BLDSA Loch Lomond

We arrived at the Ardlui hotel at about 6.30pm, my start time was 8pm so we were in plenty of time and it was not long before my crew came into view and landed the boat on the beach. I needed to attach some glow sticks to the side of the boat, fit the navigation lights and alpha flag and do a final check of the kit. It was essential to make sure we had enough hot water to last the swim and I had stowed two large filled thermos flasks and an additional one for the crew, so they could also have hot drinks throughout the night. Debbie had made the crew a plentiful supply of sandwiches and snacks, which they were grateful for.

I changed into my kit and put on my Dryrobe to keep warm whilst we waited for the safety briefing. There were three people starting at the same time as me and one after; by my count that meant there were already five swimmers in the water. Start times were staggered based on an individual’s expected swim speed, and meant that if all went to plan everyone would finish at about the same time on Sunday morning.

The safety briefing went without a hitch and we were reminded of the usual BLDSA rules for the swim -don’t touch the boat or anyone in it, stay close to your escort boat etc etc. As the crew made their final preparations, I started getting ready, put on my lucky Champion of Champions hat and attached a flashing green strobe to strap of my tinted goggles. I needed to attach a glow stick to the back of my trunks so my crew could easily spot me when it got dark which proved a challenge (and I think it fell off only meters into the swim in any case.)

Debbie was on hand to apply a thick layer of lanolin to my upper back and kidneys in an attempt to provide some additional insulation against what was going to be a cold swim.

start

Lanolin for insulation

Lanolin was also very good at preventing chafing in the areas under my arms and around my neck, where stubble can cause serious friction burns – always worse in salt water but I was taking no risks.

Lanolin

Sticky stuff!

The children were pretty hyper at the start and although excited I think they were a bit worried. I tried to keep things light-hearted but as always before any competitive swim I tend to withdraw and quietly prepare myself for what’s ahead.

s1

Just before the off

We all said our goodbyes to family and friends and the crew were left with strict instructions to provide status updates to the family at designated spots along the swim. The crew took the boat about a hundred yards or so offshore and adopted a holding pattern as they awaited the start. The swimmers were instructed to wade into the water up to our thighs and await the starting whistle. It was quite cold but at least 2 degrees or so warmer than Loch Long and that was a huge relief.

The whistle sounded and we were off, I started steady and proceeded to swim directly into a mooring buoy not 20 meters from the start! This was not ideal as it bloody hurt, it did however take the my mind off the chill in the water for a bit.

buoy

Thankfully no damage was done and I settled into a steady rhythm next to the boat, making sure as far as possible to maintain a position adjacent to the boat and not at the back where the diesel smell was unbearable.

swim

Relaxing into my stroke

I never looked forwards but always towards my crew, they were obviously a little nervous as well and it took them a while to find their routine. It was not long though before Paul had mastered keeping the boat the right distance away and was effectively leading me in the right direction. Albie was sat at the front of the boat providing navigational instructions whilst frequently recording my stroke rate, and Barry was filming me on a small handheld camcorder that Debbie had given him on the beach earlier. (I might ask the crew to contribute a post from their perspective at some point as I know they had some fun and games!)

start2

500m in from the start

As per my normal training routine, I would feed after the first 2 hrs of swimming and then every hour. Barry would prepare the feeds and I would tread water whilst taking on fluids and occasional solids such as flapjacks or banana. All was going to plan and I was starting to enjoy my swim. Whilst it was still light I was able to recognise some of the sights we had seen earlier in the week and the views from water level were amazing. I swam from point to point as marked out on our navigational map, and guided by my trusty crew.

As night fell all I could hear was the sound of the small outboard and it was actually quite relaxing. My goggles were great, not steamed up and no leaks at all but I could not see anything except for the blurred green glow of the glow sticks we had attached to the boat and the odd camp fire on the shores of the Loch. I had brought some clear lenses for the night swim but given the ones I was wearing were working so well, I decided not to change them. Although everything appeared much darker than it actually was, that didn’t bother me and I actually quite enjoyed swimming in the dark. The only downside was that apparently the stars and the night sky were beautiful throughout the evening and I missed all of that!

night

Swimming through the night

It was about midnight when the air temperature started to drop dramatically. I found out later that it dropped as low as 3 degrees and the crew were pretty cold. Thankfully they were well briefed and came prepared with warm waterproof clothing. They were wrapped up in multiple layers with hats and gloves and had enough hot water for cups of tea or hot juice. Crewing on a swim like this is a massive challenge in itself and I have a lot to thank them for.

