Featured Athlete Nutrition Team Elivar

Swimming The Channel - Final Preparations With Marc Newman

July 16, 2016

Elivar Featured Athlete Marc Newman is making another attempt at swimming the English Channel. This time he's attempting to be the first to make the crossing starting from Dungeness in Kent. This crossing is nearly 25% longer than the traditional route and has never been completed. With less than a week to go to the opening of the tidal window for his swim read Marc's update on his preparations.

Hopefully by this time next week it will be all over........It's taken over 18 months, some long hard training swims and one failed Channel attempt to get to this point with only days to go until I swim from Dungeness to France.

This is not the conventional route to swim the English Channel, it is a distance of 26 miles as opposed to the 'normal' crossing of 21 miles. The swim has been attempted a couple of times but has never been completed......yet!

This year my training has gone really well. For the first time ever in my long swimming career I swam regularly throughout the winter. This was not pleasant at times and not for the faint-hearted. With water temperatures down to 6 degrees, air temperatures even colder, wind and rough water I often found myself asking 'why?'

The reason became very apparent with my early season acclimatisation which meant I managed to complete my 6 hour Channel qualifying swim in May in water temperature of only 13 degrees.

This year has seen some very unpredictable weather with strong winds making conditions for training in the sea challenging. This I feel will stand me in good stead as hopefully the water will be calm for my Channel swim next week. Having swam in some arduous conditions I feel strong and ready to cope with what the Channel throws at me next week.

Three weeks ago I completed my eight hour training swim in rather choppy conditions in Weymouth. This was the last of the long swims with the focus shifting to tapering so that I am raring to go when I get in the Channel. Training swim have been reduced to 1, 2 and 4 hour 'dashes'.

An element of the swim that I am more confident about this year than last is the nutritional side of completing a long endurance event. I'm feeling really strong in the water and working well with the Elivar energy drinks. I am using the PREPARE prior to a swim, ENDURE during a swim, feeding every 45 minutes for 6 hours then every 30 minutes thereafter. I've had no ill effects on my stomach and have good energy levels. Then I have a RECOVER shake straight after making sure that my recovery start immediately.

Hopefully my next post will be a write up all about my adventure across the Channel from Dungeness.................

Marc Newman is an Elivar Featured Athlete. Read his story here.

Marc is using his ambitious record attempt to raising funds for Julia's House, the Dorset Children’s Hospice. Marc's Just Giving page is a good place to help him raise funds for such a worthy cause.

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