It was with great sadness to learn of the death of Irish swimmer, Paraic Casey (45) who died whilst attempting a solo crossing of the English Channel on the 22nd July 2012, my deepest sympathies go to Paraic's family.
Paraic was raising monies for two charities, The Society of St Vincent de Paul and Marymount Hospice in Cork.
Whilst I did not know Paraic personally, £1,000 from the monies raised through 'Let's Raise A Million Together' will be donated to his chosen charities.
Catch my breath....
The last three weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind as I have attempted to balance an ever increasing workload with a training visit to Lake Windermere and grab some quality 'family time' in the Yorkshire Dales.
My son Jack Green, also made his Olympic debut. Well done to Jack and those around him...you made it happen.
I'm am so very proud of Jack for everything he has achieved and I am also proud of everyone that is working tirelessly to support me as I prepare for the challenges ahead.
I now have a face book page and you can follow me on twitter. Follow the links on this blog and I guess 'like me'?
Since achieving the 6 hr qualifying milestone in Dover on the 14th July, I have continued to undertake 5 & 6 hr swims before departing for Lake Windermere.
Before I write about this experience, I wanted to share with you the 'bizarreness' of training to swim the English Channel.
With July temperatures reaching 36.5C (97.3F) here's a picture of Sophie Tills (18) recovering from one of her training swims before she jumps into her sleeping bag and is driven home to Medway by her mother Debs?
If you happen to have seen a woman in a sleeping bag being driven up the A2/M2 dont worry, it was our channel swimmer Sophie?
Sophie along with Lewis Young (17) will be both attempting solo swims of the English Channel sometime this weekend or early next week (wk com: 12th August) .
Sophie and Lewis have been my training partners this year, well, we share a cup of maxim every now and then!
Remember to look out for their results they both deserve every success and when they finish Sophie is looking for a job, so please drop me a line if anyone can help Sophie ?
"Hello Peter Lad"
Psychologically, I really wanted to complete a 7 hr swim before I embarked on my 10 hr attempt of the lake but I could never make a Saturday swim session...so 4 hours of the unknown it was to be?
Having arrived in Yorkshire at the beginning of the week, Sezen and I headed for Lake Windermere on the 1st of August on a grey and wet morning to rendezvous with my coach Tanya and fellow swimmers Sophie and Lewis who had swam the previous day.
Lake Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, with a maximum length of 11.23 miles (18.08km) and width of 0.93 miles (1.49 km) with depths up to 219 ft (66.76m) .
With the support crew of Sezen, Tanya and Lewis ready, I entered the lake at 09.00hrs
and proceeded to swim behind the wooden rowing boat.
I must admit is was all quite surreal. With a large audience of breakfast diners stopping to wave me off I entered the weedy shallows of the lake quite surprised by its warmth and swam through moored yachts until I reached open water.
I had never swam in a lake before and I soon realised that the lack of salt meant that I would have to swim harder to maintain my stroke and keep buoyant, the lake soon exposed a number of flaws in my stroke that will need to be radically addressed over the winter months?
Even the swallowing of the fresh water was quite refreshing, although overtime my throat and tongue would end up swelling just as it would at sea?
Swimming alongside such a beautiful landscape and viewing the many majestic houses that line the banks of the lake and being entertained by sailing boats, windsurfers and tourists made the lake a hive of activity and it certainly beat swimming in Dover harbour!
Strangely enough I never saw one fish? There was I happily waving to passersby as I swam front crawl on my merrily way?
So why was I even swimming Lake Windermere?
I understand from Tanya, that the rules for those wanting to swim the English Channel changed (largely forced by swimmers I must add), that anyone completing a 6 hr qualifying swim in the relevant water temperature is permitted to attempt a cross channel swim, this was reduced from the old ruling of 10 hrs.
As part of our training, Tanya requires all of her swimmers to complete a 10 hr swim to enhance their chances of success, she is absolutely 'spot on'.
10 hrs of open water swimming tells you and your support crew a lot about yourself - Please note swimmers that we are not all experts or natural and it will not take you 6 hrs to swim the Channel?
Don't make the same mistake I did thinking you can turn up and buy a ticket and go?
Feeding...
I was fed after the first two hours of my swim, this was then repeated ever hour for 5 hours and then my feeds were increased to every 30 mins as I started to push and feel the pain barriers.
