Research project, and swimming to Bordeaux...

I decided that it was time to relaunch my "Becoming a Channel swimmer" research project, in the hope of getting as many people involved as possible as early as possible in the training cycle. I posted a message on the discussion forum and got a really good initial response, and a number of people are already either letting me use their blogs, or sending me offline journal entries or e-mail updates, and quite a few have already offered to be interviewed as the year progresses. All very exciting. My funding bid is still with the Economic and Social Research Council - the decision should be announced by the end of Feb, so fingers crossed.

To make it a bit clearer what the research is about, I've written a brief project summary, including the key research questions and how people can participate. If you're interested in learning more about the research, or want to take part, you can find the summary here, or via the link on the right side of this page.

On a completely different note, I've been feeling fairly pleased with myself having calculated that I've swum 850km this year, which is not record-breaking, but will get you as far as Bordeaux in France, which is quite a pleasing thought. But then I watched the "Duel in the Pool" this morning (a swim meet between the US team and a three-country European team), and the commentators happened to mention that David Davies had had "quite a heavy" couple of weeks of training prior to the races ... Something of an understatement as it turned out - he'd done 200km in two weeks!!!! Okay, so now my 850km in a YEAR is looking pretty lame... not that comparing myself with elite swimmers is ever going to be a good confidence-building strategy, mind you...

Having said that, the swimming was just beautiful to watch. Those people are amazing. And it's great to see so much swimming on TV - the Robson Green open water documentary, the Great Swims, and now this.

Christmas swimming plans

With my contract signed and the money handed over, the whole Channel thing is starting to seem much more real, the positive outcome of which is that I've started to knuckle down a bit more to the training. Looking back at my training logs for this time last year, I'm doing less distance in the pool (usually between 10-15km / week this year, compared to 15-20km/ week last year), but the intensity has definitely increased now that I'm training with the club three times a week, and I think that's a positive exchange for now. I've also added in a LOT more cross training than I was doing last year - a couple of runs, a spinning class, a bike ride, and most recently, a pilates class each week. Plus, Penny and I are also doing a session of Total Immersion drills each week to work on our technique, which is really helping. I'm aiming for about 10 training sessions a week, with about half of those in the pool, and the rest doing other stuff. I sometimes panic that I'm not doing enough distance, but hopefully, all this cross-training, and high intensity pool work, will prevent injury, and in the long run, speed me up a bit (or at least give me the capacityy to turn on some speed if I have to when I'm in the Channel). And then I read other blogs and panic that I'm not doing enough training, full stop. It's just so scary to think that I could be blowing this whole thing by not getting it right now. 'Tis the season for self-doubt, apparently, but I'm trying to hold my nerve.

And so, by way of reassurance, and just so that I don't forget the joys of the long, steady swim, I've decided to set myself a little Christmas challenge and am going to do two 6 hour pool swims - one on Christmas Eve and one on New Year's Eve - with the goal of increasing the distance covered for the second swim by 5%. I'll let you know how it goes.

Commitment time....

Things have been a bit slack on the training front - I've been pootling along, but without really getting stuck in to the training in any meaningful way. I've been cycling quite a bit (don't love it yet, but am working on it), and running a couple of times a week, plus 4-5 swims, but I haven't really been pushing myself as hard as I should be. It's been quite nice in a way, and I've been feeling great for all this regular, but relatively gentle, exercise, but I really have to start getting my head down a bit now because..... today, I got the contract for my Channel swim from my pilot, Paul Foreman, along with the excellent news that I've been bumped up a slot and am now first on the tide (17-24 August, 2010). So, the contract is signed, the cheque written, and it will all be off in the post tomorrow. Commitment time.


One of the reasons that I have been slacking off is that I just got back from 2 weeks in New York. I went to give a paper at the launch of a journal special issue that I had co-edited, and to spend some time working in the glorious New York Public Library:

Plus I made plenty of time to play tourist...

I did a boat trip around Manhattan - it was a beautiful day, and the city looked amazing. The Round Manhattan swim has now been added to my to-do list.

Anyway, I didn't get to swim at all while I was there - I was struggling to find a pool that didn't require annual membership, or have an exorbitant day membership, so I made do with a bit of running, and lots of walking around the city. A really great trip.

And while I was away, 7 members of my local triathlon club headed off to do Ironman Florida. Special mention goes to my swim training partner, Penny, who did an impressive 12.41, taking an amazing 55 minutes off her previous best. Fabulous performance, Penny. She brought back this wind-up swimming man for me from Florida, and I have him perched on my desk in the hope that Penny's training determination and race day performance will magically be transferred to me.