I was still feeling pretty good but the water was feeling icy cold, the crew stopped me at one point during the night to ask me some hyperthermia questions because they thought I might be suffering. I remember counting out loud to ten as quickly as I could, a little put out that I had to stop swimming, but I was fine and would rather that than the alternative. I kept telling myself that as long as I could feel the discomfort, I was probably doing fine. I also remember skipping a feed at some point during the night because I felt it was too cold to stop moving.

NB: As an aside to any prospective crew, if your swimmer requests a Paracetamol or Ibuprofen at the next feed because of some slight ailment, please do not think it is a good idea to stick the whole 500mg pills into half a banana without telling the swimmer. I took a healthy bite of said banana and started to chew, if you have ever bitten into a paracetamol, you will now what my reaction was! After much coughing, spluttering, spitting and general abuse of the crew I threw the rest away and carried on.

lesson

Just for avoidance of doubt!

I was drinking Torq carb powder mixed with mineral water for the first half of the swim supplemented with the odd 1/2 banana or flapjack. In the middle of the night I switched to warm hot chocolate because the Torq was making me feel a bit sick. This was the right decision as I immediately felt better and looked forward to each subsequent feed. (I no longer use carbohydrate as fuel but we will discuss that in another post).

Swimming in the dark and the cold when you are tired can sometimes play tricks on your mind and there were several occasions where my crew and I struggled with communication. I think at one point I swam off into the dark without the boat, but this was nothing too serious and at no point did I really throw my toys out of the pram.

dawn

Dawn on Loch Lomond

I think our biggest challenge was navigating through the islands in the dark. It was almost impossible to find the correct course, and without the massive search light I’d brought along, I doubt we would have successfully found the entrance to the narrow and very shallow channel. (Even though they had mapped the route and sailed through and around the islands the previous day). If you’re thinking of entering this swim I would recommend skirting the islands rather than going through them. It’s a bit longer that way but I’m sure it would have been quicker in the end.

supp

Supporters shouting encouragement from afar

I didn’t know at the time but Debbie, the girls and Paul’s family were following the start of the swim by road and then were up early the next day to find suitable vantage points to wave and shout encouragement.

final straight

Final couple of hours

We finally exited the islands and psychologically I convinced myself that we were on the home straight. In reality though this was a mistake on my part as I still had over three hours of swimming ahead of me!

I was aware that the safety boat had visited us a couple of times in the night but to be honest we hadn’t seen that much of it. It turned out that this was because the boat had been quite busy elsewhere and my crew informed me that out of the nine swimmers to start there were only two of us remaining! This spurred me on and I wondered if I might even finish the swim in first place, which was never part of my thinking previously.

I never doubted that I would finish and although I was tired I just kept putting one arm in front of the other until I was able to stand at the finish.

finish

Finished – 13hrs 58 mins 58 seconds

Phillip Hodges was 49th person to swim Loch Lomond and the only other swimmer to complete the course, he started earlier and finished well before me, completing his swim an hour or so faster than me.

I wore my Garmin for the swim and was excited to see the results. Unfortunately however, it lost its GPS signal for the majority of the swim and although this rendered the stats useless, the tack was accurate for the first 3hrs and the last couple.

LL.jpg

My crew was awesome and I would not have made it without them, it’s just a shame that Albie and Barry had to leave pretty much straight after the swim to get a flight back down to Exeter. Paul and his family would be around for a few more days so we would get the opportunity to celebrate.

boatcrew

From the left – Paul, Barry and Albie

Afterwards it took about 45mins for me to stop shaking enough to accept my BLDSA award. It was a tough swim and although it took much longer than I had expected, it didn’t matter, Loch Lomond for me was just a training swim on my journey towards swimming the English Channel.

prize

Prize giving

I was the 50th person in history to swim the Loch Lomond and looking back on the swim now, it was actually a much tougher swim than the English Channel…

crew

Marathon Swimming is a TEAM sport!

