Ben's English Channel challenge 2014
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Injuries and a wonderful clarity of purpose

6/24/2012

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Sorry it's been so long since my last update.  It's been rather a strenuous month one way and another and I wanted to wait until I was completely certain of whether I could swim this year or not before writing.  You may recall from my last post that I was still suffering painful hands at the Palmie to Manly attempt.  I finished that swim massively disappointed to have had to abort the attempt so far short, particularly through no issues of my own.  However, I had been conscious throughout this swim, and indeed the subsequent week after pool sessions, that my hands were far from fixed.  They would swell up and ache for two days after a swim.  Not good, and not conducive to the 50kms per week I should be doing!

Not one to give up easily, over the past few weeks I have consulted a broad spread of the medical practitioners Sydney has to offer.  I kid you not:  GP, Sports specialist, ultrasound (x2), X-ray, hand therapist, physios (2), accupuncture, osteopath, sports massage, and finally, a hand surgeon.  Of all these talented people, two have had particular impact, but it was the hand surgeon who really saved the day.  After a one hour wait in his waiting room, where I struggled not to walk out as work pressures were mounting, I had a brilliant talk with a very wise and experienced man. 
 
After weighing the pros and cons, he suggested cortisone injections in my wrists would reduce the inflammation in the tendons causing pain, thus enabling me to train again!  Relief, oh relief.  The second wonderful person in the list managed to identify trapped nerves in my neck and five (5) mis-aligned ribs.  I think the ribs are under-estimated, as she was able to demonstrate that by poking me and moving one rib about 2 mm my whole pain and nerve tingling in my right hand disappeared completely.  Amazing.  Through a very painful (but satisfying) series of realignment followed by dry needling and massage, we have begun to address the cause of the issues - a very tense neck and upper rib-cage, through years of swimming using the wrong muscles..............not something easily fixed, but I now know it's manageable.

The other issue I have been quietly dealing with is that I have been diagnosed as being "pre-diabetic" and insulin resistant.  Essentially, gaining weight (~8kgs) to prepare for the swim began to tip my body over the edge towards diabetes.  Insulin resistance means it's hard for my body to regulate blood sugar levels, and cards and sugars get turned to fat rather than processed (hence my rapidly expanding Channel tummy!).  Thankfully it was spotted, and I am being medicated and have managed to lose 4 kgs in the last few weeks and am feeling much better.  Symptoms include (this will be particularly funny for anyone who works with me) "grumpiness, lack of energy, headaches.............".  Common feelings for me, especially after my daily pasta lunch!

So, after three weeks unable to swim, fearing I would have to postpone the Channel until next year or beyond, I was able to commit 100% to the goal of crossing this year, knowing that my hands would be fine and my energy levels would improve.  

My window is 23rd-29th September, so I now have exactly 12 weeks do do absolutely everything possible to prepare myself.  Knowing it's going to happen is surprisingly relieving, and having always been someone who loves a bit of pressure, the imminent deadline is probably just what I needed.

I started training with a vengeance again last week.  Vlad, Charm, and the rest of the squad have been brilliant and encouraging. Last week's usual routine of pool sessions with a couple of cold water adventures in Redleaf Pool (harbour ~15 degrees), was followed by a monster swim yesterday.  Eight hours at Balmoral, where the water is a degree or two colder than the ocean.  Yesterday it was 15.8 degrees Celcius, and surprisingly I didn't feel the cold badly at all.   As usual my body got off to a relatively sluggish start, but after two hours I felt good.  I had a brief lull at about 6 hours where I knew I hadn't eaten enough.  A couple of "gels" later and I was feeling tip-top, and according to my GPS the last hour was where I did some of my fastest swimming.

I had a really deep change mentally during this swim.  I spent the first half feeling I would be too slow to cross the channel at all, having heard a friend who's a much better swimmer suggest it may take her 12 - 15 hours to cross when she goes in a few weeks (good luck Tori).  Then after a few mid-swim chats with Collie who crossed successfully in 2007, and is a wise man, I realised something profound.  If my mind is up to spending 18 or so hours in the water, my body will be fine.  I have read so many books about the mind of the athlete recently, but nothing sinks in like the words of a friend.  

I believe, in my heart of hearts, that I am physically and mentally strong enough to do this.  I am going to cross the English Channel in September 2012.  Definitely.  It will be hard, miserable at times, and probably the toughest 24 hour period in my life to date, but I will achieve what I've set out to achieve, and I will come through it.  I have gained complete clarity of purpose, and I am really excited about the next 12 weeks.  I will push myself through as much pain and training as possible, but I believe it will all be worthwhile.

