swimming the English Channel
Sam Penny's journey to conquer the Everest of swimming
First, the nitty gritty of the 8hour swim. This was going to be 2.5hr longer than I had ever done before in my life and in water colder than I have ever swum in. Confidence was high though as I've done the k's and some cold water acclimatisation in Brisbane's National Cricket Centre. We didn't arrive to our hotel until 10.40pm on Friday night so unpacked, had a last snack and straight off to sleep by 11pm to be rudely awoken at 5am by my alarm. It's never fun waking up in a hotel room, early and realising that the only coffee you have is that instant stuff. I just tell myself that caffeine is caffeine so just drink it and it will be gone. At 6.15am Helen and I walk across the road to the beach at Brighton-le-Sands to get ready, grease up and get briefed on the course. The air temp is about 9degs so Helen is feeling it. So am I when I have to strip down to my Funky Trunks and get Helen to put cold Channel Grease and sunscreen all over me.
There were a lot of different courses for us to choose from as it was important to find one that matches in with your feeding times. I feed every 30mins so it took me about 5 laps to find a 1.8km lap that brought me in at 30mins on the dot. 8hours of doing laps is a pretty boring thing. I'd swim to the south to a rock wall, turn around, swim to North to the end of a bathing enclosure, turn around, swim south to where I started and have a drink. I got to the point that each time I would turn around I'd stop and say out loud, "Aaaaaaand here we go again". There was nobody there to hear my luckily. So bored. But I got the job done. I had a few highs and lows but got through them. The hardest part was the first 3-4hours where I just wasn't having fun. But then I all of a sudden came good and powered through the last 4 hours as best as I could. I was getting a bit of muscle soreness which I managed with Voltaren and Panadol but nothing too major. The tennis elbow and shoulder tip pain that had plagued me in Melbourne's Cold Water Camp has gone as I spent quite a bit of time changing my stroke and much of the pressure has gone off my shoulders. I describe it as: Before I was swimming like a water polo player. Wide and strong. Now I swim long, stretched and in alignment. I feel a lot more efficient in the water and put a lot of focus on a long stroke.
Meanwhile, Helen was on the beach for this whole time sticking to our feeding plan. Our nutritionist has given us a very comprehensive plan for every 30min feed. Each 3hours Helen gave me a warm Ovaltine. This was the best morale booster ever! Almost as good as a warm hug. At 5.5hours I started to get cold but this was more of a mental thing as I had an Ovaltine at 6hours and then realised that 2hours to go just meant 4 more of these damn boring laps. I finished the 8hours and felt good. I didn't feel cold and if I needed to, could have kept going for another few more hours. It was such a great test and to know that I did that in water colder than the Channel is a great confidence boost. I covered 28km in my 8 hours which I feel really great about. I know I could have easily done the extra 6km and then some more if I had to. I've got this. We flew back home that evening to the Sunshine Coast. I couldn't wait to get to sleep in my own bed. I was sore. Pretty much all of my upper body was sore. Particularly my pecs and my neck. Sleep so that we could wake up early and take the kids ocean swim racing in Noosa the next morning. Sometimes there's no rest.
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AuthorSam Penny is attempting to swim the English Channel in August 2018. Follow his journey here. Archives
August 2018
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