Leg Cramps End a Solo Attempt

The weather was not great but there was what is called a "window” – a period of reduced winds before they pick up again. Clearly we entered at the tail end of the window, for an hour into the swim waves picked and came from straight ahead and thus the Pilot boat was able to offer no protection.

Nearing five hours into the swim I was a third-way across and swimming strongly despite the waves, which cast the occasional whitecap. What ended my attempt was not the weather, for at one-third across I felt I had two-thirds left, not the cold for it was 64-65 F 18C, which is not bad but the leg cramps that also ended it last year.

The cramps are not the typical ones that I and most have experienced in the calf muscles that can be stretched out. These began behind the knee, then in the anterior shin area, foot and then the calf. They intensified and started coming up the leg to medial thigh. I have reasoned that this must be a form of intermittent claudication from my marginal spinal stenosis. No problem when swimming in a pool where I bend my back and push off the wall every length, and no problem swimming in the harbor where I exit and squat to take on liquid nutrition each hour. But in the Channel, especially when swimming into head seas, the back remains in a lordosis and that restricts the blood supply to the nerve roots hence giving rise to what is medically known as intermittent claudication – often confused with arteriosclerosis claudication. I did what I could to stretch out my back and initially it helped but nearing he end of the fifth hour when I could see them preparing to serve me the liquid nutrition I knew it was all over. The seas I could handle.

On the boat was the Chairman of the Channel Swimming Association and she had just had a call from the President of the Association and had informed him that I was doing well. So it appeared until the cramps came on. Also on the boat was faculty member Jeff Rot and student Teresa Sebastian and also two Pilots and two official Observers from the Channel Swimming Association.

I know therefore that my Channel days are over. Disappointed, yes, but there are other things to move on to. My association with the Channel will remain and while I may swim in a relay again, such as my participation in the successful four person relay of ten days ago, and my successfully managing the first University of St. Augustine 6 person relay team, another solo is just not on. Continue reading this post...

University of St. Augustine Relay Team is Victorious

After 15 hours and 22 minutes University of St. Augustine faculty member Rob Stanborough walked up the beach onto French sand completing a most successful relay. He was followed by the full team who collected souvenir pebbles before swimming back out to the Pilot boat. Each swimmer had to complete one hour without touching the boat before they could exit after the next swimmer had dropped in the water behind them. Any swimmer who failed to complete the hour or who failed to complete the hour again when once more it became their turn would result in a failed attempt.

The weather was mixed and the seas expressed their usual choppy and confused behavior. This is due to ever changing tides going either with or against the wind and the amount of shipping traffic. We had several ships passing within two hundred yards and we would warn the swimmer of the approach of bow and stern waves so they would not think they were in a tsunami. It is however the busiest shipping passage in the world with more than 400 ships passing through each day and another 200 to 300 ferries making a crossing.

There were no obstacles such as jellyfish, planks of timber or fish farms, save large patches of kelp (seaweed) around which the Pilot would skillfully navigate the swimmer. And we did not see any pirates!

All swam well and they swam for the team. Clearly there were two or three swimmers to whom the elements were providing a challenge, but it was nothing they couldn’t endure and overcome. However we had some two or three members for whom it was a real challenge. They trained well in the months leading up to August and finally for three days in the Dover Harbor. They knew from me that the water in the Channel would be even tougher. I had likened a six-hour pool swim to a two-hour harbor swim to a one-hour Channel swim – such are the conditions. We were so proud of these weaker swimmers for they gave it their all and rather surprisingly they were better on their second hours swim than on their first, which showed that they were getting the rhythm of the sea.

One particular swimmer concerned us all when he started out and swam almost vertical for fifteen minutes making little forward progress. However I had told them all, speaking especially to the slower swimmers, "just survive the hour and the faster swimmers will move us forward. Attempt to get out before the hour is up and I will prod you with a boat hook” – and they knew I meant it. Regardless I was about to blow the horn to get his attention and tell him to "get your head down and feet up and get going" just when the same thought must have occurred to him. Maybe telepathy was working within such a close team. Another swimmer became seasick from swallowing seawater once he was back on the boat – quite seriously and so we attended to his dehydration needs. Rex Painter, now a Consultant to the University and a three times medic to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, was in charge of such medical issues.

The team will never forget the arrival in France. While we were approaching to coastline at about 1.7 miles per hour, the tide was sweeping us along the shore at four to five miles an hour. The skill of the Pilot is to find a safe place to land between the miles of limestone cliffs and rocky shores. We landed just west of Calais on a sandy beach between two mussel farms. The boats horn sounded the victory and the swimmer raised his arms in victory.

Stanley Paris
Manager
University of St. Augustine Channel Swimming Relay Team



University of St. Augustine Relay Team Arrives On French Shores
From left to right: Rex Painter, DDS; faculty member Jeff Rot, PT, DHSc, OCS, FAAOMPT; alumnus Linda Kuligowski, PT; doctor of physical therapy student and team coach Teresa Sebastian; faculty member Rob Stanborough, PT, DPT, MHSc, MTC; alumnus Dennis Conlon, PT, MPT Continue reading this post...

Successful Four Person Relay Swim Across Channel

I have been in Dover since August 1, training for a possible solo and awaiting the arrival of the relay team I am managing from the physical therapy department at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in St. Augustine, FL. I am having serious problems with the cold and have not made a decision on a solo attempt.

I was asked by the Chairperson of the Channel Swimming Association if I could replace her on an upcoming four person relay attempt. I agreed. It would be a useful break from training and update me so that I could be a better manager for my team when it arrives.

I got the call to be at the boat by 9:00 am on August 6.

We are only four in the team whereas the St. Augustine team will be six swimmers. I suspected this will be a slow swim. The #1 swimmer is a late teenager who last week tried a solo and got less than half way – but he is probably the fastest of us. I am #2. The #3 swimmer is a middle-aged male who has had two solo failures and two relay failures. He is looking for today to change all that. The #4 swimmer is a very excited lady who really it turns out is the reason why we are here. She has never swum on the Channel before. Me as #2 - well I have four solos, of which two were successful and one relay which was also a success and was a fast 10 hours, 20 minutes.

Given that there are only four of us, I estimated we would all have to swim three times with two or going four times. I was right on.

The first hour went fine. It was calm bright and sunny. Then just before I entered the water the wind changed and picked up and there were white caps and messy seas. The wind was coming from the same side of the boat that I was swimming on and so the boat offered no protection from the breaking waves. I swam at least twenty yards off the boat in order to avoid the confusing seas that result when waves bouncing off the boat meet incoming waves. Despite that I took several mouthfuls of water and had to stop and cough and clear at least twice.

The hours pass and the bright sun shone down and warmed us. I noted that each swimmer as they emerged was not cold. None shivered as did I for an entire hour after each swim. It’s such a shame that middle-aged men are cursed with the inability to disperse fat all over their body rather than have it collect on the abdomen. Clearly I was the only one troubled by the cold which was officially recorded at 61.7 F.

At 12 hours we were nearing France and it was 10:00 pm and dark. The sea was relatively calm. We started our cycle again with swimmer #1 being prepared for the dark. A flashing green light was attached to his goggle strap and placed on the back of his head. Two sticks lights were tied to each side of his swimsuit. In all he was clearly visible and looked like he was off to a Halloween party.

We were nearing France and I was hoping he would make it. The boat was southwest of Cape Gris Nez, the nearest point to England and the narrowest in the Channel where the currents and waves are at their most difficult as it also shallow here and so much water has to move with the tide through this relatively narrow and shallow neck. We all took bets on whether or not he would make it in as the Pilot had suggested he might. Nearing the end of his hour it was clear he would not make it. I would have to go in. The assistant Pilot came to me and gave the following information. “All bets are off. You will have to go fast to make it. The tide is rapidly sweeping us past the Cape and if you miss it, it might take another swimmer or two to get in. Landing on the other side of the Cape is out of the question as the wind is against the current and the waves are too steep and the shore too dangerous. If you can make it in you do not need to exit the water.” The Observer agreed. “Just touch a rock above the water line and get back out here safely.”

As I looked at the dark Cape Gris Nez, silhouetted with the light of Calais in the distance I could see that it was indeed slipping away. The estimate was that we were a mile off. That would be a fast thirty minute swim before we would be swept around the Cape to where the coastline fell rapidly away. I had been in this position in 1985 when I was less than a mile from the Cape and an hour later I was two miles off with a Pilot saying it would take another five hours to get in. But my wife, Catherine, had me sprint and I broke the tide in 30 minutes and then cruised in with an additional hour of quiet swimming. I would resolve to sprint again – now and not later.

These are the kinds of moments I live for, a real challenge that I was not expected to make. I climbed down the ladder, the boat slowed and the #1 swimmer pulled ahead thus allowing me to drop in behind. I paused to see that he had made the ladder safely and then began my swim. This is as close as we go to passing the baton.

It was important that I stayed close to the boat as the luminous ring of light from the boat extended out only so far. Yet the wind was slamming into my side of the boat with resultant confused seas tempting to stay well off, and being as the current was against the wind the waves were close, short, steep and breaking.

I thought of my days as a competitive surf belt man, noted the water was the warmest all day – guessed 65F and took off. I gained only two breaths in three as the waves would not allow regular breathing. For fifteen minutes I gave it my all and then I was encouraged to see the rubber inflatable dingy being lowered into the water. Next the very illuminated assistant Pilot was seen getting into the dingy. For what seemed like endless minutes he just sat there as I ploughed on occasionally looking up at the Cape and wondering whether I could make it before being swept beyond its tip.

Then the dingy was along side of me and he yelled “stay with me.” As I looked up to the shore the powerful spotlight from the Pilot Boat staying a safe distance off lit up my target area and I went for it again. Then there was a flashing strobe light in my eyes from the inflatable dingy – a signal to stop for instructions. “You have 25 meters to go.” I could not believe it. Just to my left was the Cape and I only had 25 meters to go. I swam on, counting 20 strokes and stood up – no bottom. Then switched to breast stroke and dog paddle fearing swimming headfirst into an unseen rock.

