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.

Looking fine

Happy 50th Posh

James and I catch up at his wine club, 67 Pall Mall, starting with a bottle of French champagne - v decadent. James is Partner at Astorg and an Englishman by habit and nature, though part of his education in Paris so he is fluent in French, as one has to be at this firm. James is working, post acquisition,  on the carve-out of Fastmarkets from Euromoney, which Astorg acquired last year - Fastmarkets provides access to over 5,500 prices on commodities in ag, forest, metals and mining and new generation energy - a niche leader in a mission critical area of the global economy - a company no one has ever heard of but we cannot live without. 

James completes The Times crossword puzzle every day on the train ride to St James's Sq.

Big Trees

Katie, Daniel and Daniel's twin boys visit 2505 Shashone Rd off historic HW 4 in the Sierras and near Bear Valley, Lake Alpine and Big Trees national park, home of the largest redwoods in the world. Moe and Grace bought the property when I was a junior in high school and it really meant little to me - weekend with parents in the mountains ? No thanks. It wasn't until I started dating Sonnet that I realised what a gift the cabin was. Beautiful hikes, gorgeous lake swims. A perfect place for kids and family.

Dover Harbour

My first time to Dover Harbour and I swim for c 45 minutes in c 10.4C water. 

Approaching Dover is quite something - industrial piers jut outward forming a protected zone for swimmers and rowers but not blocking incoming waves. In the background there are busy ferries going to Ireland, France and other places. The beach is hard-pebbled and nasty to walk on bare-footed. I scramble down to the water's edge (tide is out) and wade in - within minutes I am numb and watching the shoreline from afar. The other direction, unending sea.
Here, the ultra-swimmers train from May to September when the water temp's will rise to 20C. A 'lap' connects two fat jetties or c 2,000 meters.

Beforehand, Sonnet, the dog and I spend the night in charming Chatham to break the two hours drive to Dover.

BHS Swimming

 

Still on the Board. Twice.

Closing out the week in Berkeley, I take my mom to a BHS swimming meet where the Yellow Jackets compete against Bishop O'Dowd, Albany and Castro Valley at the Berkeley High pool (in my day, there were two pools about 50 years old, the water over-heated, over-chlorinated and no lines on the pool floor). I meet the men's coach, Michael, who was BHS '86, but not a swimmer back then. He gives me all sorts of interesting updates on the team, which heads into the Northcoast championships next month. 

Michael points out Maya swimming the 200 yd freestyle and somewhere in the middle of the pack. Maya is the youngest person to swim Hawaii's 28-mile Moloka'i Channel and the youngest woman to swim the 20-mile Catalina Channel.

Mount Diablo

 

Most visible land anywhere ?

Mount Diablo has always in my vision, literally, yet despite growing up nearby the highest mountain in the Diablo range (1,084 meters) I have never been to the top until now.  The  360-degree 'viewshed' offers expansive views of the SF Bay estuary and, on a clear day, the Sierras are visible over 300km away including Sentinel Dome in Yosemite.  Today, despite the sunshine, fog is visible on the western horizon. A small ranger station greets Grace and me at the top, where we bide our time talking about whatever. 

We pass multiple cyclists and three Ferraris on the way to the top. The panorama stimulates a discussion w my NorCal friends as to whether Mt Diablo presents the most visible geography vs, say, Kilimanjaro or Mt Fuji. The California poppy's are in full bloom.

SF Bay

 

I swim in the SF Bay whenever here, April being one of the coldest months for water temp as the bay estuary captures the Sierra's snow-melt resulting in temps at around 48-52f. After the initial shock of the jump, I pay the cold no mind and swim for about an hour or so.  One turn around the inside of the "cove", below, is 1500m or c one mile to the regulars but my watch and arm-count suggest more like 1200m.