BLDSA Loch Lomond – The prequel

It had been a long road and on the swimming front at least, all that could be done had been done.

I had booked a Forest Holidays cabin at the northern end of Loch Long, which would be our base for the days leading up to the swim and for several days after. The cabin looked amazing and much to girls’ delight it had a hot tub (which was the real selling point for them).

Argyllnew9

View from Loch Long towards the Forest Holidays Cabins.                                                           (Picture from Forest Holidays website)

I was very much in organisational mode now and was slowly working through my growing checklist:

  • BLDSA Loch Lomond Entry Form
  • Boat hire for crew familiarisation on Friday and then the swim (cash to pay for this)
  • Extra fuel for the boat (just in case)
  • Two paddles for emergencies
  • Accommodation
  • Return flights to Glasgow booked for crew
  • Hire car booked and paid for at Glasgow Airport
  • Feeding plan
  • Drugs (Paracetamol and Ibuprofen)
  • Water
  • Thermos flasks x2
  • Torq carb powder
  • Torq gels
  • Hot chocolate sachet x12
  • 6 bananas
  • Flapjacks 1 box
  • Milky bars – mini size
  • Fruit jelly sweets for the crew (special request from Albie and Barry)
  • Large watertight box for all kit
  • Navigation lights for the boat
  • Glow sticks x10
  • Alpha flag
  • Plastic zip ties
  • Duct tape
  • Searchlight
  • Swimming bag
  • Change of warm clothes
  • Dry robe
  • Goggles x2
  • Trunks x2
  • Hat x2
  • Garmin watch
  • Green light for swimming at night x2
  • Safety pins
  • Lanolin and Vaseline
  • Towels x2
  • Crocs
  • Batteries
  • Crew food, drinks and hot water
  • Navigation charts
  • Compass
  • Binoculars
  • VHF radio
  • Life jackets
  • Mobile phone and key contact phone numbers
  • Knife
  • First aid kit

I packed and re-packed my box  (a scuba box from B&Q) with everything needed for the crew and boat. My swimming stuff was safely packed away in my trusty North Face bag.

I would have time to shop for fresh produce if I had forgotten anything as Dumbarton was not far away and I could source most things from there.

We drove up to Durham the weekend before the swim and stopped over at Debbie’s parents before travelling on to the cabin on the Monday morning. I have been told that I was not particularly pleasant to be around for those few days. I don’t know if it was nerves and apprehension but I felt quite ill and started to get really worried that I might actually be coming down with something just prior to the main event. I really just wanted to get to the cabin so I could sort myself out, test the water, get my bearings and settle into my surroundings before the swim.

Driving alongside Loch Lomond on our way to the cabin was the first time I’d actually seen it for real. It was stunning but seemed much bigger than on Google maps!

situation-geographique-loch-lomond

Loch Lomond & Loch Long to the left of Tarbet

We settled in to our cabin and after settling on who should have which bedroom, tested out the hot tub almost immediately.

Image-1[1]

I had solicited a willing crew many months before and I was confident in my selections; they would be the perfect crew.

Albie was always going to take the lead, he had a huge amount of crewing experience having escorted numerous Channel and BLDSA swims before. Albie would be in charge of navigation and would keep a close eye on my stroke rate and general well-being throughout the swim. Barry (of flapjack fame) would join Albie and would take control of the feeds and video. I had known them both since my childhood and they had crewed together many times. They were a safe pair of hands and I trusted them and their judgement.

That left one space left, the job of that crew member would be to pilot the boat! A difficult and important task, as I would be taking my lead from and swimming next to the boat all through the night.

I considered this selection carefully and realised some time ago that what I really needed was a Rock Star!

Wake

Rock Star !

Luckily for me one lived next door.. Meet Paul, Rock Star, neighbour, friend and newest member of my crew.

We spent the next few days exploring the areas surrounding Loch Lomond and visiting almost all of the landmark spots I would see during my swim. I’m so glad we did this as it helped a great deal during the swim as I could actually visualise the places Albie and I had earlier highlighted on the navigation map along the proposed swim route.

Just a stones throw from our cabin, I decided to ‘keep my arms in’ and have a short swim in Loch Long, and this proved to be a real eye opener… Mainly because it was bloody baltic! It could only have been about 10/11 degrees and I was not prepared for it. Having been swimming in the sea and lake all summer in temperatures of between 16 and 24 degrees this was a real shock to the system and I was shivering for some time afterwards.

