After spending a fantastic full blue moon New Year’s Eve at 35,000 feet commuting from San Francisco to Chicago onboard American Airlines, completely by myself in first class but wishing I was at the South End cooking with everybody for the New Year’s Day swim, my 2010 started with a three-day trip flying in and out of Chicago O’Hare. The temperature in the Midwest dropped below freezing, making my days a bit cold and miserable. At least I was being exposed to the cold weather, which had me thinking about my Channel swim training pretty much non-stop.
Since signing up for the solo Channel swim back in September 2008, I have discovered that the most difficult part of training is the winter season. I remember trying to keep the edge during my Ironman training last winter; it was hard.
Winter days are shorter, the air is cold if not freezing, the wind chill makes my body think it is an Eskimo, my biological clock slows down, at 4:00 p.m. I am ready for bed, I am always hungry for hearty meals, and the blankets are cozier than usual, making that fantastic jump in the San Francisco Bay at 6:15 a.m. feel like a real sacrifice with the water temperature at 49-52 degrees Fahrenheit.
On top of that, as an airline pilot, I am exposed to thousands of people on board, in airports, in hotels – all the holiday travelers, especially families with kids, and of course all the illnesses that tag along with them. And being based in Chicago flying all over the Midwest and Canada constantly exposes my body to air temperatures well below freezing. On January 1st I flew to Saskatoon, Canada, and after we landed I did the walk-around safety check of the airplane. The temperature was -15 Fahrenheit.
All this to say that the past few weeks really put my body to a test, and maybe not so surprisingly, I found myself fighting a miserable cold, something fierce. My lips were cracked and bleeding because of the dry cold air and my lower back was aching from so much flying and lugging my bags around the airport. Add to this a date with the dentist on Jan. 3 during which she sliced open my gum and carved my jawbone to lower it 3 millimeters to make space for a new crown, and that was it. I was down for the count.
Even though logically I understood that these were all good reasons for me to rest, my mind was telling me I was missing out on training during the important 6-months-to-go window. “You are not training enough.” “Why aren’t you training today?” I had a feeling my mind was playing shenanigans on me. And it was.
I knew that if I didn’t put a stop to those thoughts and that pressure, I would end up listening only to my mind, forgetting to listen to my body. I need to have confidence in my training schedule and what I have planned for the whole season, and more importantly, to listen to my body when it really needs to rest.
It is fantastic to recognize how our minds can play tricks on us when we are under the gun training for events like the English Channel or an Ironman triathlon. It’s easy to keep pushing, pushing, pushing to “stay on schedule.” But sometimes that kind of pushing can lead to over-training or to increasing miles just for the sake of increasing miles (‘garbage miles’), which can lead to getting hurt, and in the end sabotaging the overall game plan. It’s important to recognize the difference between resting when it’s needed and resting because the mind or body are just a little tired. I was more than just a little tired.
Training-wise…well I couldn’t resist and ended up “visiting “ the pool for a few days and swimming 15,000 yards for the week, pulling weights twice and escaping from Alcatraz with the “Fantastic Four”: Paul Saab, Steven Ray, Commissioner Cathy, and Bill James on the engine. Still, in my mind I heard “Why are you swimming only 5,000 yards instead 15,000 yards?” and “How come you did only a one-way Alcatraz swim instead of a round-trip?”
Luckily, I was able to quiet the little devil, and during the few days I was off duty and at home in early January, I focused on healing, sleeping a lot, eating well, and completing all my Channel Swimming Association Medical exams, blood tests, urine analysis, fee payments, etc., which ended up being very time consuming.
I am glad I put in a few long swims in October, November and December before the water and air temperature dropped. I even ran a marathon on December 20th as part of my cross training schedulle. I actually had in mind to slow down between December and January, but my body did it for me and I am very glad I was able to listen to it, even though I wanted to keep going.
So these past ten days I really took it easy, gave my body a chance to heal, got my back in shape, my jaw is not swollen anymore, my lips are in one piece and the cold weather, well…it is -15F right now in Quebec City.
Cold, damn cold, baby!
