Taper? Unsure

Following my training week in Lake Tahoe I have been taking it pretty easy. Focusing on work and just getting in some easy yards in the bay to keep up my cold tolerance for Farallon Islands coming this month.

This week I have been in Ocean City New Jersey and able to get in some very rough training swims albeit it in very warm water.

I often get asked, “how do you swim in cold water for so long?”. I do not exactly know the science behind it but I spend time adapting physically and mentally which takes me about 3-5 days if I have been in the bay and 2 weeks if I have been completely out of it. Another factor is that muscle is thermogenic, I always make sure to train so that I can keep my speed up and utilize my muscles to build heat. I remember getting out of the North Channel swim (11 hours in 52F water no wetsuit) and being WARM!

Long story short, Tahoe gave me the confidence I need to be able to finish a 30mile swim so I am holding onto that and making sure my shoulders, mind, and body are ready to go when the weather is.

The Farallon Islands (Southeast Farallon Islands SEFI) is, in my opinion, one of THE SCARIEST swims in the world. Other notable swims have components of the SEFI but few have ALL the dangers. Monterey Bay is the only one I can think of that comes close.

What are the dangers-sharks, cold, currents, wind, waves, jellyfish and 30 miles. Great. I also believe that with this swim you HAVE to have some speed because if you miss the tide change then you are looking at an additional 6ish hours tacked onto an already long swim.

So why SEFI?

Because if I am going to swim the entire coast I need to make friends with even the scariest parts of these waters. When I swimming the Lost Coast or down by Malibu I can reflect on this and hopefully in a positive way.

Evan Morrison of Marathon Swim Federation created the Toughest 13, thirteen of the toughest swims across the world and says this about it….

“Toughest Thirteen (T13) is a marathon swimming challenge, proposed in 2020 by Evan Morrison as a list of unique and difficult swims for advanced marathon swimmers. In contrast to the Oceans Seven list of the most popular, historically iconic channel swims, the T13 was designed with a focus on inherent difficulty - where many days may not be swimmable, and even the best days are not that great; where there's always a chance of DNF, even for the most talented swimmers.”

So of course I am starting this swim window nervous, if Mother Nature doesn’t take me out my body could fail.

But hey, here’s to trying.

🙂 “Mysterious Illness Decimating Sea Stars Finally Identified” -Scientific American

My sister told me she used to see Sunflower Sea Stars all over Monterey Bay, and then they disappeared. Leaving the urchin population to explode and decimate our kelp population.

“ “Sea stars [such as] sunflower stars are really important members of their communities,” Gehman says. When the sunflower sea stars lost about 90 percent of their population, there were huge increases in sea urchins (a prey of sea stars) off the coast of California.”

😢 “What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t” World Resources Institute

Deep Sea Mining has been in the news a lot recently but unfortunately little is known about it.

“Some countries and companies have already begun exploring underwater mineral deposits and mining techniques — but the prospect of deep-sea mining remains controversial. Despite years of research, little is known about the deep ocean. Many fear that extracting minerals from it could pose grave consequences for both marine life and planetary health.”  

Behind the swim is a whole team and so I just want to shoutout the people who have made getting this far possible.

Each newsletter I am going to shoutout someone who went above and beyond. This week I want to shoutout:

💙 Lily freaking Becker. Lily Becker is the absolute MVP for all that Swim California and Sea Dreamers is. She has been here since the very beginning from me first voicing this audacious goal out loud and through every iteration and thought process along the way. I am so grateful to have someone as talented, thoughtful, bright, and supportive as her on my team. Thank you to the Olympic Club for bringing us together.

I also want to thank all the donors who have come in and gotten us close to $100,000.

This isn’t just my swim; it’s a journey for all of us who love the ocean, crave adventure, and believe in trying something even when it feels impossible. Thank you for being here.

Donations are currently being accepted through my 501-c3 non-profit, Sea Dreamers. During Swim California we will be stopping and having various Sea Dreamers events to bring more women and girls into the ocean and create more awareness around ocean conservation—because I believe we fight for what we love and women fight pretty damn hard.