Loch Long, unlike Loch Lomond is a sea water Loch and joins the Firth of Clyde to the south before in turn flowing to the North Sea. This would account for the cold temperature and the abundance of unfriendly lion’s mane jellyfish in attendance.

Image-1[2]

Better out than in!

I was really worried that Loch Lomond might be the same temperature and I didn’t have the nerve to swim in it before my swim, just in case I lost my bottle. I swam in Loch Long three times that week, each time for a little bit longer until I was swimming across and back. The shivering got easier and at least I had a few days to acclimatise, whereas some of the other competitors would be in for a shocker if they turned up to Lomond on the day expecting tropical conditions.

My crew arrived on Friday and I immediately felt more at ease, my meticulous planning was paying off and everything was starting to fall into place. I had arranged to hire the same boat for the afternoon  (from Loch Lomond boat hire) so the crew they could familiarise themselves with the Loch (specifically the route through the islands) and Paul could learn to pilot a boat in advance of the swim. I enjoyed an ice cream with the girls as the small boat motored off at a sedate pace towards Inchmurrin island.

Albie and Barry would stay with us in the cabin on the Friday night but Paul, who had driven up to the Loch with his family towing their caravan, would stay in a campsite overlooking the Loch itself. We agreed to gather at our cabin that evening for pizza and pasta (CARB loading!!!) and to discuss final preparations for the big day ahead.

It was decided that I would drive the guys to Balloch to pick up the boat early the following morning. They would then pilot the boat to Arduli, the start point for the swim on the northern edge of the Loch. It would take most of the day to make the journey and I would track their progress from various vantage points along the way. We thought it would be nice for them to come ashore at Tarbet to stretch out and have a picnic lunch before they set off again on the final leg of the voyage to Ardlui.

I was supposed to be taking it easy in the run up to the swim but to be honest it helped to keep busy and I just wanted to get started. I re-checked and re-packed my box several times that afternoon before we piled into the car leaving plenty of time for our short drive to the start point.

LOCH LOMOND  – BLDSA’S EVEREST of SWIMMING

A 21.6 mile swim for the most serious/delusional. Records suggest that up until the 20th day in August in 2014 when nine somewhat nervous swimmers, including myself, graced the northern banks of the Loch, only 48 people had ever completed this swim before. Lying in the shadow of Ben Lomond the Loch is the largest body of water by surface area in the British Isles and one of the most beautiful places I will ever swim.

The weather can be pretty unpredictable and my crew would likely have to contend with cold temperatures as I swam through the night. I knew I had a reasonable tolerance for cold water, having swum in the cold earlier in the year and swimming in Loch Long over the past few days. I was going to need all of that resilience and more if I was going to emerge triumphant at Balloch on Sunday morning….

 

A split 6 followed by a perfect 10!

Anyone who has spent the summer training for a Channel swim under the ever watchful eye of Freda Streeter will know all to well the emphasis placed on completing a split swim in combinations of 6 or 7 hours over a weekend.

I had followed my plan to the letter and thus far, achieved every goal I had set for myself. My wall planner indicated that the weekend of the 12/13th July would be my first and only opportunity to complete a split 6hr swim.

My longest planned training swim of 10 hours was highlighted in bold, red letters just two weeks later. The importance of a successful weekend’s swimming was not lost on me.

Again, Albie kindly agreed to support my swims, this time he would be a bit busier as on top of recording my stroke rate and general well-being, I would also be feeding after the first two hours and then every hour or so after. The plan was to drink water mixed with carbohydrate powder and for solids I would eat either banana or home-made flapjacks (kindly provided by Barry Westaway). I wish I knew about LCHF back then as my nutritional choices would have been entirely different (more to follow on that in later posts).

Albie and I headed over to Budleigh beach early on the Saturday morning, aiming for a 9am start. I choose to do the majority of my biggest swims in Devon because the sea conditions are much more akin to those I would find in the English Channel. It was always very different swimming at Budleigh than in Dover harbour, but looking back, neither of these locations proved ideal as a training ground for a long swim in fresh water.