Swam on again and stood once more in waist deep water on a sandy French bottom. I noted how sheltered it was just inside the Cape – big swells lifting me up and down but no whitecaps. I started to walk in and was soon stumbling through seaweed and barnacle encrusted rocks. Fearing cuts, I lay down in the water and dog paddled in. Then the boulders got larger and smoother and then there was one out of the water. If I touched that for all to see in the fiercely intense spotlight, the swim would end. But I swam on through the rocks. I wanted to stand on French soil “with no water beyond.” That soon happened as a large rock with no water beyond seemed to have naturally occurring steps and pieces to grasp. I climbed the rock. Raised my arm and the ship’s horn blared: 13 hours, 25 minutes – we had successfully swum the Channel.

Climbing down off the rock I stuffed four golf ball sized stones into my swim shorts – one for each member of the team as a souvenir. Back to the boat to loud cheers as though I had been the only swimmer.

The trip home was quite rough and everything got drenched, including my bag which contained my cell phone, now destroyed by the salt water. There is a recurring lesson here. It took two-and-a-half hours to get back.

The swim had left the dock at 9:00 am, started right on 10:00am and ended at 11:30 pm. The cruise back got us in at 2:15 am and I hit the sack after a hot bath, a glass of beer and an Ibuprofen at 3:00 am. Reflecting on my two Channel relays over the past 21 years and my doing the landing both times at Cape Gris Nez, and my four solo attempts with two successes: Was this the point to end it all and hang up my shorts?

I look forward now to August 11 when the University of St. Augustine Channel Swimming Relay Team will arrive and I will be the manager and not a swimmer. They go on about August 13 or 14, and I will send a further update then. Continue reading this post...

Swim Cancelled – Weather the Sole Arbitrator – I’m Coming Home

The neap, the phase of the moon that gives low tides and thus low currents, is slipping away and day after day swimmers are waiting to go but the weather does not oblige. The neap ends Friday and after that only strong swimmers can go. There is one ahead of me with my Pilot and no assurances as to when and if he will be able to try. So with a heavy sense of disappointment at not being able to get a second chance I have to recognize that this is Channel swimming and for me it’s over.

My disappointment does not compare with one mature Indian lady whose family scraped up what they could to help her meet her life-long goal – only to have spent a month in Dover unable to get even one swim on the Channel.

However I retreat knowing that I did my best and that even if I had this one last chance there was no guarantee of success. Marathons and triathlons are rarely cancelled but Channel swimming is very weather dependent. I shall not be back again next year, for this level of training I know I cannot maintain. My enthusiasm for one last shot was building during these last few days since I had taken my wife Catherine’s advice to stay out of the water and rest the shoulder – as she correctly stated, “You have done enough training,” and added, “Your last successful swim was after three weeks of rest on medical orders due to the jelly fish tentacle you inhaled.” [I was met by an ambulance following a 14 hour, 10 minute swim and rushed to hospital struggling for each breath].

It’s been a rewarding dedication of time and effort. What began as a private and personal undertaking became a public and professional challenge when I realized the opportunity to raise funds for much needed physical therapy research through the national Foundation for Physical Therapy.

Additionally, my effort has been published in numerous newspapers and a dozen or more magazines and with mention on radio and TV helping to raise the awareness of physical therapy/physiotherapy. For instance I expect to be live on Radio New Zealand tonight. At each opportunity I have stressed that we are the profession of choice for the restoration, maintenance and enhancement of human function. I have stressed that there is no need to slow down at middle age and that in fact by maintaining a fit, healthy and productive lifestyle there is much more that can be enjoyed.

So while swimming across the Channel to become the oldest has not been achieved, perhaps we can say that the effort has been successful. I can also reflect on the fact that I have swam the Channel twice before. And, this year, set a world record as the oldest person to have made the attempt! So I shall try to hide my disappointment and hold my head high.

I do want to send my sincere thanks to all those who wished me well and who have shared this experience with me. I have received numerous emails and best wishes, wonderful quotes and inspirational thoughts, many from people I have never met. I have enough material to write a manual on how to swim the Channel and have been encouraged to do so.

While a solo swim of the Channel is over for me there is a distinct possibility that the University of St. Augustine just might arrive with a relay team in a year or two.

Best wishes,

Stanley V. Paris
Dover, England Continue reading this post...

Weather Outlook Very Negative for Second Attempt

Sunday I poured over the weather charts with Allison Streeter, Queen of the Channel, with 43 swims to her credit and now a Pilot for swimmers. “Its been the worst summer for swims in all 28 years that I have been associated with Channel swimming,” she said to me while looking at the weather charts for this week, and added, “I wont be taking any solos, the winds don’t look like they will be less than 10 to 15 knots (11-17 mph) – might take a relay but not a solo.” [Relay swimmers do an hour a piece and then swim again as their number comes up. Most teams are of six swimmers and so two 1-hour swims are all most relay members need do.] Furthermore, the remnants of Hurricane Hannah will hit England on Wednesday and be here in Dover late in the day. Wednesday was to be - is to be - my day.

Add to that, my bothersome left shoulder took a turn for the worst yesterday. It was rough in the harbor with short steep waves – just like it had been all week - making swimming rather tough and presenting conditions that were they to exist in the Channel most solo swims would not start. I came off a wave and, just as I expected, my troublesome left arm was hit by a very large wave which whipped it back and almost rolled me. The pain was intense and I had to side stroke back to the beach.

Sunday it was relatively calm in the harbor so out I went but ended an hour later as my entire arm was painful and very stiff with more than the usual numbness in the hand and forearm. During the practice I had difficulty in stroke recovery and tried several different methods - varying my roll and muscle recruitment. None helped the condition, as it progressively became stiffer and more painful. So, at 55 minutes I came out, knowing that I just had my last swim between now and the hoped-for possibility of an early start on the Channel this Wednesday. The shoulder must be rested. The cold is no longer a problem. It’s about 63-64 F and I can mostly ignore it – although on exit I shiver for about an hour.

Now of course with the weather forecast deteriorating again and the shoulder not behaving I am a little pessimistic. Of course I will be disappointed if I don’t get a shot at it, but if I do get off the beach I fear what the shoulder will do and that I might not be able to better my last effort of getting just over halfway in 7 hours and 40 minutes. Worst case, I will always know that I have twice previously swum the Channel, and that I was the third-oldest at 49 years to have done so, and now I am the holder of a new record – at 71 the oldest to have tried!

Staying for the next neap in mid-September is not an option as business responsibilities, meetings, and lectures finally call me home by next Saturday.

There will be another update in a day or two.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Yes I Can!

My next and last attempt approximately September 7 to 9.

But first – “burnout” and the “common cold” ...

My post saying I would try again surprised few in anyone at all. However there was another problem, and that was burnout, which is dreaded by all athletes. Less of a problem to the triathlete whose cross-training regime adds variety, but high with swimmers who are very sports specific and cannot change their route, enjoy different scenery and good company as in a run or cycle ride.

The classic signs, which I did not have include: drop-off in performance, disrupted sleep pattern, loss of appetite, muscular soreness, and poor healing of cuts and bruises, poor concentration and thirst. However the classic signs which I did have were a loss of weight (12 lbs), elevated heart rate (resting pulse went from 52 to 62), loss of motivation and finally some depression.

A cut on my finger had healed rapidly but I knew something was wrong when I went for a 2-hour swim and got out at an hour and 50 minutes: As my own trainer I set my schedule in advance and stick to it unless there is a very good reason not to – such as cramps, dangerous boat traffic, etc. I had come by the beach on which my gear bag was waiting at 1:50 of swimming and got out instead of swimming for 5 more minutes and then back again to complete the 2 hours.

The next day it was worse. I scheduled a 3-hour swim and got out at 1 hour! There was no reason to get out except that I could not stand it any longer. My left shoulder was sore and the hand somewhat numb, but that was to be expected and was business as usual and thus did not constitute a reason to quit. I knew I would be extremely upset at myself and have a tough debriefing. But before I quit I had diagnosed the problem and come up with the solution. The problem was Dover, boredom, lack of family and, yes, extreme staleness/burnout.

The solution: I was on the plane the next day to meet my wife Catherine in Boston and celebrate my 71st birthday (August 13). We then drove with our dogs to our vacation home in Maine. Friends and family also arrived. Two days later I completed a 3-hour swim and felt strong. Reconnecting with my values and surrounds was very therapeutic. Several good swims in an Olympic pool followed, allowing me to focus on stroke which had deteriorated a little from all the rough water swimming.

However the chlorine in the pool played havoc with my sinuses and with my throat. I caught a cold. This I treated seriously and laid off for five days. I didn’t do this in January and it had led to pneumonia. Endurance athletes are prone to illness as it’s well recognized that their immune system is low on completion of an extended training session or the actual event. Place them in a chlorinated pool shared by babes with and without diapers and you know that the chlorine level has to be high. Inhaling that air and becoming exhausted with a 5-hour swim session and you can imagine the vulnerability to getting throat and other problems. It’s just not a healthy environment for a fatigued athlete. After the five days I then got back into the pool for 2 hours but the cold and sinus problems were severely aggravated once again.

I did try the local sea waters. In a sheltered bay I found a late day high-tide water (water coming in over sun heated mud flats) at 65 F and ventured forth. As my hand reached down on each stroke I realized that 18 inches down it was close to 60 degrees and soon the water a half-mile out was low 60s and upper 50s. I turned around and headed back completing an hour’s swim. Cold water is difficult but more difficult is water with a variable temperature. It is difficult physiologically and even more so to concentrate on stroke and rhythm. So most of my training has been kayaking and working out on my Total Gym for up to 3 hours a day.

I have found the foods that I need to take during the swim and will take them with me to England as I was unable to find in England the “lactose free 350 calorie, potassium added meal replacement” that I can buy in a CVS pharmacy. By taking bananas before and the meal replacement each hour during the swim I have not had a return of the cramps.

I am the second swimmer with my Pilot in the neap (period of lower tides and hence currents) beginning September 6. Once that swimmer gets a good day and does his swim then it’s my turn. It’s now late in the season and for my Pilot I am his last swimmer. Unfortunately the English summer has not been all that good and my Pilot emailed me that the water temperature in the Channel is now at 17C or 62.6 F. I was hoping for 65 F, which I had 22 years ago – so much for global warming! However it’s better than the 58 F of my last attempt.

