I had to swim about four or five meters away from it because the boat was rocking and it was splashing waves to me. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. My guest today is Sam Penny and Sam, you just recently attempted the first crossing of the English Channel in the European winter. So I saw some of the details of your swim and it’s something that just scares the living daylights out of me. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near it. So I’ll let you explain the details of the swim, but basically something that would be ridiculous if you achieve that. Just so crazy. So first of all, welcome to the podcast and look forward to hearing more about the swim. Yeah. I’ll tell you what, one hell of an experience. So many things that went into this swim.

Basically, I just, I wanted to see if it was possible to swim the English Channel in there during their winter. Nobody had ever attempted it and thought I’d give it a crack. And the reason I gave it a crack was because I’d analyzed the daily water temperatures for about the last 10, 11 years. And at the start of December, it should be around 12 and a half degrees, you know, people swimming north channel or swimming in about 13 degrees. I swam an ice mile back in July in the snowy mountains here in Australia. And so I’ve done a lot of cold water acclimatization this year. And also last year as well, I swam the English Channel August 2018. So I’ve got that under my belt. A new coach this year to really build up my fitness, my speed. So everything was basically coming together to suggest that this was going to be a possible and a real doable swim. And so it was, I think it was the 4th of December that we finally had a break in the weather.

So let me set the scene, flew into London on about the 1st of December on Sunday in the middle of a UK typical cold snap. It was bloody freezing. Every day it was hitting a high of only about one degree, two degrees. And I saw an opening and my team with our support boat, we saw an opening coming up on the 3rd and 4th of December. So I had basically two days to get over my jet lag. When I say that we saw an opening, the only opening was a lull in the wind because it doesn’t matter really what the air temperatures are, we were looking for some calm conditions. And December in the UK is notoriously just really windy. But on the 3rd and the 4th, the wind died right down to about 10, 15 kilometers an hour. And we thought we’ll leave it for the Tuesday, which was the 3rd of December and we’ll go on the 4th, the Wednesday. So wake up early, early at about 2am on the 4th of December. The air temperature was about 6 degrees, which was the warmest I’d had in the previous 4 days.

And a barmy 6 degrees at that. And we went down to the boat. Now the water temp when I arrived in London was 12.5 degrees in Sunday. By Wednesday it had dropped to 10 degrees. And so just a massive shift, a massive drop in that water temperature. Even though it’s only 2 degrees, doesn’t sound that much. When we’re talking temperatures from 12 to 10 degrees, 12.5 degrees, it’s massive. It’s massive. And it really can make things deteriorate quite fast if you’re not ready for it. But even though the water temps were 10.5 degrees, we just thought we really need to try this swim. We didn’t know what was going to happen at 12.5 because let’s face it, nobody had ever attempted to do this swim before. So regardless of whether it’s 10 degrees or 12.5, nobody knew. So we just thought, bugger it. We have to take this opportunity to swim at 10 degrees because the weather was going to close out again. The wind forecast over the next two days was about 100Ks an hour.

So we had to go there and then. We motored out of the harbour at Dover in the UK. And as soon as we got out of the harbour, all of a sudden the boats started rocking and it was actually really rough. It was just, it was ridiculous. And I just said to Tim, Daniel, my head support guy, Tim, is it going to be this rough out there? And I thought it just might have been just what it’s like at the mouth of the harbour. But then all of a sudden Tim just goes, gee, I wasn’t expecting it to be this rough. It’s not what you want to hear. And just, oh my god. But then it’s one of those things. I’ve always said that you can only control certain things. And you take full control over what you can control. And I can control my fitness, my cold water acclimatisation and my nutrition. But I can’t control the environment. I can’t control how rough the waters were. So we got to Shakespeare Beach, which is only about 10 minutes motor from Dover.

And I’d had to spend pretty much all of that 10 minutes stripped down to my speedos so that I can get ready for the swim. I had to get one of the guys to put on all my channel grease under my arms and around my neck. But also we had to put on channel grease on vital organs like where my kidneys are, a lot on the back of my neck, just to protect myself from the really cold air. And so here I am standing for the 10 minutes in at, you know, this is at this stage. It’s four AM. It’s dark. We’re motoring. It’s windy. It’s bloody cold. And I’m in my speedos and my swimming cap and my goggles. They’re all in ski jackets and ski pants.

