The Good And The Great 19

From an early life-time in the pool I have had the fortune of swimming with/ against/ observing some of the very best in the sport including a GOAT (at the time), American and NCAA record holders, World record holders, Olympic medalists, NCAA champions, a runner-up NCAA championship team (Cal) and the Swiss national team during an Olympics year. All of it before I went to university.

Starting with the easiest : Matt Biondi, a tall muscular kid from Moraga (over the hill from Berkeley) dropped, full-prime, into my sophomore year of high school when, in 1983, he stepped onto a racing block at Cal's new Spieker pool for the 50-yard freestyle final at the Northcoast Swimming Championships. With the sun blazing and the stands screaming "Bee-On-Dee", Matt went 20.40 - a national high school record. 

From HS Matt went to the summer Olympics in '84, '88 and '92 winning eleven medals including eight gold. He set world records in the 50m and 100m freestyle. At Cal for college, he swam and played water polo with NCAA titles and American sprint records from the get-go.

I trained with Cal my senior year HS so Matt and I were in the changing room though, really, he paid me no mind.  It was hard, for me, not to be star-struck especially when seeing him hit NCAA automatic qualifying times (top 16 from the prior year) in mid-week practice.

Also on the Cal team was John Mykkanen, a Cal freshman and with me in the distance lane.  Mykkanen won a silver medal in the 400m freestyle in the LA '84 Olympics; he also set a US high school record in 1983 in the 500yd freestyle at Socals with a 4:19 only it was second-place to Jeff Kostoff who went 4:16.  John had an awkward technique with one arm crossing his head on the catch-up forcing an extraordinary body contortion mid-stroke. He was also overweight which is difficult when swimming so much. But, hey, it worked for him. His daughter Courtney went to Cal and swam at the 2012 Olympic trials.

Matt Biondi at the '88 Seoul Olympics. Photo from the Cal Top 100 Athletes website (Biondi number 10).

The Rhine 18

Visiting childhood friend David in Basel I swim what's there, or at least nearby, which is the Rhine.

There has been considerable rain in the Alps and the water level of the river is about 15 feet higher than normal and the current is easily 8 knots.  So David and I check it out and thumb it 'safe,' as long as I swim close to the river's edge. 

Next morning I skinny down the steep granite steps, flippers in hand, and think to myself, "this is rather stupid," and edge into a hard current and start wailing away as hard as I can, heading down stream - wrong way - thinking: this could actually be dangerous.

Eventually I find purchase and work my way back, against the current, averaging maybe 20 meters every 2 or 3 minutes until I find an inlet that allows me to hold my place.  Long and narrow commercial boats go by. Pedestrians look down and watch me like I'm crazy.  I swim for 80 minutes. 

As my coach Tim says, "you swim what's in front of you" which is true for many things beyond the Rhine.

Random selfie at David's house nicely suggesting the "why" of what I am doing.

Some Geography 17

The English Channel ("La Manche" in France) is an 'arm' of the Atlantic Ocean that links the southern part of the North Sea by the Dover Strait at its northeastern end.  It was formed by a complex structural down-folding from c 40 million years ago though geologists debate that its downward tendencies began as early as 270m years ago from off-and-on movements of the glaciers, rock and ice.

Its deepest point, Hurd's Deep, is 180 meters below sea level (the average depth is 63meters). The Chunnel, for context, is sunk to 75meters. By contrast, the Channel is 560km long and 240km wide at its extremes; the narrowist, where I will swim, is 35km from Dover to Calais.

The surface area measures 29,000 square-miles with water volumes of approximately 2,200 cubic miles so, basically, the Channel is a giant funnel that boosts the tidal range (the difference from high to low water) from less than a mater at sea level to over six meters.

Rusty checks out the Dover Cliffs, below. It is the kind of day I am hoping for.

Station 62304 (16)

Station 62304, also known as the Sandettie Lightship, provides a general sense on how at least one micro-climate is developing in the middle of the Channel.

