The Catalina Men

Published in

Drowning in Data

14 min readJan 15, 2018

This is the account of my training for the Catalina Channel in September 2017 in the hope of sharing the learnings I collected.

I am based in San Francisco and member of the two Open Water Clubs in town: the Dolphin Club and the Mighty South End. My first approach to Marathon swimming has been in 2015/2016, training for Bay to Breakers. By the end of 2016, taking further steps in the world of Marathon Swimming, I decided I was ready to tackle some serious Channel Swimming.

My friends Andrew, Dave and I decided to go for the Catalina Channel.

This covered all the basis:

It’s Local: easier to get to without having to haul all the “stuff” across an Ocean.
It’s Long: approximately the same distance of the English Channel
It’s Hard: both part of the Ocean 7 and the Triple Crown

Andrew, far more organized than yours truly, researched and found information about training plans, and off we went.

Vox Populi

First of all we researched on the more reliable forums:

From the marathonswimmers blog:

Weekly training volume should be (at least) equal to your target swim distance, for several months.
At least one training swim of 65–75% of your target distance.
other people suggest that 40 to 45k per week is required from the start of the relevant calendar year.

From the usms forum

At least 60–75% of the length of the swim before you attempt it.
Train about 35K-50K yards per week for at least 6 months prior to a marathon swim and do at least 3 swims of over 6 hours during that time
Train for at least 6–8 months for a swim of over 15 miles, and for a swim over 20 miles, which will usually take in the 7–10+ hour range, a swimmer should have done at least 2 swims of 6 hours or more in the prep up to the swim, but not closer than 3–4 weeks before the “big” swim.

Another detailed Channel Training Plan.

Our Plan

Our plan ended up being quite simple and flexible: a progression of weekly yards and a crescendo of training benchmarks:

At least one 15 Mile Training Swim
Night swimming experience
4x50% swims (10 miles)
37k week for 3 months prior

The Execution

We ended up following the plan quite closely, hitting above the mark for most of the training.

Total Yards: 1,151,960

Milestones

The fun part of the training has been pushing the limits and ramping up to longer and longer swims. This is a path full of false starts and learnings. I like to believe that failures are even more educational than successes, and I had plenty of failures on my training.

Two Hours

The two hours mark was hit and passed quite easily, with a beautiful out of cove swim accompanied by a great crew. The infamous 5 Coves of Death is another great chance to squeeze 2 challenging swims in a day and hang with a bunch of crazy swimmers.

Four Hours

This milestone was harder to hit. This is when feeding and technique started to matter. Not feeding frequently enough is an easy enough error to make, since energies are plenty at the beginning of a swim, but run away quickly if not replenished. Another issue that surfaced was hip cramping. Due to both sighting and bad technique my psoas ended up having to endure too much stress and to lock and cramp.

First attempt: the plan was to feed every two miles and to change course after every feed. Andrew was with me and our hips locked after the first hour. The constant changing of the course also didn’t help us to focus and we ended up shivering in the sauna.
Second attempt: on my second attempt I went hypothermic for not feeding frequently enough. I ended up staying in for 3 grueling hours mostly thanks to the wonderful community that kicked my ass when I tried to bail out at hour 2.
First 4 hours: Duke has been a wonderful mentor through all of my training and he stepped in and kayaked for me for 4 hours (plus some, just to be safe). My hips were in some pain, but feeding regularly (Carbo-Pro every 30’ plus a Gel on the hour) did the trick. This is the first time I figured out a combination that works for me, and I still stick to it with minor variations.
Second 4 hours: Stayed in the Cove with Ryan, feeding after each loop. This helped getting into “The Zone” and to create automatism and habit.
Third 4 hours: Andrew, Catherine and I hit the Belvedere Lagoon, generous concession of Bob.
Fourth 4 hours: Tahoe!!! On July 10th we tackled the width of Tahoe. with Mark Henderson as our pilot, Catherine, Andrew and I swam from Sand Harbor to King’s Beach. Leaving at a leisurely 7am we had a lovely swim in warm water with a great Sun.