I have received many best wishes and much inspiration from family and friends and others whom I have never met. I know this is my last chance. There will not be another year or another swim. It’s now or never. I can do it and you can be sure I will do my very best. However, should I fail there will be no excuses – reasons maybe, but no excuses.

In failure there is no shame. The shame is when you don’t learn from failure and try again.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

To Try Again - September 6

I suppose it was never in doubt, but I needed to listen to my wife and sons and give serious reflection before coming to this decision. Not to try again is just not me. Failure – well I had two failures before I succeeded in 1986, and so one failure now is just that. I know however that the odds remain against a success due principally to age, but that just provides one additional reason for me to succeed.

The weather is warming and so too is the water. Now I must experiment with foods that I can ingest and digest while swimming.

I am certainly rested and motivated. Since the last entry I have flown to Italy, collected my yacht and moved it to Spain near Barcelona via the French Riviera. During the week-long cruise I had plenty of time to make the decision to swim again. This will be my last attempt, thus I shall “take it to the limit one more time.”

This time a few things will be different. It will be low-key. All the publicity that I agreed to for raising the profile of physical therapy and funds for research will be pushed aside. I must focus more and stay centered and not be distracted. Unfortunately I will have no family or friends aboard the escort boat: just the Pilot, his Assistant and two official Observers, since it’s a record I am going for.

So do not expect any further communications of a regular nature. I know you will all wish me well and will have concerns for my health and safety. Know I shall take care.

Training starts tomorrow and I am ready.

Stanley
On Dreadnought V
Tarragona (near Barcelona) Spain

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

News From Dover

First attempt a failure at 7 hours, 40 minutes, and just over half way to France.

My first attempt to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel failed after 7 hours and 40 minutes due principally to incredibly painful cramps of the thighs and from intense nausea and gut pains that limited what I could intake at the hourly feeding. However, I have another date set for September 4. Having invested so much effort in this enterprise, I had booked two dates, but I must now decide to stay here and try again or to toss in the towel.

I could not have asked for a better day weather-wise. The sun occasionally broke through a high cloud cover and, most importantly, the wind was next to calm: swells and gentle waves – no white caps.

I have no excuses, but I experienced several problems.

1. After the first feed stop from a squeezable bottle attached by string to the feeder, I began to experience stomach pains and soon nausea. I was using a highly recommended carbohydrate powder known as Maxim mixed with water or beverages. Most swimmers here use it. I have also, and haven’t found it to be as much of a gut problem as, for instance, Gatorade. Two hours later I couldn’t take much in the way of nutrients, only a third of a banana at one stop. I even tried to throw up but could not. So I began to experience a serious shortage of nutrition.

2. The tidal currents were stronger than expected, even for the first day of the neap. The pilot told Catherine and I after it was over that if we’d had the expected currents I would have been two-thirds of the way across – not halfway. But in my mind I would have had to be at least 7/8 the of the way across to have been able to hold on because of the cramps.

3. The water remained at 58 F (12 C), whereas it should be at 62 F (13.5 C) or higher by this date. However I did use two small tubs (peanut butter jar size) of a mixture of Vaseline and lanoline and entered the water via ladder from the boat carefully for it to chill and set the mixture at which point it turns white. I then swam ashore, exited, collected my thoughts, waved my arms and entered again to start the swim. Within 20 minutes the grease had gone from the anterior arm due to the slapping which occurs as the arm enters the water to begin the pull, and the grease on the thigh, which Catherine had applied very liberally and well, had for the most part gone, leaving several streaks as though I had been scratched by a hand with broad fingernails. So not much for insulation. At my age, men when they gain weight do so on the gut while the limbs remain with little subcutaneous fat. The thighs soon became very cold.

By the fifth hour I was getting cramp first in my left anterior thigh and later in the right. By the sixth hours I was trying to kick away the cramp by flexing fully my knee joints. By the seventh hour I had to stop to pull the heel to the buttock to stretch the anterior thigh but to little lasting help. The pain of the cramp slowed my swim from a steady 48-50 strokes per minute to a low 40. It was clear to all that I was struggling. While only I could feel the pain others could see the struggle and they noticed something else: my lips were very swollen and not of a healthy color, signifying the onset of hypothermia. However I was mentally clear and at my last feed clearly communicated my problems. And I heard their concerns.

At 7 hours, 40 minutes, I was defeated. They put the ladder over the side. I pulled myself clear of the water to mid-thigh testing and showing that my arms were still strong. But my legs were useless on the ladder and so I had to be hoisted the rest of the way by the pilot and assistant.

I, of course, was bitterly disappointed. The family and crew as well as Observer/Referee by contrast could only congratulate me in the circumstances.

Now I must decide whether or not to try again on September 4. For this to be the case the following will need change:

1. The water must warm to at least 62 F

2. I must find foods that I can ingest and digest while swimming

3. It must be an equally calm day

4. I will need to get re-motivated, and at this point that will be very difficult

I am positively exhausted and bored out of my mind by the long hours of swimming. Perhaps I peaked too soon and too often, but to time it again might be too much.

I am the oldest ever to have tried to swim the Channel and would have added some 347 days to the record had I succeeded. Perhaps, however, I will have to decide that the effort was valiant enough – that I have had some success and move on. The Foundation has been helped and the profile of physical therapy hasn’t been harmed.

I shall keep you informed probably two weeks from now. In the meantime again thanks to all of you. Sorry to disappoint but sometimes the impossible might just be that.

P.S. This was written two hours after the swim was over and after a hot bath in dishing washing detergent! Now to sleep.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Days Away: Final Update Before Swim

In all likelihood this will be my last entry before the swim on Saturday, July 26, especially if there are no weather delays. The next update in this space will be from my assistant, Kim Reffner, who will learn the details of the swim from my family on the boat. Once I recover I shall provide an update.

I must now go from the modest where I have been saying “if I succeed” to the confident and arrogant wherein I must believe and say “when I succeed.” Thus there is no point in writing after this, as I shall not in all likelihood be very realistic. I am sure you understand. Any spare time I have will be with family and by myself focusing.

However there are so many people I would like to thank for their interest, support and love as well as, of course, encouragement. Some have said in effect that I have succeeded already in that my efforts and communications have been educational and at times inspiring. Good, for that is the greatest compliment that you can give one who has all their career endeavored to share and educate.

I know I have done all I could in my preparation. I set tough goals and met them all, and at times exceeded them. I trained well and sensibly. Read, studied and listened to others all the time taking responsibility for all my decisions. Now with days to go I must rest, relax and prepare to push my body to its limits. I shall be in the water most days for an hour or so just trying to acquire some more ability to handle the cold. I will walk, sit and think. Then with two days to go my wife Catherine and son Stan will arrive and the next day my oldest son, Alan, and his family. They will understand my mind set – calm and focused – determined. Externally confident and internally resolved – prepared for a 13- to 15-hour swim. The swim is scheduled for a 4:30 am start.

I am pleased with all the publicity that the swim has gained for physical therapy and for the Foundation and its research agenda. Stories in the Los Angeles Times and US News & World Report, as well as several magazines and local newspapers have been gratifying. The night before the swim BBC-TV will have me emerging from the water to do a brief interview. So congratulations to APTA and its staff both in the Foundation and in Public Relations for raising the profile of physical therapy.

Know only that I will do my best. I will get to France or be defeated, but I will not quit.

Thank you one and all.
Stanley V. Paris


Details of the past week follow:

Monday, July 14
I served as an Observer/Referee for an English swimmer, Mark Ranson. We left the dock at 7:30 am and motored to the beach. He left the boat, swam ashore and then re-entered at which time I started the clock and he exited 12 hours and 23 minutes later having swum well through some quite rough conditions. On four occasions he used another swimmer to “pace” him. This, of course, is allowed. I’ll not use a pacer as I think such would be a distraction. We arrived back at the dock at 2:30 am the next day – a long day.

Tuesday, July 15
I went to bed at 5:00 am and arose at 9 for a scheduled “hot stone” massage and then returned to catch up on sleep. I am sleeping well and need at least 9 hours a night. I did a 1-hour swim.

Also worked out in the gym for 2 hours, 30 minutes of which was on the treadmill. I noticed that my aerobic fitness might have dropped. So I am back up at 120 cardio for 20 to 30 minutes. My resting rate is 52 per minute with walking moderately at 80 and swimming at 78. With such cardiac efficiency it’s quite possible for walking and swimming to become rather useless as a form of exercise for cardiac fitness.

Several swimmers here have asked me about swimming offshore in Florida. I have been cautioning them that there are more shark attacks in Florida in any one year than the rest of the world combined. I don’t think I have been believed. But in today’s British national daily, The Times (July 15, pg 19), it reported that in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, which is just south of my St. Augustine home and beach, there have been 12 reported attacks thus far this year. Most of these are on surf boarders for they are out further than most bathers. But guess where a Channel swimmer would be? Right: out further. Without a board and companions, a swimmer could bleed to death or die of shock before getting ashore. So that’s why I went to Bermuda and stayed inside the reefs for my offshore training.

Wednesday, July 16 – 10 Days to Go!
Three-hour swim. Cold was not too bad. Exited without shaking and was quite steady on my feet. Hot bath and a single malt scotch is a just reward!

Thursday, July 17
One-hour swim, two hours in the gym and watched Chariots of Fire for the umpteenth time. A week today, Catherine and son Stan arrive. Stan will wear a wetsuit and serve as a lifeguard for me on the day.

Friday, July 18
Three-hour swim – the last of the long swims. Next week I shall swim 1 hour each day up to Wednesday then cease so as to build enthusiasm for Saturday. Oldest son Alan will arrive in a week along with wife Becky and grandson Tucker. Last time Alan and I were in England it was at Buckingham Palace for him to receive an MBE from the Queen for service to sailing, which included a solo around the world.