Were I to swim today, the wind-speed would be c 16-knots in a northerly direction (10 degrees true) with wave heights of around four-feet and an average period in-tween of six-seconds. Note that a wave is measure from the backside from the crest to sea level; the face can be up to 2X bigger when facing front, as any surfer knows.

Today, at the buoy, the measured water temperature is 12C. Visibility five-miles. The readings, while normal for now, are not ideal for swimming and can readily cause hypothermia or sea sickness.

The official season for a crossing really begins in July, when water temperatures are around 14C (and climbing) and the weather calmer.  June may be a few degrees colder but there is less competition for a pilot.

On The "Now" 15

And so why now ?

I lost my hard-earned swimmer's identity sophomore year of college when I quit the varsity team, a group I found to be a real bummer, to join the cross country and track teams - the best Brown has produced for the distances.

My swimming interest rekindled c ten years ago when a group of childhood friends introduced me to the SF Bay, whose cold water in wintertime a novel and eccentric experience. Yet there I was, re-united with some awesome dudes, yelping with the best of them when the water temperatures below 12C. Often enough, ADHD'd from jet lag, I was in the pitch-black bay watching the sunrise across the SF skyline. Or, equally good, in the bay within one hour of landing at SFO.

From there, I began pool training in London but never more than a couple thousand meters since .. boring. Also lap swimmers hated on me (tumble turns !) and the public pools are, well, public, so there was not motivation to routinise a training program, no matter the health mind benefits.

The spur was Diana Nyad's attempts - and success - swimming from Havana to Key was (105 miles, 52 hours) at 64 (Yes, I watched the film). Nyad is from California. She had a purpose. If Nyad, why not the Channel ?

I signed up with the English Channel Associations and then Red Top Swim whose Head Coach, Tim Denyer, a serious guy. the Viking Princess II had a slot in July (the wait time can be two-years) and I was good to go.

At the Dolphin Club, SF Bay, with Ken, a fellow deep swim enthusiast :

The Value Of Coaches 14

Kirk Ciapella, my first coach, oversaw the Berkeley Barracudas and was part of my daily life until about 8th grade, a period covering 1977 to 1982.  The Barracudas was a rag tag group of committed swimmers and personalities - Kirk himself a holdover from the hippie era or at least carried that vibe - in a sport many would consider intense, everything with Kirk was chill and fun, a perfect attitude for my early career.

Next came Bill Gaebler who guided me from 7th grade through High School where he coached the men and women's water polo and swimming teams. When I started doing double workouts from 7th grade (age 11) Bill opened the King pool, 6:30AM sharp, for the Berkeley lap swimmers and provided me a lane and individual workouts every day of the school week. I believe Bill took particular pride in my high school class given those were his early years of coaching and the squad set a number of school records, a few which stick today.  Bill recently retired as head of BHS Aquatics after 40-years and generations of athletes.

Then came Kim Musch who headed the Golden Bear Aquatics program for the all-year age-group swimmers and local Cal swimmers who needed a summertime club.  Under Kim I qualified for "short course" Junior Nationals in the 500 yard freestyle (consolation finals) and 1650 yard freestyle (top 10) in 1984 and Senior Nationals in the 4x200 freestyle relay in 1985.  Because of Kim I trained senior-year with the California Gold Bears and the late, great, Nort Thornton who was Head Swimming Coach from 1977 to 2007 winning NCAA Championships in 1979 and 1980. Nort had a collapsed left lung and could only whisper making him even more formidable than he already was.

Photo of Bill Gaebler on the sideline from the BHS 1985 year-book; Ivor, touching chin, a Berkeley and cycling friend to this day.

High 5 Anyone ? 13

Nutrition is one of those things that athletes generally freak on, maintaining an over-confidence that the right product mix will unlock unimaginable success or prevent collapse. In any case, it offers a never-ending debate on what brands/amounts/timing are best for competition/training/recovery. 