New toy...

Look what I got.... It's a Gary Fisher AR Super, courtesy of the nice people at Birmingham City Cycles ....


I had always thought that professional bike fitting services were for elite cyclists - something that would provide an extra tweak to an already highly honed performance. I was too embarrassed to present myself to be measured up when I can barely huff my way up a slope without turning purple with exertion, or (keen cyclists look away now....) getting off and walking. Anyway, it turns out that this is ridiculous, and, like getting running shoes that fit properly and are suited to your biomechanics, surprise, surprise, the same goes for bikes. So, it turns out that the back and neck pain that I've been experiencing for years when cycling is not due to me being a rubbish cyclist (although I am...), but that my various bikes didn't fit me very well. My lovely new bike, on the other hand, rides like a dream, and having just come back from a little spin in the sunshine, I can happily report not so much as a twinge of pain or discomfort. Joy.

Buying it was fairly drawn out, but fascinating process. I found some of the "serious" bike shops I visited too intimidating and unable to cope with my lack of knowledge (interest?) in technical details, and lack of serious racing ambition. So then I tried some of the more "high street" chains, but quickly got frustrated by being told that I would definintely need a woman's fit bike because women have long legs and short, slim torsos, in spite of the obvious fact that I was standing right in front of them and clearly have neither. Fantastically, I was shown several woman's fit bikes that didn't have a woman's fit saddle on them, which is extraordinary when you consider that that is really the one bit of gender-specific kit that no woman should be without because...well... any cycling women out there will know.

But anyway.... I'm delighted with my final purchase - surely it's only a matter of time now before I start to love cycling...

On the swiming front, if you get chance, you should list to the Radio 4 documentary Black Men Can't Swim - it's a really good challenge to racist, biologically determinist ideas that black people cannot swim, focusing instead on the expectation of swimming failure that is imposed on black and minority children, coupled with a lack of opportunity. There's a wonderful moment when young, black kid in the US talks about having swum his first length and how proud he felt. I spend a lot of my research life reading about, and listening to, people talking endlessly about the need to get children to do sport so that they don't get fat, but all this does (in my view) is set up sport as something that you have to endure in order to get another (highly uncertain) benefit; it seems to me that the joy and confidence that this kid got is a much more tangible and immediate benefit, and one that has the added advantage of valuing bodies for what they can achieve rather than what they look like.

I, in the mean time, have just sent off my paperwork for a Jersey to France crossing next July by way of a pre-Channel outing. I wonder if I'll be a Channel swimmer this time next year....

Hats off everyone!!

A big hats off today goes to Lisa Cummins - she completed a two-way swim of the Channel this weekend in 35 hours and 36 minutes! Amazing. Just think about that for a moment - she swam through most of Saturday's daylight, then all through the night, then through all of Sunday's daylight, and then through a bit more darkness before walking up onto the beach. What an amazing woman. She is the first Irish person to do a two-way crossing, and the 20th person ever.

You are a class act, Lisa.

And while our hats are off - big congratulations to a couple of other swimmers whose blogs I've been following (and who are helping me out with my research). Ollie Wilkinson successfully swam the Channel at the beginning of September in a very impressive 11 hours and 6 minutes, and Julieann Galloway made it in mid-August in an awesome 9 hours and 51 minutes. Both Ollie and Julieann have got great write-ups of their swims on their blogs (and Julieann has a funny video too on her blog, courtesy of Nick Adams). Inspiring stuff for anyone gearing up for a go next year.

Well done, one and all.

Sadly, both Lisa and Becky (from the Swimtrek trip) didn't get to swim because of the bad weather at the beginning of September. Lisa was offered a later spot, but it was too late for her support crew and she decided to postpone until next year. Becky was also offered a spot on the recent Spring tide, but she decided against it since the tide was too big to give her a decent chance at the British women's record (her primary goal), so she's also postponed until next year. So watch this space.

Settling back in...

I've started to get back into something approximating (gentle) training, but it's still fairly hit and miss - I managed 4 short swims. (c. 3500m each) during the week, plus a trip to the gym, a couple of run/walk sessions in the park, and even... believe it or not...a short trip out on my bike.

