Al Gale
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49 Days...

30/6/2014

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Today marks the seven week point, meaning there are just 49 days until my swim.  

I am now into my last five weeks of hard training.  After that I will taper down for week six, and rest for the week prior to the Channel crossing.  I have used the remaining few days of my annual leave from Dovetail to book several Friday's off, and Ali and I plan as many trips to Bournemouth as the weather will allow.

It's all getting very real now.  An ex army colleague, I an Davies, embarks on his relay challenge this week.  And with the season well underway now, challenges are being attempted regularly.

My JustGiving total currently stands at £5.500, with a further £360 still to be added.

It's not too late to donate!  Please go to https://www.justgiving.com/Alan-Gale1/


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Etymology and the Meaning of Words

25/6/2014

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Certain words become 'devalued' in the current context within which they are used.  The Americans use the word 'awesome' where the Brits might say 'quite good', for instance.  When something truly does inspire awe, you therefor often need to use an expletive before 'awesome' to emphasise that it really IS awesome.

The word 'daunt' originates from around the 1300's.  It was derived from the French (appropriately enough in this instance) danter, a variant of donter meaning 'be afraid of, fear, doubt' (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php).

In this original context, following a three hour swim today, I reflected on the fact that I would have to do that same swim more than FIVE times in order to successfully arrive on a French beach.  

I think that to label such a task as 'daunting' is fully justified in this instance.  

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The Big Push

23/6/2014

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With just eight weeks to go before my Channel swim, it's time to really start to plug the fundraising.

Esta is approaching every school in the Worcester area she has any dealings with, but if you know any schools (or businesses!) who may benefit from an educational/promotional talk, please do let me (and them) know.  I will cover the concept of commitment, and how something like a Channel swim takes a year's worth of hard work and training.  I'll also talk about Acorns, of course, including what they do, and why I'm subsequently taking on such an insane challenge - considering I'd never swum further than 2km when I came up with the notion of taking on the Everest of open water swims!

I am also due to hold a stall at one or two school fetes in the next few weeks, complete with a collection bucket and happily handing out flyers.

If anyone can think of any other promotional or fundraising ideas, please do get in touch.

Feel free to continue to direct donors here:  https://www.justgiving.com/Alan-Gale1/

Many thanks,

Al Gale

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FT Images Photo Shoot

21/6/2014

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As a result of more than ten months of continuous training, I'm being regularly told that I now bear little resemblance to the posters I had printed last year.  Wanting to see the real difference myself, I contacted Simon Fall-Taylor from FT Images again, and asked if he could repeat the photoshoot.

Simon was only too pleased to continue to support the Channel swim challenge.  I've pasted the two images together (newest on the left), and I'm sure you will agree - quite a difference!

Please do keep the sponsorship coming.  We're almost into the last eight weeks now, and we need a big push.

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To donate £2 by text, see the image above (Change the '2' to any other amount you wish to donate)
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The Challenges of Channel Swim Training

16/6/2014

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Thus far my blogs have all been brutally honest.  There is not reason to change that now.  Though I could lie to anyone reading this, what would be the point?

So today was another disappointment.  I had planned for a four hour (10km) swim at Tooting Bec.   In the end I stopped after just 1.5 hours (3.75km).

I could try and contribute this to a host of reasons, but each has to be unhesitatingly dismissed:

  • The cold - except I was not cold.  I can hardly claim to have been warm, but neither was I driven out of the water by the temperature, as in the past
  • The weather was not good - no, it wasn't.  It was cloudy, cold and windy, and it looked like it was going to rain heavily.  But then I've only had one sunny swim (Windermere), so I cannot blame the weather
  • I was tired - nope, not in the slightest
  • I didn't have time - well I did.  In fact, by finishing early it meant I had to hang around in the departure lounge for hours.  If anything, getting out when I did caused a problem

So what was it?  There is only one answer I can give, in all honesty:

I was bored.

You may think that having completed three, four and six hour swims, another four hour swim would be easy.  But that is simply looking at it from a subjective point of view, trying to apply a form of mathematical logic that simply does not stick.

For me, these pool training sessions seem to be getting harder as they increase in duration.  It's not like going for a run or cycle and being able to admire the scenery.  It's not as if I'm swimming from one location to another either.  It's endless laps of a pool, and is akin to training for a marathon on a treadmill facing a wall with no music or TV.  Also, the challenge of swimming in a pool for this length of time has already been achieved, so now it seems like nothing more than mental endurance.  And sometimes (like today) I just do not feel able to take the mental torture.

On this swim today, I found I had nothing to think about from ten minutes in.  That meant that for the remaining hour and twenty minutes I could not take my mind off putting one arm in front of the other.  It was soul destroying.  I kept thinking, 'I'm not cold, I'm not tired, I have plenty of time.... but I SO want to stop and get out!'