Saturday, July 19
One-hour swim, two hours in the gym and a massage. Health is good. The hand still goes numb, but at nearly 3 hours it seems to improve – let’s hope so. Having a little less problem with the cold after the 3 hours yesterday. I was cold to the core but no violent shivers. Let’s hope the Vaseline/lanolin mix works, as I shall apply loads of it – everywhere.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Less than 2 Weeks to Go: Cold Remains the Problem

My left shoulder is now only an occasional problem. I am having it treated every other day and I stretch it out in the gym using weights and pulleys. What does trouble me is my left hand going to sleep and the cold. I get a nerve compression or vascular deficiency to the nerves of the left hand. All seems to go numb and only the tip of the thumb has any sensation. The numbness then spreads up the lateral forearm. It may last or it may lessen, but it doesn’t let up entirely. I try to change a number of aspects about the stroke but cannot be sure what, if anything, works. At worst, I can’t feel the hand and am aware of the fifth finger fluttering as I pull through.

However, the real problem is the cold water. While I finished the 6-hour qualifier last week, I did so in worse condition than anyone else – including, no doubt, some of those who didn’t finish. Even a 1-hour swim will still have me shivering quite violently on exiting. This doesn’t occur with other swimmers nearly to the same degree. I just don’t seem to be acclimatizing/accommodating/adapting to these temperatures. It was not an issue with me 22 years ago, as the video tapes at the conclusion of the successful swim show me talking quite well with no pronounced signs of shivering.

Of course it’s my age and there is little I can do about that. I can only hope that one or more of four factors will eventually work in my favor: 1) that the water warms from its present low 58F (it was 62F when I swam last time); 2) that I shall yet develop some accommodation to the cold; 3) that the grease that I apply on the day will have a beneficial effect and that it stays in place; and 4) that it gets no worse than it was at the 6-hour qualifier and I can hang on for an estimated 15 hours (my previous swims being 12 hours, 59 minutes, and 14 hours, 10 minutes). Fifteen hours is a realistic estimate, as while times range from 9 to 18 hours the average is 12:45.

Details of the past week:

Monday, July 7
Simply took to day off after the 6 hours Sunday. Felt stiff and a little sore around the shoulders but nothing more. I slept a great deal. I am quite elated at qualifying to swim.

Tuesday, July
It’s raining again. I did a 1-hour swim. Had thought I might do 2 hours, but “thinking I might” do 2 hours is not good enough. I have to commit to 2 hours or it doesn’t work.

Wednesday, July 9
It’s blowing a gale again with lots of rain. Visibility is only 200 yards. I did a 2-hour swim, very cold at end.

Thursday, July 10
The first sunny day in a week, but of course it is still cold. Three swimmers have tried in the last two days and all three failed well short of France. Reason: the unusually cold water for this date.

I took the training to become an Observer/Referee for the Channel Swimming Association. They may use me this week or next, but more likely when I return to Dover on August 7. I will have flown to Genoa to take my boat from near there to near Barcelona in Spain. It’s much cheaper to keep the boat in Spain. I swam for 3 hours today. It’s a struggle after the first hour. If I swim faster I can stay warmer, but then at that speed I will not last the 23 miles.

I am getting mixed messages from swimmers on “tapering off” – the process of cutting back on training so as to be fully recovered and ready for the swim.

Friday, July 11
I swam for 1 hour as intended. Tomorrow will go for 4 hours. It was again very cold.

Saturday, July 12
Four hours completed today. Cold, yes, but perhaps I minded it a little less today. And, did you see, Janet Kromley from the Los Angeles Times blogged about my endeavor to swim the Channel and linked to this blog? Check it out.

Sunday, July 13 - 13 days to go
One-hour swim only. Bright and sunny all day – first time yet! I shall be out on the Channel tomorrow as an Observer/Referee of another swim. It will be a good experience.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations online or by phone at 800-875-1378.

All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

For more information, see www.apta.org/parisswim.


My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

3 Weeks to Go: I’m Qualified!

The big news is that Sunday, July 6, I completed the 6-hour compulsory Qualifying Swim after just six days in the cold water.

I have been having difficulty with the cold water during this first week as the diary for the week appended below will tell, should you care to read. Two hours was my maximum before I would stiffen and experience great pain principally in the legs. Saturday, July 5, I watched some 40 would-be relay swimmers attempt their 2-hour qualifying swim (most succeeded as they have been coming down for the past few weekends, and some 25 would-be Channel swimmers kept going for the 6-hour qualifier). Most, it seems, didn’t make it.

Sunday, the same event but on a smaller scale was repeated. I decided to be part of it, although a full week or two ahead of my schedule to do so. The weather started well but the winds picked up by the third hour to cause white caps which by the fifth hour became at times horizontal sheets of water. I stopped at the third hour for refreshments. This was provided by volunteers as the swimmers come into the steep and pebbly beach on hands and knees. One official, noticing that I was shaking and already alerted to my age (they all know I am the oldest to attempt a swim), asked me if I was okay and needed to stop. He then advised me to swim close to the beach just in case. But close was rougher with breaking waves as seen at most beaches, so I stayed offshore. I came in at the end of the fourth hour, fed (warm carbohydrate-laced water and a chocolate Mars-like bar) and was no better. My condition was worse. When I tried speaking I found it difficult and so decided not to come in again in case they made me stop.

Getting to the fifth hour was hell with the cold and the weather. It was raining and now blowing a gale. But this can happen during a Channel swim, so I pushed on. I was taking too many mouthfuls of water. If a wave breaks into an open mouth in the process of taking a breath, a half pint or more of salt water will force its way down the throat – no swallowing needed. Swimming into the wind I would get two breaths out of three. Going down wind on the return leg, I would roll, pitch and yaw. On the Channel my escort boat will endeavor to shelter me from the worst of it. But I held on using every physical and mental trick in the book. One was the certain knowledge that if I succeeded I would not have to do this again. The second was that I would reward myself with an easier training week next week, and the third was the most important reason ...

This was my chance to prove something to myself and others. Ever since I began this quest I, and no doubt many others, have legitimately questioned my ability and perhaps thought that I was some old chap living an impossible fantasy to draw attention to himself and to raise money for APTA’s Foundation. Aware of such a possibility I trained harder and more scientifically than ever before. I listened to my body signals and modified my training as experience was accumulated – I am after all my own coach and trainer – not something I would recommend to others. But what if I did a Channel swim and failed? What would I and others think? Well now I am “qualified” by Channel swimming standards to swim the Channel. Of course, less than half of those that qualify get across. But from now on my effort is wholly legitimate and in my mind not a hopeless dream but a real possibility. Furthermore, it was colder and rougher than usual and while some swimmers used insulating grease I did not use any. The details of the week’s progress, if interested, is below.


Monday, June 30 (26 days to go)
I arrived at Gatwick, London, at 6:30 am from Bermuda. Via rental car, I was in Dover at my hotel by 9:00 am and spent the day getting settled in. Did a 45-minute swim in 58F (14C). The cold made me feel quite stiff. I shivered on exiting, but only for 10 minutes.

After the swim I visited the waterfront bust of Capt. Mathew Webb, the first person to have swum the English Channel way back in 1875. It took 30 years and 30 more attempts before the second swimmer got across.

In the late afternoon I directed an amphibious car/boat as to where they should exit the harbor avoiding shoals and onto a firm beach. They are a Swiss outfit with an American and a New Zealander in the support team and will try to break the cross Channel amphibious record tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 1
Met all kinds of swimmers and teams on the beach today. There was the Cambridge and Oxford relay teams that will race tomorrow – three women and three men in each team. I also spent some time with an old friend, Allison Streeter, who is the “Queen” of the Channel, having swum it more times than anyone else – 43 times! I asked her what she thinks about during all her long swims. “After the second hour nothing” was her reply. Her favorite word is “fantastic.” Wish I could consciously think of nothing. That would be “fantastic.” I have run out of things to think about.

The amphibious team broke the record formerly held by Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines) by 40 minutes. Incidentally, Catherine and I were in Plymouth in 1986 when Sir Richard broke the cross Atlantic speed record in the Blue Riband. We had arrived from America the day before him on our sailboat Dreadnought III.

I had two swims today. The first of 45 minutes went well. The second, later in the day, of 1 hour caused me to feel very stiff and as though I was fighting myself – especially the left arm. After the swim I shivered for 45 minutes. Trying to tear open a packet of sugar to add to a cup of tea, the sugar was scattered everywhere except into the cup!

Wednesday, July 2
The temperature is the challenge. You will recall that almost a year ago I began in the gym. Then I trained up in fresh water doing two 8-hour swims. Then I adjusted to the sea water with a 7-hour swim. Now it’s all about the cold. My age does not help. It’s known that older people have this problem with blood circulation and the cold. (After all, it’s older men who use Viagra! No – Viagra will not help a swim and in fact would work against it). Twenty-two years ago the cold was a factor when I last swam successfully but now it’s the main problem. Can I acclimatize?

I worked out stretching in the health club in the early morning. I scheduled 2-hour and 2-hour swims, but could not make it. Lasted 1:30 on the first. Felt great at 30 minutes but by 35 minutes the shivers started and by 1 hour it was a painful struggle with stiff muscles and aching jaw. Thawed out quickly in a hot bath. Later in the day went in for an hour – not to swim but just to help acclimatize/condition to the cold. I walked around at neck high water exercising my arm rotators. Again the same story: shivered for an hour afterwards. I had a massage session principally on my back and left shoulder. The young lady at the hotel's health club has excellent hands and can find the tight and tender areas.

Thursday, July 3
Gym again, weight 190 lbs. (13 stone, 7 lbs). Completed a 2-hour and a 1-hour swim today. Tomorrow I plan a 3- or 4-hour swim. Part of my mental training has to been to post at least two weeks in advance what it is I intend to do. There has been a lot of learning and thus to have a fixed schedule set months ahead would not accommodate to that learning. But at the same time I can’t enter the water and then decide when it’s time to quit. I have to decide days in advance and then to see if I can reach or exceed the goal.

Friday, July 4 – Happy Independence Day, America (Not celebrated here in England!)
Having a little upset tummy again and so left the swim till mid-afternoon whereupon I did the 3 hours as scheduled. I have brought some dishware and some oatmeal that I can make with hot water, which along with fruit will allow me to have a breakfast closer to that to which I am accustomed. These English breakfasts with their sausages, bacon, eggs, tomatoes and fried breads leave me too heavy.

