Crazy Craig Swims The English Channel: The Training!
Coach Craig swimming in the middle of the English Channel
When I was a younger swimmer, I remember being interested in swimming across the English Channel. After all, it is considered the Mt. Everest of swimming. As I got older that dream faded, and I never really saw it as something I would ever do. Then back in 2012 I was asked to be a support swimmer for my friend’s English Channel attempt. This was a great experience and it was amazing to be crew for a channel swim. When it was over I told everyone, I will NEVER swim the English Channel. It was horrible!
At the time I was not big into marathon swimming and certainly not cold water swimming. I wore 2 wetsuits just to stay warm for my stints swimming next to Kim. The water was cold, incredibly salty and just all around pissed off and hated humanity! I had never been seasick up to that point and now 8 years later because of that swim I can’t look at a boat without wanting to throw up! So how did I end up here? I went from never wanting to do it to sacrificing almost anything to train through a pandemic and get to Dover so I could get my chance to swim it!
Long story short, I had no choice! At this point I had accomplished 2 of the 3 swims needed to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. 3 Years ago I had swum the Catalina Channel because I was inspired by my athletes to do something and this inadvertently started this quest. The following year I was surprisingly accepted into the NYOW 20 Bridges swim.
At this point there was only one swim left and it is much easier to stay in swim shape than to take time off and try to make a come back several years later if at all. How could you come so close to finishing and just walk away? That isn’t what I am about so I tried to get my head right, forget about my last few English Channel experiences and do whatever it takes to get this done! The English Channel is the hardest of the 3 swims not only during the swim but in the lead up. During a normal year this is a lot of uncertainty, so just imagine what a ride I was in for in 2020 once COVID-19 hit and everything was locked down. Things went from hard to just about impossible!
Once October rolled around, I synced up with Dan Simonelli and got my English Channel training plan. I thought the prior 2 years were a lot of swimming until I opened up that bad boy. I almost threw up looking at some of the volume and long swims I would have to do for this. I have only seen success with Dan’s guidance so I knew this would be no different. He figures out the periodization, volume ramping and gives me an outline of each week from October through my swim window. He knows I am capable or writing my own workouts so I take his weekly volume goals and focus and then I create workouts to execute. The English Channel plan was no different than Catalina or 20 Bridges except that the volume was much higher. I was concerned because the previous two “easier” swims had nearly destroyed my shoulder. At this point, the only way out was to continue to move forward. Quitting is never an acceptable option…NEVER!
October 2019 through February 2020 went great. I got in all my volume and long swims and things were no different than the previous 2 years. I was swimming fast and feeling pretty good. I was meeting Dave and Kim at the ocean a few times a week to do some winter swimming to prepare for the cold and I was doing my cold tub every day as well. At this point COVID-19 started to become a problem.
At the end of February, I had a business trip planned for work to San Diego. Even though I wasn’t really physically or mentally ready to do my 6 hour qualifying swim, Dan and I decided to go for it. In my training plan to this point I think my longest swims were back to back 4 hour swims and they were all done in an 80F pool. The water in La Jolla was 58F. If I could knock out the qualifying swim by March, then I could finish my Channel Swimming Association application and all the stress would be gone or so I thought.
This 6 hour swim sucked big time, but it taught me a lot about myself. Dan kayaked for me and for the first two and a half hours I shivered as he continued to navigate me further and further away from the starting point. I thought I would never feel warmth again. I knew I wouldn’t die but the thought of being cold consumed me. I literally couldn’t think of anything else. Dan had some sneaky tricks that definitely helped. Before I knew it my body was finding a way to cope with the cold. Next thing I know right around 2.5 hours, I wasn’t cold any more. The water temperature didn’t change but my body figured it out. The tingling in my toes and fingers was gone and I was fine. At that point I knew I would finish the swim but I also had no choice because we had to get back to the start point…sneaky Dan!
Getting through this swim was a big stepping-stone for me because it was a major piece of the process. This swim scared me because I didn’t think I could finish it so early into my training. After this I had more confidence that I could handle colder water and would be okay. I was stoked after this swim and as soon as I flew home, lockdown happened. All pools were closed and people were panicking. Luckily the first week of lockdown was a recovery week for me so I didn’t have to worry about hitting any swim targets but what would I do to get my training in once the week was over?
This is the point that the pieces started to fall into place more. I was not giving up on my dream because of a pandemic. I started looking at ways I could stay fit, get through this and still be ready for my English Channel swim. When I travel for work, I usually do tethered swimming which is terrible. If you have no other options, then it does the job. I looked around and considered getting a cheap inflatable pool for my backyard. The problem though is it was winter in Massachusetts. Chances are the water would freeze overnight and I wouldn’t be able to swim. At this point I called my parents and asked them if they would open their pool early. Before I could finish asking, my dad was already outside opening the pool!
Life as we know it had changed but the only positive about the lockdown was that there was no traffic anymore! This was perfect. Starting in March, my new routine was waking up at 3:30am to 4am and drive an hour to my parents house to get in my swimming while tethered. I told my parents not to bother heating the pool so March into April was rough but I believed it would only make me stronger.
The water temperature was 42F to 45F for most of that month and the ocean was 36F to 40F while the air was consistently below 30F. During this month, I put my ego aside and put on all the neoprene and sucked it up. I swam until I was in a pretty hypothermic state just about every day. I would warm up then head to the ocean for a neoprene free swim with Dave. Once I was done shivering from that I would drive the hour home so I could sign on to work.