Obviously I still do need to train, and I have to get over this somehow.  I've already decided that not only am I no lover of long distance swimming, I'd go as far as to say I actually dislike it.  Not a good discovery for someone who has to face the Channel in nine weeks!

'Luckily' for me, it is now also time to begin sea training in earnest.  This will be a change of scenery for me, and will introduce some new challenges.  I have a 13.5km sea swim booked, and then need to plan some longer sessions, ultimately trying to build up to 20km.

There is relatively little time left before my swim now, especially when compared to the 11 months of planning, training and organising I've already gone through.  I'm just at the stage now where I want to get on with it, one way or another.

And to add insult to an already bad day, it's only now that I am at the airport ready to fly to the US for the week, that I've realised I left my swimming trunks at Tooting Bec!  Damn!

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Less Than Ten Weeks....

11/6/2014

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Monday 9th June saw me hit the ten week countdown mark (assuming I get to swim on 18th August).

With all corporate sponsorship now in place, courtesy of Dovetail, Hallmark Hulme, Kendall Wadley, Rybrook Worcester, and Spire Southbank, I now want to heavily focus on closing in on the £10,000 for Acorns.

My current total will stand at £5,500 once the final monies from the Dovetail Bake Sale have been allocated to the pot.  What I need now is for everyone to really begin to network and to spread the word.  

This swim is no longer in the distant future - it's happening the month after next!   

If you know anyone in media - radio, TV, newspaper - please make them aware of this event.  Swimming the Channel is a HUGE task, and I really do think that £10,000 is not a vast amount to raise within the Three Counties for something of this magnitude.  I cannot find reference to anyone else having done it, so it does seem to be the first attempt from our region.

Please also feel free to point people directly to my JustGiving page.

Thanks in advance.

Al

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Qualified!

7/6/2014

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Given the title of this post, it's not too much of a spoiler to say that my 6 hour qualifier was a success.  However, the build up/preparation to it could not have been any worse if I was to also expect success.

Almost a full week laid up sick had resulted in well-rested muscles, but I knew my physical condition was still not 100% as Ali and I set off at 06:15 on the long trek to Windermere.  My plan was simply to take the swim as gently as the water temperature would allow me - but this plan also relied on one crucial factor that up until this point had been against me for the entire training campaign: the weather!

As it turned out, my break had finally come.  As we crested the rise overlooking Windermere on the A591, we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the lake basking in the early morning sun.  It was clear even from such a distance that there was barely a breath of wind to disturb the surface of the water, and I knew that for once I'd have the luxury of the sun warming my back as I swam.

A quick meet-up with Julie and some minor alterations in plans courtesy of the film crew's willingness to allow us to use their hire boat (something Julie was thankful for, having sliced her finger open the previous night), and I was in the water by at 11:30.

The first hour was spent cruising round the small harbour bay, warming up my muscles and getting used to the water temperature which, to be honest, was not bad at all.

At the first feed stop I looked up to find Ali passing me some energy gel from the hire boat close by, Julie driving, and James filming me closely whilst being overseen by Emma and Steph.  The mechanics of the feed-stop itself was somewhat clunky (as most of them turned out to be), but Ali and I knew this trip would very much form a 'lesson's learned' exercise ready for other long practice swims.  In all honesty, I'd been eating and drinking Lucozade for the entire three hour journey up, and could probably have swum for six hours without any sustenance at all.  The real idea was to get used to feeding, in preparation for the 16 hour Channel crossing.

Once fed, Julie drove the boat down the lake some 3 or so km, with me me following alongside.  

Though this journey down the lake made for an easier swim than dodging in an out of moored boats and avoiding raised propeller blades, it did bring its own, entirely new experience: temperature variances!  Whilst the sheltered bay had been fairly consistent in temperature, now I found myself swimming through huge swathes of bitterly cold water, before finally emerging again into a warmer area.  The cold patches were truly bone-numbing, and brought on an almost instant and deep-set shivering.  I could not have lasted in the lake long if all of the water had been so cold.

The strangest sensations though, came from the water which was warm for the top few cm, and bitterly cold underneath.  Here, my arms would be warm whilst reaching forward, and then I'd have to plummet them into the unpleasant and bitter blackness for a few seconds, rotating constantly, warm-cold, warm-cold.  I soon lost all track of time, and the second hour seemed to last an eternity.  I honestly thought they'd forgotten to feed me.

One thing that had never fully dawned on me during my preparations for this qualifier was the actual date of event.  It was only on the journey up, whilst listening to celebrations in France via the radio, that I realised the irony of an ex-soldier qualifying to swim the Channel on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.  We were given regular reminders of the on-going celebrations courtesy of various military fly-bys, including a Lancaster Bomber and a Euro Fighter Typhoon which went roaring overhead.  My own landing on a French beach still seemed like a long way off - as did the end of my qualifier.