I found feeding from a blue plastic cup extremely difficult, I forgot my feeding routine (swimming on my back) and I gradually became more irritable with the crew as they appeared to row away from me, leaving me to hold a cup in the middle of the lake?
Eventually I tired of the taste of maxim, feeding the fishes (if there were any) on hour 9?
Surprisingly I had no appetite for milky ways, jelly babies or any delight and was only forced to eat chocolate on the insistence of the crew, which was a new chocolate bar called 'cardboard'? Having (ONLY) previously swam a maximum of 6 hrs, I had now entered uncharted territory, from holiday swimmer to 'Enduroman'.
Due to a pulled neck muscle earlier in the week I was suffering from cramping spasm's in my calf from as early as the 2nd hour which remained with me until the end and then from around hour 8 I had cramp in my right arm until the finish, some 4hrs later (yes work it out??).
Swimming with one arm was a new experience for me but I think my swimmers log will show that I swam even better?
The support team worked miracles to patch me up with maxim and cardboard.
Where's my head...?
Mentally my 'toys came out the pram' on hour 8.
The trigger point was being shouted at by the crew to @~?$%ng kick my legs and swim harder to avoid the oncoming car ferry between Windermere and Far Sawrey.The ferry has a rising chain in the water that it follows and we were directly above it?
I remember looking up and seeing this huge car ferry baring down on me... that was too close for comfort? I must remember to thank the Captain for slowing down?
I spent the next hour sharing my thoughts with my coach and the crew, this was duly noted in the swimmers log probably under the heading ...'What an arsehole'... despite apologising I am still embarrassed by my outburst..but this was the equivalent of me hitting the 'runners wall' and exactly why we do 10 hr swims?
Beyond this point, I felt spent and I know I was just swimming with my arms with my legs floating underneath, just like a prawn!
It took a long time for me to refocus mentally...but I did?
Aside from refocusing on land marks that appeared to never come (this is often mentioned by many channel swimmers when trying to land in France) and concentrating on my swim stroke, my thoughts centred around 3 things;
- Nothing Great is Easy
- Its just another hour
- Those that are Iess fortunate than me and how I could raise more money for them
- Having Sezen as part of the crew helped as it kept me in check with reality and for some unknown reason I found myself repeating three words spoken to me earlier in the week by my mother's Yorkshire neighbour David.
It just never went away, "Hello Peter Lad".."Hello Peter Lad".. "Hello Peter Lad" imagine repeating that for 12hr 15mins?
Yes, I emerged 'Blue and triumphant, with leg cramp and bulging eyes' from the waters of Ambleside, some12hrs 15mins later and some 2 hours longer than the scheduled 10 hr swim.
My coach Tanya had wanted me to reach a specific goal and point (although I think it was more down to the speed of my swim if I am honest?).
Sezen later told me that she had noticed that I had gone blue around hour 10 and asked Tanya, who indeed confirmed that I was blue?
Being cheered on in the home straight by my fantastic support crew of Tanya, Sezen and Lewis they were joined from people emerging from their houses and the pub shouting and applauding my effort.
One woman shouted "This is fantastic, its better than watching the Olympics and he's better than Michael Phelps", really kind words but the difference is that Phelps gets a medal and I get a week of pain? Phelps, if your reading this 'nothing great is easy ' and put your hand in your pocket and sponsor me.
Swimming the lakes was certainly an experience. I came here a year ahead of schedule and I left with a number of improvements to be made.
End of swim report will read:
Improvements need to be made before next years channel attempt.
I have demonstrated that I have the mental resilience to complete an endurance swim and I can cope with the time spent in the water, there is absolutely no doubt I will successfully swim the channel but at what cost?
I need to improve my swimming stroke and improve my 'catch' to increase my efficiency and speed.
I will address this throughout the winter and I will return to the lake again next year to measure my progress before I embark on my channel swim.
For the remainder of the open water season I will now work on time trials and improving my speed within Dover harbour.
Meanwhile I also need to further improve my nutrition levels and correct those niggling muscle spasm's that I keep encountering.
If anybody knows of a good nutritionist that could give me some free advice it would be really appreciated.
I am also looking for a good sports therapist to iron out those niggling muscle problems. I am happy to donate my body for free to any sports therapist that requires a body to work on to complete their studies (Kent area only).Please email me if you can help.
Please remember 'Lets Raise a Million to Keep Families Together Longer' and make a donation today, I am only asking for £1 or more.
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