Old Friends New Friends

"Get ready to swim. I have a friend who is an open water swimmer and he is keen to take you out along Jericho. You'll need a wet suit. Temperature should be 7-8 degrees. How does that sound?"

That is not the kind of email I would have expected from my gorgeous friend Cathy a year ago...and frankly it sounds mad!

However, it is now, and yesterday was the day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the water as still as a millpond, it sounds idyllic until you put your face in the sea.

Jamie arrived to greet us at the Vancouver Jericho Sailing club, I was already in my wetsuit raring to go (ignorance is bliss), before completing the look with thermal hats, gloves and surf boots - thanks to Cathy's begging and borrowing from Pete and Glenda (seriously, thank you both!!!)

The sea took my breath away, and it never quite came back, I lost control of my mouth after about 5 minutes because of the cold, and after swallowing sea water continuously, lost my lunch half way through. The wetsuit puts a pressure on my shoulders that is quite unpleasant, and the gloves and boots were a clumsy addition to the swimming - sounds like heaven?

So what was good about it? The sea was mostly calm, I swam for about 30 minutes, Cathy walked along the shore cheering me on, (Jamie was off like a rocket!) and a chance meeting with Isabelle another good friend on the beach gave me a chance for a quick kiss hello and a little adrenalin hit of having two wonderful inspirational girls cheering me on and just being there for me too!

Jamie, I long to swim with the vigor you had, mind over matter when your head feels like its bleeding! I will never forget this day as a fantastic chance to swim in the sea with the snow covered mountains and the Vancouver city sky line behind. Cathy and Jamie made it happen - that is VERY special.

Old friends, New friends, if we open ourselves up to it, there are plenty who are willing to help us fulfil our dreams, to be a part of something special and bigger than all of us, the human connection.

Team Spirit

No not the drink that shares the same name as our Channel team! But the sort that warms the soul from the tips of your toes and back up again, after our swim in Putney a week ago, I was joined by Bridget for an early morning Gnarly Nutters swim in marlow, followed by a very painful spinning class (bring on the gel saddle...).
Its the first class for both of us, and we were as usual treated with the culture that Pete Frosty has created in his tri club of openness, generosity, support and care, lots of smiles and laughter and a complete 'can do' attitude.
We LOVED it. It became apparent that whilst our swim team is 4 women, the extended team of supporters, coaches, friends, families and loved ones is the one that will really get us through. My best friend from vancouver Claire is flying over to be on the boat while I swim. I am welling up just thinking how special and precious that is, to fly half way round the world to see your mad friend leap into the channel - it takes true friendship that started for us as teamwork, 15 years ago, building cultural change into a fantastic organisation called Crystal.
Culture is created by people. The culture of our swim team starts with us, but is influenced by everyone around it. It's team spirit at its best and it makes me so proud.
4 Open water swims signed up for today - between 1 mile and 3.6 km - i can only do it because of the team!

Sea Breezers Swim practice

Our first swim in 2012, with our lucky Gnarly nutters hats, after planning our calendar of Dover, Poole and open water swims. By the time we get into the sea in September we will have done at least 11 Dover swims conditioning ourselves for the cold, the rain, the waves and the dark waters.

We also plan to spend some days at the swimming pool where we get in and out, so that we experience the challenge of a 90 minute swim repeated over 12 hours, and I confess a sense of relief that we will at least be physically fit if we do everything we plan as a base and build on that to meet our calendars.

Today was 60+ lengths of the 33 meter long pool in Putney. What was lovely
was the connection and joy I felt towards three talented, powerful and inspirational women, as we were all motivating and coaching each other, sharing fears, hopes and dreams, and crafting our approach to the challenge. It will be something special that when we've done it, we'll be linked in that way that only people who've been through something tough together know.

Friends forever, a deep rooted trust in each other, and a story to tell our future generations. Here's to an extraordinary 2012, I am so proud to be part of this crew :)

Drafting for a friend

Ever heard of Drafting? Not to do with drawing, but in terms of swimming! The aerodynamics that happen when you follow someone in the water. I have only experienced it a couple of times, initially believing that my swimming had suddenly become so much faster and then being corrected by Moralee (one of the 'sea breezers' swimming the channel).

Last night I had the privilege of tucking in behind Juliette, and frankly, I loved it, it is an extraordinary feeling of being supported in the water and pulled without force. We swam 100 lengths in different sets, yes that's 2k if you do the maths (thanks Pete :). The only caveat, you have to keep up the pace, and try not to let the gap between you get too big so that you get the full benefit. It's hard because there is always that temptation to take an extra breath at the end, but the lack of air is outweighed by the gift of the pull. I read up on it this morning, if you swim 0-50 cm from the toes of the swimmer in front you increase your performance by as much as 21% - we could all use that in life!!

Who do you draft for in life? Who creates the draft for you? We all need an extra bit of support now and then to feel a bit faster, a bit better, a bit stronger and a bit more capable. If you've been drafting for me you know who you are, and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And Juliette, please swim in the middle lane again next week....