With 2.5 hours left to go, Julie dropped me off back at the harbour.  This was my most dreaded part - the final hours of swimming round and round the bay, again dodging the boats, and continually having to look up and check my position.  I found this put strain on my back, did not all allow me to 'switch off', and made the minutes seriously drag.  In the end, though I knew Julie would not be happy, I realised that the only way I could cope with the remaining time (mentally, not physically) would be to swim further along the harbour than I really should - and to do so a little further out.

Before doing this I came into the shore for what should have been my penultimate feed.  Clambering across the rocks to get close enough to shore to be passed the food was a real pain.  But what was worse still was then swimming back out through the warm shallow water and into the cold depths once again.  I shouted to the film crew, asking them to tell Ali I would skip my last feed.  The next time I crossed those rocks would be to get out of the lake, not to feed.

Somewhat surprisingly I found that the last hour  of the swim was in fact the easiest.  A slight wind had picked up, and even at the outer reaches of the harbour the water temperature was consistent and comfortable, with no patches of cold, dark water to wear away at me.  For the last thirty minutes I closely analysed my condition, asking myself how much longer I could swim for, if I really had to.  My mind came up with two answers, even though only one was relevant:

  1. I was fairly sure I could do the entire six hours again if I really needed to (I will need to, and more - but feeling this way at this juncture was fantastic)
  2. Steak and kidney pie

Quite where the second answer came from I've no idea, but the thought of a warm, filling pub meal did help, and in the end I did have steak and ale pie (they didn't have steak and kidney) when Ali and I joined Julie post-swim.

I emerged from the water after six hours feeling fresh, comfortable, and not too cold.  Most importantly, however, I was pleased that even when not 100% fit, I had been able to endure a lengthy swim in the cold water, and to ultimately qualify for my actual attempt on the English Channel in August.

Bring it on.
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Windermere Looms....

5/6/2014

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After five days of stomach flu, and all the unmentionable unpleasantness associated with such an illness, I now have less than 24 hours before I enter the chilly waters of Windermere again - this time for my crucial six hour qualifying swim.

My initial plan of having milestones #1 and #2 gradually build up both my cold water resilience and my overall confidence has been utterly thwarted by the onset of this sickness bug, and consequently I find myself almost back at square one.  Though I can call upon the memory of having easily lasted four hours in the water a few weeks ago in Eton, I'm currently feeling only 85% fit.  I'm still weak, I tire easily, and I'm feeling the cold far more than normal.  

Today will be a careful balance of preparation for an early start tomorrow, rest, and taking on board as much food and liquid as my weakened stomach can comfortably handle.

Given my current condition, the only thing I know for certain at this point is that tomorrow is going to be a real test of mental and physical endurance for me, and will undoubtedly be one of the least pleasurable experiences of my life.

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Dovetail Bake Sale

4/6/2014

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Whilst I have been laying bed, clutching my belly and feeling generally pathetic, Sophie and Rachel at Dovetail have been busy rallying the troops to organise a Bake Sale to raise additional funds towards my goal of £10,000.  With the majority of Dovetail staff split across two offices, London and Parsippany (NJ), simultaneous sales were organised, with all employees encouraged to bring in some home-baked goodies for sale.

The photo shows the selection on offer at the London office.

Initial indications are that around £150 was raised from these tantalizing efforts, so my thanks go out to everyone involved!

All monies raised will go directly to Acorns Children's Hospice, with a view to supporting them in their continued work helping life-limited children and their families.

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Man Down, Man Down!!

1/6/2014

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My last post highlighted the fact that all my swims after the Eton Dorney 10km have been a disappointing struggle.  Yesterday it all came to head.

Having done nothing more energetic than a one hour swim with Leiws, Ali and I decided to put our tent up in preparation for camping at Windermere next week.  When we'd finished, though it was hardly a complex or physical task, I had to sit down.  I simply had no energy left.

Having dropped Ali back home, I promptly put myself straight to bed (even though the sun was out - which is always a clear sign of a problem!).

This morning my body feels as if I was a participant in yesterdays Aviva Premiership final.  I ache absolutely everywhere.

In a way, I like to think this was building up, and was the cause for all my poor performance last week.  All I know for certain is that I have my 6 hour qualifier on Friday, and I simply have to be ready for that somehow. I guess, whether I like it or not, I'll now have to rest all week.  I simply have no strength whatsoever.

Worrying!!

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    Alan Gale

    One time soldier, part-time author, full-time training manager, husband and father.

    Swam 21.8 miles of the English Channel in August 2014 for Acorns Children's Hospice, in memory of our son, Harry Gale, raising over £13,000

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