Six Hours

Here the psoas issue became really serious and costed me two attempts. The cold water seems to exacerbate some of the flaws in my technique and putting too much strain on the postural muscles, which end up cramping up pretty badly and locking up.

First attempt: A bunch of laps between Aquatic Park and the GoldenGate bridge, supported by Duke and Adam. I ended up drinking too much and ingesting too much salt water, which didn’t let my feeds be absorbed correctly. My hip completely locked and I got pulled at 4h30’. This incident also made me research into some more nutrient and dense feed, which I will describe later.
Second attempt: I stayed in the Cove, but my hip was still injured from the previous attempt and I had to limp out at the third hour.
First 6 hours: the first success was in the warmer waters of the Belvedere Lagoon. The main lesson learned from this swim is that most of the zinc sunscreens designed for outdoor athlete wash off after 4 hours in the water.
Third Attempt 6 hours: the third attempt was a botched Night Swim. The plan was to swim a round trip angel island to get familiar both night swimming and to crunch some miles. Catherine and I got separated and some issue with communication got us pulled. All in all I got the night swimming learning I needed.
Second 6 hours: in the Lagoon with Andrew and Dave. Overall quite easy swim, warm and sunny, easy way to finish off the training and start with the taper.

Eight Hours

In the Lagoon at Night: Andrew and I jumped at 9pm and swam into 5am. Not the most fun swim, particularly tough mentally and for nutrition. The geography of the lagoon forced us to feed on gel only at the 45’ mark and drink every hour and a half. This messed with our stomach. The utter darkness of the lagoon made it for a repetitive and dull swim. The murky water was dark enough that the difference between keeping our eyes open or close them was slight. The lagoon also crawled with little critters that kept bumping into us for the whole time.

Swimming through the night was a good preparation to what your body goes through at different hours and to swimming in total darkness.

Going the Distance & Doing the Time

The weekly yardage was our actual goal and we did hit it most of the times, staying on average above the distance of Catalina. The ramp up has been pretty gradual, but a huge jump from our previous yardage (November and December averaged around 10k a week). This meant a lot of sore shoulders and slower swims in January February, but, once the initial discomfort settled, we endured the yardage quite easily.

Indoor/Outdoor

Open water 59.5% (685453 yards)
Pool 40.5% (466507 yards)

Winters are quite harsh in SF Bay. Temperatures in January and February dip below 50F (10C) and this adds an extra challenge to training. For this reason we mixed pool and open water, especially in the early months of the year. As the training progressed and temperature raised the mix changed. Overall the early part of the training was dominated by shorter swims in the pool, many times a week. As the training progressed we cut down on the number of swims in favor of (and to force us to) swimming for longer hours.

I’m a member of SF Tsunami Master team and this is where I get most of my indoor swimming. I also really love North Bay Aquatics Saturday practices, coached by Simon, a great way to get 2 solid hours under your belt.

The Crossing

The Gear

I stick to what’s allowed by the federation but here are a few preferences I have:

Goggles: I LOVE Roka R1 for the clarity, the width and for how they stay put on your face.
Silicone Cap since I find that latex caps pull my hair and are uncomfortable.
Ear Plugs: I am really happy with these .
Desitin layer for sun protection. This is super hard to take off, but offers the best protection since it lasts for way more than 10 hours.
Vaseline (or alternatively Bag Balm) as protection from chafing. For applying this and for the above mentioned Desitin, is a good idea to wear gloves when applying the layer . Gloves are good not for protection but to keep your hands from getting horribly greasy and soiling your goggles.
Blinkies
I personally don’t like to take off my wedding ring every time I swim, I just wear a silicone band on top of it to keep it in place and to reduce the chances of losing it.

