Training for the Big Swim
As a chef, I have spent most of my adult life eating rich, buttery foods, drinking robust French wines and sopping up sauces with crusty white bread. Not the diet of an athlete, or in my case, athlete-in-training. Old habits are hard to break.
Once I made the decision to participate in this monumental swim, I knew I had to find a coach and start a training plan. Port Huron is not brimming with swimming coaches, but I was fortunate to find a perfect match: Jackie Mall. A triathlete herself, she interviewed me in the pool of the local YMCA and offered to work with me. According to coach, I had been swimming freestyle incorrectly for the last 66 years. She did say I had one redeeming quality, “no fear” of the water and she could work with that.
Grueling workouts and sore muscles ensued, but after a couple of months, I was able to swim 1,600 meters in the pool without a break. I have put the French cuisine and Irish whiskey on the back burner and focused on pasta and protein.
I will be swimming for a few 30-minute sessions in open water this August. The St. Clair River, to be exact, one the fastest flowing rivers in the world. The river forms part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States. The river is an essential part of the Great Lakes Waterway system. The shipping channels permit cargo vessels to travel between the upper and lower Great Lakes.
Swimming with the freighters is going to be an epic experience. I start under the Blue Water Bridge doing a relay of 30-minute swim. My team of four will swim the 30-mile trek south to Algonac.
There is not a thick, blue line on the river floor to help me swim in a straight line like there is in the training pool. I have had to learn about sighting, breathing techniques, riding waves and how to rest while still swimming. While I thought I was prepared after six months in the pool, one week in open water shattered my confidence.
I called Coach and told her my endurance was so poor, I did not think I could make one thirty-minute swim, let alone three or four. I was so disappointed and felt I was letting my teammates down and asked if I should withdraw from the relay.
She talked me off the ledge. She was pissed that I was losing confidence after working so hard. She compared me to Katie Ledecky, the most decorated Olympic swimmer that only breathes on one side. Stop surfing the web, she demanded. She said I had been overtraining, and if rested, she knew I could swim at least 30 minutes. If my coach believed in me, I better start doing the same.
Within one week, I was back in the open water swimming 35- and 40-minute practice sessions. I still have eight weeks until I am required to perform, but my confidence is back, and my endurance has been proven.
This feat could not have been accomplished had I had a lesser coach or someone who did not know how to instill confidence in their client.
Next time: The body is ready, what about the mindset?
Find out more at www.edmundfitzgeraldswim.org and join my newsletter so I can keep you posted!