Channel Foremothers

This week I began rereading Marcia Cleaveland's Dover Solo, her memoir from her 1994 Channel crossing. I can't help but be impressed by the immense amount of planning and preparation that she put into her swim. Marcia plotted out every detail of her crossing and analyzed everything that could go wrong. She listed each and every component of a successful channel crossing and tackled each one of these in her training. Her list was as follows (p. 24):






"- Being prepared to swim in 55-60 degree Fahrenheit (F) salt water for over 14 hours.
- Acquiring the necessary swim endurance.
- Researching the swim.
- Swimming in challenging weather conditions (waves and swells, wind and fog).
- Swimming with marine life (jellyfish, seaweed, fish, etc.) and through jetsam and flotsom. (Jetsam is man-made debris, flotsam is organic matter such as seaweed.)
- Swimming at night.
- Swimming across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
- Dealing with mental stress.
- Dealing with nausea while swimming.
- Selecting a boat pilot.
- Inhaling exhaust fumes from a boat while swimming and not getting sick.
- Practicing being fed while treading water, with emphasis on simplicity and speed.
- Keeping track of what works (and what doesn't work).
- Testing and practicing with the equipment.
- Practice, practice, practice!"

Juxtapose this with my mom's preparation for her channel swim, in 1999:
- Have a few too many Coronas while drinking with friends. Agree to swim the English Channel, which suddenly seems like a good idea.
- Wake up the next day and think "Oh crap! Did I agree to do what I think I did?"
- Resume swimming crazy amounts of yardage, as per usual.
- As the date gets closer, realize that a 90 degree swimming pool in Miami is not the ideal training condition. Take some trips to get in some cold water training.
- Arrive in Dover. Get bored waiting around. Take some time to see the sights, instead of resting up.
- Swim across the English Channel. Clock the fastest time of the year and win a Rolex watch!
- Drink a few more Coronas. Repeat step one, agreeing to some other crazy long swim.

My mom and me, a year or so before her channel swim.

So, yes, all sorts of personality types swim the channel. I think I will fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes (not quite type A personality...not type B...Maybe A-? B+?)

Week 7 of training for me went like this:
Mon: swim 5200 yds, 40 min abs
Tues: swim 4800
Wed: swim 4900
Thurs: swim 3100
Fri: swim 3300, 40 min abs
Sat: swim 12, 200
Sun: run/walk 7 mi, 15 min core exercises

Total: swim 33,500 yds, run/walk 7 mi, 8 min abs, 15 min core exercises