Grease and Pace
Cookies_88
Sydney, AustraliaNew Member
Hello Everyone,
I am a new member, residing in Sydney Australia, and originally from Singapore. I aim to swim the English Channel and North Channel in 2022. I started training early this year, but stopped due to the pandemic which caused the pools to close. My weekly mileage is 23 km so far, and I am training to increase the load to 30-35km per week shortly.
I would like to ask what type of grease I should use for ocean swimming. Could Lanolin Oil be used, in lieu of Goose Fat or other alternatives?
Next, what would be an average pace (per 100m) needed to attempt the crossings?
Sincerely,
Mike
Comments
What is generally regarded as "channel grease" is a mixture of lanolin and vaseline, 50/50. You need to heat this to mix it. Use an old saucepan. You will probably not eat anything else cooked in it again.
I don't know about lanolin oil, I've only ever come across lanolin grease, but that was becoming increasingly difficult to get a few years ago. From what I can see, most swimmers just use vaseline now. It seems fine.
I did read somewhere that lanolin is falling out of favour with channel pilots. It gets everywhere and is hard to remove from the boat.
Keep the goose fat for Christmas !
Pace isn't that important. As long as you are making progress the swim will continue. The average swim time is about 13/14 hours, so covering 33K in 14 hours gives a pace of 2:36 /100m. This seems ridiculously slow when compared to pool times. Most swimmers can repeat 100's on 2 mins easily, and typically repeat on 1:40 / 1:45. A good standard is 100x100m on 100s. If you can do that straight through with no rest, you're in the right ball park.
However, all this is to be taken with a grain of salt. For example I typically swim at around 4kph, and have done the 100x100 straight through on 85, but I took 14.5 hours to get across.
Hi @Cookies_88 just wanted to drop a quick note to say that while plenty of people do still use lanolin or the mixture alluded to by @ColmBreathnach above, many of us just use plain old vaseline (variously branded - Aquaphor is a common variety in the US). As for pace, your pilots are the best people to ask for this advice as they will be managing your crossing!
Thanks @ColmBreathnach and @thelittlemerwookie for your help and great advice. I will certainly stock up on vaseline and lanolin grease tomorrow.
I went for a swim with a group last week, and was dropped after 500m. When I asked one of the swimmers who completed the English Channel, he told me his pace was 1min48s/100m usually. It was pretty humbling to swim among these professionals. They are a tough bunch. There was even a lady who completed the North Channel (she must be an Amazon).
In the next few weeks, I will improve my stroke technique, and do my own practice swims till I get up to that 1min40+s/100m pace.
Pool time, or even 1.5 / 3.8 km time, is very different from the speed of a channel crossing because of the vast difference in distance.
For example, if I swim 29 minutes for 1.5 km in the pool (i.e. 1:56 / 100 m pace), that means, in OW, as there is no push off from the walls, add about a minute to that, i.e. 30 minutes. Add some imperfect sighting, another minute, 31 minutes. Add some waves and chops, 32 minutes.
Then let's raise the distance to 10 km. There will be speed deterioration when distance increases. Assume Pete Riegel formula with decay exponent 1.06, the 10 km swim will take 4 hours. If we further increase the distance to 33 km, i.e. 22 times 1.5 km, the whole crossing time will be just over 14 hours. I haven't calculated the feeding time yet.
Are you sure that "most" swimmers can repeat 100's on 2 mins easily? I doubt so. And typically repeat on 1:40 / 1:45? That's the fast lane of the tri squad I'm in.
I could repeat 12 x 100 m on 2 minutes in 50 m pool last year, but that was at my peak training shape, doing about 18 km per week in the perfect condition (i.e. 16°C pool). Now I can no longer sustain interval of less than 2:15 for 100 m after 8 months of interruption in my training. I'll get back to the Total Immersion coach I met last year in order to get me better technique soon.
Good luck on your training. Before I made my channel booking for 2021 my weekly mileage was about 19 km, planning to increase to 25, but at the moment I made my booking the pools were shut. The pools were reopened again last week and I am still trying to get back my progress.
This is my concern as well. The reason is that, if you don't get enough speed to get through the tide when it turns, you will be washed away straight into Calais forbidden zone which will end your swim immediately.
The key is small incremental steps. Doing too much too soon risks injury. Don't get too hung up on the pace.
Also pressups are great for shoulder strength / stability and can be done in the covid free enviroinment of your own home ! Again small incremental steps. Start with 5 on your knees and build up to whatever you can. 200 in sets of 50 could be a goal ;-)
My 2 cents on pacing are to go with what feels right for you. My stroke tempo was in the mid-60s per minute. When it comes to training the faster you become the shorter the swim will be for you. All I can say is try to hold a comfortable pace while training and it’ll be there during your race. Your body will let you know what works. Don’t force it.
Average pace about 1.10 per 100m will be ok!)
U will be ready for EC and all chanels on earth!)))
My opinion!
Im not swim any chanels.but if u swim 20-40km per week. Grease will be u last problem!
My opinion!
Wish u Good luck
Seriously, you can put people off by stating that they'll be okay with an average pace of 1.10 per 100m.
Some folk might think that's essential! 
It's not necessary to swim at that speed to swim EC. It's just necessary to be able to maintain forward progress. Obviously, a faster swimmer may have an advantage, but being fast isn't everything.
Nor does everybody need to swim 20 - 40k per week. There's certainly no "one size fits all" training programme.