April came around and the air started to get warmer but the Pandemic only got worse. My parents started to heat the pool up to around 58F which was perfect training temps. I continued to follow the same training schedule and would go and swim almost every morning for as long as I could handle. With the tethered swimming, I had no idea if I was getting faster but at least I was swimming and that was good enough. The days I did not swim, I would do Yoga, Pilates, my band strength training, cold tub and running for cardio. I was able to get my long 4, 5 and 6 hour swims done while tethered which were the most important ones to do. The monotony of swimming in place had to be good for mental training…right?
I still hadn’t lost hope in my English Channel Swim. I was doing things in my daily life to try to remove any doubt that the Pandemic would ruin my chances of swimming the English Channel. I found a way to get my training in and I had a back up plan if that fell through. On social media, I unfollowed anyone who posted about COVID-19. We also stopped watching the news in our house. I basically made my life a COVID-19 free place, which I think is the only reason I was able to stay motivated.
During normal times, it is not easy waking up every day at 3:30am or 4am, driving an hour to swim in freezing water for several hours then drive back and work all day. If I lost hope and thought my swim would get cancelled, then I would never have been able to maintain this routine. I think this routine, although exhausting, is what kept me sane throughout the initial lockdowns.
2 months had passed since lockdown started and the weather just continued to warm up as we headed into May. I was living a COVID free life at this point. I never saw it on TV or social media and people knew it was in their best interest not to talk about it near me. Now we entered the phase that races were starting to get cancelled and this became concerning. The English Channel is not a race it was a solo swim, so I kept believing it would happen.
People started to ask me what I thought would happen with my swim. I would tell them it is going to happen and to never ask me that again. I may have burned some bridges along the way but I am okay with it. These people were not people I wanted in my life and this goal was more important than my relationship with the “doubters”. My real friends understood the importance of this goal.
All I was thinking about was getting this swim done. If someone in my life was trying to put doubt into my head, then they had no place in my life. I kept my training going and stayed focused. I was getting really good at tethered swimming too! I had crushed some 5 and 6 hour back to back tethered swims and was getting in decent volume.
As we headed into June we were getting down to the wire, but the world was slowly improving. My belief that the swim would happen was getting stronger. Too many pieces were lining up for it to fall through. I got in my 6 hour qualifying swim before the lockdowns, I was able to get in all my swimming through the lockdowns and I was able to continue to stay motivated. June was a big swim month and I continued to push forward.
Finally on July 4th, the UK made the big announcement which was both the best and worst news ever! I had just gotten done with a 7 hour swim on the 3rd and a 6 hour swim on the 4th. As soon as I finished the 6 hour swim I saw the news that the UK was opening up travel which was amazing but people coming from the USA would have to do a 14 day isolation. Well this threw a wrench into my plans but it didn’t kill them.
I was under a massive time crunch because my swim window started on the July 26th which means I needed to leave by July 12th to get there and self-isolate before the swim. There was only one more barrier and that was that USA passport holders were banned from the EU. This is a major problem for someone doing the English Channel because the swim lands on French land. In theory I was banned from France. Before making a decision, I had to verify that I was cleared to land in France if I finished the swim. This was the last obstacle before I could decide whether or not I was going.
The CSA informed me that I was cleared to land in France! This was amazing news but by the time I heard back from the CSA and my pilot I had 4 days to plan about a month long trip to England. I was stoked but also extremely nervous. No one in my crew could go including my wife. I am lucky that I had a job that I could do from anywhere so a 2 week isolation in England, then stay for the 10 day window and then do a 2 week isolation once home was not a deal breaker for me. Unfortunately it was for my crew but obviously I was in a unique position and I appreciated them all for hanging in there until the end with me.
My wife and I had a lot of talking to do. If I went, I was going by myself which was scary, and I would be leaving her home for potentially 4 weeks which is not something either of us were thrilled with. I was nervous about flying during the pandemic and potentially getting COVID-19 while in a foreign country by myself. I was nervous I would get there and then Dover or Folkstone would have a local lockdown and then my swim would be over. In the end, we both knew if I didn’t go and take a risk it would be the biggest regret of my life. Things had lined up too perfectly to not take the risk and go!
We felt I had to go now as well because travel had just opened up there and we thought there are chances for potential surge of cases later in the summer. This would potentially lead to another round of lockdowns in the UK later in the season which would be the death knoll on an English Channel attempt. My goal was to get in, get the swim done and get out while following all the laws and staying safe. This was the ideal time to go in an unideal time.
Thanks to the help of my wife and Dan, I was able to get everything booked and I left on the 12th. As I was making these decisions with my wife, my parents were apparently having similar discussions. They didn’t want me going alone for so many reasons. What if I got sick while traveling, or if I got hurt while doing the channel or the USA closed and I couldn’t get home.
There were so many “what ifs” and risks that everyone felt better if someone went with me so my Dad ended up making the trip too. This made me and everyone else feel better. I wouldn’t be totally alone and I had my crew chief! My dad has been my crew chief for all of my marathon swims so I was so happy that we would get to finish this journey together!
July 12th came and it still didn’t feel like this was real. I was stressed because I knew I would have 14 days that I could not swim. I made it the entire year getting in all of my training and then in the last 14 days leading up I wouldn’t be able to swim a single stroke. Alex knew I was stressed and she somehow pulled together a surprise sendoff party for me. A handful of friends came for a socially distanced brunch to wish me well before I left. It was nice to see that support and a very welcome distraction. Then later that day I got my flight and I was off. I couldn’t believe it that I was almost there.
I bet after reading this you are feeling stressed out too. The next post in my English Channel journey will be about my self-isolation in England and the lead up to my swim. Then the final post will be all about the swim itself and all those who helped make it possible!