 miles riding – 4

The Gory Details

Sat Apr 16 – Walked 9.8 miles around Oxford

Sun Apr 17 – OW Swim w/Just Swim (~2000) – 45 min

• 9 AM
• Air temp: 55 (but with a rather surprisingly biting wind)
• Water temp: 11 (https://magicseaweed.com/Boscombe-Wave-Buoy/19427/)
• Distance ~2 K
• Time ~45 min

Had a really great swim with Mike, Will and Holly. It felt quite a bit colder than Friday’s swim – don’t know if that was the wind or how tired I was. (And of course, the sea actually being a bit colder in the morning than in the afternoon.) My feet got a bit tingly, which I really don’t like – it always makes me think of Lynn Cox’s nerve damage. But at around 50 degrees, I don’t think I need actually worry. I felt fine otherwise, and didn’t have too much problem getting dressed, so I think a lot of it really was just tiredness – it makes such a difference out there, and most especially in the cold. Looking to take a nap now – that should sort me 🙂

OTHER:

I couldn’t believe it – there were no Beryl bikes in the rack when I got there. So I just started running and got there on time (even though I set my alarm as late as possible, having gotten back from Oxford around midnight). Then I walked home. About 1.1 miles each way.

Mon Apr 18 (~6800 M) 2 h 5 m

Masters (~3250 M) 1 h

• 200 – 150 fr/50 br
• 200 – 150 breath 3/5/7 (abandoned the 7-then-as-much-as-I-want in favor of 2x5s) / 50 bk

• 2x:
• 50 catchup
• 50 fingertip
• 50 catchup and fingertip
• 50 DPS
• (FILO)
• My stroke actually felt pretty good here, and I managed a 13 – best I’ve done yet in the SCM pool

• 8×25 fast fins and paddles

I missed something, because I’m quite sure it was a 1000-meter warmup (other people added it up too 🙂

• 2x:
• 2×200 smooth on 3:15 
• 1×200 max effort on 4:00 (just under 2:40ish)
• 6×50 – round 1 on :50, 2 on :45

• 300 ez
• 150 ez

Lap swim (~3550) 1 h 5 m

• 3×1000 descend (75fr/25bk to help me count)
• 550 cool down (couldn’t leave that 50 hanging out in the wind)

Masters was a bit rough, and lap swim started out that way. Oddly, I felt better the faster I went. The first 1000 I just felt tired. The second I started getting a headache, but then felt better as I swam. The fast one felt the best of all.

So now instead of 45 minutes, it takes me an hour thirty to warm up? This is getting ridiculous.

My run home was the same way – started off really rough, but I actually felt quite good by the time I got to Sainsbury’s. 

OTHER:

Ran to the pool and back 4.6 mi, 1 h (and carried very heavy groceries home. All of my strength training is the Farmer’s Carry. Why are vegetables so heavy?!?)

OW Swim w/Hannah (~1500 M) 40 min

• 2 PM
• Sunny and 55 F, but oh, the wind!
• Water Temp – 12 C (https://magicseaweed.com/Boscombe-Wave-Buoy/19427/), 13-14 C (Hannah’s thermometer – don’t quite buy that)
• ~1500 M
• ~45 min

I took this as a much-needed recovery swim and felt much better afterward. I need to keep in mind that no one is making sure that I do any recovery yardage.

The plan was to lay on the beach and get warm while the boys played, but the crazy wind meant that I laid on the beach and got cold. After an hour of that I walked down and got a hot chocolate and was all better. Then I fell asleep on the beach. It was great.