Yeah. And we finally got to Shakespeare Beach and, yeah, it was those, you know, Adios boys and jumped overboard.

Now, the water at 10 degrees, I think because I had so much adrenaline just pumping through me. I jumped in and it felt fine. I’d spent the previous two days at Diver Harbour swimming in the water, really acclimatizing as best I could.

And it was perfect. Sort of a hop in was, you know, the first thing that went into my mind was, oh, this is actually quite pleasant. Swam, swam to the shore. So the boat parks about 100, 150 metres off the beach. You have to swim ashore, clear the water. And then when the siren sounds on the boat, that basically signals the start of your swim. So I stood there looking out into the dark, stand as wet. There’s a breeze going. I’m only in my speedos and I’m looking out. It’s winter. And at that moment, I just recognised that not one single person on this planet had ever stood where I was at that particular moment. And it was the most amazing feeling. And then the siren went on the boat. And as soon as that siren went, I let out this massive woohoo

and straight into the water and started swimming and with the most surreal feeling of no person has gone before me to do this.

We had no idea what was going to come.

We didn’t know how this how this swim was going to pan out. But it was such at that moment, such a beautiful experience.

Yes, so from there, I swam out to the boat and then the boat starts to motor and I swim next to the boat. Usually last year when I swam the channel, I swam very close to the boat. But this year, because it was so rough, I had to swim about four or five metres away from it because the boat was rocking and it was splashing waves to me. So I’m trying to swim out through a chop and swell. Meanwhile, the boat’s pushing waves onto me. It’s dark. The side of the boat is dark. So I can’t actually see the boat. And on the boat, there’s a big spotlight that shines down on me. So I am basically blinded. And this all made it very difficult because I can’t see the waves coming and in choppy water, I’m really good. I never swallow water, but when you actually can’t see the waves that are about to wash over your face, it’s a completely different story. Yes. So now I feed every 30 minutes. And so basically going from feed to feed to feed.

I’ve spent all of this year basically on my long swings, my sort of four and six hour swings, training myself to completely shut my mind down. And it’s almost, I guess, you know, a lot of people refer it to, you know, the ultimate meditation. And I don’t do meditation probably because I do all my opens open water swimming. But I was shutting my mind off so that I could get feed to feed. I didn’t feel the cold at all. But the time between each feed, it only felt like about five, ten minutes. It was absolutely fantastic. So we’re going feed to feed. I was in such a great mental place. I didn’t feel cold. You know, the only real coldness I felt was perhaps sort of my face, you know, my face feeling a little bit numb.

And but apart from that, it was great. It was great. Now, the air temp still at six degrees and at 10 degrees was slowly, slowly starting to seep in. Got to the three hour feed still feeling great, but about 10 minutes after that, all of a sudden, I just started to basically implode. I fell into this massive hole. And this is where the hypothermia really started to set in very fast. And in the space of 10 minutes, I went from feeling absolutely amazing to every single muscle in my arms, easy enough. And I was swimming with claws. I just could not I couldn’t do anything. And I was starting to from the rough water, starting to get these sort of baby vomits happening. The sun, the sun had just started to to peak up over the horizon. And it was and I was starting to feel quite disorientated, orientated. The sun rose from where I wasn’t expecting it to. So I’d spent the previous half an hour of twilight trying to work out

what this orange glow was on the horizon. And I just couldn’t I just couldn’t work work this out. And then that last 10 minutes, I realized, you know, that things were starting to go turns sour. I was starting to get very heavy in the water. I I also felt like I was

beginning to drown and and I stopped. And I just said to Tim on the boat, Tim, I feel shit. And I wanted to make this call whilst I was still lucid, whilst I still was in the mental position to make the call. And he goes, do you want to cut it? Yeah, we’re cutting it. So we called we called the swim there. And then, you know, I could have soldiered on for more. But at that stage, I had a good eight hours or so left of swimming. You know, could have gotten to four, you know, maybe five. But by doing that, I would have put myself at much greater risk. The risk of swimming with hypothermia, you know, can be, you know, can be fatal.

