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Long distance swim

Hello

I have been lurking for a while on this forum and learnt some useful tips............Including where to buy Coneheads book at the lowest price.

Over the past 18 months i have discovered Tri and now decided that my hard earned cash 'needs' to be spent on shiney carbon items that WILL make me go faster in all disciplines. I have yet to find a carbon swimsuit.
I have therefore lost a room in my house - it is now known as 'The Bike/all things Tri Room'. I feel this is fair as my husband has his 'games room' (x-box bollox).

Anyway, I am looking for advice, input, direction........etc

Myself and 3 friends have decided to swim the equivilent of the Channel between us in our 25m swimming pool - for Charity.
Our swimming experience is varied and we have given ourselves 14-15 hrs to complete this - with nothing to compare it to.
Any tips on training and nutrition would be gratefully recieved.

I thank you
Bootle

Comments

  • English Channel is approximately 21miles wide at it's narrowest point, Straight of Dover.

    21 miles = 33.8 km, therefore 1352 lengths of a 25m pool. Averaging 90 - 100 lengths per hour to achieve your 14 - 15 hour target. Which equates to around 38 minutes per mile, a more than comfortable pace.

    I recently did a 5km pool swim with a team of kids, daughter and nephews, with each person swimming 1km (40 lengths), in about 25 minutes (about 40 minutes per mile), as they felt 40 lengths wasn't too bad tedium wise. That's kids for you. But the plan seemed to work well. They just had a bottle of Lucozade Sport on the side.

    I've subsequently paced a pal who did a 10km pool swim, don't ask me why, when he said would I pace him for a 10k I assumed it was a run, until he told me to be at the pool, then the penny dropped Doh!

    My 10k took 3 hours, at a nice easy pace, but was continuous swimming in a 50m pool. I had two 500ml bottles of Gatorade, a 500ml bottle of water with a nuun tablet in it, and a 500ml bottle with 6 Powerbar energy gels, and topped up with water. After every km (so about every 20 minutes) I'd pause for a quick feed/drink. Either gel/water mix washed down with water/nuun (at 2, 4, 6 and 8 km), or gatorade (at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 km). Seemed to work fine for me, didn't really tire or feel hungry. But this feeding strategy was partly to test it for Ironman swim, not that you feed/drink in an Ironman swim, but I was testing how my body performed during exercise with that mix of drinks.

    My mate did it with just a mix of lucozade sport or water.

    However, doing it as a relay swimming for 20 minutes, and then resting for an hour, you won't need to drink/eat during the swim. You'll be able to drink and eat any solids once you've exited the water. Just make sure it's something easy to digest (banana, bagel with peanut butter and jam).

    Biggest issue will probably be the cold. Make sure you keep yourself warm between swims, stretch on exiting, and re-warm yours muscles before re-entering.

    Good luck,enjoy, and report back.
  • Make sure you get the Blueseventy Carbon goggles, they will take a few seconds of your 15 hr effort but look the nuts so job done
  • BootleBootle Posts: 9
    Thanks for your replys guys.

    Noted re the blueseventy goggles.
  • jonEjonE Posts: 1,113
    As mentioned before the cold may be a problem,when Decca tris are done in the pool, the competitors are allowed to wear wetsuits to combat the cold,some even pouring warm water into them to up the temp.
  • Quick update.....

    We managed to do it in 13 hours!! Very pleased.

    Once again, thanks for the advice
  • jonEjonE Posts: 1,113
    Well done,out of the total,how long did you spend in the water?
    Which came first,tiredness or boredom?
  • Spent about 3-4 hours in the pool total.

    All adrenalined up at the beginning, in the morning.......smiling, cheering each other on.........

    slightly downbeat at lunch as tired and getting bored........wondering if i can have a power nap on poolside

    now very tired, even after consuming my weight in Haribo.......asked if using floats is cheating.......
    (it is)

    and then finally we finish, soooo happy

    Hated swimming, pools and anything to do with chlorine for about 2 days after and went off Haribo for a bit.

    But, it was all for good causes so happy days
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