Indeed I, too, have a plan, calculated on the amount of sweat-loss, by weight, during a measured one-hour hard swim (about 0.9kg) indicating the electrolytes and water I should consume for the 14-hour swim to Calais. No approximation here. 

On the Day and after the first hour I will feed every half-hour on the clock, baring in mind that when I am not swimming the tide is pulling against me so 20x2 minute pit-stops adds a lot of time - I will aim to keep it under 30 seconds. To do so, my coach will chuck a tethered bottle at my head containing various tested solutions. Yes, it is not unusual to barf it right up.

I admit that a nutrition strategy is something new for me, which I did not apply during the five marathons I bonked whilst chasing the magical three-hour barrier up to age 43.

King Novice 12

My swimming career began, age 8, on a summer program for novices in Berkeley hosted at King Junior High School (I was later a "King Cobra," 7th and 8th grade at King) where, for two months, we had daily afternoon "practices" and I was told to "burn off some steam." 

Not much to recall, really, other than the end-of-summer swimming meet where I competed against the mighty David Abalar, a chubby kid from Albany known amongst us punters to be fast. It came down to a 50-yard crawl and we went finger-tip-to-finger-tip for a judges decision as the watch keepers scored us a tie to the tenth of a second. I was declared winner - celebrity ! - and the following year signed up for the local swim team, the Berkeley Barracudas, who also trained at King. I would have joined the Barracudas sooner but I had an afternoon paper route to contend with.

Below is the King Jr High School swimming pool with the fast lane on the far right and where I spent hours of my day as an age-grouper.

Water Temperature 11

The Channel's water temperature limits the crossing-season to late June (c 14C) to September (19C or 20C). The coldest months, January and February, 5-7C. An Olympics competition pool, by comparison, must be 25C to 28C.

Hypothermia, generally a concern below 10C, may occur at 20C in prolonged exposure as the core body temperature can crop to 35C (95F). The tell signs include claw-like hands unable to touch thumb-to-pinkie or, counter intuitively perhaps, feelings of Euphoria.  Mental cognition also goes but harder to judge when swimming. If observing, the lips or upper-back may turn blue or purple.

Hypothermia can occur anytime and rapidly, the swimmer losing muscle control, all the while aware s/he could be drowning. If to hospital, warm blood transfusions are given as the body cannot warm itself to normal.  For this reason, a cold water partner is critical - advise, of course, I rarely follow. 

This past winter, with a friend, I swam in the Thames west of the Teddington Lock where the river is non-tidal, flowing generally south-eastward from its source near Oxford. It is also less developed and, for long stretches, makes me think of Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River with its old river boats and unkempt shores. The Thames drops to 1C in winter so a wetsuit, thermal gloves, booties and cap are mandatory.

I do no anticipate 17C on the Channel swim being a problem; equally comforting, the water during the six-hour qualifier was 15C.

Photo of the Thames River at the Barnes Bridge :

More On Technique 10

When I was an age group swimmer, my stroke was a two-beat cross-over - in other words, my legs crossed hitting at the calf on every stroke. As noted, it was not an uncommon technique in the 1980s for long-distance events like the 500, 1000 and 1650 yards freestyle (NB US college-swimming is in yards and so the US competes "short course" 25-yards in the winter-spring season and "long course" 50-meters in the summer). 

My stroke, combined with breathing every three-rotations, served its purpose while also limiting - coaches in the 1980s emphasised distance vs efficiency.

As for training, as a kid I swam c 14,000 yards (c 12,900 meters) a day, five days a week plus Saturday or competitions on the weekend. That is a lot of muscle memory. To break the mode in my adult years I started using fins about ten years ago and, presto, slowed the arms, abandoning the cross-over and placing more effort onto the glutes, allowing me to concentrate .. on the hip-driven rotation.

Photo from 9th grade, inclusive of chlorine blond hair ont its way to green. 

NB my first 'button down' shirt in the photo purchased at The Limited, a new women's chain with a store at the Hilltop Mall in Richmond, CA (now for zombies) before Les Wexner was a business celebrity eventually associated with Jeffrey Epstein.