Thanks for listening.  It's always massively uplifting when I see one of you and you talk about something I've written.  It means a lot, as I've often assumed that people don't read these long missives.....................Thank You!  
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Palmie to Manly debrief

6/2/2012

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The day was supposed to begin at 4am with the alarm, then 5am collection by fellow swimmers and our crew for the day.  I had organised everything the night before (feeds, clothes, etc etc), and had my brekkie routine laid out - nespresso, museli and bananas.  I woke without the alarm, putting this down to excitement (read stress) for the day ahead, turned my phone on and was shocked to see the time was 6am!  The first words to leave my mouth were not printable and I jumped up and called Collie.  I was clearly put on speakerphone as Collie and Nicole (handler for the day) calmly said they had everything I'd need except cap and goggles, so I should just jump on my motorbike and head straight for Palmie.  The swim was due to start at 7am, so they reckoned I'd still make it!  Not the ideal start as I had to skip brekkie, grabbed what I could in terms of food & drink for the swim, and hooned it up to Palm beach.  I wont tell you how long it took, suffice to say much less time than normal!  I just had time to undress, apply sunscreen, find someone to paddle my bag out to the boat, and then we were off.........and whilst I could see my boat I could not see Brendan and Collie, the other two who I was to be swimming with for the day.  

I swam the first hour (3km or so), which essentially followed the course of the "Big Swim" from Palm to Whale Beach, really happily at a good rhythm.  I smiled when I thought back to the few times when I had swum this course before and really struggled with the distance.  Now it's barely a warmup!  I was swimming with a relatively fast group of B&B swimmers - Cae, Alex, Richard and others, and stopped with them to feed.  I had to borrow drinks as all my stuff was on my boat which was probably 1km behind and 1km out to sea!  I decided to leave these guys and swam the gauntlet out to my boat, joining up with them happily 20 mins later after being all alone at sea (not a nice feeling).  At this stage the weather was cloudy, and looking ahead you could see it was going to get a lot worse!  There were three of us sharing a boat, with four crew on the boat to drive, feed, organise, and generally keep a lookout.  We were supposed to be swimming together, but it was hard to clump up.  I found my stroke after about 3 hours, and felt strong.  I could tell at the feeds that the boat crew were finding it tough to look after us as we were all so spread out  with Collie heading way out wide to pass long reef, and me preferring a line about 1km offshore, point to point along the coast. I found myself getting cold, and wanted to be swimming a bit harder and faster, but I knew the others were behind me, so needed to hold back a bit.  My hand was not too painful, though I had taken plenty of Neurofen, but I could tell we weren't making as much progress as we'd expected.  After about four hours we'd only swum about 10km, so were clearly being held back by a current.  The sea of jellyfish we swam through also whizzed past us during feeds, confirming the feeling, so I knew in my heart we'd be too slow to make it before dark.  

However, I reconciled with myself that I could keep swimming until dark, then depending on where we were would have strapped on the "sharkshield" and swam the final stretch.  Good channel practice!  I talked myself out of the cold by reflecting on Melbourne.  If I could survive more than 6 hours in 14.5 degree water, I could definitely handle the Sydney water which was probably 18 degrees or more.

When we had reached the point at the North end of Narrabeen, there was somewhat of a commotion.  The big fishing boat which was supporting my friends Cae, Alex, Richard et al, who I had swum the first section with, was whizzing around in circles,much faster than they should have been.  I tried to tell myself not to worry, my boat would look after me, but knew that the three of us were well spread out so were not really safe.  Twenty minutes later my boat pulled up behind me and said the words every long distance swimmer dreads "We're pulling you out!".  My first thought words were "Why, I feel fine", but I could tell by the look on faces that something was wrong so I did what I was told.

It quickly became apparent that we were on a search.  Surf Lifesavers in IRBs, and Jetskis were whizzing around.  It turned out that the boat had left a swimmer alone whilst dropping someone else off at a beach.  When they returned they were unable to find the swimmer!  By this time, the weather had set in.  It was windy, choppy, reasonable swell, and raining cats and dogs.  Scary to be looking for a friend, and the isolation you feel alone out to see is horrific so I knew how he would have felt!

After an hour of searching, we got to Narrabeen and were altered that he'd been found.  He'd swum ashore and gone to the surf club.  What a relief.  By this time we were all so cold from sitting under wet towels for an hour, that the thought of getting back in the water was not appealing at all.  We headed over to the second (of four) group, and saw that they were struggling with sea sickness and speed against the current.  There was no way they were going to make it.  We packed up, and headed to Manly, passing on our way the quick group (Tori, Wayne, Ali et al) who had made really good progress.  They seemed to be a lot closer in than we were, so had perhaps managed to avoid the worst of the current.  Either way they were doing really well and made it to the end before dark, in an amazing time of 8.5hrs.  Well done to them.

Lessons learned:  every swimmer needs a boat, or at a minimum a kayak.  Safety is paramount, and things easily go wrong.  Without this independent support it's also impossible to go in the direction or at the speed you want, likely adding time, distance, and frustration to the equation.

Overall it was a great experience, but it's really got me wondering whether I've got the pace and the fitness I need to successfully cross the Channel this year.  I have four months to go.  Mentally I feel strong, but some days I doubt it.  My hand is an ongoing worry, and my fattening up may have made my body think I am obese and go pre-diabetic (I find out more on Thursday).

I will hit training hard this week, speak to my coaches, friends and mentor and see how we go.  Thanks for  your ongoing support.

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    Sydney dwelling, ocean loving, hard working, decidedly average swimmer and devoted family man.

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