The Feeding Plan

In all the iterations during my training and through some research I learned a few things that worked for me (and may be disastrous for others):

The “God” Bottle (available from Amazon): This is a great bottle, super sturdy, wide mouth (so you don’t ingest air) and super easy to open even when your hands get The Claw.
Carbo-Pro: burns nice and smooth and hardly tastes like anything. My favorite feed for flexibility and energy.
CLIF SHOT Energy Gels (Citrus is a great flavor and the chocolate based ones are quite decadent): they burn quite quickly and they need a chaser of some fluid to be washed down, but they do the job.
Rice Mix: asking more experienced swimmers (e.g. Simon) I got the recipe of this rice based drink which I adapted to my needs. Basically blended rice with almond milk, Carbo-Pro and Almond Butter, with a spike of Nutella. The biggest difference from the original recipe is the absence of bananas, which I loath with all my heart.
Energy Blocks: (Powerbar Cherry being my current favorite)
Kind Bar (Dark Chocolate and Cherry): my favorite solid feed.
Stinger Waffle: a backup solid feed if the kind bars tire me.
Liquid Ibuprofen: as a contingency plan if my shoulders started to act up.
Berrocca: a nice bump of caffeine and a good way to flavor up the Carbo-Pro

My plan was quite simple

Odd Feeds: Carbo-Pro + Gel
Even Feeds: Rice
Every 3 hours a solid feed in addition to the liquid
Treat around the last one/two hours mark (chocolate truffles…)

I brought plenty of all of the above to be sure to last way more than the expected duration of the swim and to allow my crew to prepare more of my feeds.

Dave’s Advice

Before the swim I had a minor freak out. I was not concerned about the training, but about what could go wrong during the crossing and about any contingency I didn’t think of. Dave had some great advice based on his experience as a swimmer and as a crew chief:

Try to Negative split it: don’t go out way too fast (as I’m used to) but try to finish strong.
For the same reason don’t race with pacers. This may sound obvious or dumb, but it’s easy to get carried away by the joy of having some company and to throw the pace off.
Don’t stop for any reason and, for the love of god, don’t touch your goggles.
Feed on your back, feed under a minute, the feeding time piles up, so keep moving and don’t waste time.
Have treats and get the crew to Cheer up
Keep the kayak far and follow boat to keep a straight line.

The Crew

The Boat: Bottom Scratcher
The Observers: Dan Simonelli & Jax Cole

My Crew:

Kris “Killa” Estrada-Pozzi (my lovely wife): on feeds.
Andrew Wynn: Kayak and support swimmer
Frankie Lazzaretto: on feeds
Alex Sigal: Kayak and GoPro
Meghan Earley: Kayak and support swimmer

The Swim

Catalina Total: 20.1 mi (32.3 km — 35323.71 yds)

The days before my swim a strong heat wave hit the West Coast. This made it for a very uncomfortable ride down from SF to LA and a hellish night (no AC in our Airbnb) and day building up to the swim: I had to sleep the whole afternoon covered in wet towels to stay cool.

The crew showed up at 8:30pm at the dock and, after Dan and the captain briefed us on the rules I took a nap on the way to the island. Two hours later we were by Catalina.

Conditions were great, the Ocean was calm and the night, cooled down by a light drizzle, wasn’t windy at all.

The crew started getting ready. Kris covered me in Desitin and Vaseline and by 11:30pm I jumped into the darkness.

The first half of the night went on the wave of excitement. The most remarkable detail was the wonderful bioluminescence that was sparking at every stroke.

As the adrenaline wore off I made the first mistake of the day: I overfed. After chugging way too much rice and chasing it down with a chocolate gel I started to feel very nauseus. This, combined to the fact that the body feels naturally more tired around 2/3am slowed me down, until I finally puked and relieved my stomach a little bit.

Sunrise was almost a rebirth experience, bringing new hope, enthusiasm, and energies. This is the time I heard dolphins singing underwater and then saw their pod crossing my path. This pumped me up quite a lot and made me start to pick up my pace.

As I progressed through the day I was still a bit sick from the night. This, and the fact that all my rice went bad, made me stick with mostly liquid feeds (i.e. Carbo-Pro plus the additional gel when pushed by my crew) for the rest of the swim.