And for the guys, you know, for the guys on the boat, it was more important to make the call there and then. And we did I swam around to the duckboard at the back of the boat. And started to climb up the ladder. But because my hands had all seized up, my arms had seized up. I actually couldn’t hold on to the ladder. I got halfway up the ladder and fell back into the sea. And it freaked everybody out on the boat because they just had visions that they were going to have to actually dive in and save me. And not one of them wanted to touch the water because it was bloody cold. And so I swam back to the boat and got a couple of rungs up the ladder. And one of the other guys, Matt, this massive burly bloke, just grabbed me by the back of my speedos and went up onto the back onto the boat, gave me the world’s biggest wedgie.

And I hopped on the boat. My, you know, like I said, my arms were all seized up. My hands couldn’t work. And so I couldn’t pick my wedgie out. They got me into my tracksuit pants, a massive deck jacket and, you know, started, you know, just trying to warm me up. And I had to live with this wedgie for about the next 40 minutes until we get back, got back to to Dover Harbour. Just make that the cover of your DVD if they make a video of it. If anyone got a photo. Thankfully, no one took a photo because they were a bit more concerned than taking happy snaps. Oh, it was. But I tell you what, it was it was a great experience. And I’ve been able to spend a lot of time reflecting on this swim. And, you know, a lot of, you know, a lot of people sort of, you know, say you’re crazy and you’re mad. But, you know, a lot of work went into this swim.

And I certainly put in put in the effort to make this a possible swim at 12 and a half degrees. I definitely believe that I could have come extremely close to making it. But I think just, you know, being down at 10 was obviously just too much.

But I see this swim as a really achievable swim. And I think that person who cracks a winter channel crossing, you know, hats off to them, it’s going to be an absolutely remarkable feat. And whether that’s me, I don’t know.

But yeah, I’m certainly keen to

to continue my cold training, continue my open water training. But also, you know, share my experience with it because I really, I really want to see someone give this a crack. This, I believe, is really a new frontier, particularly with the English channel. Yeah, cracking this in winter is it’s going to be a remarkable feat. Yeah, well, I think by I mean, a lot of people will listen to this podcast and see this video and and I’ll probably put it into the minds of quite a few people. And it’s good that you’re not obviously not possessive of this is I need to get this first. I need to be the one that cracks it. And obviously, you know, you want that to happen. But for someone to to do the swim, and I think it will, you know, maybe whatever it takes five, ten years, certainly someone will will get there because it seems like open water swimming is really just exploded over the last couple of years and and people are attempting bigger, crazier swims.

Obviously, Sarah’s four way crossing and a number of other swims out there that people are starting to do. And it’s I love it. I love that open water swimming is really taken off like it has. And and so many more people are doing it. And there’s a couple of things that you mentioned about your experience there that I want to go into. The first one is shutting your mind off. What what do you do? What do you focus on or what don’t you focus on in order to do that? What’s your strategy?

Well, my my my strategy when I go out swimming is that I count. So I count to ten. So I basically count my breath, you know, one, two, three and count that. At the same time, you know, when you wake up and you’ve got that crappy song in your in your head, I usually and I’m horrible with lyrics. So I know half a line of a really crappy song. And so I’m counting to ten and also have that going in my mind. But by just simply doing that doesn’t allow my mind to think about anything else. So it doesn’t let you think about how uncomfortable you are, how sore you are, how cold it is, how bored you are or anything like that. It really focuses your mind. Now, last when I did that winter channel attempt,

because the water was so rough, I was wasn’t able to get into a rhythm. And because of that, I wasn’t able to get into my routine of counting to ten. But because I have done it so much in practice, so much of closing my mind off, I was then able to, I guess, adapt my mind to the situation and just completely shut it down.