Saturday, July 5
On the beach at 9 am. Channel swimmers from all over UK, relays and solos come for their training. They have been doing this each Saturday and Sunday for the last six weeks. At first they swam just half an hour twice a day and now several hours each of the two-day weekend. These are called “Qualifying Swims” and a certificate is issued on a successful completion. By my schedule I am not yet ready, having great difficulty in breaking the 3-hour mark. But tomorrow I shall try. Everyone has been most encouraging. They know I am after the record for the oldest and wish me well.

I didn’t swim today. Rested, hiked up a hill and through the countryside and carbo loaded with a spaghetti dinner and bread. I was interviewed for a swimming historians tape recorded at the Hubert House.

Sunday, July 6 (20 days to go)
Awoke at 6:30 am, carbo loaded with Oatabix (new cousin of Wheatibix) and went to the beach for the 6-hour swim

Details of the swim are above. Sufficient here to say it was a success! I will sleep well tonight and late tomorrow morning – and enjoy an English breakfast.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

4 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Spirits High! Biggest Weeks Yet!

I have arrived in Dover, England. Later today I will enter the water for a quiet frolic in water 58 degrees Fahrenheit! Acclimatizing to the cold water is now priority No. 1.

Training: I did 19 hours swimming this week in the open ocean in Bermuda. Over the last seven days I swam 5, 0, 2, 5, 0, 0, and 7 hours for a total of 19 hours! This was my second week in the ocean.

Health: Left shoulder continues to bother, but not as much as a month ago and mostly after a swim when it aches and throbs. It really did not interfere with the 7-hour swim. However, the right arm is my strong arm and is totally trouble free.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: Observations on Carbo Loading and Nutrition

Sunday’s 7-hour ocean swim was a triumph for several reasons. The first is that it was conducted against a stiff chop and in warm waters of 78F and with the sun beating down. Regardless, I finished quite strong and walked out quite steady. Secondly, I decided not to take any nutrition during the swim and stopped only twice, just for water. This was on the theory that it is important that the body's physiology learn to break down my fat reserves for energy.

As most readers will know, with prolonged exercise the blood glycogen drops and "hitting the wall" is approached (at about 18 miles for a marathon runner and at about 5 hours in a distance swimmer). Given this reality, it’s important to train the body's physiology to recognize the need to start breaking down fat into glycogen before the "wall" is reached. By going 7 hours without nutrition I must surely have used up all my glycogen stores and began to break down my fat.

The third reason that I consider the 7-hour swim a triumph is that I had a successful experiment with carbo loading by having a good meal the night before then drinking 1400 calories before going to bed and then, after an oatmeal breakfast, another 1400 calories. In the past, taking on such a load has left me bloated and feeling ill at ease. However, using an over the counter digestive enzyme that seems to work for me, I didn’t feel bloated and any later burping carried no traces of the ingested foods/liquids, thus indicating that I was digesting it quite well. This has been a problem for me in the past where I can feel liquids sloshing around in my stomach for hours.

Of course during "the swim" I shall start taking food and water from the second hour on.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

5 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: I’m now ocean training in Bermuda. I swim offshore sometimes with Catherine in a kayak but at other times by myself. Regardless, I tow a bright orange kiddies’ floatation ring. This is in case of cramps, etc. However today, I tied water and food to it and set out alone for 5 hours.

This week I did swims of 2 hours, 2.5 hours, 4 hours and, today, 5 hours. While that looks good, it’s not good enough. I had hoped to do 6 hours today.

Health: The left shoulder is a problem again, now hurting during the swim as well as after. Catherine is treating it, and it helps, but the hours in the water set it back each day.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: Ocean Swimming Isn't Pool Swimming

I never thought I would miss the dotted line on the bottom of the pool. Without it I swim way off course. Getting better and on the day I will have a boat alongside. What's different is the buoyancy which has improved. But what isn’t so good is the density and the waves. The density is a minimal factor, but I can feel more resistance to forward progress from the denser salty water.

It’s the waves, and especially today the waves were high enough to produce white caps. Going with the waves is not so bad but swimming across them causes much rolling. Swimming into them is like swimming uphill. I have a month and four days to get used to the new environment. Would have to guess, but it seems that open water swimming is 20 percent more effort than pool swimming.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

6 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: I have had a good rest of late (from the hot waters in Florida which reached 92F in my pool) and having been in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and San Antonio, Texas – both for professional meetings. Today, Tuesday, I leave for Bermuda where I shall start offshore swimming in water temperatures around 80F. Then on July 1 it’s to England where the temperature in Dover Harbor is presently 58F. Twenty-six days later on July 26 I have my swim. I'm getting excited. The long months of training are about to be tested.

Health: Excellent.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

My Colleagues are Overwhelming in Their Support

Both in Rotterdam at the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy and more especially at San Antonio for the American Physical Therapy Association's Annual Conference, the support and best wishes for my swim is truly overwhelming. On being introduced at the Foundation for Physical Therapy banquet in San Antonio, the audience came to their feet. I was immediately struck with just how much my colleagues are supporting both financially and, in this case, emotionally my attempt to become the oldest to have swum the Channel. Yes it increases the pressure on me, but I know I have their utmost best wishes and I am sure that will have a positive effect.

During my brief response I made it clear that it was not about Stanley Paris swimming the Channel, but about physical therapist Stanley Paris using his lifetime of experiences in the restoration, maintenance, and enhancement of the physical functioning to swim the Channel.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: Basal Metabolic Rate

Recently I wrote of converting fat to heat and energy and not relying on the food I ingest as it cannot possibly provide the 650 to 900 calories I will require each hour. The basic metabolic rate (BMR) is that which is acting when we are asleep or resting and serves to keep the body at 98F degrees even in a cool 70F degree room. If the BMR is insufficient to provide heat we will start to shiver which recruits the muscles in rapid spasm to generate heat. Older people with insufficient muscle mass can actually die of hypothermia in a 65F room.

I have practiced raising my basic metabolic rate during the past year by not wearing more clothing than I need, by sleeping on top of the bedding and by trying to spend time in cold water. In January I had lobar pneumonia from such behaviors and lost three weeks from swimming. In 1986 I spent an average of four hours in 62-degree water each day for several weeks. After the third week it was obvious that my basal metabolic rate had increased for I felt hot and sweaty even when in an adequately air-conditioned movie theatre. This was a good thing as it showed that my training had reached another level.

Next month when I arrive in England, I will spend time twice each day in the water, even if I am not swimming (remember I swim for the most part only on alternate days). Just sitting in those sub-60F temperatures and not generating any heat through exercise should bring on the shivers and tell my body to raise the BMR. I will monitor the time it takes for shivering to start and measure my core temperature and take my temperature at intervals. Over the month it should take longer to shiver as my BMR increases and the core temperature will drop less. Fun, eh!

During the Channel swim I hope not to shiver, for shivering consumes a great deal of energy. If those shivers get violent and then cease I will be in serious hypothermia (95F and below) and unfortunately unaware of my serious situation and may actually feel warm and will have lost some motor and mental function. Some people who become lost and are found dead in winter conditions have been observed to have removed their outer clothing in their final minutes. My pilot will periodically test me with simple math. If he holds up two finger of one hand and one finger of another I have to show him three fingers.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

7 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: With flying to Rotterdam for three days and Texas for another four (professional meetings) I have taken a week off from swimming. It’s just not possible to find a place to swim for three or more hours and still attend the conference.

Health: Excellent. The left shoulder and arm still hurt at times and I am convinced it is a lazy arm reusing more discipline than the right arm!

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: Facing Failure

This is the last time I wish to talk about failure. I am wise enough to appreciate that every athlete, marathon runner or Channel swimmer has had a “bad day” or developed a race canceling injury. I know this and so must the readers. I also know that I must put failure out of my daily thinking. That said, let us take a look at it and then put it to rest.

Not to be a defeatist, a reality-check states that historically most swims fail. That said, in 2006 there was almost an 80% success rate! Best ever by far, no doubt due to the 6-hour cold water qualifying swim that is now required by the CSA. Historically there have been more than 5,000 attempts and less than 800 individual successes. Clearly most swims have failed.

Chris Stockdale, long time physician to the Channel Swimming Association (CSA), writes in the CSA Handbook that “I have always believed that the swimmer who stands with apprehensive anticipation on the Shakespeare Beach and waits to attempt his Channel crossing has already succeeded,” nice guy.

The causes of failure are many. Perhaps we should not use the word failure and replace it with the word “incomplete,” for I had two incompletes before a success. Thomas Edison, in trying to find the answer to making the first light bulb, conducted experiment after experiment. He was once asked, “How many failures have you had?” to which he replied, “I have none – but I have found 212 ways how not to do it.”

Failure is rarely from one cause, although the observer may note the most obvious – hypothermia, fatigue, cramps of the gut or extremities, sea sickness and vomiting from the ocean motion or ingesting salt water, adverse weather, jellyfish or loss of desire to go on. Failure comes from a combination of factors most of which are, in this author’s opinion, emotional more than physical.

My first two failures were from my mistakes. I did not have a manager on board. All were great friends but inexperienced and none had the ability, or knowledge to be a manager and therefore I was managing myself from the water – not very smart for an inexperienced and would be Channel swimmer.

When I decided to swim the Channel again in 2008 and to become the oldest it was at first a very private decision. However the Foundation for Physical Therapy saw it as an opportunity to raise needed research dollars and the American Physical Therapy Association working through the media saw it as an opportunity to promote physical therapy. This has brought forth a great deal of attention with the print press and now talks of TV. I am doing what I can to not allow this to bring more pressure on me assuring my wife Catherine that it could not be more than I am bringing upon myself. However I have come to realize something else – while the swim may be personal, a failure will now be very public.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
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8 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: My salt water swimming pool here in Florida is now at 89F and exhausting – hard to lose heat. I did 4-hour, 4-hour, and 3-hour swims for total of 11 hours this week. I did plan a big swim next week but the heat is against it. I can’t swim during the day as the sun makes it hotter and I choose not to do open water at night as there are either too many obstructions in the canals or too many shark attacks – especially at dusk and dark. There are in fact more shark attacks in Florida each year than the rest of the world combined. Most are minor – they are not from the awesome great whites that gain attention in Australia, but nonetheless there is the occasional loss of limb and life.

Health: Excellent!

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Topic: Checklist for Success

Here is what it will take to successfully swim the Channel:

1. I need to raise my basic metabolic rate (BMR). This basic rate of metabolism is what keeps you warm, at 98.8F when sitting in a room at 70F. The heat comes from digestion and the breaking down of fats and glucose in the bloodstream. I shall achieve this by swimming or sitting in the cold Channel for increasing periods each day beginning July 1 (swim date is July 26). I will know when I have raised my rate, for if the past is any record I shall be sweating most of the day, even in a movie house. It will be important to be in the cold water at different times each day.

2. I must learn what foods and liquids I can ingest and digest at regular intervals during the swim. I shall be burning up some 700 calories an hour and at the most I shall be able to take in some 200 calories an hour. The shortfall will come from my blood sugars (glucose) that are normal and from the carbohydrate loading that I will have done starting two days earlier. The rest will be from cannibalizing my own fat storage. So far I have not found which foods I can keep taking hour after hour without getting an upset stomach. There will be different options in England.

3. Develop the physical endurance to go the 13+ hours. This I feel I have done and it’s been accomplished in the gymnasium and the pool. My two 8-hour swims ended with my feeling I could have gone 13 if the need were there – had France been in sight.

4. Maintain emotional stability so that nothing distracts or disturbs me and that when I seem to be running out of energy I will be able to reach down, deep down, for my inner strengths. Strengths from past experience, family events, etc.

5. Maintain mental focus on the goal allowing nothing to have me think that anything less than getting across is acceptable.

6. Have a well prepared team on board the escort boat that will guide me well, cheer me on, not allow me to quit, feed me promptly on the hour, be able to haul me out if need be for I will not be quitting. I shall either get to France or be hauled out – there is no alternative now.

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9 Weeks to Go: Training and Health Update

Training: Logged another 8-hour swim two days ago and for the week will have done 4-, 3-, 8-, and 3-hour swims for a total of 18 hours! Next week I ease off and then one more big week before I head to ocean waters in Bermuda where I will be staying with my oldest son and his family. There I shall experience the increased buoyancy and somewhat cooler waters.

Health: With health being both physical and mental I am feeling better mentally. I now believe I peaked too soon when a month ago I did an 8-hour swim. Then I had a low month where there was no urgency to improve. But now with time running out I think I can feel the urgency and a sense that the juices just might be beginning to flow. So this week I did my biggest week yet.

I still have not found what foods and liquids settle best in my stomach and provide the energy I need. I was quite tired at the end of 8 hours – more than I wished to be.

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Topic: Emotional vs. Mental

A reader asks: "Emotional and Mental – How to separate these two challenges? ... I think I understand the physical – how do you see the difference between emotional and physical?"

Great question, I am sure the two overlap at times, but I also think that physical exhaustion is largely emotional. Here is how I see the difference in the three, and clearly there is an overlap.

Emotions can be negative and positive. Positive include feelings of love, caring, happiness, excitement, pumped-up, etc. Negative emotions, which overwhelmed me in my failed 1983 swim, include anger, depression, frustration, rage and loneliness. There were reasons, such as the boat striking me twice, the food being too hot and scalding – reasons that I allowed to become excuses.

Combined with those negative emotions, when the Pilot informed me that “you are doing well – the other five swimmers have all quit,” I prematurely lost it mentally. I forgot why I was there: not to beat the others but to get across. I then thought my family would be proud of me having done so well in such a stormy day. I had lost focus – lost it mentally and signaled that I would quit and did so. It was not until I was walking up the ladder, unaided with good strength and balance that I realized that I should not have quit. I had swum 18 miles and only had 5 to go. But no one was experienced enough to yell at me to continue – to break me from my emotional and mental state.

But physical is also largely emotional. Research has shown that an athlete can be totally exhausted in an endurance event yet the taking of sugar immediately makes them feel better and off they go again. Just the pleasure of the candy, before it can have any real effect to provide energy, gives a sense of well being that may overcome the perceived exhaustion. Ultra marathon man Dean Karnazes was 10 miles from the finish of a 200-mile running marathon. Down on his knees and crawling he was convinced he could not go on. A friend arrived and chided him. Then he recalled his sister and her premature death. With those two events in his mind he stood up ran the 10 miles with the last mile faster than any of the others. I will remember this when I feel like quitting.

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10 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: Logged 2-, 3- and 4-hour swims for total of 9 hours plus another 6 hours over 3 days in the gym. May not seem like much, but it does not leave a lot of time for much else. The next 2 weeks will be quite a step up before I travel again to Europe and Texas. Then it’s off to Bermuda for open water sea swims. Must admit to being a bit stale at present, but I hope that the nearness of the event will soon kick in and my enthusiasm will build again.

Health: The left shoulder is fine though a little tight on the overhead end feel. The hand numbness has gone and I speculate that it may be because of one of the treatments I had — stretching long head of biceps and the manipulation of left rotation to the upper thoracic spine (left rotation of the upper thoracic spine is a component of left overhead arm elevation), or the fact that over time the vascular supply to the nerves has adapted (found alternative pathways) and as a result the neurovascular paresthesias have disappeared.

No way of knowing, and that's the way it is with so much that we do in physical therapy. Most patients/clients have multiple dysfunctions that could be contributing, adding up to the clinical picture. We can’t just isolate one possibility and treat just that possibility for we know we will more likely see improvement if we treat all detectable dysfunction that may in sum contribute to the clinical symptoms. So when relief occurs, as it seems to have done so in my case, which treatment and to which structure was effective – or was it all dysfunctions and all treatments that in sum gained the result? We'll never know.

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Topic: “Is stroke speed relevant?”

A reader asks: "If one is not trying to break a speed record, how important is pace in the event? Is there a point at which swimmers generally feel that the body will give out if they do not hit the other end of the beach at a certain time, or does the range of times vary based on the swimmer and his or her body, training, comfort level, etc.?”

Swimming pace or speed is very individual. Some swimmers actually have another person swimming alongside to pace them every other hour. To me this should not be allowed, but then I am a traditionalist. A measure of speed is the stroke speed, usually from 50 to 70 a minute. The Observer/Referee carefully notes the rate every hour and records it for the record. Most swimmers start out a little fast but by the second hour they settle into their best rate. The first sign that a swimmer might be failing is that they take too long at food breaks – two or three minutes instead of one minute. Then the stroke rate falls off. Next, if hypothermia rather than physical exhaustion is the problem, they can’t answer simple questions that they should know the answer to.

Generally speaking, the faster the stroke rates usually the faster the swimmer. But in my case I have one of the slowest rates yet have an average time. In addition I do not use my legs and thus I feel my arm stroke is very efficient. In 2006 the average time to cross the Channel was 13 hours and 21 minutes. My two times were 12:59 and 14:10 – quite average. Of interest should be the fact that world renowned adventurer Steve Fossett, who was recently declared dead after disappearing in his light plane possibly in Nevada, swam the English Channel in 22:15 on his fourth attempt – the ninth longest in Channel history. Fossett was, I believe, the second person to complete both the Ironman in Hawaii and the Channel – I was the first.

With all of the above said, there are times when a swimmer needs to change the pace. You may have to stop and tread water to allow a ship to pass. But you might also be told that you have to hold off for 5 hours for the tide to change. In 1986 I was given exactly that statement, with the option of sprinting 30 minutes to cross the current. I chose to sprint and succeeded. Once across the current, I rested by floating and then swam the last mile at an easy and celebratory pace.

As to the body giving out or "hitting the wall," as in running at say 18 miles, the wall in swimming is at about 5 hours when blood glycogen has been depleted. One way that is recommended to educate the swimmer's physiology to break down and cannibalize their own fat and thus to avoid hitting the wall is to do several 6 hour swims without food – only water. That I plan to do.

There is something to be said for swimming slowly. Just as in cycling, if you double the speed you quadruple the resistance (air in cycling, water in swimming) and thus burn off needed energy. However going slowly without effort will not generate sufficient heat and so over time the core body temperature will drop and hypothermia will take over causing the swimmer to become confused and the swim to be cancelled.

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11 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

The Final Stretch!

Training: After almost three weeks off – traveling to New Zealand and hiking on the Appalachian Trail with my wife – I am back to it again with only one more break next month when I travel to Europe for three days and San Antonio for four days. These breaks are fine at this stage and probably good both mentally and physically.

This week a 1-hour swim, followed by a 2- and a 3-hour and finally a 3.5-hour swim (it was meant to be longer but smoke from a nearby forest fire hung over the pool and was quite nauseating). While the water temperature here in St. Augustine hovers at around 83 degrees, at least the air is cooler and the sun is not beating down on me when I swim at night. Sunscreen does not last for 8 hours in water and I am concerned about too much exposure. Last week the temperature in the English Channel reached 48 degrees Fahrenheit!

I will now be swimming every other day, with perhaps a 1-hour swim on the day following a long swim just to flush out the muscles and to focus on style. On the "day off" between swims I will be spending 3 hours in the gym doing weights, aerobics and stretching.

Health: Excellent. Sinus continues and the left shoulder has a minimal degree of discomfort not lasting for more than a few hours after a swim.

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Topic: Expertise & The Channel Swimmer

A friend asks: “Does one have to be an expert swimmer who has been swimming his entire life – on the swim team in high school, a natural in the water, etc. – to complete this event? Or can an average swimmer with appropriate dedication, eating, training, etc., have a reasonably sound chance of completing it?”

This is an excellent question and one that many would-be Channel swimmers must contemplate. Of course, most of those who have swum the Channel have been life-long swimmers. Swimming is not natural. Walking and running are natural motions and rarely do we alter the way a healthy person walks or runs – each has their own style. But swimming beyond something as primitive as a “dog paddle stoke” or simply treading the water has to be instructed. Thus the sooner you learn the strokes the sooner they become patterned in the brain – namely the motor cortex.

That said, I am sure that if you are of average health and fitness and dedicate yourself to a physical goal such as running a marathon (and there are many examples of this) or swimming the Channel it can be done. However your chances are less as you get older and also less if you are of a very slim build. You will need body fat in the range of 15 % or more if a male. Women usually have an advantage in that their body fat is closer to 20% and it is distributed more evenly throughout the body and not just on the pot as with many middle aged men.

I have swum all my life – on and off. This year I didn’t start until January, after spending 4 months in the gym. Then in April, just 4 months later, I think I might have peaked with that 8-hour swim. This concerns me – not that I managed a commendable 8 hours but that I might have peaked too soon. Now, I must try to hold the condition hoping my anatomy stands up to the stress. I shall try to peak again at the end of June just before I depart for England. I mention this because I don't think anyone who hasn’t been a swimmer all their life could possibly peak in 4 months – they would surely take longer; I would recommend a year – but I will inquire of those I meet in England this July/August/September about what is known in Dover.

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12 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: Pace to pickup! The past three weeks have seen me traveling to and from New Zealand and then hiking on the Appalachian Trail with my wife to support her goal as a section hiker to complete the 2000-plus miles effort over the next few years. I am what is called "trail magic," in that I drop her off each day, drive to the pickup point and then hike in to meet her. Clearly we support one another.

Twelve weeks to go! The 3-week rest from swimming will have set me back a little but then again I am fully recovered from the 8-hour swim I did, and my mental edge has sharpened. Thus, with only 12 weeks to go, I can truly focus and place the swimming as priority number one.

Health: Excellent. I have only two fears. The first is the left shoulder. I must be careful to nurse what is termed a "swimmer’s shoulder," a condition wherein the arm as it comes over during the recovery rubs up under an arch of bone and ligaments known as the sub acromial arch. Swimming at 52 strokes a minute for 13 hours means my arms will come over 40,560 times during the estimated 13-hour swim to cover those 23 miles!

My second fear is the cold. The mind-numbing and body-chilling 56 to 64 degrees is what stops most swimmers. The cold can cause the body temperature to drop to where hypothermia causes mental confusion and even, on occasion, death. Unfortunately, my pool in Florida, which has served me well when the temperatures were in the 60s and low 70s, is now at 82 degrees and that does not help in my acclimatizing to the colder waters of the Channel.

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Topic: Hair & “Channel Grease”

A reader asks: “Speed swimmers shave their heads and bodies for maximum speed. Do you do this as well? What is the thought behind whatever it is that you do with hair on the head, body, etc.?”

I don't shave my chest because I have no hair on it. My legs and arms have a moderate covering, but they aren’t shaven either. The purpose of shaving is debatable but sprint swimmers report that shaving adds to the proprioceptive awareness of the skin (neurological input) and thus might assist in some way by increasing their sensitivity to their environment. Regardless it's a night-before ritual for many sprint swimmers. Channel swimmers would wish that they receive no neurological input at all, for the water is cold. Whales are fortunate in that their skin has scant innervation and so they don't feel the cold nor the barnacles that grow on their skin.

Instead, Channel swimmers, fighting off 56 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit, place grease on the body. "Channel grease," as it is called, is a mixture of Vaseline and lanoline. It initially keeps the cold water off the body but soon, of course, cools to the water temperature and thus cools by conduction. However, it still works to reduce the major source of cooling, and that is by convection cooling, as cold water continually streams over the body as the swimmer advances.

Unfortunately the Channel grease also lumps and creates drag and that of course is not good and is why some swimmers use little of it. I will place the grease under my cap and on my hands and soles of my feet. Most swimmers do not place it on their hands and feet, yet these areas are each responsible for some 10% of heat loss. The other area to place fat is under the cap, for the head looses some 20% of body heat.

I have not cut my hair since last August and will not do so until the swim is finished, as extra hair with added grease makes for better insulation under the non-insulating approved thickness bathing cap. Then I place fat on the margins of my swim shorts as the friction between the shorts and the skin can cause bleeding over time. Some swimmers have even experienced bleeding from the skin folds in their neck! Females whose swim suit may have shoulder straps (many use a two-piece and remove the top piece once in the water) will place grease under their straps and margins of the top piece. Any grease remaining from the standard tub, I place under my shorts for adder flotation.

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13 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: I returned from New Zealand Friday and so put in a 1-hour swim on Saturday and a 3-hour swim on Sunday. Now I'm off for a week, hiking on the Appalachian Trail with my wife. I might not get in a swim, but when I return it’s nothing but training for the final 12 weeks.

Health: Excellent

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Topic: “What stroke do you swim?”

The Channel has been swum with every stroke. The first across was Captain Mathew Webb, in 1875, swimming the breaststroke. Then others have done side stroke. Backstroke is used by quite a few and one person has done it butterfly! However, most swimmers use the crawl. Freestyle is often confused with the crawl. A freestyle race means any stroke can be used, but since crawl is fastest all freestyle swimmers use crawl.

Crawl is not only fast but energy-efficient as compared to the other strokes, especially butterfly. When sprinting, crawl swimmers use both the arms and legs, however the legs use a good deal of energy and are not as efficient as the arms for forward propulsion, so most long-distance swimmers do not display a strong leg kick. I have never had a very good leg kick and have thus focused entirely on my arms. My legs just trail behind me with barely a movement and certainly nothing that would add to forward propulsion.

It might be an advantage in that I conserve energy for my arms and that I don’t draw more than a minimal amount of blood into the legs and thus I am less likely to lower my core body temperature. We all know the quickest way to cool a bottle of wine is to wave it around in cold water – so I keep my legs quite still. By “core temperature,” I mean the lungs, heart and brain. That said, core temperature is for practical reasons measured with a rectal thermometer. Anything below 93.5 degrees is serious. I will be taking measurements in England to see how rapidly my core drops and how with acclimatization it drops more slowly. My sole source for heat production will be the basal metabolic rate and that produced by my shoulder and respiratory muscles.

I do believe I have a somewhat of a unique crawl stroke. Briefly stated, my swim time to cross the Channel is just 45 minutes slower than the average but my arm stroke rate of 52 strokes per minute is well below the average successful swimmer of 66 strokes per minute, and given that I do not use my legs I am surely exhibiting a very efficient stroke. In 1987, the year in which the Channel Swimming Association opened their books for me to research, there were 27 successes and 67 failures. Average time of a successful swim was 12:15 (hours: minutes), ranging from 7:10 to 15:14. Average time to failure of an unsuccessful swim was 7:10, ranging from 1:07 to 17:00. Stroke rate of successful swimmers ranged from 55 to 77, with an average of 66 – mine again slower than all of the above at 52.

Here is what my arms do: As my arm comes over head in the recovery, it is in a swing motion more than the usual elbows-high technique. Just before hand entry I pronate the forearm (turn it in) so that the hand cuts in at 45 degrees. Then I stretch out as if reaching for the end of the pool, to increase my body length (long vessels are faster in water than short vessels). Then the wrist flexes and begins the pull, which is initially down and out, then in and back (sculling) before being thrown up, out, and over to reenter again. I breathe only on the right side – a motor pattern I cannot break. Consequently I roll to the right to breathe and I get my breath below the water line in the trough created by the forward motion of my head. To lessen the strain on the left shoulder I roll sharply to the left to help it during its recovery phase.

Incidentally, even at 52 strokes per minute a 13-hour swim will require that my arms come over head – 40,560 times!

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14 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: Excellent until a 1-hour swim in Dunedin, New Zealand, at a pool where once again the chlorine was too high for me and my sinus reacted badly. Thus I have not been swimming and probably will not until my return to the USA next week. The rest from swimming does not concern me as I did an 8-hour swim last week placing me well ahead of schedule. There is a great deal of press interest in my swim: two newspapers and three magazines to date, so I have been posing in the pool and on the beach. This is my home town.

Health: Excellent apart from the sinus, which closes my nostrils entirely and leaves only my mouth for breathing. My pool at home is salt water and no problem. Lakes, rivers, and the ocean are fine, but it’s too cold here now for that.

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Topic: Eating & Drinking During a Swim

A reader asks: “What do you eat and drink during a swim? How often, and how do you physically eat?”

Eating while swimming is an art in search of a science. By this I mean that it’s very difficult to consume calories while treading water or floating on the back. It’s also difficult to keep the food down and to know how much to ingest and what foods will be best for the individual swimmer. It’s very individual and it’s one area that swimmers give too little thought and preparation to. As a consequence, many experience sea sickness and lose much of what they take in.

First, before the swim, consideration should be given to carbohydrate loading and hydration. Swimmers usually eat/drink every hour during the swim. Sometimes they miss the first hour and start at the end of the second hour. The food and fluids are given to them in a variety of ways. It is legal to pass it to them, such as a banana or a bottle of fluid, but they cannot hang on to the boat during the pass. Others have the food literally thrown at them in the likes of Tupperware or plastic bottles attached by strings so that the containers can be retrieved. It’s not permissible to touch the boat, except to push off with flat hands or feet. During feeding the boat is stopped and a wind can blow it sideways onto the swimmer.

I shall use a swimming pool leaf cleaner, which can be extended to me on a pole and which will contain some three or four items from which I can select. The items will be water, carbohydrate drink, flat Coke and possibly mashed bananas. Each item will be attached by string to the pole and will have positive buoyancy. I will eat and drink when I wish, not every hour as is routine.

In 1986 I consumed bananas, several varieties of baby food, including apple sauce and, of course, water. Nowadays sports drinks abound and there are nutrient drinks available from pharmacies that are high in carbohydrates and fats or, if preferred, proteins. These I am still testing, but I have yet to find one that doesn’t leave me feeling bloated. So at this time I am experimenting with what I can take in while swimming and keep down, while continuing to swim without indigestion. Pure water seems best.

How to take the food: When the hour is up, someone on the boat – by flag or whistle – will signal feeding time. Or I may signal by patting my head. The boat goes to neutral and slows while I come alongside. Hopefully my pulse rate will slow from 88 beats per minute (which is what I am swimming at now) to 70, along with a slower breathing rate, for it is difficult to drink and eat when out of breath. I then roll on my back and try to float high and take the food like an otter. Most swimmers go upright and tread water but this is not a sound practice for me for a rather unique reason: I do not use my legs to swim. They give me no forward propulsion at all. Thus they just trail behind me and get quite cold. I thus try to keep my core temperature raised by not treading water during the feeding which would only draw blood into them and chill me further. Total time for the feed is less than a minute.

