Day 2; Aspire, Stanmore (07/12/10)

By Danny (Photo's, as always, to the right)

4.45a.m and my alarm clock seemed a lifetime away! Given that I’m usually up too late for McDonald’s breakfast, actually listening to what my alarm clock was telling me rather than my ‘less than impressed’ body, was probably my biggest achievement of the day. At the same time 5 similar scenes were unfolding in and around London, and after a train journey consisting entirely of alternating bursts of falling asleep/waking up I had finally arrived.

Upon my arrival at the Aspire Centre I was soon reminded of my lack of early morning vigilance. I had strolled straight past my fellow SRLV swim-mates only to be snapped back to reality by what can only be described as an ape like groan from Mr. Stanley: “Errr…We’re over here!” Adam AKA ‘The Muscle’ incidentally had arrived in style upon probably the only thing with more power than him – his treasured Suzuki SV650S. Tarkan AKA ‘The Machine’ had his routine pre-pre warm up and walked from the station! The rest of us sensibly and resourcefully took cabs.

After meetings and greetings we made our way to the pool. Keen to get our excuses in early Taras and I echoed our lack of cardiovascular fitness to Rosie (The Team Leader); whilst Jags moaned about his pulled hammy – about the only thing he can pull. In light of this Rosie asked us to get warmed up in the pool. For the boys 3 or 4 lengths was enough, personally though 1 length sufficed. Subsequently we each completed 8 lengths, after which we did a further 4-6 lengths whilst Rosie individually pulled us aside to give us tips on technique and stroke count.

By this point I was desperately searching for a spare lung and it arrived in the form of Rosie's perfectly timed question: "Does anyone have any burning questions?" I replied swifter than a swift half: "Can I go to the toilet!?" and I couldn't tell you her reply as i was already in the changing rooms and safe...

In my absence Rosie advised the team on how to overcome mental barriers when swimming the Channel – needless to say swimming in freezing pitch black conditions in open waters with all sorts of baddies about would evoke some level of fear in anyone. I should also add that the Aspire pool in which we trained is at least twice the temperature of the Channel. With all this in mind and the knowledge that we all had much room for improvement Rosie gave us some intense drills and sets to crack on with. Swimming 3 times a week here we come…

Day 1

Submitted by Adam.
Right, the purpose of this blog, is to keep a track of events on  our progress to swimming the channel in September 2011, so, let's start from the top!

Day 1; Aspire Orientation/Induction Meeting (13/11/10)
This was the first meeting held by Aspire and really was an Orientation meet. 
The selectors had already narrowed down 5000+ applicants to just 50, with 29 slots available over 5 boats. So we had already managed the first hurdle just being asked to come.

We all arrived a little after 10.30 and were welcomed by Andrew, the Aspire organiser and our main point of call for this whole journey. We were then introduced to some of last years successful swimmers, and Simon (a Swimtrek coach, and solo channel swimmer!). We spent about an hour listening to the swimmers stories, and (speaking from my own p.o.v) with each word, became more and more convinced that this is something that had to be done.

We then spoke to Chris (Aspire’s Head of Fundraising) and discussed the fundraising side of this challenge, and realised how this was just as important as the swimming!

The Small Challenge; 400m Timed Swim

Now, although we had already been chosen from 5000+, we still had to show that we were potentially capable of swimming part of the 21mile crossing. 

A 400m timed swim was the way of 'thinning out the herd'. 

400m doesn't seem far, one lap of an athletics track, if we can run it in a minute, we can swim round that in 8mins 30secs, sure. None of us realised how much harder this was to actually going to be. 

We were all shocked. It didn't help that we were swimming in a pool heated to 32degrees, but it dawned on us that our cardio/stamina was not what we had hoped it to be.

2 of us managed to complete the swim, but by all means, did not find it comfortable.

But we survived, and awaited our fate to see whether Aspire would accept us as part of their 5 boat swim across the channel!


(see our photo's of day 1 to the right; Apologies, there are only two!)