Marathon Monday

I'm only just blogging Monday night's training session because I've only just warmed up from it.

Well not quite, but Jen, Kerry, Tom and I had a bit of a gruelling Monday evening.

We arrived at Hampstead Lido for 6:45pm with the water and air temperature both at 15 degrees. Pah! Nothing we thought - the channel was 12 degrees at the weekend.

We got stuck in, with some of us doing up to 70 minutes. It was definitely chilling down quickly towards the end of our session, but we didn't quite realise that we'd over done it until we got out.

Jen was so cold she went to bed at 10 still freezing, shivering and wearing ski-gear. Kerry hobbled to the tube with the shakes so bad she couldn't keep her shoes on. And frankly, I'm gutted I missed that bit because it sounds hilarious.

I chose that night to go for my medical which I needed to send to the official Channel swimming people. Noticing I was shaking somewhat the Doc took my temperature and to my surprise, and certainly his, he found it was too low to register on his electronic thermometer. I had to sit there wearing a duvet and a hat while I warmed up. We finally got a reading of 34 degrees. Three degrees below normal and consistent with 'stage two' hypothermia. After some rigorous questioning of how long I would be in the sea and at what temperature, he passed me fit.

Amusing in retrospect, but perhaps we should be a bit better prepared even for lido swimming sessions after work.

Jen's Spot

Here's Jen telling us how she's felt about the Channel swimming so far. I, like her, hold booze responsible for signing up to this madness:

"The main reaction when I tell people I am swimming the channel has been- ‘you know you can fly/ get a ferry/ train there don’t you Jen?’ Usually shortly followed by; ‘but you can wear a wetsuit so it wont be that bad, will it?’ The response that no we can’t wear a wetsuit for it to be a legitimate attempt, is often shortly followed by ‘you are mental’ or words to that effect!

Waking up at 6.20am on a miserable Saturday morning I was definitely in agreement. I had had to leave the party at 11.30 the night before (turning down free drinks) because of this and I did not want to go to Dover. Once again I silently cursed Mike for suggesting this Channel swimming malarkey, and myself for (admittedly after a few drinks), thinking it sounded like a fantastic idea and proclaiming (no doubt quite loudly and enthusiastically) sign me up!!

Anyway, I made my hot chocolate, met the guys at Charing Cross Station and we made our way (on the 7.30am train) to Dover. We arrived to grey skies and a mild drizzle, not really the sort of weather that makes you want to strip down to your swimming cossie (or Trunks) and go for a swim. Freda (the matriarch who oversees the proceedings) set us our challenge, which was a lot further than we had swum the previous time (a fortnight ago), and given that Kerry and I started to wonder if we would die out there the last time, we were a little hesitant. However fresh from our adventures in the Lido we set off!

It is a little scary when you are cold before you get in the water, and the breathlessness created by the shock of the cold water (12 degrees) does restrict our swimming ability! This combined with the waves on this particular day made it heavy going. Everyone has different reactions to the cold water, for me it’s my hands, they sort of cramp up and I end up swimming along trying to clench and unclench them as I swim- ineffective at best! When we get out we can’t walk because of the effects of the cold water (after 40 minutes in there) on our bodies, we then have to wrap ourselves up in as many layers as is humanly possible and try to stay warm. Normally we would be required to get back in the water, but thankfully as these were ‘The worst conditions you will face’ Freda decided it would be reckless for us to get in again!

So…looking forward to the next swim as it can only get better from here can’t it?"

Crisis over, it's freezing again

Just in case you were all worrying what we'd do with the shockingly warm 20 degree water, I can assure you it's ok, it was back down to a brain numbing cold of 14-15 degrees today.

I was the only person in the lido for the best part of 65 min swim. I knew I'd got my moneys worth when I had the familiar sensation of having bags of ice attached to the bottom of my calves instead of feet. It's quite hard to walk on bags of ice.

But, I stayed in 5 minutes longer than last time, so on the inside, I was doing victory laps and handstands.

Live Action in Dover

We went to Dover for the second time this weekend.


This time we weren't greeted with a sunny spring day - but with wind and rain and a dive in temperatures. We did it anyway - and each swum for between 35 and 45 minutes.


We were accompanied this time by my charming and beautiful girlfriend Ally, who got some live action shots of us.

Just looking at them now makes me feel cold.

Here's the vid of us taking the plunge!

Now the water's too hot!

Now that we've had a spell of warm weather, Hampstead Lido is now about 20 degrees.

Rubbish for cold water training!

We're off to Dover again this weekend and a few of us went to Hampstead on Monday to get us back used to the cold water. But 20 degrees is no use for that, when the channel will be 11 or 12 at the weekend. In fact, on a hot and sticky day the water was lovely. I didn't even shiver at all.

Now, why aren't there any properly chilled pools in London?

Cold Water!

We've recently started our cold water training - and however good we thought we were in the pool, it was a different story in the sea and the lido.

We had our first dip in the cold water a week before we were due to try it out in the sea. We joined some ducks in Hampstead Lido and managed about 20 minutes at about 14 degrees. We didn't do a lot of swimming, but quite a lot of talking about how tough we were being in such cold water.

Looking back, it wasn't much of a trial before the sea. First weekend in May we headed down to Dover with all this year's Channel swimmers for our first go in the sea. The water was a chillier 10 degrees, and wavy and salty with no ropes or sides. We had two swims of about 25 mins each and had just about enough of a break between the two for me to stop shivering (this tends to take about two hours after a dip in cold water and provides my team mates with no end of amusement).

I found the first swim pretty tough, even tougher than I thought it would be. But for some reason found the second one a lot easier and could have gone on for longer. I got into a good rhythm and before I knew it I'd reached the turn around point.

We recovered after the swim by heading to a pub, sitting in the sunshine and making a dent in their Magners stock. And we definitely deserved it too!


Check out the photos:




Check out how many clothes the man on the left is wearing!

For some reason, there weren't many other people swimming in Hampstead Lido on a cold and rainy April day.

Jen and Kerry team-up to warm-up after the swim. See the sea wall in the background? That's where we'd just swum to.



Tom unpacks a hypothermia blanket.

Well earned and warming cup of tea from my newly bought thermos.