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15 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

A Fantastic Week!

Training: Three weeks ago I did a 6-hour swim and was struggling towards the end having to resort to breaststroke as the left arm was exhausted. I eased off on my training, built up and then posted that I would do a 6-hour swim again last Thursday. While I told others I would do 6 hours (call it reinforcing by telling others) I privately planned to do 8 hours (call it mental discipline training).

Well I did the 8 hours and again finished strong. If France had been in site I would have gone all the way, but from my pool here in St. Augustine, Florida I could not see France! I consumed little – just a liter of water, one can of flat Coke (poured the night before) and 800 calories from a liquid source.

Given that I was burning off some 800 calories per hour I would have – despite carbo-loading the night before – used up my glycogen and have begun to break down my fat. To force this event I shall soon undertake 6- to 8-hour swims without taking any nutrients and consume only water.

Health: My left shoulder was not much of a problem during the swim but a little sore the following day.

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Topic: Mind Games

There isn’t an endurance athlete who would not consider that success is more mental than physical. To that I would add emotional, for emotions such as frustration and anger can destroy one’s best efforts and must be kept under control. But this week, by not telling anyone I would do 8 hours and then actually doing it, I received a big boost in my mental state and I could see and enjoy the reaction of others. Now I know, and my close colleagues know, that I can go the distance. The unknowns are the rough seas, which have never been a problem for me, and the cold.

It’s the cold I fear. As we age, especially men, it’s physiologically difficult to distribute fat throughout the body and especially under the skin (subcutaneous). As a result, men who gain weight put it mostly on the belly and it shows. I have increased my weight from 165 pounds to 192 pounds and the belly is definitely larger by 2 inches, requiring three new pairs of trousers. I shall condition to the open seas beginning middle June when I go to Bermuda and to the cold when I arrive in Dover England three weeks before the swim.

I will know I have conditioned to the cold when my basal metabolic rate picks up to the degree that I am sweating even when not in the water. Twice-daily immersions are planned in the 56 to 62 degree water of Dover Harbour. Remember, no wetsuits, only a cap and suit of non-insulating variety not to extend past the groin or onto the arm, plus goggles and, if wished, ear plugs and a nose clip. A small tub of grease is optional and of good value for areas of friction.

I am traveling to Boston and then New Zealand to educational conferences and will find it difficult to swim the next three weeks. In New Zealand, I am speaking on “Autonomy and the Future of Physiotherapy.” I am, incidentally, a dual citizen of New Zealand and of the United States.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

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16 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: Quiet week. A 3-hour, 4-hour and 2-hour swim. Next week will be a 6-hour swim. Left shoulder still a little troublesome.

Health: Good to great. Not sure I am digesting the foods I take each hour during the swim. I feel bloated at the end of 4 hours and in need of a walk. Now that I am out of chlorinated pools and swimming in my own salt water pool the sinus problem has cleared. I sleep better but snore just as much – so I am told!

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: The Mentality of the English Channel Swimmer

A reader asks: “The mentality of an English Channel swimmer. Why do you do it, why do others do it with whom you've spoken? I am sure it is a conquest of mind and body over overwhelming conditions, but what else on the mental side of the challenge factors in?”

This is one of the most often asked yet most difficult to answer questions. The answer is often not known to the swimmer, for they too have questions and doubts. Some do it to “break a record.” In fact that is why I am going back this year, to break a record and become the oldest to have attempted and hopefully to have succeeded. To me it will say something about how I have lived my life and used my knowledge gained from being a physical therapist.

Others wish to be the fastest for their sex or age group. But most just want to get across and prove to themselves and others that they can do it. It is a success they will carry with them for all their remaining years and will be part, no doubt, of their obituary.

I think for many it begins with a realization that they are an endurance swimmer. They shine at the longer distances when in high school or college and love the open water. Then, in order to gain self acclaim and acclaim by others, they become interested in the one swim that is above all others – the Channel – and to become one of the few. In this regard it’s similar to a marathon attracting a runner.

It’s also about taking on what they may consider a noble and historic challenge. I have heard that said. It is an amateur event with little chance to make money from it as in so many professional sports. Thus the motivation is not about money nor is it about fame, for fame fades fast. Some swimmers, including myself, do it to raise money for a charitable cause or for someone’s surgery. This, of course, places an additional strain on the swimmer because of the accompanying attention and the money. It’s hard to quit if you are earning $10,000 a mile for someone’s cancer treatment.

For my 1983 and 1985 swims, I was mostly unaware of the fundraising opportunity. However for my 2008 swim I, for the first time, saw the value in this and the fun to make some money for a cause that I believe in – The Foundation for Physical Therapy, which raises money to support research and scholarship in physical therapy. Since I am a strong believer in evidenced-based practice and recognize that our profession lacks some evidence in key areas, supporting studies that help to restore, maintain and enhance physical functioning, raising money for this research is right up my street.

I have often argued that medicine and surgery may save lives but no profession speaks more to the quality of those lives than does physical therapy. Hence I agreed to swim at $10, $25, $50 $100 and $1,000 per mile with the distance to be measured as 23 miles if completed or if not completed then the distance from France would be subtracted from 23 and the sponsor would owe the miles covered x the amount they volunteered.

But then there is perhaps one other reason: A nagging self-doubt that you don’t have what it takes. It takes good health and physical condition, planning, long hours of training and finally a struggle with the elements for upwards of 12 hours. It’s physical, yes, but more so mental. It’s you against yourself. It’s also emotional. Swimmers have cried and choked upon emerging successful. When I visualize my success of 1986 I have some of the same feelings even 22 years later. There was no other moment quite like it.

There are lots of reasons not to do it – or to quit – but none are truly satisfactory. You know you must do it, or in my case do it again. But if you succeed, if you get to walk out or crawl out on the beaches of France, even if there is no crowd, for it’s late at night and raining, you will know a peace, humility, a deep sense of satisfaction that no one can ever take away from you – you have swum the Channel. I know because I have done it and I want more of it!

One other point that may appeal to some: I have noticed that when people introduce me at social and other occasions, they may say such as “Please meet Stanley Paris, I told you about him – he swam the Channel." No mention of the marathons or the Ironman, the sailboat race across the Atlantic and my sailing around the world – just the Channel, not even the "English" Channel.

A good question and difficult to answer with complete candor.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

17 Weeks to Go: Training & Health Update

Training: Last week was meant to be and was a recovery week. This week is building and next week here will be a long swim. This I call "Galloway's Principle,” after the Olympic Runner and author Jeff Galloway. One week building, one week endurance, and one week recovering before building again, etc. Consequently, I had three modest swims on alternate days of 2 hours, 3 hours, and 2 hours.

Yesterday was meant to be 3 instead of the 2 but I did several hours of heavy yard work and decided to do just 2. For mental discipline, it’s essential to map out a course of training and stay with it. So if I say 3 hours, I will swim 3 hours and not quit at 2. However, in this case, I was aware my shoulders were tired and so I decided on 2 as being sensible without weakening my resolve. I swam well and strong and could have easily done 3.

Health: The shoulder is doing just fine. As soon as the upper thoracic spine was once again able to rotate to the left, I have been able to raise my left arm in a fuller and easier swing during the recovery. This, combined with stretching the long head of biceps and pectoralis minor by using contract relax techniques, enabled me yesterday to swim for 2 hours with only a vague sensation of tingling. The treatment shall continue beyond relief of symptoms – as all treatment should.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...

Topic: How Does the Channel Stack Up?

A reader asks: “In terms of endurance where does it stack up relatively speaking? What does it compare to in the US and why is it so special in Europe? Is there the feeling of being a member of an elite status/club? How does this extreme event compare to others such as triathlons, climbing a serious mountain to the top, etc.? Has the event gotten easier or more difficult over time due to the Channel itself, training methods, swim wear, etc.? Are there considered easier years than others due to tides, currents, temperature of the water, etc.?”

Firstly, endurance: I have run marathons and they take about 4 hours and a great deal of effort. In the USA it’s estimated that some 400,000 individuals run a marathon in any given year. It’s certainly a personal achievement though not as special as it once was. In completing the World Championship Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii (which consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride and then a full 26.2 mile marathon run) endurance was really tested, but I did stop more than once to stretch and was able to walk at times. But that said there were some 12,000 qualified applicants for that event and only 1,200 were selected – and more than 1,100 finished (more on that one day than have ever swum the Channel).

Compare that to the Channel, where when I swam it in 1986 there had been some 5,000 attempts and I was the 300th to succeed. Back then, only one attempt in five succeeded. Then of course there is climbing Everest, but what a sham that has become. Now any reasonably good climber with $80,000+ can hire a guide and as many Sherpas as needed to carry gear, buy the best clothing, the best quality compressed oxygen, have Sherpas cut the steps, rope and ladder the trail, and then start the final stages of the climb. It’s certainly not like it was when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made that first climb in the 1950s. In 2007, some 600 made it to the summit. Sports Illustrated said in an article June 12, 2006, “Many of them are not true mountaineers. They’re trophy hunters and they spend up to $100,000 each to be guided to the summit…”

Technology has not aided swimmers to get across the Channel. The accompanying boat cannot be touched, the cap and swim suit must not be made of insulating material – only a mixture of Vaseline and grease can be rubbed on and that while offering limited help with the numbing cold it does offer lubrication between clothing and the skin. The Channel has thus not gotten easier over the years but some summers have been easier than others because of weather conditions. With regard to popularity in Europe, Channel swimming was much more popular in the 1950s than it is today, for few were the swimmers and fewer still were the successes. Certainly events can be constructed for TV that defies human endurance, but nothing will, in my view, touch the challenge of the Channel for purity of man against the elements.

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Support Physical Therapy Research!
I am attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the English Channel in order to raise money for physical therapy research. Learn more in the links below.

Please support my effort by making pledges or donations at www.apta.org/parisswim. All proceeds benefit physical therapy research!

My Mission & Vision
My Passion
A Plea for Pledges

Thank you for your support! Continue reading this post...