David and Evelyn with Phillippe Croizon
I am in awe of his accomplishment. It makes me more determined to train and follow my dream to conquer the Channel in 2011.
Just keep swimming - a breathtaking experience
Carrol goes 'Beyond The Black Line' again. First attempt in 2008 ended after 6-7 hours. In 2009 after awkwardly slipping off the pilot's ladder at beginning of swim, caused stomach and shoulder injury, could only swim 2 hours....NOW Follow her journey as she prepares once again to swim the English Channel solo - 2011 third time lucky !
David and Evelyn with Phillippe Croizon
I am in awe of his accomplishment. It makes me more determined to train and follow my dream to conquer the Channel in 2011.
The Barracuddas Adult Team commenced at 3:00am (10:00am Perth time) and successfully completed their channel crossing in a time of 9 hours 5 minutes. Not a WR but the fastest ever team, to date, to swim on a spring tide. It was good conditions for the first half of their journey, but conditions in the last half deteriorated and it was rough going. A fantastic effort - CONGRATULATIONS to Jerm., Toby, James, Dom., Kristy and Curtis! who swam in this order.
Just Keep Swimming - A Breathtaking Experience
The above date brings back lots of fond working day memories. I was a former NASA staff member who worked as a young typist/clerk in the Logistics Department of the Carnarvon Tracking Station. During this time the station played a vital role in the landing of Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong's historic "one small step" on the moon.
This month marks the 40th anniversary of this event, a year I just cannot forget, not only did I have a small, weeny part in this history, I was expecting my first child, my special event - Karen entered this world 26th December 1969.
Back to Training
Less than three weeks of training to complete my preparation for the English Channel Swim next month. Its hard to believe that time has passed so quickly as it feels like only days since I commenced this blog ..... nearly 12 months ago.
View from Varne Ridge towards Dover
We will arrive in Dover five days before the commencement of my tide (13-18th August), and training during these mornings will be in Dover Harbour.
Part of Dover Harbour - view from Dover Castle
My Skipper/Pilot is Eddie Spelling (who is also booked by Selwyn Jellie, and three Barracuddas teams on the July tide). Eddie's boat "Anastasia" is a 43ft Dutch steel flybridge cabin motor cruiser escort vessel and skippered charter.
Anastasia - Pilot Boat
My valued crew is my husband Max, Ian - brother and Pauline - coach. I feel honoured and so happy to have them on board. The swim is a team effort and am looking forward to this second attempt. I am ready to go and ready to swim.
Selwyn Jellie - ready to swim a double crossing of the English Channel - July '09
Two Churchlands High School Barracuddas Teams with Coach, Pauline Pratt
3rd Barracuddas Team with coach, Pauline Pratt
Great statistics Perth, Western Australia - swimming the English Channel 2009
- 3 teams = 18 young swimmers
- 1 solo double crossing
- 1 solo crossing
A huge "THANK YOU" - PAULINE PRATT for being such a dedicated coach of pool and open water swimming !!
"May the elements with with us
May the wind blow behind us
May the sun shine upon us"
I will try to keep this blog up to date with anything noteworthy. The support I have received from everyone is greatly appreciated - from family, friends, swimming friends and readers from all over the Globe.
Thanks for following and thanks for sharing my journey leading up to the English Channel solo 2009.
Just Keep Swimming - A Breath Taking Experience
Hillarys Mariner - start training at jetty end and finish shallow end (250metres)
Max paddling in Hillarys Mariner
It had rained in the early morning during pool training and when we arrived at Hillarys there was grey clouds and wind blowing strongly across the bay. The Mariner did not look inviting, over the past wintry days the harsh wind had blown twigs, leaves and the odd plastic bag was floating about, looking like huge white jelly-fish.
Finding fun-time in the pool
and outside the pool
A party - dressed as something starting with S. Carrol....Sweet, Senile, Senior Swimmer. Max.....Scarboro Surf Life Saver
Back on track...
My main weakness is mental attitude and am working on this every day. I also need to deal with coldness. I am no where close to where I need to be, so acclimatisation swims will need to be done soon at Lake Leshenaultia where some of us experienced the cold lake water last year. I seem to remember the most uncomfortable part of swimming cold water is getting out of it. Your body is 'warm' while you are swimming but when you stop it quickly cools down.
Open water swims are just amazing whether in the ocean, lake or river. They are unpredictable which makes them fun yet tough. Put your head down and just keep swimming.
