• Cambridge to Canterbury
• 80 miles
• Not much elevation gain
• Even fewer animals
• 20 mile an hour headwind
• 2 sore bums, 4 strong legs, 2 dirty bikes

Today was our last day on the saddle for a while. This last circuit brought us within distance of the gorgeous white cliffs of Dover. From here our swim across the English Channel will begin.

Another mechanical failure… My Speedplay pedal broke in the same exact spot that Adam’s broke. These Speedplay pedals are sure lightweight, but I think the company needs to work on reliability. It is unreasonable to assume riders will replace these $300 pedals every 800 miles. We are now both riding non-Speedplay pedals because there are ZERO local bike dealers that stock Speedplay. Boo.

A shout-out to Cadence Cycling & Multisport, especially Matt (founder), Woody (tech), Brady (coach), Luke (sales) and Mike (coach). These guys run shops in Philadelphia and NYC — and there are rumors of California expansion soon. They replace guesswork with science, and are definitely the Lexus of bike shops. Thank you guys!

I moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco. I’m new here, and one of the big parts of moving for me is finding a new place to workout. I know about the Dolphin Swim Club in San Francisco, so I went there to check on their latest activities. While I was at the Dolphin Club I heard about two upcoming open water swims.

Both swims are open water swims. Both are relatively short (1-2 miles). And I’ll be doing both with my friend Paul who works at Facebook. I’m super stoked about both! It will be a fun way for us to mix-up workouts, and a good way for me to get in the race mindset prior to the English Channel, which is coming up SOON!

10% discount All gear except new bikes
15% discount Fitness diagnostics, conditioning programs, and bike fits

Cadence Cycling was founded in 2004 by a Penn graduate, so I think what they’re doing for Penn is pretty cool. I got my road bike at Cadence and it’s sweet. They are the Lexus of bike dealers. They are all about the science of athletics. Go check them out, on Saturday’s (I think) they have free in-house coffee and sweets.

Some marketing copy about these guys: Cadence Cycling & Multisport is not a bike shop. Sure, the world’s most exclusive bike frames line the floor. But world-renowned coaches also train all levels of cyclists and triathletes on state-of-the-art CompuTrainers and Endless Pools®. And athletes with visions of Kona or the Tour undergo VO2 Max and lactate threshold tests. When you walk in, we’re not trying to sell you a bike. We’d rather talk to you about your goals and how we can help you achieve them. Whether that means a new Italian frame, a specialized fitting of your current bike, an individualized coaching program, an on-site strength and conditioning program or one of our other unique services, Cadence will help you evolve as an athlete.

Here’s the discount coupon…

Yesterday Neal and I jumped in for a 2 hour swim. We were a little disconcerted to look down at the Suunto and see that the water temperature had risen to a balmy 63 degrees over the last week! Aakk! We’re getting coddled here in the states! Mark Robson and the rest of the gang over in the UK will have some ammo to lob at us now that they’ve been organizing Dover swims that are still in the 50′s. In our favor, though, is the fact that we were swimming up stream against a mighty current. The stone bridge supports pictured are about 10-15 yards in width. Without exaggeration, it took 2 1/2 minutes to pass the supports. I think I was moving backwards at times. I literally felt as if I was working out in one of those endless pools. Every breath I took, I was looking at the same stone as the breath before. Take that, Brits! (Disclaimer: There are no head currents during the Channel swim so this workout actually gives us no describable advantage).

Incidentally there have been several conversations across both swimming and multi-sport message boards regarding watches. My 2 cents: I love the Suunto. I have the T6. If you are looking for a simple, no-nonsense watch this is probably not the watch for you. The T6 is good because I can use it with everything. Temperature is great for the water. It syncs with an HR belt to keep track of my heart rate and can be set to keep me in zone. It syncs with my bike and measures speed/distance etc. It syncs with my GPS and can track speed/distance/altitude etc. This feature is more useful for mapping out hikes or mountain bike trips. It also syncs with a “Foot Pod” and tracks speed and distance of the run workouts. All workouts are saved to the watch and can be uploaded to a computer in seconds with a maneuverable and graphical output for easy analysis. I’ll try to put a full review together in the near future.

[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.

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.

10 tips to liven-up your (crusty old) swim workout:

1. Listen to music while swimming. We like the waterproof mp3 player called Swimp3.
2. Eat a mid-swim snack. I swim harder if I have a delicious mid-swim snack. We like bananas and Gu Energy Gel.
3. Bring toys. Is it just me or are swim hand paddles a ton of fun?! I feel like a speed racer when I use them. We like the stuff from Tyr.
4. Count your laps. We like this simple little $24 lap counter from SportCount.
5. Vary that workout. Here are 50 workouts to test out.
6. Bring a friend. I swim harder and longer if Adam, Lauren or Jenn is swimming with me. Or, if you’re me you can even be so lucky as to meet your girlfriend in the pool!
7. Join a team. I joined the Penn Masters Swim Club and is has been a lot of fun.
8. Go outside. There are great outdoor swim places near Philadelphia. Be mindful of the water temperatures.
9. Get a coach. Improving your technique gives you something to think about. We sought advice from the Head Coach of Penn’s Varsity Swim Team.
10. Be held accountable. Tell your significant other and family how you plan to train. They will keep you on track. I can’t tell you how many times this has been the only thing that got me out of bed at 630AM!

Hope this helps. Have a good workout!

He was looking at because we’re looking for some nearby open water swims. Trouble is there aren’t any organized events until summer. The water temperatures in the East are sub-50F until April, which is chilly. It looks like we might plan a trip down to Florida in March. If you have suggestions please let us know.

Like I said in my previous post about open water swimming, most of our training these days is swimming. I prefer open water swimming. Long distances are easier in lakes than in the pools, and more beautiful. Here are some nice pictures of Mauch Chunk Lake in Jim Thorpe, PA. It’s about 90 minutes north of Philadelphia and in the Pocono foothills. The swimming is getting brisk now that’s it’s almost November. For some reason I can bare it as long as I have an insulated swim cap on. Here are some pictures of our latest swim trip

And my favorite picture. A picture of Jonathan Taqqu using me as a ladder to tie the rope for our leanto shelter.

Both Mauch and Marsh are very clear lakes without much seaweed. I gone to each lake twice in the last month, such fun! Go ahead and email me if you’d like to know the best places to start your swim. It’s possible to swim 2-5 miles in both lakes. Enjoy!