Preparing for Marathon Swims

The English Channel stretches 34km from England to France and is considered one of the biggest shipping lanes in the world. Over 4,000 people have swum the English Channel with over half of those being solo and the other half being relay swims.

During the swim season for English Channel the temperature can range anywhere from 14 degrees Celsius to 19 degrees.

The North Channel

The North Channel was first swum in 1970 and now there has been over 100 solo swims. The swim stretches approximately 18.6 nautical miles (34km) this swim can take me anywhere between 10-18 hours in temperatures anywhere from 10-14 degrees.

For each of these swims I am given a tide window, if the weather doesn’t allow me to swim within that tide, then I will have to rebook another date which could be in a later year. All these swims that are part of the ocean sevens have their own challenges and difficulties but it’s what make me want to do it.

I want to push myself to the limits and I am really looking forward to both swims and cannot wait to see the United Kingdom.

In preperation for this swim I have been swimming in the pool and in the ocean.

90% of my training has been with North Shore swimming club in Auckland, New Zealand whilst the other 10% is in the open water.

For the last few months, I have been focusing on endurance and pace, the endurance part of the training consists of up to 10km swims in the pool or much longer swims in the ocean.

In the pool I train with a squad who have been training for national championships with distances from 50m to 1500m which is considerably shorter than what I’ll be swimming but the training sessions range anywhere from 4km to 6km at a fast pace. Swimming at a faster pace simply means I finish swims quicker and can go eat my pizza sooner. One of my favorite sets to do is pictured above. 

The longer distances are on about 30 seconds rest and the 50s are on short rest so about 5 seconds rest (I went on 40 seconds). This set is great for holding a constant pace but a fast pace whilst mixing it up with some shorter distances. This is working the cardiovascular system which is what I’ll use during my long swims.

I have been swimming between 50km to 70km a week with focuses on different areas of my swimming. When training with north shore swimming I am thinking about pace but when training by myself it is usually a longer swim and my aim is to build endurance.

The swims I am training for are upwards of 30km but could end up being much longer due to tides, winds, and currents that I cannot control. 

The ocean is an important part of my training because it allows be to acclimatize to the temperatures I could be swimming in. In part of my training I have been going further south down to Wellington where the water temperature is a few degrees lower than it is here in Auckland.

I have found these temperatures to be tough but am confident about my ability for North Channel and am looking forward to seeing what my body can do for a longer period in low temperatures. Ocean swimming is also great to practice for the conditions that may occur during either one of my swims. 

For the English Channel and North Channel, I will be wearing the Zoggs Predator goggles and the one-piece Sprintback.

I love the fit of both products and have been wearing them for all my training swims and I never have any problems like I have with other brands.

The goggles fit my face perfectly and come in different lens options so I can change from tinted to clear if I swim in the dark during one of my swims.