Tag Archives: Swimming

The Swim Has Been Delayed

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Dear all,

As you know we’ve been having considerable problems with the boat we chartered for the trans-atlantic swim leg of the Global Triathlon. The boat was due to arrive in the US on 5 April 2012 ready for a departure on the 15th April 2012. I was physically and mentally prepared to swim the 8 hours a day for 4 to 6 months that the expedition would require. I had assembled a professional and dedicated crew to support me. We were good to go.

But over the past nine weeks instead of fighting the waves myself, the captain and crew have been fighting to make the boat seaworthy. We have had serious problems with almost every system on the boat. We’ve now missed the weather window in the year that would make a swim possible. Even if we were able to get the boat ready in the next month the swim would not be possible. We are now 7 weeks into hurricane season which would affect the first 1000miles and even using the best case scenario projections the last thousnad miles would be swum in October and November under the influence of the violent, seasonal north Atlantic depressions.

I cannot risk the safety of my crew or myself and therefore it is with a heavy heart that I have to delay the swim for a year.

I have two options now:

1) Delay. Continue training and preparing with the aim of starting of the trip until next April.

2) Do the bike and the run first and finish with the swim.

I’ve written a list of pros and cons for both of these and will take a week or so to decide which route to take. As always input would be welcomed on this issue. You can get in touch on twitter here, facebook here or in the comments section below.

I want to thank everyone for supporting me over the past few months. It has been massively appreciated.

Dan Martin

Man Wednesday: A day out in the Great Outdoors!

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I’ve been speaking to Mark Kalch and some other mates alot recently about us all choosing to follow the dream but not actually living the dream each day. We spend inordinate amounts of time (that means lots Mark) in front of the computer rather than outside in the elements. I decided this needed fixing-even if it’s just for a day. I was going to immerse myself in the four elements-fire, air, earth and water. I chose the second shortest day of the year-best to start off slow; and the intention was to spend all day from sunrise to sunset outdoors doing old school man stuff. I was going to make a fire and cook on it, I was going spend time walking in the countryside, I was going to breathe in and out as much as possible and I was going to go for a swim in the river.

I was really lucky to be joined by my mates Tom and Andy and this is how the day went:

If you go down to the woods today...

I woke up at 6:30 to a text from Tom and Andy saying that they were running late due to the heavy snowfall-super excited-I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see…nothing. Once again the snow had stopped a few miles away from us. Rubbish.

Tom and Andy turned up just before sunrise and we grabbed the axes and loaded the bags with meat and bread. Starting the day with an axe in your hand just makes you feel cool. We trekked through the fields to the Haddon Wood and recce’d the place for a decent fire site. I think we were all a bit over excited as we chose the first place we came to that had a tree with a low branch we could sit on! There was loads of wood scattered around so within minutes we’d got a small blaze going-this grew and grew until the wood was stacked about three foot high on it and you couldn’t sit within a couple of metres without being singed! We copped some branches down and my axe broke so that soon became zero fun.

How much wood would a wood chop chop...

With the fire in the worst possible state for cooking-it was a surging flame-we set about cooking. We’d brought sausages and bacon and set about putting butter on the pan. With the pan on two bits of wood near the fire and the butter sizzling away we added the sausages and a rasher of bacon expecting them to be done in seconds but no. The pan was on the north side of the fire and there was an icy wind blowing meaning that one side of the pan was hot and the other was ice cold-this buckled the pan and pooled the butter at one end essentially deep fat frying the sausages. We adjusted things and it all tasted nice. We toasted some break using a stick that gave the two slices a Christmas tree V shape burn on them.

All this had taken hours and we’d sat around putting the world to rights so so far Man Day was a huge success! We kicked the raging inferno out just as the snow began to fall and tramped back to the house to pick up some swimming kit to head to the river!

I swim in the river alot, it’s about 7miles away so I usually drive down-today, though, we were walking.

@AndrewJWelch and @RideEarthTom hiking to the river

It took forever to get down to the river at Tansor but the snow was stunning and the walk challenging enough to keep in interesting (we had to ford a stream and walk past some gypsys)! Yesterday the river had been nearly completely iced up but today there was only and icy sludge on the top so the swim was ON!