Sorrento Beach taken from Hillarys Mariner wall - three groynes are just visible
I am mentally ready for a 10km swim and after applying suncream and Vaseline (petroleum jelly) we commenced swimming in rather murky but calm waters and approximately 18 degrees C. Nice and warm conditions made swimming enjoyable, the sun felt so wonderful on the body - this is bliss in the middle of May! Winter is nearly upon us so we are enjoying every moment of this beautiful day.
At the mariner wall and groyne end of our training, we have a small break, chat about how great the conditions are and off we go again, we also walked ashore for a feed on the hour. After 10 lengths, 10km I thought we were done, but NO Selwyn has another plan ... "lets swim another 2km" . "what" I half complained, "yes, can't you see and smell the French soil just 2km away? come on lets go" !! Well, OK .... I can do this, I am feeling good and strong with no body pain and away we swam. We were both swimming strong and kept swimming and swimming until we 'imagined' hitting France soil - What a game, what fun!! Imaginary goes a long way. Thanks Selwyn for being supportive and pushing me that extra 2km.
12km swim today or 7.4 miles (hmmm! thats not far in miles) was actually fun, my energy levels are good, no way am I cold and for most of the last two extra kilometres allowed myself to breathe on every stroke instead of practising bi-lateral breathing.
This four hour swim was great but I need more and more of this training, swimming long and hard to develop more endurance. I continue to find things I need to work on and will make the effort to improve on them. I promise myself to train bi-laterally, especially on longer swims. Being a unilateral breather all my swimming career, it is hard to adjust, especially the challenge in colder water, my lungs constrict and I need to breathe more frequently than the bi-lateral form will allow. Practise, practise is all I can do during my pool and ocean training.
With a plan to cross-train I decided to ride down to the ocean to swim. My husband willingly made my old bike ride-able, it was covered with cobwebs etc. after 3 years standing idle in the back shed! With a safe, clean, well oiled bike I rode 6km (not far) to Sorrento Beach coping rather well with the steep hills along the way. Jumped in the water, just loved the conditions and could have swam on and on. However, since I could not see a soul in site and being the only one in the water, thought better about the safety aspect of swimming on my own and decided to get out. How sad is that! Instead I changed my plan and decided to do a power walk along the beautiful Sorrento beach scenic path and afterwards cycle home.
What a great morning. I am so lucky - Just me being me.
Challenge Stadium
Sometimes for some reason its difficult to make early morning training sessions and on these odd days I travel to the Challenge Stadium at a reasonable time of the day to swim and train on my own. The Stadium is a world class Aquatic Centre and I have been a regular swimmer here for the past twenty odd years. Hmmm.
Front entrance to the Challenge Stadium in the morning sunshine
Challenge Stadium Indoor Pool and Diving Pool at the rear
One of the outdoor pools at Challenge Stadium
A few weeks ago I received an email from Marty Tatham, Managing Director of Waterproof iPod Australia. He came across my blog while surfing the Internet and thought that with the many hours of training I clock up it must get boring sometimes. He generously forwarded me a Swimman Waterproof iPod to use. After loading my favourite music and some motivational talks I could not wait to try it out.
The program I set out for myself is great to do in a 50metre pool and a welcome change from the usual training in a 25m pool.
I have done this program before and it is a little boring so this is a good time to try out the waterproof iPod. I attached the small waterproof case to my goggle strap with it's patented clip design - the iPod is very light, felt comfortable and the music very clear. The time and laps went by quickly .... it was great, it was fun and the combination of swimming with music ... wow! what more can a swimmer ask for? I loved it and if you are interested have a look at the website http://www.swimman.com.au/
Last Saturday after pool training, we went down to the Swan River for some open water training. We - teenage girls/boys from Churchlands High School who are training for a 6 person team to swim the English Channel this July, Selwyn, myself and our Coach, Pauline Pratt on ski. As usual there were so many brown jellys and our poor Coach was a sitting target for flying jellies. Splat! Splat! and soon Pauline was covered in brown jelly substance! We were almost in the middle of the river and laughing so much we had attracted three dolphins .... these beautiful creatures circled us and played close by for some time (maybe to figure out what all the noise was about) and then they headed into deeper waters. Pauline soon forgot about the jelly throwing and was thinking the same as I - we were blessed with their presence.
How good was that - thats - open water swimming!
Just Keep Swimming - A Breathtaking Experience