My second mistake was to look up.

The trick is always to live fully in the present moment, and to NEVER look to what’s ahead or behind.

Since when I started to see land I started to project my arrival time. By hour 7 I was growing quite annoyed by how much land seemed not to be any closer. Fortunately, this didn’t discourage me, but got me increasingly irritated by my slow pace and it’s probably part of the reason for the higher speed in the last portion of the crossing.

Even through this I followed the advice I got to never ask for how long it’s left nor for information about the progress.

The greatest joy and surprise was to be told that I was only 1 hour and a half away from the end. At this stage I was considering land as this unreachable mirage and my arrival time more of a theoretical horizon than an actual event that was going to happen.

At this mark my wonderful kayaker and friend Alex gave me a swig from a cold bottle of Coca Cola! This tasted like heaven! Cold. Crisp. Sweet. My mouth was burned by salt and the sweetness was just the best thing I could’ve hoped for. I have to say that that was one of the best things I tasted in my whole life.

Cheered up by the treat and after taking a swig of Ibuprofen (one shoulder was starting to get cranky and, with the end in sight, I saw no reason not to take the edge off) I kept pushing.

In the last stretch I was joined in the water by my crew and, unstable on my legs, I climbed on the rocky shore. 10 hours and 32 minutes! Done!

Here the full tracker.

Conclusions & Learnings

As much as I still know nothing, this experience was a great learning. Some take-home learnings are:

My tolerance to cold needs some serious focus and improvement: even if I’m not planning a longer swim the next season, I’ll want to try the EC soon. Besides it bugs me not being good at it.
My feeding plan needs some fine tuning: I need to start thinking in terms of the calories count to avoid feeling sick and/or bloated.
Favor longer swims earlier in the training: it’s just way more fun and allows for more cross-training since you can condense the yardage in fewer longer days.
Conditions, Conditions, Conditions: I was originally scheduled to swim on September 20th. That date ended up being one of the roughest in the season. Andrew as well ended up being caught in the tail of the storm during his crossing. My day was greatly different and largely due to luck. Can’t plan everything but just hope to be ready.
Pepsi/Coke is a great treat!
Human support is key: I’m not cheesy if I say that I could have never done it without the awesome support group and without my training buddies. Knowing that you can call on people to volunteer their time to support your swims is truly priceless.

Thanks

As I said above this swim would have not been possible without the awesome support from a large community. Here are a few of the people I wouldn’t have done this without:

My lovely wife Kris, who patiently supported and advised me through training and, despite being sick as dog, crewed for me. She’s always there to push me and to kick my ass if I need it.
My buddy Andrew made the training so much easier thanks to mutual motivation and to his great planning skills. It’s so hard to find someone at your exact same speed training for your exact same goal.
Frankie for being an awesome friend, for taking care of me all through the night, and for being the BEST at throwing the feeds.
Alex for being a solid kayaker, a wise counselor and an amazing friend, always taking a great care of everyone.
Meghan for bravely enduring seasickness and my driving to be there to support me through the darkest part of my swim.
Duke for all the wisdom and the support, including spending an insane amount of time on a kayak to keep me in the water.
Dave and all the NT crew for all the support, advise, and swimming together. Special gratitude to Bob for welcoming us to the Lagoon.
My swimming family at the DC, SERC, and Tsunami for all the miles crunched together.
Luke and Giacomino for being the cutest supporters I could’ve hoped for.

FAQ

All through the training I made no mystery of my goal since I find that stating it out loud helps with commitment. The reaction of people not accustomed to this type of swimming were quite striking. As usual many “less than smart” questions came up. Here a few of them:

has he been training for it?
isn’t he afraid of sharks?
At once?!
oh! a boat follows you?
can you get on the boat?
with a wetsuit right?
Have you swam from Alcatraz?!?!

Originally published at http://mrpozzi.github.io/2018/01/15/catalina-men/ on January 15, 2018.