Tall Flat & Side 9

I will use two stroke techniques during the EC - both tall, flat and with side rotation.

Modern freestyle swimming has evolved to a hip-driven stroke, which is identifiable by a catch-up and glide at the top of the rotation providing maximum core engagement and  power.  For long distances, it is accompanied by a two-beat kick to stabilise the body; for middle-distance to long distances, a strong accompanying six-beat kick can drive propulsion but at a cost : the glutes are the body's largest muscles and use an enormous amount of oxygen when engaged. Ian Thorpe, the GOAT before Phelps, nearly touched his fingers on the glide. I watched Matt Biondi crossing 25-yards with seven rotations.

Alternatively, a shoulder-led stroke has a faster turn-over and less core power with an early, hard 'hook' a the top without a gliding pause.  The legs can be awkward and often do not play a role or a two-beat cross-over to keep the body centred. I think of Janet Evans, whose 'windmill' broke world records in the 400, 800 and 1500m in the late 1980s.

Depending on the event, hip-led and shoulder-led can be used together on opposite arms, creating a powerful "loping" effect - Katie Ledecky is the only woman I have seen do this.

Some data : when I use a hip-driven technique I complete 100m with 72 strokes. When shoulder-driven, it is over 90. Shoulder driven, for me, is more taxing but also c 5% faster (my guess).

So, that out of the way, adapting to the Channel conditions will play its part - if the water is calm, the hip-led stroke offers greater efficiency; choppy waters and it is the shoulder-led stroke allowing more  adaptability to the waves.

Finally, I am able to breath on both sides which will allow me to swim either side of the boat, useful depending on the direction of the winds and therefore the chop.

Here I am using the hip-led freestyle at the catch-up or top of the stroke :

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ZC2 Buoy 8

A major bogy to hit in the Channel is the ZC2 buoy, below, which is 5.5km off Cap Gris-Nez (the closest point in France from Dover). The buoy marks the division between the Northeast shipping lane and the French inshore waters.

Ideally I pass inside the buoy (to the East) by the time the second flood tide begins (more on tides later).  When this happens, the ebb may be working for me and the chances of making the shore improve considerably.  Missing the tide here means swimming in place for six-hours until the tide turns again. Or bailing.

As for strategy, I will aim to hold a strong or even fast pace for the first stages of the crossing to a) avoid being swept out after the separation zone (mid-way thru) or stuck at ZC2 and b) establish a time buffer so when the tides inevitably change I have more options to reach France.. I will not actually know where I am during all of this and it is the pilot's job to navigate the best route. 

A reasonable question : do the pilots actually care if I make it ? I am assured they do as, along with the fee, they seek bragging rights, so happily we are alined.

My boat, the Viking Princess II, otherwise a fishing boat the rest of the year, is skippered by a father-son team that has taken the men and women's record holders across the Channel (7h 17m for men in 1994 and 7hr 40min for women in 1978). 

The below image from Red Top Swim and the CSPF tracker showing the different zones marked by grey lines :

Jaime 7

 Jaime is from Scotland and the charisma of the group, swearing like nobody I have ever met, from a village "north of Inverness" which is like way North. His father a butcher and Jaime's first job, unsurprisingly I suppose, on a clean-up crew at an abattoir.

Following his schooling, Jaime spent 11 years on an oil rig in the North Sea with 300 workers mostly "from prison or just plane crazy."  The sleeping rooms had six bunks ("just disgusting mate") in constant use between 12-hour shifts.  "I saw waves 100-feet as high as the rig" he recalls.  Not holding the stair-rail a sackable offence - "they'd ship you right the fuck home" given how dangerous it was.

Jaime's rig, TOTAL's Elgin platform, 150-miles from shore, experienced the largest gas blow-out on record - the UK 22/4b blowing in 2012 - which sent a gas jet shooting 200-meters out to see.  The blast knocked down Jaime's friend, who is lucky to be alive, and had the sense to pull an emergency lever cutting the power on the rig ensuring no sparks could blow the thing up.

