When I first started on this journey to conquer the English Channel, people emphasized two things to me:

1. Cold exposure:  I needed to spend a lot of time in cold water so that I would “get used to it”
2. Weight gain:  Nearly everyone who found out I wanted to swim the Channel would look me over and say, “you’re gonna have to put on some weight!”

This raised some issues in my head.  To address the second point, intentionally gaining weight for an athletic endeavor seems unhealthy to me.  To address the first, what does “getting used to it” actually mean?  It can’t just be a mental thing that allows your body to adapt to spending hours on end in cold water.  There had to be some corresponding physiological change that allowed the  body to tolerate cold better.

The Difference Between a White Fat Cell (fat storage) and a Brown Fat Cell (heat factory)

One possibility people have raised is the existence of brown fat.  Unlike white fat, which is found under the skin, deposits of brown fat are present around vital internal organs and along the back and sternum.  Further, brown fat has mitochontria:  it is metabolically active.  White fat is not.  This means that brown fat is capable of generating ATP.  Or, more simply, brown fat generates heat.

The only problem with this theory is that brown fat was only thought to be present in infants.  No one had ever detected brown fat in adults.  However, in the April publication of the New England Journal of Medicine, not one, but THREE independent labs proved the existence of brown fat in adults.  Further, using different experiments, all three groups demonstrated that prolonged exposure to cold resulted in an increase in an adult’s amount of brown fat.

Summary:  brown fat generates heat.  Exposure to cold increases an individual’s brown fat.  More brown fat = more heat = you can stay warmer in cold longer.

Beautiful.

Going back to the two points: point 1 addresses the way to increase brown fat, while point 2 addresses the way to increase white fat.

Sure, white fat can provide *some* increased insulation.  But brown fat not only insulates the core (the most important part of the body to keep warm), it also acts as a heat factory.  Hence the way you can “get used to” the cold.

Here’s an even cooler implication of this discovery:  you can train for the Channel even when you aren’t actually swimming!  Any time you expose your body to the cold, you are helping your body produce more brown fat, thereby increasing your cold tolerance.

In light of these publications, I’m finally taking the advice of my friend:  I’m now going around with bare legs and flip-flops, whether rain, shine, wind, whatever, intentionally exposing myself to being cold to increase my brown fat stores.  In my opinion, it’s a more healthy approach to cold water swimming, though it earns me some funny looks when I’m sporting a skirt and Rainbows in the arctic South San Francisco winds.

For the abstracts of these super cool papers, see below:

Identification and Importance of Brown Adipose Tissue in Adult Humans

Functional Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Adults

Cold-Activated Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Men

This is my ode to Gu. When I’m on long training swims, GU energy gels are the easiest way for me to gulp down calories without wasting a whole lot of time.  Similarly, GU2O, their sports drink, is perfect for maintaining electrolytes, and if it’s warm makes for a glorious treat when my body is engulfed by cold water.

Gu has this new product called Chomps.  These little babies are 180 calorie packs of gummy-like energy bursts.  They taste nice, and have the consistency of those fruit snacks you used to take to school as a kid.  Major plus when you roll out of bed at 5:15am for a 5:30 workout and haven’t eaten for 6-8 hours. With GU gels, you can just gulp and go!

The only way they could be any more perfect would be the addition of caffeine to the Chomps ingredients list. Let me know if you see those around.

put together a slide show of some images from the past 3 days of cold water swimming madness.  I thought I would share them with you…there is a lot of photography talent between Neal and my dad!

Thank you and enjoy!

Success!

Today was, in a word, AWESOME!  My shoulder, miraculously, was no longer hurting the concerning way it had been yesterday.  The weather was great.  My family decided to stay through till the end.  Neal was back from Minnesota to join my support team.  I felt SO much better than I did on Sunday.  Reuben, upbeat and motivating as ever, piloted me for every single swim.  And the goal was in sight.

14 miles left.

I started at 7am when the darkness of night was just starting to lift.  By midway through the first swim, the sky was a beautiful pink, the colors and patterns reflected on the surface of the water.  The water was as cold as it had yet been, dropping below 50 for the first time all winter.

