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!

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Kyle Taylor

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.

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Kyle Taylor

Dover Update: Weekend 7

Good news - exams are over, which means swimming the Channel is now the only item on my life agenda (for the next few weeks). That’s right, for the past 7 weeks I have been studying, exam-ing and training for Dover all at the same time. It has been exhausting, but totally worth it! After a few hick-ups in planning and coordination, we’re on track for a July 4th-7th swim depending on tides, weather and so on!


That said, these past few weekends have been incredibly tough. I got, as they say, “stuck.” What I mean is that, for whatever reason - mental block, psychological fear, exhaustion or just that I have next to no body fat - I wasn’t able to get past three hours. Then, the weekend before last, out of nowhere I skyrocket to four hours and twenty minutes! It was uncanny. As Irene said so well, “you cracked it. It’s all over now. Nothing stops you once you’ve cracked it.” How right she was. I returned Sunday for a whopping FIVE-HOUR swim, bringing my weekend total to over 20 miles. Not too shabby for a guy with bad shoulders and no body fat. “It’s a head game,” Freda told me, “and you just won.”

“You were beaming when you finished five hours Sunday,” Michelle, a former Channel conquerer and now beachside expert said to me. “That smile was just priceless. You are so determined!” Indeed, determined I was, and continued to be the following weekend. More on that in the next entry. In the meantime, here are a few shots of us “feeding.” We come in every hour on the hour starting with hour two for a small cup of energy drink and, when we’re good, a Cadbury’s chocolate roll or Milky Way. I love those breaks!







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Kyle Taylor

The Immortal King Of Pop Has Left Us

It doesn't seem real. Impossible. How can an immortal die? I have a feeling the entire world will be grieving for quite some time. I'll skip the controversies (we all know them) and just post a favorite, as well as my own tribute. Michael, the world has been forever changed by you.

"I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish Kind Of Love. It's Time That I Realize That There Are Some With No Home, Not A Nickel To Loan. I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror."

Brithday Twin Still AWESOME

In my haste to talk about how awesome Sarah is, I completely forgot to mention her equally awesome endeavor - building an entire blog on "Chartography." That is, the most incredibly charts, graphs and pyramids I have EVER SEEN. Click here to read more.

Channel swim updates tomorrow, and that's a promise!
P.S. I totally stole the photo from her website. Clearly, as we're both in the picture, we BOTH stole it from someone else. Oops?

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Kyle Taylor

Ode To A Birthday Twin

Every year on my day of birth (19th of June) I can't help but think of all the other people I share this great day with. Starting 4 birthdays ago, my mind immediately turns to my day, month AND year b-day twin: Madame Sarah Hillary McNamara Albright Clinton Reedster. She's the smartest person I know, she loves cherry danishes from Marvelous Market and she asked me not to post embarrassing photos of her with this post. Naturally, I am ignoring that request. So then dear Reedster, this post goes out to you! Love and miss and miss and love! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!





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Kyle

Exam Overload!

I have four exams in the next 10 days, so be advised that I won't be posting until after June 17th! I'll be taking words of advice from David Allen on study breaks. He looks pretty darn official, no?

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Kyle Taylor