Every helicopter in the North Sea was on the evacuation.  TOTAL, for its part, had no clue how to stop the blowout and called in the Red Adair Service and Marine Company famous for extinguising fires in Kuwait following the 1991 Iraq war. 

Four Texans showed up via a Chinook, removed their cowboy boots, examined the leak for a few minutes, then departed.  The next day they returned with a jerry-rigged vice grip which they attached to the active pipe and turned, capping the valve and stopping the gas flow - "insane how dangerous it was", says Jaime, who estimates Red Adair made $40 million for 24-hours work.

Jaime now lives in Doha and is responsible for a rigs-simulator program. He is doing a solo crossing.

A Typical Ultra Swimmer 6

My campmates each has a story to tell.

Mitch, on the left below, is ex Royal Marines and is training for a never-been-done 'triathlon' in five continuous stages: 1. swim the Channel; 2. cycle 12,000km from Calais to India crossing 12 countries, including Iran, and two continents; 3. run 900km from the Indian coastal town of Digha to Katmandu; 4. trek 350km to the Himalayas and the Mt Everest base camp; and 5. climb Everest (8,849m). All this in six-months beginning in September. Mitch is a wonderfully affectionate and humble dude and causes none of us solo Channel swimmers any shame.

Alex, middle of the photo, gets short-changed by me when I learn he is from one of those forgettable middle England cities like Grimsby or Hull. Only later I learn that he was on the elite army bomb-disposal squad with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, taking down the really nasty explosives that blow up tanks. Afterwards he did the same in London for MI5 including "neutralising" a multiple bomb threat on the London underground during daytime peak hours. 

From there, Alex sought adrenaline as a "saturation diver" when, in six-hour shifts 150-200m below sea-level, he jack-hammered undersea infrastructure or assisted deep water rigging. To avoid the bends (and need for timely decompression), he remained in "the bell" for two-weeks at a time ("nothing to do but read"). 

Alex has founded five ongoing businesses. And is getting married in a couple of months. He is doing the Channel solo.

Rosey works for the UK Foreign Services and is a project manager in Nigeria. She is swimming the length of Loch Lomond (36km) almost entirely in the darkness of night.

Swim Camp 5

I join the Red Top swim camp in Croatia prepared for a week's worth of.. swimming.. including the six-hour qualifier required for the Channel which has been on my mind for some time. What on earth does one think about ? 

But before this, I catch an early 6:30am flight to Zagreb, eying a few middle-aged dudes with Speedo bags, none of us ready to engage so early in the wigwam. We are met at the Croatian airport for the two-hour drive to Optija with its lovely coastal line and a modern aquatics complex with two 50-meter swimming basins, clean and fast at 3-meters deep. The USA swim team will be here for two weeks prior to the Olympics.

There are 15 campers of whom two are swimming the Oceans 7 (only 27 have done it), one Loch Lomond (the longest lake in Scotland0, one an EC-return and the rest of us the Channel one-way.

Over the course of six-days we will reach c 87 kilometres of swimming.  Happily a lot of the pool time is focused on technique and recovery rather than grinding out hard repeats. Each day has at least two practices including one open-water swim of c two-hours. We eat a lot of carbs. I go to bed early.

As for the six-hour swim, I finish without difficulty and cannot recall a single thought.

I'm the one checking his watch but who's competitive ?

On Training 4

Since deciding to swim the EC and informing my coach on December 31 I have logged 30-35km a week following a one-month or so ramp-up. It is not quite fair to say I started from scratch as last year I was cycling and lost six-kilo after leaving Astorg. 

The hardest part of the training, for me, was building in the routine including normalising 5:45AM wake-up alarms (dark! wet !) and adding weekly distance. Once at 30km it became easier to maintain this level - and addictive. I mark my distances into a red notebook which often seems the most productive part of the day.