The first 6hrs went well, I was trying to pace my self effectively throughout but feeding took a little longer than normal as it is a pebble beach and getting ashore was sometimes tricky with the waves.

s6.1

I was feeling pretty sick after and had to stop at the side of the road for a ‘tactical chunder’ as it’s known in the trade. I felt better after that though and made sure I had an early night in preparation for the following day’s exertions.

The second swim went much the same as the first, it took a while to loosen up but overall I felt better than the previous day.

s6.2

My average swim speed seemed a little slow on the Garmin but I was aiming for about 2 mph which, when factoring in feeds is pretty much what I achieved.

It was a good weekend’s work but the thought of swimming further than I had ever done before in just a couple weeks was still quite daunting…

I took the next few weeks pretty easy, in fact I only did a 2 hr swim the following Saturday in Dover but I did manage to submit my Loch Lomond entry form before the deadline and suddenly everything was feeling very real.

Before I knew it I was back standing on Budleigh beach, this time it was 7am and the air was fresher at this time in the morning!

My family had been in Devon for the whole week and as it was Debbie’s mums birthday on the same day as my swim, both her parents had joined them for a weeks holiday. We were planning a birthday tea at the River Exe Cafe following my swim, which I was looking forward to as the sea food was rumoured to be excellent.

Albie was with me once again, and this time both my family and a few of the other Exmouth swimmers were planning to make an appearance at some point during the day. It’s always nice to know there is someone else on the beach or in the water swimming at the same time as you when you are doing such a long session.

This was the last big training swim before Lomond and I would then be tapering down in the weeks leading up to the swim. This was my one chance and I was determined to finish on a high. I strode into the water and got down to business..

10hrs

After about 8 hours of swimming I was finding swimming against the tide more and more difficult. I would fly down to mum’s bench in one direction and then fight my way back. I hadn’t really noticed it much for the first eight hours but the last few laps in particular were incredibly difficult both physically and mentally.

Crawling up the pebbled beach I felt knackered and happy in equal measure. I was struggling to stand upright after being horizontal for such a long time and after a couple of minutes I felt sick again. I was aware that I had ingested loads of sea water during the latter part of the swim, I think I must have swum with my mouth open quite a bit as well because my tongue was somewhat dehydrated. This is quite common amongst Channel swimmers and it makes your tongue swell and crack. It would take a few days for my tongue to feel normal again but it did, thankfully.

I went straight to bed and unfortunately missed the birthday celebrations.. My daughter still raves about the seafood platter to this day!

When I eventually started to feel more like myself again, the realisation that I could keep pushing through the fatigue was huge for me. It was only then that I truly began to believe that if I could maintain the mental strength to continue when things were that tough, failure in Loch Lomond would not be an option…

and without the salt, hopefully I would not be sick either..

 

Fed up with the pool!

From January to March 2014 I swam frequently in the local (very heated) 25m pool and I hated every minute of it!

The pool was always busy and the swimming lane was a ridiculous double width fast lane full of head up, screw kicking breaststrokers. All in all I swam 60 sessions in the pool over this period covering 114.5 km and  wasting in the region of 47 hours. On the plus side my Garmin told me that I had burned 39,000 calories, but I more than replenished these with cake! Apparently cake was the staple diet of all aspiring Channel swimmers and I was very happy about that.

Things were starting to look up, the wall planner showed that I was on track and on the 17th April 2014 the family and I were heading down to Devon for the Easter weekend, and hopefully my first dip in the sea.

Thankfully, I had also managed to secure a boat for my Loch Lomond swim, I was confident that it would be suitable for my crew and sorting that out had lifted a huge weight from my shoulders.

boat

Only the best for my crew. (Thanks to Loch Lomond Boat hire)

I still hadn’t submitted my entry form for the swim because I was sadly lacking in the pre-requisite open water swimming experience. The entry form was asking for evidence of at least an 8 mile swim within the last two years. Although I had achieved this during my first 6 hour swim, the entry form had space for 4 swims in the experience section and I wanted to fill it. I knew that ‘swimming in Spain on holiday’ was probably not going to cut it in this instance, and I wanted to beef up my experience with a couple more 6 hour swims before the entry deadline in July.