2018 Since I do not have much to share in my training I thought I would share my notes from one of my past swims. This below is from my English Channel swim!

Well, I did exactly what I set out to do. I attempted and completed swimming from England to France via the English Channel in 9 hours and 50 minutes.

TLDR; it was hard and I am incredibly grateful for all the support.

It was not pretty nor easy. For those of you that do not know, the channel is very volatile and conditions change quickly. My pilot, Eddie Spelling, reached out to me Sunday morning asking if I could swim Monday night the 25th, meet on the dock at 21:30. I landed at Heathrow at 14:30 and after an exceptionally long customs line and over a 3.5 hour drive due to an accident and bumper to bumper traffic, we arrived in Dover at 20:45. In 45 minutes I did a shake out and then we all hustled down to the dock, starting the swim around 22:30. It was a hard decision but the advice given by many experienced channel swimmers was to take it.

The first few hours felt great, the water was smooth and it was clear that I was moving. The night was beautiful and between the glowing orange moon and the bioluminescence it was never really dark. I swam through two large pods of orange and brown jellyfish. Surprisingly, I welcomed their stings as I figured it would move blood to my extremities and it was something to think about until the sting subsided. After the swim I found that I had a jelly stuck in my suit and have a nasty mark from that— oh the joys of the ocean.

The sunrise, as many of you saw, was amazing. Bright pinks, reds, and oranges illuminated the sky and I think it was during that time it finally sunk in that I was here, I was swimming my first solo channel swim, and I was doing it well.

At about hour 6 things started going downhill, we were fighting a strong southern current and I was essentially swimming north to go east and moving south. After a much needed re group with the crew while we waited for a tanker to pass, I pressed on. Stroke by stroke I was closer to France and I would die (maybe a slight exaggeration) before I gave up. Even with the current and the many hours of swimming, I still held over a 2mph pace.

The last few hours were mostly a blur. At hour 8:30-9:00 the crew needed me to push hard, so I gave it everything I had for those 30minutes. 15 minutes after that, it hit me how exhausted I was. Everything inside burned and I was in physical pain, as well as starting to get emotional. So I cleared my head and pushed on. My motivation at this point was fish and chips and the beaches of Majorca, sometimes it is the little things.

I finished in France on some very large boulders, I found the first one I could safely crawl up and I just sat down, it was over.

I joked to some close friends and family that if someone tortured me by withholding sleep, I would give up all information within 48-72hours. I love sleep and I prioritize it over many other things. Swimming the English Channel on no sleep was honestly more difficult for me than just swimming it, emotionally and mentally. That is part of channel swimming though, being ready to go when conditions are good. Without their support and encouragement I could not have achieved this, it is every bit their success as it is mine. I also appreciate them for still loving and talking to me after some stress induced quips and overall roller coaster of mood swings over these past 2 days. Again, I need sleep you guys. haha

My longest feed was around :45 with an average of less than 20seconds, something I have been working on and am happy that it went so well. I will not be having another gel for at least a month.

How am I feeling now? Still tired, still sore, and it still hasn’t hit me, but I don’t know if it ever really will.

I started this journey because I am competitive and am always striving to see what my mind and body can do; that, coupled with a love for the ocean and swimming led me to channel swimming. I started this sport and continue to do it for a few reasons.

 1)     I love being in the water and being able to move myself across large bodies of water, while fighting or working with Mother Nature. It feels like a pretty cool thing to be doing.

2)    I love the community. Seriously, if you want to make some life long friends and hang out with inspirational people every day- join an open water swimming community.

3)    I hope that I can inspire just one person to push a little harder in their goals or that because of one of my swims someone else wants to try swimming or swimming in the ocean. For myself, success is doing something that inspires others and that someone can say, “because of you my life is different”. I know many open water swimming greats and it is because of them I set out and accomplished this. I hope that this endeavor can in turn inspire someone else.

On to the next challenge. First of many, this story isn’t over.

Thank you all so much for your support and messages throughout the swim. Finishing and seeing the endless texts, messages, and posts made me so happy. Love you all!”