Joe

This is what homelessness looks like in San Francisco - 100% Patagonia clothing and gear (Joe lives in Pacific Heights). I met him at my first job in NYC at First Boston while he went on to run the firm's North American Asset Management Business then settled in Hong Kong to head investment banking in Asia. High flier for sure. Once Credit Suisse consumed by UBS last year, Joe and his wife relocated to the Bay Area. 

Jon Grussing, who I have recently re-connected with, was also in the FBC Financial Institutions Group and same vintage year as Joe, remains at Credit Suisse and will likely transition to UBS - I joke, he is the last man standing. Joe and Jon each worked at their first post-uni job for 40 years.

Big Mac Revisited

Grace, Lupe and I go to the Stanford Medical Center in Berkeley so Grace can have a small skin cancer removed from her arm. A simple procedure requiring about 45 minutes and some stitches. Afterwards she wants McDonald's and so there we go. Neither of has had a Big Mac since I can remember (though we hit a Taco Bell on San Pablo last year after reading about Taco Bell's product r&d department in the New Yorker). She informs that the Big Mac is just not the same anymore (for me, it is always the same). 

What is different is that there are no counter-staff and a busy restaurant has a crew of like four people. What's a teenager to do for a summer job ?

Another One Bites The Dust

Though the picture does not do it justice, Dave, from Columbia MBA, was on his way to becoming the Financial Controller and eventually, perhaps, the CFO of Pepsico - I always thought the latter since he was the No. 1 accountant from my year at CBS. Instead, Dave has taken his marbles from the circle, leaving Pepsi as SVP & Deputy Financial Controller to be retired and spiritual, something unexpected, and that I applaud wholly.  

Brooklyn NY

I spend several days in Brooklyn visiting Katie and Daniel at their lovely home on a grade-listed and charming block in Brooklyn Heights near to the metro connections and fabulous restaurants including Clark's, a diner where we have a late lunch in the photo. Afterwards Katie and I walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset (magical), check out the WTC memorial and catch a ferry back to Brooklyn. The next day is the Highline.

Daniel has three teenage boys and I am happy to meet two of the three in motion.

I have figured out how to swim every day in NYC - the appropriately named Asphalt Green on 91st & York (Manhattan; top class 50 meter indoor pool, $25) and the Brooklyn YMCA (clean, functional 25 yards). My kilometres per week remain at c 30km.

A First Apartment

Riverside Drive at 125 Street where Sonnet and I lived together first-time on the 5th floor facing me now with a view of the park and the river. I was at Columbia MBA and she arrived with her friendly black cat Dominique, having left her job at William-Sonoma, trusting that the apartment would be acceptable. Or me not a fraud. We were engaged to be married with everything ahead of us to come. 

Manhattan

 

PAZ

I am in Midtown, on a wet and unpleasant day, at Park Avenue Plaza (middle left) which once housed the mighty First Boston (then CS First Boston then Credit Suisse First Boston then CSFB then Credit Suisse and now UBS). Yes, the top floors - mine 39 - housed the bankers who worked on Important Deals and Global Mergers and Acquisitions. PAZ, as it was called, was a sure power building with its novel green mirrored windows and simple detailing - a vertical cleft on one side that went from street level to rooftop. Given how seriously everybody took each other it is not surprising that my most absurd stories - and many of my best friends - are from this time.

From Midtown to downtown, still on Park Avenue but now on 21st Street, where I see painters painting a wall white for no apparent reason. 

Valle dei Templi

A Sicilian local catches me taking his photo as he takes a break from the morning shopping in Taomina nearby the San Domenico Palace. I am drawn to his style.

Temple of Concordia

The Valley of the Temples, in Agrigento, on the top of a mountain that provides panormanic views - and therefore protection - of the Ionian Sea, includes the remains of seven temples, all in Doric style, and dating from 25 centuries ago, give or take. The Concordia and its 6x13 columns, was built in the 5th century BC and turned into a church in the 6th century AD and thus survived the destruction of pagan places of worship.