Tues Apr 19 (~6800 M) 2 h

Masters (~5200 M) 1 h 30

• 400 free
• 400 IM (kick/swim)
• 400 drill w/fins (did some Florian Wellbrock)
• 4×100 w/fins and paddles on 1:30

Missed a couple of 50s early

• 6×200 – 2 smooth, 1 max effort (30 s rest, but I went with the fast group on no rest)
• 6×50 on :45
• 200 ez

• 2x:
• 6×100 on 1:20 (shoulder was questionable – I did backstroke and got in 4.5)
• 6×25 on :25
• 300 ez

• 200 ez

Lap Swim (~1600 M) 30 min

• 400 ez
• 4×100 mod
• 2×200 ez
• 200 ez
• 200 ez

Boy howdy, not an easy stroke in the bunch today. I was tired, I was hungry, my shoulder was questionable, and, most of all, I was not mentally there. Tomorrow is (an apparently much-needed) recovery day (I’ve kind of been forgetting to make sure I put in enough recovery yardage). Perhaps shivering on the beach for hours yesterday took a lot out of me 🙂 I meant to do 7000 today, but I was adding it up as I did the easy at the end of the Masters practice, and I think I did it incorrectly (not a stretch of the imagination). Or, I forgot something I did and I’m incorrect now. Who knows. The chances of that 200 meters materially affecting my Channel swim seem pretty slim 🙂

OTHER: 

~ 0.5 mile walk/run – 5:24

~ 2 mile ride – 11:39 

These are just the times from last Thursday. I had to stop and adjust my seat, and my Beryl time was still only 12 minutes, so I might have made it under 11 minutes bike time 🙂

Wed Apr 20 (~6000) 2 h 6 m

A very needed recovery day

Masters (~3000) 1 h

• 400
• 300
• 200
• 100
• (descend – I just swam them)

• 4×25 fly kick/drill
• 4×100 bk/br on 1:45
• 4×25 IM
• 4×25 fly drill/swim
• 4×100 IM on 1:45
• 4×25 IM
• 4×25 fly swim
• 4×100 fr on 1:25 (something got off after number 2. I go 7th in the lane, and thus am an interval bystander.)
• 4×25 IM
• 200 ez

Lap swim (~3000 M) 1 h 6 m

• 5x:
• 50 fly kick
• 50 fly swim
• 50 bk/fr
• 50 bk kick
• 50 bk swim
• 50 elementary bk/br
• 50 br kick
• 50 br swim
• 50 bk/fr
• 50 fr kick
• 50 fr swim
• 50 elementary bk/br

All on the no-interval world that is sometimes the only way to stay sane during lap swim. But I got 3K done in an hour, 1/3 of which was kick, so good enough.

Total recovery day – not a stroke swum in anger (that’s an old school Phil Liggett/Paul Sherwin Tour de France reference – “not a pedal turned in anger.”)

My shoulder is still twinging as I sit here – it definitely need some stretching love, and I am missing my active release chiropractor!

OTHER:

4.6 miles of running to and from the pool ~50 minutes (I do seem to be consistently faster on the way there) + a bunch of walking around the Sovereign Center looking for a better beach shovel – the kids have big plans for big holes. Alas, no luck. But I did score a second towel, and possibly a great deal on some shoes.

Thurs Apr 21 (~7300) 2 h

I seem to be having some trouble getting my upper half and my lower half to work together. At first, my lower half just wasn’t interested in participating at all, after running and biking and walking and generally considering itself abused. But the legs are feeling a lot better now, and I still can’t seem to connect through my core. Granted, it is probably not inconsequential that I am trying to swim right after running or biking each day. And it’s a bit harder to feel my stroke during OW swims. That’s why I’m a fan of a lot of pool swimming, even when training for OW. I think you need both to be at your best.

I had another thought while swimming, but (as I so often do) I may have forgotten it. It might have been that 7300 yards in 2 hours is a lot easier when you wear fins for more than half of it. On the bright side, shoulder is feeling much better, and I feel like the fin work may have done my stroke (and my connection problems) some good. It certainly gave me a needed mental boost 🙂

It’s 8:30 PM and I finally remembered my other thought – Someone asked me a bit ago if I had my training plan sorted. At that point I was still trying to figure out how to get where I needed to be and when. But it got me thinking about it, and I realized that my plan is the same as it has been throughout this process – do the absolute maximum that I can without breaking myself. Then eat, sleep, repeat 🙂