We always looked forward to heading down to Exmouth as since my mum died suddenly of cancer a few years before, Terry (my mum’s hubby of ten years since my parents divorce) had retained the house when he moved to Australia. It is great that we are still able to stay there when we visit and I certainly feel closer to my mum when we are at the house.

Being at home also gives us the opportunity to visit mum’s bench. We commissioned a commemorative plaque which has pride of place on a wooden bench at mum’s favourite spot, overlooking the beach at Budleigh. It’s right next to the war memorial at the top of the hill and marks the spot where we scattered mum’s ashes.

Budleigh Beach

View from mum’s bench at Budleigh Beach

I always love swimming at Budleigh, the swimming area is well-marked with equally spaced yellow buoys and offers a challenging mile long circuit. You swim 1/2 mile up and 1/2 mile back and always against the tide in one of those legs. Coincidently the turning point is level with the easily visible war memorial and mum’s bench. That always keeps me going on the long swims, thinking that mum is somehow present when things are getting tough.

Anyway I digress, my first venture into the sea was not as warm as I would have liked and lasted for exactly 12 minutes and 55 seconds, not even one circuit.

Untitled 2

The whole family was back on the beach the beach the next day. Slightly unhappy that I’d only managed a short dip the day before, this time I was determined to swim a lap. As you can see below I still hadn’t mastered swimming in a straight line, but at least I managed a mile.

ss2

Slightly wonky course, I need to work more on this.

I exited the water in real style, very much like a beached whale and then hobbled gingerly up the stoney beach ( I will never get used to walking on those stones). I managed to dry and dress myself but when handed a cuppa tea I proceeded to spill it all over myself due to the onset of the shakes. The shakes took a while to subside but I’ve learnt since that shaking is good news and it’s all part of the fun..

Having enjoyed our short visit we decided that heading home on the Sunday would allow us to miss the bank holiday traffic, and would give me the opportunity to check out the lake that Mark Sheridan had mentioned before Christmas when we had lunch.

As it turned out I needed to do a swim assessment at the lake before I was able to swim alone, and the bank holiday weekend was the very first opportunity to do this. Apparently swim assessments are only conducted when the water temperature reaches double figures!

I was feeling confident following my dip at Budleigh and was wondering if the Nutters Mark had mentioned previously, would be in attendance at the lake…

 

It’s all in the planning

I had a thirst, not only for a drink (I’d been off the booze for a year) but for knowledge. Whilst I was researching everything I could find related to swimming Loch Lomond, I stumbled across a blog that would change my life forever!

There was this guy, Mark Sheridan who swam the Loch in 2012, having read his story I knew that I needed to track him down, buy him lunch and as my American friends would say ‘drink from the fire hose’.

You should check out his blog here:

http://reminiscencesofalongdistanceswimmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/bldsa-loch-lomond-216mile-swim-2012.html

Eventually after much online searching, I managed to track down Mark’s email address. Luckily it turned out that he worked in London not ten minutes from my own office and I dropped him an unsolicited email with an offer of lunch, and hoping that he would agree to meet and share his wisdom. I was excited when Mark agreed and felt that finally I was making some real progress.

We met for lunch in Wagamama’s a week later, it was a bit like a first date. Mark trying to get a feel for whether I was really up for the challenge, or just another wannabe Loch Lomond swimmer. He was probing for the tell-tale signs and searching for common ground. I remember, when mentioning to Mark that the swimming and the distance would not be a problem for me, the wry smile that lingered from across the table.

Mark gave me some solid advice about choosing my crew wisely, and sorting out a boat early. We discussed the best route and the challenges of navigating at night, all invaluable for planning my swim the following August. Mark also mentioned that he often trained with some Nutters at Holborough lake in Kent. I told him that I would check it out as it was only about 30 mins from my home, and much closer than a drip to Dover. I paid the bill and we parted company.

Over the next couple of months in the lead up to Christmas 2013 I started putting plans in place to recruit a crew, book a boat, and propose (sell) a great holiday in Loch Lomond to the family, which would by chance, coincide with the swim.

As with the previous year Christmas was the time for planning but it became quickly apparent that this coming year, things needed to change.