That’s I found that when I was training for the Rot Ness channel. My long swims are typically done with a friend of mine and we’d go down to Half Moon Bay here in Melbourne and just do our long swims, whatever it might be, like we started with six Ks and eventually built up to I think it was about 18 Ks on the last one. And especially on those those really nice mornings, and it’s obviously easier to shut your mind down when it’s nice conditions and the sun’s out and everything, but especially on those nice mornings where we’d be swimming next to each other and it’s you just get into this rhythm where we’re basically going next to each other, stroke for stroke. And I’d be singing different songs in my head or just counting the breasts or counting the strokes. And it’s just like you come out of that a couple of hours of swimming and your mind is just like everything’s at peace. And you can just see things so clearly.

It’s such a great feeling and you can get that so many ways. But I think open water swimming, because it’s that slight sensory deprivation being in the water, you can really feel that a lot more than than in some other other sports. And it’s I love it. And that’s why I haven’t done many long swims lately. But I’m looking forward to getting back into that that sort of mode because it’s so good, just like mentally, it’s great. But obviously the physical that the feeling you get as well, just it releases all those chemicals that feel so good afterwards. That, you know, I I can see why you’re such a happy person all the time. It seems like doing all that all that long swimming. Yeah, it’s it’s absolutely fantastic. And being able to get into the ocean allows you to do it. It’s a lot. It’s a lot more difficult in a pool to do it because you know, you count in laps, you’ve got your tumble turns, which really sort of interrupt your rhythm.

But, you know, with with open water, getting into an ocean or a lake or, you know, rivers, you do get that longer stretch where you can, you know, to really get into the zone as people refer it. And, you know, I’m lucky I’m here on the Sunshine Coast. And, you know, regardless of what the, you know, how rough the water is, I go out, you know, because, you know, with open water swimming, you know, if it’s say, you know, for example, Rotnest or even the English Channel, you always have to prepare for the worst, prepare yourself for the worst and, you know, hope for the best. And so I go out regardless of what it is. So if I’ve if it’s Saturday and I’ve got to go out and do for a week, I go out and do for our swim Saturday, I go out, regardless of how rough it’s going to be. It’s just, you know, what you have to do. But the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more you enjoy it. And, you know, even even the rough weather swimming,

you start to enjoy that sort of stuff. It’s more of a challenge and you feel certainly invigorated. But you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot more than if it was just a really flat lake swim. Oh, definitely. We the last open water swim that Lysandra and I did before the channel was it was like, I don’t know, 40, 50 kilometer an hour winds. And it was choppy. It was just it was cold as well. And we didn’t do what we did intended in terms of the the time because I just I struggle in the cold. But we still we went out there like, well, we’re here. We’re going to do it. We’re fine. We’ll be safe out there. Let’s just get in there and do it. And, you know, you come out of that. And it’s it’s one of those things that sucks at the time. But, boy, afterwards, you go, that was actually pretty, pretty good. And, you know, it’s it’s it’s something that is certainly

good. It’s good to have those challenges because it makes everything else in life seem a little bit easier as well. And it’s good to it’s good to suffer in those ways. You know, it’s there’s a guy there’s a guy who makes documentaries mostly on running and kind of kayaking. He’s a guy called Bo Miles. And I came across some of his videos a couple of weeks ago. And he’s he’s got this attitude for pretty similar to you, actually, this attitude where he’s he just revels in the in the in the struggle. And he’s he’s running these marathons and all this sort of stuff. And he loves going out, exploring and just being out in nature. And he’s just like, you know, he’s run 30 K’s. He’s got chaff on his legs and his back and from having a backpack on. And he’s just like, oh, yeah, it’s just part of it. And yeah, it sucks. But how good is this? We get to be outdoors. I get to go exploring and he’s really looking on the bright side of things.

And it seems like that’s something that you’re able to to do well as look on the at the positives, even in a in a situation which could have a lot of negatives. What’s your is that something you’ve always had in terms of your personality and the way you go about things? Oh, yeah, definitely. Look, you know, getting out open water swimming, every swim is different. You’ve got different sea life. The conditions are different. Everyone, it’s it’s basically, you know, for me, I look at it as a new adventure. You know, I’ve done a lot of cool stuff in my life. And I always look for.