Masters (~5700 M) 1.5 h

• 50 swim (was supposed to be 200 – got in late)
• 200 kick (swam it)
• 200 IM
• 200 free

• 2x:
• 2×25 fly
• 1×100 back
• 2×25 fly
• 1×100 br
• 200 FRIM

Put fins on here

• 2×400 on 5:30
• 4×200 on 2:40 (was a bit disappointed to be making these, but got on with it. Paused for about 5 s on the last one when a burp was threatening to turn into something more)
• 6×75 kick/bk/fr on 1:20 (These were supposed to be 100’s on 1:20, but this was just too much fr in a row today, even with fins on)
• 4×200 on 2:45
• 2×400 on 5:40

Took fins off

• 400 ez

I was wondering if I’d have anyone fast to train with in Bournemouth. Question ruthlessly answered 🙂 Paul, still recovering from knee surgery, did better on this set than I did, and I had fins. Mikey and Henry are also out of my league. I’d like to think that I could keep up with Emily, but I might have to Tanya Harding her to do so.

Besch, today’s main set was when I started to wonder if you are sending Coach Andy workouts. Or are psychically linked to him 🙂

Lap Swim (~1600) 30 min

• 8×200

Moderate, then CD on the last 2

OTHER:

 ~ 0.5 mile walk/run – 5:24

~ 2 mile ride – 11:39 (Bwa-ha! Beryl charged me for 11 minutes, which means I was sub-11!)

Fri Apr 22 (~4800) 1 h 40

Happy Birthday to E!

So, what I normally have for breakfast is Ezekiel bread with considerable peanut butter and a banana on top. Now that I rise at the crack of dawn, run, swim, run, and do not return to the flat for four hours since I left it, I cannot survive a shower and stretching before I get to food. So I started having scones (the first significant added sugar I’ve eaten in 4 years). That gets me through the shower and stretching, then I have “breakfast.” But I unpack my bag (and grocery bags if I have them, which I usually do), and today, I needed a bit of a bite to get through the unpacking process. So I had a roll, which will get me to the scones, which will get me to the PB and banana on toast. After that, it will almost be time to swim again, so I will have lunch. 🙂

Masters (~3000 M) 1 h

• 300 swim
• 300 kick/drill/swim
• 2×150 – 100 IM / 50 pull
• 4×50 on 1:00 (30 M fast)
• 100 ez
• 3×100 on 2:15 (37.5 M fast)
• 100 ez
• 4×50 on 1:00 (20 ez / 30 fast)
• 100 ez
• 3×100 on 2:15 (62.5 ez / 37.5 fast)
• 100 ez
• 5×100 on 2:15
• 1 – 30 Fast
• 2- 55 Fast
• 3 – 80 Fast
• 4 – ez
• 5 – all out (a very sad 1:20ish for me. more rest just makes me slow)
• 200 CD

Lap Swim (~1800 M) 40 m

• 12x
• 50 kick
• 50 swim
• 50 ez
• IM Order

OTHER:

4.6 mi running, ~ 1 hr

Run home – very oddly, when I walked out of the locker room, my ankle started hurting. For absolutely no reason I can see. So I walked/ran a bit, and the pain seemed to move to my foot. I adjusted my shoe, shook my leg a bit, ran a bit more, walked a bit more and then ran, and by the time I was home it felt OK. As if I need random body parts to start failing!

OW swim (~1750 M) 40 m

The site I’ve been using said 11-12, but my new friend Andre the Lifeguard said 10.5. You’d certainly think he would know. I’m sure Hannah’s thermometer would have said 15 🙂

• 1 PM
• Sunny near 60 F, but oh, the wind! again!
• Water Temp – so, I’ll say 11 C
• ~1750 M
• ~40 min

This was the first OW swim I’ve ever done “alone,” but it’s a guarded area and I made friends with Andre first. He said they do keep track of everybody in the water. That, plus the kids being around, plus being, you know, able to touch the whole time, made it feel really reasonable. I wore my buoy as well. It makes for short “laps” to stay in the guarded area, but it’s doable and a lot more efficient than going somewhere else down the beach.