I went in first and did a brisk 100metres. It was warmer than yesterday but bizarre swimming through the soupy ice water. My hands stung for a while but the swim transformed me from relatively worn down and achey into buzzing and alive! Andy managed to swim out of his trunks on his swim and Tom did a decent 80metres-SUCCESS!


Invigorated and alive we walked back down the road to Warmington and at 3:30pm just made it to the Red Lion in time for one of the best tasting beers I’ve had in a long time (served with crisps and complimentary mince pies!). It’s amazing what a fire, a walk and a river swim will do to you!

We necked these and walked on to Elton and set about a few more beers and a game of cards at The Black Horse. The sunset was an amazing end to an incredible elemental day. Fire, Water, Earth and Air all ticked off in style! Three hours in the pool to do now and my sleep will be well earned tonight!

Big thanks to Tom and Andy for coming over and being excellent blokes all round! Tomorrow they’re both coming back and we’re swimming with Ed Stafford, Sarah Outen, Mark Kalch and a few other hardy souls! Can’t wait for the beers after that!

Follow Friday: Swim for Heroes

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Follow these guys here and here as they swim the length of the Thames to raise money for Help For Heroes. You can donate here: https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/swimforheroes

It’s going to be a great trip in support of a fantastic charity-what more do you need?!

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Help For Heroes:

Previous Follow Fridays:

Rob Lilwall
Al Humphreys
Helen Lloyd
Lewis Pugh
Pete Gostelow
Mark Cooper
Sticky Parkour

Training Tuesday #5: Swimming Injuries

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Injuries

You get them, I get them, we all get them. Injuries are the bane of everyone’s life. From little niggles to breaks, tears and rips. Over the next three Training Tuesday posts I’m going to try talk through about injury proofing/prevention for swimming, cycling and running without getting too technical!

Swimming

There are hundreds of ways to get injured in day to day life and the injuries you carry into the water are going to affect how you feel when swimming. Most people are taught the basics of how to swim as a kid and after that training becomes doing ever faster repititions up and down a pool. I work on my technique everyday. It’s essential. The easier I can get through the water the more and more likely it becomes that I’ll be able to swim from North America to France. An injury could ruin this kind of trip. Below are the three classic causes of swimming injuries:

The Three ‘O’s of Swimming Injuries: Over Stretching, Over Rotation and Over Use!

Over Stretching

As a kid you will have been told that’s important to stretch out as far as you can infront of you to maximise your stroke length and speed. Whilst having a full long front crawl stroke is an asset-over stretching is a killer. If you feel your shoulder moving out of neutral in it’s socket (shoulder blade moving up and out) then you’re stretching to far. Keep your shoulder blade locked solid and use it to transfer all the power from your stroke through into your body to push you forward.

Usual overstretching injuries are down the length of you shoulder blades (rotator cuff muscles) and are usually worse on the side you breathe more dominantly on.

Over Rotating

It sounds daft but when swimming front crawl your arm shouldn’t rotate at all. From the top of the stroke your arm should pull straight down and then as you roll onto your side you should track your hand up your side lifting your arm straight back up rather than rolling it round and out. On dry land it’s like raising and lowering your hand as if answering a question in class.

Rotating your arms rather than just raising and lowering them can cause you to cross your arms across centre at the top of your stroke essentially slowing yourself down each stroke. If you imagine your arms are entering the water, on a clockface with straight ahead being 12 they should go it at 10 and 2. This will feel odd but will pull your arms out so they probably are both going in at 12.

This is where you get the pinching shoulder pains and general shoulder and deltoid aches and pains.

Over Use

Easy to blame but impossible to fix? Yeah, pretty much. Over use with bad technique will destroy your shoulder, you’ll go to the doctor and they’ll want to get their knife out and cut you up. Swimming is not and should not be painful. Fatigue kills good technique so it’s your brain you need to train to fix this. Know what your body is doing, feel your arms crossing across the centre at the top of your stroke and correct it-think of yourself swimming from a third persons perspective-you know what’s happening, see your problems and work on them. It’s important to be able to feel your swimming technique and to be focussed enough to know something’s going wrong. I usually do five minutes of so of storke drills each hour in the water-usually catch up, catch and zipper drills as that’s my main areas I get lax in!

I use an adapted Total Immersion stroke and work on gliding and getting as much forward movement out of each stroke-the video below is practially swimmers porn. If you can do a 9stroke 25metres then you’ve got it made!

Thursday Thrillers: Swimming

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Swimming to the Edge

This week’s Thursday Thriller is all about people taking swimming up a notch. I’ve chosen three people who’s stories have helped me alot and all three have them have made the seemingly impossible, possible. The first has swum down some of the mightiest rivers on earth, the second has swum a kilometre at the North Pole and is currently on Everest swimming in the highest lake on earth and the third is a real pioneer in cold water swimming who swam from Russia to the USA during the Cold War and who swam to Antarctica. Heroes all of them.

1) Martin Strel, Big River Man

I read this article on Martin Strel while I was home from University and was meant to be studying. Obviously my first reaction was the same as everyone elses-this man is nuts. The story stuck in my head for years, sadly I think this was more because people used to run out on the street and give him cakes rather than the epicness of his achievements! Already by 2003 he had swum the 2360miles of the Mississippi in 68days averaging over 14 and a half hours swimming each day, the Danube and was about to set off down the Yangtse. To say this man was the best at what he does is an understatement and since then he’s recently added swimming the Amazon to his list of records and achievements. The clip below is from the documentary on his Amazon swim.

2) Lewis Gordon Pugh, The Polar Bear

Lewis Gordon Pugh is incredible. He’s swum pretty much every major ocean swim there is and he’s swim at the North Pole. Let me just say that again, he’s swum at the NORTH POLE! He swam a kilometre at the pole to highlight climate change, swimming at minus 2 celcius for more that 20minutes. At the moment he’s in the Himalayas attempting to swim in the worlds highest lake just below Everest. I love what he does and the way he does it, he’s a true inspiration. You need to follow his latest expedition on twitter here and on his website here.

3) Lynne Cox, Swimming To Antarctica

Lynne’s book Swimming To Antarctica, is a must read for any open water swimmer. It talks about her childhood and her two record breaking attempts on the English Channel it talks about the build up and execution of her swim from Russia to the US during the cold war and it talks about her swimming a mile in Antarctica. This lady is a phenomenon.

You can watch her videos here and here.

If these clips have inspired you to get outdoors and get swimming then the Outdoor Swimming Society is a great place to start and swim with like minded people.

Training Tuesday #3

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Three Moments That Changed My Outdoor Swimming Life:

1) Cold water is not a ticket for certain death.

I did my first ever real open water swim in May 2009 in the River Ouse with a friend of mine called Bryn. The water was cold and the mental process of trying to tell myself to get in was torturous. The get in point was just by a bridge and we were going to swim up stream for about ten minutes and then cruise back down. As I slid the first few inches of my leg into the water I could feel the panic coming on-there are no lifeguards! I can’t see the bottom! There are no lane ropes or line markings on the bottom! My brain cracked the whip and a few seconds later I was in and panic swimming for my life, I got under the bridge and all of a sudden realised that something strange had occured-I wasn’t dead. I felt my skin cool and my blood retreat back into my core but I also felt that I had this store of heat ready to help me out when I needed it. From that point on the swim was amazing, stunning scenery, so calm and relaxing. I was hooked. I got out and expected to be a mess, shivering and near death. I got out slowly and found out I was okay, I had lived! Mentally I tried to tell my body to warm up slowly and not to shiver and it worked. I drove back home with one demon laid to rest but with a couple more still nagging at me.

2) Humans float.

I know this sounds daft and I also know hundreds of people who insist they’re sinkers. The fact is, lying on your back with a full breath of air in your lungs and everyone floats. I was a step better off with some extra flotation pounds specially gained to help me float.

10days after my first outdoor swim I was in Jersey at an amazing swimming camp organised by Sally Minty-Gravett I’d stayed the night with a mate and got dropped off at the seafront in St Helier and saw a group of fellow loons getting ready to swim in the harbour. Now in the river I was okay, it was about 2-3metres deep and the side was only ever a few metres away. This was the sea, this is different-I’d filled my head with stories of being swept out to sea and dragged under, I’d never swam in water I couldn’t see the bottom of and was again in a bit of a panic. Annoyingly most of the people I was swimming with were young girls and they didn’t seem to have any problem-I forced myself in and swam out of my depth. Again something strange was happening-I was floating. The bottom was five metres down but could have been a hundred-it didn’t matter, I could float and I could survive the cold.

