cold water training for the English Channel

Chicken of the sea you great!! I cant wait to meet. I am doing a long swim wednesay at Gilson in Winetka at 5:30am this week, kinda last notice but if you want to do it this week I am so game!! I swim 25 min miles so we are perfect!!!! I have had a hard time to find someone too that cant swim at my pace! You have no idea what a god sent you are!!! My phone number is (847-513-3673 feel free to call!!:)

OUch! You are much faster than I. I'm in Naperville and have to be back by 8.30am this Wednesday. I think it's more than an hour to Winnetka so this Wed might not be possible for me. Let me know the next time though! The kids go back to school in 2 weeks and that'll make training more challenging (though having them on vacation is a bit tricky too). This Friday is good. Also was hoping for a swim on Sunday. I'll definitely join you! Amanda (cell 630 476 1044)

:agree::bow:Aurora, loved the swim on saterday. Loved it more when I got warm again. If I could used my hands to get into the wetsuit we could of continued. I will join you for a long one on two sats from now....mot sure of the date... Let's plan it. I am so proud of you. Michelle

Congratulations!!! :applaud: I think you have a web site or blog ("1 million meters since Jan. 1..."). Could you please post that link again? Thanks. Idea for Sandycove swimmers: a relay across the Pond! Finish it off with Manhattan Island Marathon Swim!

Been a while since I logged in, away doing the Channel myself. There's a few things I guess I'd add. First is I'll go against the majority view. There's no real need to put on weight if your speed is ok. I'm 5'8", 76 kg (168lbs). Average shape so? I'm about 3200 metres per hour, maybe, continuously, so not the fastest in the world. But my stroke rate int he channel was 60 to 70 per the whole thing, due to a very high (insane actually, given I'm late 40s and only swimming 5 years) training load. E.g. We did about 250,000 sea metres per month in May & June. I put on about 5 kg total, not deliberately, just from eating to support the training. My weight never moved, no matter what I ate, while in the pool. Those extra kg came on when I moved to 100% sea training. I lost 4 kg during my swim and few days after also. I'm in Ireland so the water temperature is cool anyway. Best we'll get here is about 61/62F right now at the end of August, with the warmest water we've had here for at least 3 years. The Channel was 16.5 to 17 (62F) the day I swam. It was like a warm bath for me. I swam through the last 2 winters every weekend. Temp got down to 5C (41F) once or twice. I did about 15 minutes in that, when i was only 70kg. (Regular, cold swimming had enormous effects on getting used to it.) My first 6 hour qualification this year was a lake swim in May, really warm for us then at 14.5C (58F) as at that point I could only manage an hour and a half in the sea, about 10C at the time, if I recall. By doing it a lake in May, the lake was much warmer than the sea, so it felt great, & we could get the qualification out of the way early. A month later we did 8 hours in the sea at the same temp, (58) and it was fine. The weather turned in late June and the temp dropped. I did 6 hours in 11C (52) that was unspeakable hell. Finishing made us feel like superheroes. I am lucky to belong to the Sandycove group of swimmers in Ireland. We now have over a dozen successful Channel swimmers (and plenty of other places) so our local shared knowledge is good and always getting better (4 this year so far). Grease has no effect on cold. Our winds here are biting and I've noticed no noticeable remediation effect. Vaseline/Lanolin/Channel grease. Same for all our swimmers. The transition to daily cold water training at the beginning of May, at 8C (46F) was the worst week. Getting deeply cold and taking 3 to 4 hours every day to rewarm was awful, and I mentally cracked that week. My food requirement also went through the roof, obviously being used to rewarm. One of the guys would only put on a t-shirt after some swims. His cold tolerance now outweights us all. I didn't lose my final worries about the temp though until I had a swim in Dover a few days beforehand. I'd been there for a double relay in 2008, but even so I needed to remind myself. Also, being a geek, I'd looked into the recent research on brown fat and found it very comforting. It develops as a consequence of regular cold exposure. It has less volume than ordinary white fat, is still an insulator, but is also metabolically active. Check out the New England Journal of medicine for the papers. So bottom line for me...Regular cold water swimming, plus a high stroke rate = Channel a warm place. BTW, due to our experience here, I take the Lewis Pugh Arctic swimming Discovery Channel documentary with plenty of salt.

donabl thanks to let me know that weigh does not have all to do with it. my coach said the same thing to not worrie about gaining waight but to keep hight stroke rate. Thanks for this helpful info. I have found on some of the days in lake michigan I have swam some 40s' and 50's water temps and aslong as I stay moving I am fine. Your so right about that. Thank you so much for all your helpful info. Mitchelle your so funny didnt know you were on masters forum. I know if you could have gone 3 more miles you would have. We will have to get the gang together to do another point to point swim.Hope to see you Monday.you will be happy to know I just did a hour in high 40 water temp up by me. so things are coming along.Thank you everyone for your input on the cold water its trick but finding its getting better.

I love alll this channel talk I could drink it up. I think your right in saying people now a days see channel corssing as a dime a dozen but if you look at how many have crossed over such a long time it is very small group. I guess I looked up some ramndom info on the channel and more peole have climbed Mt Everast then have swam the channel. just gives you a little to think about. I am glad I have found people to pass on there great info. I hope I make it arcross like you guys have!

donal, i always enjoy reading your posts. the swimmers that train at sandycove have an impressive success rate and i'm pleased to say that i had the pleasure of meeting a few each time i've been to dover. i'm also pleased to say that ciroen (i hope i spelled that correctly) and i got to swim the channel together on sept 1... our escort boats within view of each other for the final hours, and the american and irish flags are flying together at our current varne ridge residence. regarding extra weight: i have spent most of my adult life between 157 and 163 pounds. at 5'11", i would consider that "lean". i added a bit of weight, and was hovering around 180 pounds in preparation for my channel swims. it seems to be mostly around the belly area... at least that is where i notice it, and along with training in colder water whenever it was available, made for a very comfortable 14 1/2 hours in the channel.... water temps 60-62 degrees. i applied channel grease to the usual areas prone to chaffing and also to my neck, shoulders, and back. i agree that the insulating qualities of said grease are marginal at best, but i have experienced a beneficial "wind breaking" effect and will continue to apply to areas that might be exposed to a cool breeze during long swims.

Cheers Chaos. And Congratulations Channel Swimmer! Welcome to the club! You are now a superstar of swimming, and have achieved something no money can buy and that no-one can ever take away from you, and in all likelihood, something that most people, except those who have gone through it, will never understand. We're delighted with Ciarán and sad for the other friend there, you'll know who I mean. (There's a good chance you've heard some of the details of my swim, I'm already becoming known as "the guy who....". It was...eventful.) Seven of us have trained together for a year. I worked out the training total just yesterday, 2.47 million in the year for me. Ciarán being later would be even more. Four of us have made it. One got weathered out and never even got the chance to swim, and has none remaining. One got pulled less than a mile from France, the same day you were swimming, and we have one left to swim. People tend to dismiss the Channel now, not understanding just how difficult it can be. Some get good swims (our first friend to go got the best day of the year), the rest of us got Force 5 winds, as you did.Something soloists are not supposed to get, as you know. I've been quoting Philip Larkin out of context for the Channel... "A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies." Congrats again. And enjoy your success, I still am.

Hi I read all the posts about preparing for the English Channel. I'm doing the Alcatraz swim for the first time on Sept 18th in SF Bay. Has anyone done that one and do you have any insight you can share about: Type and brand of warm cap? Vaseline or Lanolin or the like. I've been preparing all summer and am flying out to SF in two weeks for my first cold water swim. Thanks and good luck with prep for the English Channel.