The water temp in the English Channel has begun to rise above 50F. This is the natural spring-time tendency of the channel and it’s great news for us swimmers. NOAA shows us water temps, conditions and neat little graphs that I wish had a longer time-scale.

	Wind Direction (WDIR):	SSW ( 210 deg true )
	Wind Speed (WSPD):	15.9 kts
	Wave Height (WVHT):	3.3 ft
	Air Temperature (ATMP):	50.2 °F
	Water Temperature (WTMP):	50.2 °F
	Wind Chill (CHILL):	44.2 °F

[UPDATE] Another online service provides a color map of sea temperatures.

Special thanks for Mark Robson (fellow blogger and Channel aspirant) for clueing us in on the NOAA website and the color map.

My coach Mike Kuhn from Cadence Cycling told me to bike 100 miles today. So I did. I rode to and around Valley Forge (see previous post for pictures of park). During the ride I consumed 5 bottles of GU water, 5 GU packets, 1 bar and 2 pieces of pizza (kind of random right?). Even with all that I was famished so I ate a bunch of sushi after I got home. It’s been a good day!  Two pictures below are my Vetta bike computer and my head after 100 miles. I took the picture right when I got home so my heart rate (93 bpm) was still elevated.

Adam is driving cross-country to Denver on his way to his new home in Denver. He rode today too, in Ohio.

Biked in Valley Forge National Park today. This beautiful park is 25 miles north of Philadelphia. The bike ride was fast and beautiful and I had to share some pictures.

[Special section for history nerds] Valley Forge was the site where General Washington stationed 12,000 soldiers during the winter of 1777. The Confederates had already captured Philadelphia and the soldiers were there to protect the rest of Pennsylvania. The winter of 1777 was reportedly wicked cold, and 2,000 soldiers died of exposure and pneumonia that winter. The park service lets the fields grow fallow so we can imagine all the tents and the thousands of men who were stationed there. Seeing it now is beautiful, but I’m guessing (based on the number of deaths) that back then it probably was a real crummy place to be.

I just spent $2,282 for 2 coach tickets to Europe for our bike/swim/bike adventure. Dude, talk about price inflation! Buying tickets in advance is always scary, because sometimes the prices go down after you buy. When that happens there is Yapta.com. These guys aren’t a sponsor of ours, I just think they are awesome.

Yapta monitors your flights and emails you if the prices drop.

Most airlines have clauses that entitle you to a credit if the prices fall. Bet you didn’t know that, did ya? I didn’t either. And I didn’t believe it until (in Jan 2008) I was alerted by Yapta of a price drop, which promoted me to call Usair and request my refund. Usair sent the voucher to me a few weeks later. Yapta is just one of those free internet companies that is adding transparency to the travel industry.

Try it out for yourself. I’m a fan.

• Step1: signup for account on Yapta.com
• Step2: forward your preexisting flight confirmation emails to flights@yapta.com
• Step3: wait for email from Yapta telling you to claim your refund
• Step4: call airline and request price drop refund
• Step5: spend flight credit on future travel

Here’s a screenshot of my Yapta screen for this trip.

Here are the first pictures of our new carbon bikes from Willier. In June these beautiful bikes will take us 1000 miles from northern Scotland to Paris. They will not be coming on our 24-mile swim of the English Channel, although Willier are almost light enough for that!

For our training here in Philadelphia these bikes have been seeing a lot more action now that the weather is sunny and warm. The river in the background is the same river that we swim.

[UPDATE] Friday April 25, At day break today we took the bikes out for a 50-mile ride. On the way back we watched a guy get struck by a car on his Kuota carbon. The guy’s shoulder and his anodized Fulcrum wheelset bore the brunt of the impact. We helped him collect his stuff and check his wheel. He was OK and biked away from the accident. Close call that one.

He who wants to find the sea should take a river for his guide.

We are training in the Schuylkill River! We’ve done it 3 of last 4 days. Today we swam for 80 minutes. And after doing those miles we plan to swim more and more. Here’s why we love it…

• It’s cold. Cold is important for us to acclimatize our bodies. The water temps in the Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River has been 58-64F, which is pretty close to the water temps that we’ll see in the English Channel which is 56-58F. So far the cold is treating us well and only our toes are cold during the swim.
• It’s beautiful. And a fun change of pace from the pool. Keeping the mind busy lets us forget about our shoulders and biceps.
• It’s clean. Despite popular belief it’s a very clean river. The Philadelphia Department of Water has a website with daily coliform/bacteria counts, water flow, and water temp. These three together form a proxy for water quality. Nothing instills confidence that the river is safe like that big green banner on the Rivercast website!

The green banner means the water is safe.

From behind the camera the river is idealistically beautiful! Up close there tends to be more duck weed and gunk. But we still like it.