My family suffered in 2013, I was single-minded, selfish and didn’t include them in my plans. I had tunnel vision and did not realise the extent to which my training and state of mind was impacting my family. My wife and I had a long and emotional discussion, the outcome of which was that I promised to find balance, to make time during the year for them and to include them in my plans. It dawned on me that they were really invested in my endeavour emotionally and wanted to contribute and feel part of what was to come. It was no longer my swim but our swim, and I realised I could not do it on my own.

This reset manifested itself in a written plan of activities for the next eight months to include not only all training swims, key milestones, events and associated travel but also dedicated family time, short breaks and holidays.

My simple aim was to swim further and faster every month than the previous year. I planned to swim in the pool until April then the lake at Holborough or the sea either in Dover or Devon. I also planned to swim my first BLDSA swim in 2014, the notorious Champion of Champions, and decided that a successful ten-hour sea swim off Budleigh beach prior to Loch Lomond would give me the necessary confidence going into the swim.

I stuck a daily planner on the wall of our study and used various colour coded dots to indicate progress.  I was ready to execute our plan to the letter..

 

 

 

Back in the pool

It’s Christmas 2012, I’m sat in the living room trying to figure out a plan for my first year of training in 2013.

The plan was to swim a lot in my local swimming pool in the beginning until the water temperature in the sea was warm enough to venture outside. A good plan I thought, get back into swimming, regain some of my speed and then work towards achieving a six-hour sea swim in the summer. I had never swum beyond 3 hours before and but as this was the qualifying distance for a Channel solo swim, it seemed like a logical goal.

I was training 4 or 5 times a week in the evenings after work and at the weekends.

2013 calendar

2013 Training Days

Initially I was covering no more than 2-3k in each session, and you can see below, although I was swimming frequently my monthly distance rarely exceed 60km by much.

2013.112013.12

I swam in the pool until May when I decided to enter the H2Open’s first National Open Water Ranking Series, this consisted of a number of swims in lakes around the country and I thought this would be a good way to add some intensity to my training and finally escape from the pool.

My first was a 5k at Box End in Bedfordshire on the 4th May and I was one of only a couple of skins swimmers in a crowd of rubber. I was afraid that it would be too cold for me and I even tried to sit in a cold bath at home to replicate the anticipated temperature. As it turns out my worries were unfounded, as although it was cold at about 14.5 degrees, I managed it well, even if there was a bit of shivering following my exit.

I thought I was swimming pretty fast at Box End but as it turns out I was well down the field at the finish. I only realised later that I had lost a lot of time due to the fact that I was struggling to swim in a straight line, the data from my Garmin confirmed this as the 5K swim had turned into nearly 6km for me.

boxend

Box End 5km H2Open swim statistics

Nevertheless, I took confidence from this swim and went in search of somewhere to train outside where I could practice sighting.

After a bit of online research I discovered Swimmers Beach in Dover. Freda Streeter and her team would observe and dish out regular beastings to Channel swim aspirants on a Saturday and Sunday morning. This sounded ideal as I could drive down to Dover on my own and the family did not need to worry about me swimming alone.

dover

Swimmers Beach Dover

I swam at Dover on and off for several weekends in the summer that year, slightly in awe of those around me I went about my business and completed a number of 3-4 hour swims en route to my 6 hour swim. I also continued with the 2013 H2Open Ranking series and to my great surprise I finished third in the mens non wetsuit category.

ranking

I decided to attempt my 6 hour swim in the sea at Budleigh Beach under the watchful eye of Alan Franks aka Albie, an old friend who swam in the relay with me all those years ago and for whose Channel solo I crewed in 1994. Albie, had over the years trained and supported a number of Exmouth swimmers in their own solo swims across the Channel, and I thought it was highly likely that he would later accompany me on my attempt.

1st 6hr

My first 6hr swim at Budleigh Beach

1st 6hr stats

I remember it being a tough swim but I felt incredibly excited to have achieved my 2013 goal. Having swum over 375 km in the year, it felt like I had laid a good foundation for what was still to come.

I decided that my target for 2014 would not be the well trodden route that my friends had taken in preparation for their Channel swims, and instead of the recommended BLDSA two-way Windermere swim, I wanted to do something different. I decided I was going to swim the BLDSA Loch Lomond Championship!

Everyone except my wife Debbie thought I was mad to even consider it, the distance, the cold, the success rate and not to mention the logistics.

My mind was made up…