I did my first club session, post Jersey, last Tuesday, and really struggled with the speed sets - all those weeks of plod mode had left me feeling like I had no other swim register to switch to. But I'm sure it will come back quickly enough. I also went to Bosworth on Saturday for a lake swim. It was a beautiful day - crisp blue sky - but when Penny and I arrived at 7.30am, there was a thick mist over the lake making it look less warm that it actually was. I have to admit that I really struggled to get in and spent far to long standing on the slipway, water up to my thighs, unable to take the final plunge. I don't think that I can really have lost the acclimatisation to cold yet; to be honest, I think it was more that I've let go of the mental habits that I'd cultivated for dealing with the cold - and especially getting in. But once I was in, it was just gorgeous. The mist was licking just above the surface of the water, and for the first lap, I couldn't see any of the usual landmarks. I kept the shore in sight to my right, and just swam. It was SO quiet, and the water was really still; from my perspective in the water, the surface looked thick, like melted chocolate (thoughts of food never far away!). After a lap or two, the mist burned away, but the water stayed still and quiet. Perfect.

Learning to love cycling is proving to be a slow process, but as I said above, I did venture out on my old road bike this week for an hour. I can't really say that I enjoyed it, but it's early days and for now I'm remaining optimistic. It's been over a year since I've ridden anything other than the 3 miles to the office on my hybrid commuting bike, so I wasn't feeling very relaxed, but I did manage to get the whole way through the ride without forgetting to unclip my feet from the pedals when I stopped, so this is something. I have spoken to lots of knowledgeable people about bikes, and have done quite a bit of browsing / testing of possible purchases, but haven't decided yet on a bike. Special mention, though, should go to my Channel relay team mate, Jamie Goodhead, who wins the prize for explaining the basics of bike geometry (and why I should care) in a way which not only made perfect sense, but which didn't give me traumatising flashbacks to every secondary school maths lesson I ever had (unlike the myriad of websites I've been reading, most of which have left me with a dull buzzing sensation behind my eyes). You never know - I might even make a decision soon....

Project "Learn to Love Cycling"...

Well, a week on from the Jersey swim, and I'm still feeling pretty good about it all.

My left shoulder is still pretty sore, though - but to be fair, continuing to swim on it for several hours after developing the problem was never going to be the most sensible way to manage an injury. I'm hoping that a week or so more rest will do the trick. I've also been looking at some of the bits of film, and have noticed that I always sight forwards from the right, and it looks like this causes me to lever myself up on my left arm a bit - this is probably something I need to try and balance out to reduce the strain.

I've been trying to think about how to approach the next few months of training. I want to stay out of the water for a couple of weeks to let my shoulder recover; psychologically, I also think it's quite good to have a bit of a break before getting back down to it as I don't want to get stale - there's a long way to go yet. So, in the mean time, I've been thinking about what my training programme is going to be. One of the things I didn't do enough of last year was cross training, so in addition to swim training (mostly focusing on technique, plus speed training), I'm going to use the next few months to try and get back into the gym work, plus some running and a bit of cycling. It's frustrating, but although I'm probably the fittest I've ever been right now, I'm also very unfit where running / cycling are concerned, so it's pretty much back to the beginning there, but hopefully it'll come back slowly.

But here is my confession - I really don't like cycling... I find it uncomfortable and difficult, and am really very rubbish at it indeed - think Miss Marple, or Mary Poppins (without the gift of flight). The thing is, I really think that I should like it - outdoors, nature, exhileration, wind in your face...and all that. Plus, lots of people I really like and admire LOVE cycling, and I know there must be something there that I've just not been able to tap into yet. So, today marks the beginning of Project "Learn to Love Cycling". It has to remain very much a secondary activity to support the swimming for this year, but my goals over the winter are to (a) get myself a decent bike that fits me; and (b) get my strength and confidence up to ride it without looking ridiculous or wanting to leave it in a ditch and take the bus home. Watch this space.


As a rather nostalgic and sentimental aside, I saw my mum yesterday, and she had dug out this photo of me - aged five, on holiday in Majorca:


I remember that holiday really well - I swam my first unaided width in the hotel pool there. You will notice however that I am wearing a shirt in the pool - sunburn was always the greater threat in my mum's eyes than us being sucked under by clothing not designed for submersion. It's no wonder my brother and I became strong swimmers.

She had some great pictures of my grandad, Harry Cornforth, from the 1930's looking incredibly dashing in his full-body knitted swim suit - he was a splendid swimmer and a seriously good water polo player (even trialling for the Olympics). Once we've sorted them, I'll post some of them up. He would have loved all this Channel stuff.