Swimsuit dramas - not for the faint hearted

It's hard enough buying swim wear for holidays, but swimwear for proper swimming is a whole new story. Apparently in my first 6 months of swimming I was wearing the wrong one because it was too big (they should be tight enough that you should be able to run in your swimsuits girls), in search of a wetsuit the assistant persuaded me to buy a 'smaller than normal' speedo endurance, and it was frankly perfect.
So, imagine my excitement when I ordered a new speedo, titled LZR Pro, with special water repellant attributes, nice and tight, so tight, it prevented a deep breath and not sure whether I would have stayed fully in it (if you get my jist), so, with faith I ordered 2 sizes larger, and it fitted ok ish...

Picture the scene.
Hot shower before getting in the pool (amazing how few people do), slightly odd feeling of water gathering around my nether regions, distracted by water sitting on the surface of the costume in droplets and marvelling at the 'repellent' fabric. Too many splashy men in the deep end so I get in the shallow end to swim with the 'ladies what lunch'.

Enter the pool, feeling smug about how my new suit will give me the 'edge'. Then the dawning realisation that the suit has two layers, and in between them is filling up with water. As I swim, it literally wafts from side to side, like a fat suit, rippling around me and making me anything but streamlined in the pool. I stop at the end and stand up, watching the water gather in a pregnancy shape of around 6 months in my stomach, it requires me to press it to release the water.

I was so much in the mood to try for another full hour swim :( In the end I manage 40ish lengths realising the reason I need to keep hooking my suit out of my bottom cheeks is because of the weight of the water at the front. In the end in exasperation I give up, haul myself out, and realise that the water has then created a full nappy (diaper for the canadians reading this) appearance for all to see.

Sigh. Swimming is already sooo unattractive, mascara problems no matter how much you remove, red marks from the goggles that last 2+ hours afterwards and definitely are impacting my eye bags, the stink of chlorine that never seems to go, the dryness of my skin, the discolouring of my hair, and a pink stretchy hat, its somehow more manageable with a suit that fits.

Now for the reality check... In truth this is all tiny in comparison the challenges faced by the people we will be honouring when we swim the channel, those who survived cancer, and those who fought bravely through it and didn't. They wouldn't care a jot about a swimsuit malfunction, so in the interest of perspective, I giggled with my mum, my kids and my husband about the nappy and fat suit look, and bless my life that this is as hard as it gets.

The year of the swim

Deep breath and dive in!

4 swim sessions in 10 days, it is the pattern that needs to continue to get prepared for September. Saturday 7th January was one of those days where the water supported me, and the swimming was natural, it doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to believe.

I committed to myself to swim for an hour, in the end it was 120 lengths (nearly 2 miles in one hour), wrapped up as 100m packets alternating front crawl and then front crawl with pool buoy, it's cheating, but it means my arms and neck are getting used to the constant rotation. For a change I only stopped after half an hour, more because I could than because I needed to, and that in itself is a breakthrough.

Tomorrow I am meeting the wonderful people who were at the retreat I attended in October in Spain, and I am excited to share with them the continuing breakthroughs that they helped me initialise with positive thoughts, words and beliefs, we all need people around us to keep our own stories real (the gremlins often interfere :). At the Gnarly Nutters swim club on monday one of the newer (yup even newer than me!) moved into 'our lane' and commented on how wonderful it was to swim with others vs on her own.

I'm not surprised, Pete told me my swimming development was now about training with others, our natural competitiveness, desire to belong, connection and inspiration from people all drive us to perform above and beyond our own self limiting beliefs. I would never have agreed to this challenge without being part of a team of inspirational, talented, beautiful and powerful women.

Here's to the day I can swim for a full 90 minutes in a pool and perhaps in the sea...ever onwards...

The Sea Breezers

Its confirmed... Somewhere between 23-28 September 2012 we will be swimming the channel - with good luck and a following wind! Today we completed the contracts and paid the booking fee for our pilot, and it suddenly all seems very real. (Not just my sentiments but those of my team - newly named 'The Sea Breezers!)
Virtually 9 months away from today we will be waiting for the call, doing our final visualisation exercises (girls, we need to start those...) and psyching ourselves up for the journey.
For now we are planning our calendar for 2012, alongside our work and family commitments we will be regular visitors of Dover, and every other sea front we can swim in, as well as a number of open water swims to keep our fitness levels up.

As I said last week, amidst all of this I still need to survive each swim session, It all seems to be tied to the outward breath, the only time in our lives when we have to think about breathing out is when we are in water!

Saying that! In Karate I encourage people to breathe out, rather than try and breathe in quicker, when they are starting to lose breath (usually when we are Sparring and the panic has kicked in...) so that there is full capacity for air coming in.

There's a metaphor there for us in life - noticing what we do subconsciously and seeing whether it is serving us at that moment. For me, breathing out is right up there right now, and perhaps I'll be on the look out for that much more in the future!