The below picture is a view near our sandy starting point in Dover. The videos are taken from the hilltop shoreline of Dover, looking out across the channel toward Calais, France.

• 1.5 hours
• Serious chop, especially on the east side of the harbor
• 200 gulls, zero fishies

Hello from Dover! Another nice swim today. Might head out for a night swim close to sun-down. Due to the relatively high latitude of Dover (and England itself) the sun rises earlier and sets later than much of the USA. Sun rises here at 5AM and sets at 915PM. Nice long days for swim workouts.

On the home front, the last days have involved a lot of time cooking around the house and some hanging out by the beach and swimming. Here are some pics and a vid of both.

Warning: Seriously boredom inducing video to follow. If you watch 2 seconds of it you’ll get a taste for the conditions.

Ride stats today

• Edinburgh to  Newcastle
• 110 miles
• 6875 feet climbed
• Winds: 15 mph sustained, gusting to 35 mph
• 6500 sheep; 1200 cows

Tough Roads; Tough Weather. Today turned into quite a late day. We looked at the altitude profile last night, and it looked like a tame day compared with the rest of our days in Scotland. Although our tallest peaks were much lower than in the Highlands, the constant undulation, led to a ‘climb total’ significantly greater than that of any previous day. This together with the high winds, made for slow speeds and a very long day in the saddle. (nearly 1.5 times as long as my last century ride)

A shout-out to Willier, especially Gianmarco Cilli, General Manager of WIllier North America. Willier is among the best frame makers in the world. Team Lampre (best in Italy) is currently riding Willier up mountains in the Tour de France. The tight carbon weave in their frames is simultaneously forgiving enough on the rough Scottish roads, yet stiff enough to climb the Scottish highlands. Even after a long 110 mile ride, as we had today, the Willier frame keeps us wanting more.


Another shout-out to the Best Western Roker Hotel in New Castle, especially reservation managers Kavita and Jill. This hotel is beach side on the North Sea with a great billiard room and restaurant. Some of us dipped our feet in the North Sea before pedaling on down the coast.

1. Hands should enter water at 1 and 11 o’clock. Do not waste energy with side-to-side movement.
2. Hand should glide right after it enters water. Pull should start within first few inches.
3. Be long in the water. No hip bend. Little knee bend.
4. Be level and stiff in water to reduce drag and increase torque.
5. Hands should exit water at hip to follow-through to stroke.

Here’s my poolside review.

And a video of the player in action.

So as you can see from the review we think Finis is pretty awesome. They’ve wonderfully offered to lend us extra players if we wear them during our 15 hour swim across the English Channel. I suppose it’ll be the first time that anyone has had the opportunity to rock-out during a channel crossing.

[UPDATE] The Channel Swimming and Piloting Association (the org that certifies channel swims) voted in 2007 to ban MP3 players on official swims of the English Channel. I think the Association’s decision is overly nostalgic, but c’est la vie. At least I can use the Finis during my training swims. The vote from the association’s minutes looks like this:

MOTION 3 “The use of MP3 players shall not be allowed by the swimmer while swimming during any English Channel swim attempt” Prop. – D Carter, sec. – C. Golding. 15 for, 2 against, 3 abstain – carried)

Thule makes roof racks and external modular storage for vehicles (they are the world’s biggest). And they’re Swedish, so you know, they make pretty stuff. Today Adam and I are driving up to Connecticut to visit Thule’s US HQ. We’re going up to ask advice on how to best equip our logistics van. We’ll let you know how those discussions go!

Ohh yah, totally wanted to share this with you. Check out this viral video created by Thule Marketing. This guy totally geeks out on Thule.

Read the NPR article
Listen to NPR audio

Or better yet, listen to it right here.

In other (more germane) news. Adam and I swam some nice yardage today and tried out our brand-new Tyr swim trunks and Tyr Mentor hand paddles. Tip to all you swimmers out there — hand paddles make you feel like Phelps. I recommend them to anyone. They turn any swimmer into a rock star. And boy do they make your shoulders hurt.

Video 1: This video model from NOAA is based on over-flight observations. With each tide the oil from the spill is being pulled out to sea, and then pulled back into the bay.

Video 2: This second video is a photo montage of the damage done to the San Francisco Bay (aka. my former training grounds).

What is the moral of this sad story? If you can, and I realize this isn’t practical for most, but if you can, sell your car and buy a bike.

Exciting news, Adam is back from his recruiting trips in Seattle and Denver. The dude can’t stop raving about Denver. I’m just glad he’s back. While he was gone I was without a regular training partner. Now that he’s back the problem is solved, but… I’ll poke fun at him anyways.

I saw this video from Chris Prouse and it really made me laugh. I’m like Chris, in that my bicycle has been my training partner for the past days while Adam way away.

Hope your autumn training is going well out there. Enjoy the video, hope it makes you all laugh too.

My favorite moment in the movie:

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

Here is the trailer for On A Clear Day: