Just a quick note to let you know I'm heading down to the coast to be prepped for the big swim! From this point forward, you'll be able to check my status on twitter either JUST TO THE RIGHT ON THIS PAGE or directly on my Twitter page at: http://twitter.com/kyletaylor. You can get there by clicking here also.
HERE WE GO!
--
Kyle Taylor
04 July 2009
03 July 2009
UPDATE: It's looking like Sunday
Just a quick update. It's looking like the big swim is going to be on Sunday. No final confirmations just yet (as the weather, tides, etc. could naturally change), but that's the scoop at the moment!
6AM, Folkestone Harbour, England.
It's SO CLOSE! AHHH!!!
--
Kyle Taylor
02 July 2009
01 July 2009
American University Rocks!
I could go on for eons about how amazing my Alma Mater is, but I'll just leave it to this for now. They were kind enough to put the Channel story on their HOME PAGE! Not sure if it'll be there when you click this link, but I grabbed the snapshot above at about 8am Wednesday EST. The full story is here if it's gone already!
Thank you AU! Just days away now...
--
Kyle Taylor
The Final Training Weekend
The jig is up. I don’t like going to Dover to swim in the harbor. It is exhausting, painful, cold and miserable. In fact, I don’t know of anything in my life I have dreaded this much. I can barely sleep the night before because my heart is racing and my mind won’t turn off. Then, after the swim, now that I’m doing 6 hours in the hot sun, I radiate heat for days, sweating right through my clothes while I sit, stand and even sleep. I eat everything in site and since I’m supposed to gain as much weight as possible, this eating usually consists of junk food (which is really not my favorite).
Needless to say, knowing this would be my last weekend of training (and Saturday my last LONG swim), I was both dreading and anticipating the trips down. Fortunately, John (the Rotary Dad) offered to drive me down both days and crash at his place. This is an excellent option, as the food is amazing, the conversation is interesting and the sofas has powered recliners built in.
My other issue is that I like the “big game.” That is, I did 6 on the day I had to do six because I had to do six. On the actual day, I’ll [hopefully] swim to France because I have to swim to France. If you tell me to do something, I’ll just do it. Now, having made my qualifier and not actually enjoying the experience of swimming in the frigid harbor, I just want it all to be over with. Many have asked me, “if you knew what this was going to entail would you still have done it?” I am incredibly tempted to say “no.”
In the end, however, knowing it was my last swim and wanting to prove to myself that I could repeat six hours, I put my head down, got my mind drifting to the next six months (planning each and every day with explicit detail) and I took it one hour at a time. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.
Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking to great the next several days, which means I may be swimming toward the end of my tide and not near the beginning. I just want it to happen so I can get on with my life! 10-month build-up, 8 weeks training in Dover and now the waiting game...
Please send me happy thoughts. I’m in desperate need of MANY.
--
Kyle Taylor
30 June 2009
Welcome To The Maison Dieu Guesthouse!
Just a quick shout out to Barry and Di French - owners and operators of Maison Dieu Guesthouse - my Dover home. Absolutely the most adorable rooms, the most delicious breakfast, the most hospitable service and, hands down, the most divine hot cocoa I have ever sipped. Thank you thank you thank you! Click here to find out more and book online!
--
Kyle Taylor
28 June 2009
Dover Update: Weekend 8. “You’ve Got To Do Six
So, unbeknownst to be, the required 6-hour harbor swim “qualifier” must take place two weeks before your actual swim. Fortunately, i found this out the day before the two-week deadline, which meant the pressure was on this past weekend. Fortunately, I had Lianne in tow to keep me going. “You MUST do six hours today,” Michelle told me. “No problem, it’s in the bag,” I replied, “flashing a thumbs up. Truth be told, I wasn’t feeling my best but I knew - knew - it was either six hours or pack it up.
As usual, the first two hours were horrific. That’s the period where the body transitions from normal human temperature to subhuman freezing temperature and you question how on earth you can actually go on. Then, somehow,you just stop getting colder and slowly but surely get used to the frigid conditions. At the two-hour break Louise was there to ask me how I was doing. “Six hours or bust today,” I told her. “That’s the spirit,” she replied. From that point on I decided to view the last four hours as four one-hour swims with hourly feedings as the interval.
I somehow managed to convince my brain of this scheme as well, and from that point on I just had a few hour-long swims to do. The next one would put me half way, the next would be one away from the last feeding, the next would lead to the last feeding then it was just one final hour, which is TOTALLY doable after you’ve swam all that way!
A few notes on this scheme: the body does, in fact, begin to tire and without notice I was moving markedly slower than hours one through four. The water gets rougher as well, making each stroke a touch more difficult. Every now and then your mind drifts to the immensity of the task ahead and screams at you, “FOUR MORE HOURS? ARE YOU MAD?!?!” It is at these points that I incorporate my new, enhanced “overcome this horror” method: I scream out loud under water as loud as I can. It gets the adrenaline flowing, slightly warms me up and forces a refocus of my mind from the heinous activity I am undertaking to this faux notion that I only have a few one-hour swims left. Regardless, it works.
Let me tell you, when I came out after six hours I felt like I could do anything. Climb Everest? Check. Take exams? Check. World Peace? Done Deal. I was BEAMING. Sunday followed with a 4-hour swim that came to an end as a result of major hip pain (it seems to be the only physical pain I get from all of this - the sensation that my hip flexors may in fact fall off. That would NOT be good.
So here I am, a week away and it’s finally feeling real (as well as scary). I mean, it’s really really scary. Nerves. Anxiety. The works. But I’m feeling confident. Hey, if I can do six hours, what’s six more, right? Especially when I get to land in France and do a happy dance.
More soon. For now, think happy thoughts July 3rd to the 7th. I’ll do my best to post the exact date as soon as I know it!
Swim On, Party Player.
--
Kyle Taylor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
