Report from Dover

Greetings from Dover, England. I am here for a week of training, and it has gone very well. I swam seven hours in the harbor on Saturday, and then six hours on Sunday. This was very close to Channel conditions, probably a bit rougher actually, so it was excellent training.

There is an amazing group of people who train here each weekend, with Freda Streeter as the de facto coach of them all. Freda is the mother of Alison Streeter, the Queen of the Channel. Alison has swum the Channel 43 times, so her mom knows quite a bit about what makes for adequate training. The 7 hour/6 hour combo I just did is the maximum distance they go here in training, and I finished without too much trouble, so I feel good about my training with seven weeks to go - although, trust me, I'm not getting overly confident! They say the physical training is about 20% of the task, and the other 80% is in your mind. I did have a pretty sore right tricep, but I think that was from the need to lift my head up to see where I was going frequently - which is something I will not have to in the Channel, when you just site off the boat to your side while breathing. The water temp was not bad at all, so my acclimation has really worked well. Thank goodness for my backyard pool!

Other than swimming I haven't done much other than spend one day in London, where the highlight was seeing the new Harry Potter movie in the same theatre - although 10 days later - as Daniel Radcliffe (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were across the way, as the world premier was on two screens to make more room).

I probably won't get a chance to write again before I leave Dover (and meet the family in Norway), so "cheers!"

Oh, and if you have donated yet to build the school in Angola, go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and take care of that!

Peace,
Mike