It really was a huge team effort today.  My sister, a member of the Yale Womens’ Varsity Crew team, went out in the Viking, a double wooden row boat, with Reuben to help pilot me, switching off once or twice with Neal.  When he wasn’t rowing,  Neal was in the boat taking some absolutely amazing pictures!  My mom even went along as the third passenger on one of the afternoon swims to cheer for me from the water, and my dad took over film crew duties on my final swim at night.

Swim by swim, mile by mile, Advil tablet by Advil tablet, I inched closer to the 14 mile goal.  I started off doing 2.75 miles at a time, then dropped to 2.5 and 2.25 as the day went on and I grew more and more tired.  It started taking me longer and longer to get warm again, and between several swims I actually took a short nap with my legs up in the sauna.  I was taking in as much nutrition as my stomach could allow, my mom and Karri urging me to eat more of the few things I could handle.  My hips, knees, and ankle started to ache, and my whole body felt deeply exhausted.  I began to slow down in the late afternoon.  But I was so close…it was time to get tough!

I ended the effort as I began – in the sheer blackness of night.  I walked into the water at 6:00 for my final 1.5 miles, a little freaked since I couldn’t see at all!  But Reuben and Karri got the Viking in front of me, and my dad shone a flashlight into the water for me to follow.  1.5 miles felt so good at the end of it all!

Touching bottom at the completion of my final swim was euphoric.  I did it.  I swam 40 miles in less than 3 days!  (Closer to 2.5 days, actually).  It was only as I was walking out of the water that I learned an even cooler fact:  Reuben intentionally hid from me that he had me doing extra earlier in the day as a “buffer.”  Instead of 40 miles, I actually swam 40.5!  The personal gratification, and the overwhelming appreciation for all of the people who made this possible, crashed down on me.  I didn’t feel cold or tired…I just felt exceptionally happy!  Time to celebrate!

A HUGE thank you to Reuben, Mom, Dad, Karri, Neal, and all of the members of the Dolphin Club who offered me their encouragement and support over the course of this effort.  I could NOT have accomplished my goal without you!!!

I arrived at the Dolphin Club at 6:50am this morning, with the intention of starting my day of swimming just past 7.  However, I walked upstairs, made friends with a couch, and fell promptly asleep.  I wasn’t able to sleep much last night, and the fatigue really hit the minute I walked in the door.  An hour later, I forced my tired body up for a pow-wow with Reuben, and finally kicked things off around 8:30.

It became very apparent during that first mile that I was DEAD.  Where I was able to stay in for 3 miles at a time yesterday, today I quickly dropped down to 2.  Significant shoulder pain nearly ended my aspirations after the first two swims of the day…after consulting with my dad and Reuben, I decided to take it one swim at a time, keeping a close eye on my shoulders to make sure they didn’t get any worse.  Ultimately, a brilliant stroke alteration suggested by my father reduced the pain I was feeling during my catch.  He coined the term “biceps freestyle” a few years ago to describe the technique.  While it is not as efficient for me as my normal technique, I remembered how to do it, and this stroke change enabled me to press on.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco, which really helped keep my spirits up.  As did the enormous support I was getting from all sides!  Reuben came out with me nearly every swim, guiding me on the best possible course, and always had good advice and encouraging words for me between efforts.  My mom and sister delivered hot baked potatoes and warm electrolyte drinks to me as I warmed up in the shower/sauna to keep my energy up, and my dad, in addition to serving as my personal film crew, even got in for a swim toward the end of the day!  Additionally, nearly everyone who came into the Club all day had kind and supportive words for me, which REALLY helped to keep me going!

I finished the day strong, putting in 2.5 miles on my last swim to bring the day’s total to 11.5.  The balance for tomorrrow stands at 14 miles – rock on!

*Additional Note:

Descriptively, biceps freestyle is:

1. Hand/wrist “flareout” (sort of the biceps freestyle version of the “catch”)

2. Diagonal slicing insweep, powered by biceps (from which the stroke derives its name)

3. Optional (triceps) outsweep/pushback which provides additional power.  The biceps insweep also makes the triceps pushback more powerful/efficient and less shoulder stressful than trying to do a strong triceps pushback with a conventional freestyle front end.