3) Waves don’t sink you like they do in the movies.

I’d had a great time in the harbours and bays around Jersey and really felt confident with my stroke and with the cold. I still struggled with sighting while I was swimming but was working on it. One thing I hadn’t done was swim in rough water or big waves. This is where swimming camp number 2 came in. I flew to Cork to join Ned Denisons Channel Swimming Camp. I met some amazing people all with solo channel swims in mind and one girl-Lisa Cummins, who’d planned to do a two way. We all trained pretty hard and Ned organised swims in loads of different places and locations. The favourite was Sandy Cove near Kinsale and it was here that Lisa was doing most of her swims. We all tried to make time to swim with her for a few hours while she was doing her 10-14hour training swims and it was during one of these a bit of a storm blew in. At Sandy Cove we swim round and round Goat Island, the near side is pretty sheltered and the far side more exposed. It was swimming on the far side when I first swam in relatively big waves and it was amazing. It took two or three strokes to climb up them, one or two on top and then one or two down the far side-it was a real joy to feel yourself being lifted up and down by these waves and not being pushed to the bottom of the ocean! Since then I’ve manage to swim in some 5-6metre waves-now that’s pretty scary but I float, I can handle the cold and the waves out at sea don’t push you under.

If this helped then have a look at these:

Training Tuesday: Training Swim
Training Tuesday: Background

Training Tuesday #2

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This is the second posting of Training Tuesday and after last weeks background check today is all about what I’m doing now! As most of you will know I’ve had to delay the trip by twelve months due to a variety of mainly economic reasons but training is still going ahead full speed. I average between 3 and 8hours of swimming every day with most of that being outdoors.

Swimming outdoors is amazing and now with the temperature increasing I’m planning on spending all my time outdoors only popping back to the pool for a bit of drill and timed speed work.

The video below is a short glimpse into my day to day routine. The four key points to outdoor swimming are:

1) Never swim alone.
2) Always know your limits and exit points!
3) A decent silicon hat (and vaseline) are the most important things on any swim!
4) Always have your bag packed so the things you need first (towel, hat, shoes) are to hand.

The first two or three minutes once you get out of the water are key. Having a set routine for when you get out vastly reduces your chances of being caught out by the cold. Below is a few paragraphs sent by Nick Adams (multiple English Channel swimmer and vastly experienced open water swimmer):

On the SwimTrek Gozo Long Distance tours we drilled into them to prepare their bags before they get in the water, and to pack them with the things they will need first right on top.

When you get out, you have 2-3 mins before you are in real trouble, you’ll think you’re ok, but you are not, and that vital time is ticking away if you hang around for a chat. ROUTINE!

Crocs/Flip Flops on
Towel around top half of body
Walk quickly to bag
Cap off
Dry head
Beanie straight on
Dry top half of body
Put ALL your top half clothes on
Towel around waist
Strip swimming kit off, put new dry ones on
Trousers on
Socks and shoes on
Warm drink
THEN, and only then, you can start talking to others about the swim

This should take under 2 mins to do from exiting the water! Pack your bag CAREFULLY with towel on top, then beanie….

Mentally prepare for your swim AND your post-swim-routine, it’s absolutely vital!

If you’re tempted to come and swim outdoors in the UK-and you should be it amazing how beautful the world is from a swimmers perspective-then get involved with the Outdoor Swimming Society. They have group swims all over the country and have a map on their website showing where all the best spots are for a dip! Or e-mail me and I’ll come and swim with you!

Introducing A New Team Member: Sylvain Estadieu

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I’m very happy to announce that Sylvain Estadieu will be joining me on the boat for the swim leg. I met Sylvain at a long distance swimming camp in Cork last year and I helped on his support boat when he swam the English Channel in the summer. Sylvain will be my support swimmer-he’s smaller than me so fingers crossed the sharks will go for him first!

Who are you?

Sylvain, 24, originally from Strasbourg in Alsace, France and living in Cork, Ireland since 2006. I work there as a software engineer and spend most of my free time either in a swimming pool or in the sea.

What are you doing on the trip?

I will be serving as a support swimmer (read “bait for big fish”) as well as a translator / janitor / anything really.

How did you get involved?

I met Dan when we both took part in the 2-week Cork swim camp in June 2009. Dan was the only guy of the group who wasn’t training for a Channel attempt. I remember him telling me about his goal of swimming between America and Europe with a straight face and my saying “Yeah, riiiiight …”.

My Channel swim was scheduled for mid-September, Dan offered to crew for me and did an amazing job filming, giving me updates, keeping the rest of the crew happy, etc. This is when he threw me the idea of spending summer 2010 on his boat. A few weeks later, I was in.

What do you do normally?

I graduated from university two years ago and found a job as a software developper right after that. For the past 18 months my typical week consisted of 40 hours in front of a computer screen and 15 hours swimming in all kinds of water from pools to lakes to rivers to the sea!

Relevant skills and experience?

I started swimming when I was 3. For the past 3 years I have been taking on longer and longer open water challenges, from 2km in the River Lee to 21 miles in the English Channel. I guess that is going to be my most relevant skill during the Atlantic trip. I’m also not too afraid of jellyfish and sharks so I can always swim my way between Dan and and any hostile creature if need be. I’m also a qualified first aider.

Favorite wake up song?

“Bohemian like you” by the Dandy Warhols

Favorite movie for when we’re lost in the middle of nowhere?

Love actually … because love is actually all around, ya know.

Worst moment travelling?

I’m not an experienced traveller/adventurer, I have never put myself in a really uncomfortable situation while travelling … yet. I suppose that sleeping in Dublin airport every year just before Christmas as part as my trip back home to France is not something worth mentionning on an adventurer’s resume …

What will you miss most whilst on the trip?

I will most likely miss having croissants for breakfast … not sure yet what the plan is regarding coffee onboard! And of course family, friends and my little viking princess, Jag kommer att sakna er.

Why are you doing this?

I see this trip as an internship for part of my Master’s degree in adventure and impossible stuff.

Seriously it’s difficult to say no to something that is going to be so boring and exciting, so pointless and yet so important. This trip is a life-changer, not only for Dan and the crew but also for those who’ll benefit from the money raised for Dans foundation and all of those who’ll get inspired by this insane Brit! I for one am inspired by Dan’s previous accomplishments and dedication and am looking forward to learning and elevating my charitable and adventurous spirits.

Why am I doing this?

Dan pulled the short straw during the latest adventurers meeting maybe?

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Why am I doing this?

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This is a question I get asked all the time, and quite rightly so. Why would I want to risk my life doing this trip? Why not stay at home with my amazing friends, teach in a local school and start a life with a future?

I tend to give a different answer depending on who’s asking. I say I’m doing it to impress girls in bars, to raise awareness of what we are capable of, to raise money for the amazing charities that I support, to avoid getting a real job and to see the world. These are all more or less true (the charities are really important to me but these trips tend not to impress girls too much!).

I’ll be honest with you, there’s only one reason why I’m really doing this.

Because I can.

I don’t feel like I need any more reason than that. I think it can be done, I think it should be done; I think I can do it-so I’m going to.

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2010 The Year of Adventure-Some Resolutions

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This is my adventure-tell me about yours…

2010 is going to be a fantastic year for me, it’s going to be the year when it all comes together and I can realise a longheld dream of manpowering round the world.

But adventure isn’t about size, it’s about attitude. Below are a few ideas for resolutions to change your life or the way you look at your life for the better.

1) Take a photo everyday. Al Humphreys did it in 2009. The photo’s don’t need to be high quality it’s just about seeking out your life and documenting it. Amazing things happen everyday and we miss them wrapped up in our ipod cocoon.

2) Train to do 100 press ups. This is a completely nominal number and a completely random excercise and yet there is some draw to the centurion of push ups!

3) You have plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead. Wake up 10minutes earlier than usual and go to bed ten minutes later-this will give you five days extra each year. You can use this time to stretch, contemplate, prepare, reconnect…

4) Do something nice for someone else every day …and if anyone finds out it doesn’t count.

5) Read a new book every week, read each chapter in a different place (on the bus, in the park, in bed etc)

6) Each month try and spend some time at the seaside and in the mountains.

7) Do something that you hate each week until you like it. It doesn’t matter if it’s listening to different kinds of music, running, cycling, swimming, studying, dancing, walking, eating healthily-find some way to learn to love it.

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Tell me about you upcoming adventures, I love hearing about trips and expeditons and will help in any way I can.