Most of the training is solo excluding a morning group on Monday (always 8x400 on 6:15) and Wednesday who are training for an Ironman in June. Otherwise I work with Red Top Swim who focus exclusively on ultra-distance swimmers planning for the Channel, Oceans 7, Manhattan 20  Bridges, Loch Lomond and so on. Most of the coaching is via zoom and whatsapp since Red Top's pools are located in North London, leaving the Richmond Pool (weird 33 1/3 meters) and the Royal Automobile Club which has an old-style 25m marble pool that I visit whenever in town.

I do structured sets (1000, 400, 200 repeats) and a lot of mindless 'dog meat' swims where I go for 3km or 5km without stopping. It works for me.

February in the Channel, about 8 or 9C; 20 minutes max

Red Triangle 3

I awoke to a bit of ultra-swimming history as Amy Gubser, a local from Pacifica, California, swam from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands (also called "the Devil's teeth"), a distance of 29.7 miles, completed in 17 hours. 

To understand the magnitude, the swim has never been done in a westward direction before and only five-times in total with the first completion in 1968.  The difficulty rests in the strong tides, dark water, jelly fish and water temperatures which drop to 6C. Oh, and there are the mysterious great white sharks who drop into the "red triangle" following thousands of miles in the Pacific to feed on the island's seals and possibly mate. The image one may have of a great white racing upwards from the ocean's oblivion, jaws wide open showing razor teeth, attacking a flotation-held camera, were likely filmed here.

I once visited the Farrallons in the 1990s with a strong first-impression from the acidic and overwhelming smell of bird guano as the islands support the largest seabird colony in the continental US. A lonely observation hut, usually deserted, exists for PhD students to study the islands unique ecosystem. It reminds me of Skull Island.

And from Gubser: "I wanted to show that, if you put your mind to something, you can do anything."

Some Basics 2

The English Channel is 21 miles (c 32 kilometres) at the shortest crossing however the tides play an important role on the final distance. Slower pace, more impact from the tides. The pilot (I will have a boat with me at all times) will aim for a consistent compass heading so that my track will be a "straight" line, even while the tides sweep from side-to-side as the water ebbs and floods. In other words, I will likely make an "S" path easily adding five-miles or more to the swim.

By comparison, Berkeley to Stanford is about 38 miles.

As for time, I anticipate something around 12-hours but it is difficult to predict since the weather, tides and pace all impact the crossing. One can also miss a tide and get stuck until the tide reverses, as it does every six-hours, a main reason swimmers fail. This can happen, most cruelly, a few kilometres from the French shoreline. 

The July/August water temperatures should not be a difficulty at 17-18C and I have been training in temperatures as low as 10C during the winter (any colder and it's a wetsuit) plus cold baths and showers. 

The below is a classic crossing:

English Channel 1

I will swim the English Channel separating England and France with a window for good weather from July 26 to August 4.

Note the opening gambit - no "aim to" or "I will try and finish" etcetc. I may tell my kids that the journey is the thing but with the Channel there really can be no doubt about getting across. And so I tell myself. 

As this is a first email, I appreciate that you may not wish to fill your inbox with missives on swimming long-distances and please do let me know if you wish to be removed from the emails (or want a personal/ different email). Unlike, say, Central Asia with daily notes that mostly wrote themselves, I am not really sure what i will write about - it is only swimming and swimming and swimming.

Somewhere in here, though, is a Big Challenge and a journey that I would love to share with you, should there be an interest, and so I will try to make it entertaining with one or two updates a week.

11 weeks out.

Paris Qualifier

Legend

Mahamed Mahamed was a quiet age-group runner and the same age as Eitan so we would see him at the UK track and x country competitions. He was a skinny kid who had a strange gate but was fast and could run forever. On the longer distances Mahamed Mahamed would lose count on the track so his mom or dad would belt out the laps. Mahamed Mahamed re-emerged at the London Marathon couple weeks ago finishing 4th overall with a time of 2:07.05, which qualifies him for the Paris Olympics.