I guess new things to do and new adventures, you know, just to make it it exciting. And the more you do it, the more you enjoy being uncomfortable. You know, I recently grew up at Noosa and we went out swimming there. And it was seriously the most beautiful day. It was crystal clear. We saw turtles got too close to some to some rocks. The sea snakes, the stingrays, you know, a thousand fish. And then so the next weekend I was at Maloola Bar and it was all cloudy and murky, but, you know, only 40 kilometers apart, but just two completely different swims and rather than, you know, when you’re in the pool, it’s the same pool and it’s the same conditions and it’s the same temperature. But when you’re out in in the ocean, every single swim is different. It’s a new adventure. And just I think it’s why I have just been enjoying it so much. I’ve only been ocean swimming really for about the last three, four years.

But, man, I’m absolutely loving it. And the more I swim, the more adventures I have. I was just looking back at some of the one of your messages from

when was I think it was March or something when you first got in touch. And there’s a couple of other swims that you’ve got that you’ve got planned, which are quite adventurous swims as well. Do you want to talk a bit about those other ones that you’ve got planned over the next year or two? Well, actually, they were OK. So the this English this winter channel swim was a very secretive swim because it was it was a record attempt. You know, the record for the latest swim in the year was third of November. And, you know, there I was on the fourth of December trying to smash that record.

There were there were a couple, two or three people around the world that I knew that if they caught wind of it, they would be able to have a crack and be that first person to attempt a winter swim. So I was originally training for a double channel crossing in July next year. And so because of that, you know, my fitness was right up. But when I saw the opportunity only about three months ago for this winter channel swim, that’s where I changed my attempt at doing a double to winter channel swim. So, yeah, so it was basically three months of secrecy. My my training team support team were also on to secrecy. Everybody was still talking about, you know, everybody’s asking, how’s your training coming along for your double? Yeah, it’s good. It’s good. Yeah, so it was all a bit of a sort of smoke and mirrors, so to speak, to keep the keep this winter channel swim a secret until until the news broke. Yeah, understandable.

And you were talking about is it still something you want to do to do a marathon 42 K’s swimming? Is that still an arc and that would be a great one. See, I, you know, living here on the Sunshine Coast, a beautiful piece of coast is from from Maloula Bar to Nusa. And it turns out that it’s actually 42 kilometers by swimming. Nobody’s ever swam that one. All the marathon swims pretty much are across channels where the entire time you don’t see anything apart from open water. Whereas this one, I just thought how great it would be to swim this 42 K’s and actually being able to look at something, being able to look at the coast the entire time. And because it’s such a beautiful coastline, it’s really quite untouched. You know, you’ve seen all the sand dunes and things such as, you know, icons like Mount Coulomb and also Nusa National Park. Yeah, so that’s definitely going to do that one. That I reckon that’s just going to be a beautiful one.

Also, there’s another one that I’m eyeing off, which is around Great Keppel, swim up there. And I think we’re looking at that. I think it’s August, July or August. I can’t recall. What’s the distance on that one? That’s about 20 K’s. Yeah. Yeah. But I just, you know, what a what a beautiful place to swim that would be. So there’s so many, you know, I’m starting to use open water swimming as a new way to to seek adventure and to see to see things that nobody’s seen before. And, you know, there’s a lot of people who are starting to join me in in these swims just because, you know, they want to see what I’m seeing. And, you know, to see all this wildlife and, you know, sort of all the turtles and the, you know, the stingrays and dolphins and, you know, so Wobby Gong sharks and those kinds of things. They’re just it’s absolutely remarkable to be in their environment and at the same time, just doing something that, you know, 99.9% of the population

hasn’t ever done before. There’s really something to, I like looking at a map and going, oh, cool. Like I ran from here to here or I swam from here to here and just kind of seeing that, that that’s possible. And especially like, cause I don’t have you done the the RIP swim in here in Melbourne where you go across the heads there that grant seedly organizers. So I did that two years ago, I think it was. And that was, that was a really cool experience and felt like a real adventure out there. Cause you got these big ships going past and the Spirit of Tanzania going, you know, 100 meters in front and all these big, you know, ships and it’s really, really deep there. So just couldn’t see the bottom at all. And it just really felt like you’re out in the middle of nowhere. And, you know, after that, like the adrenaline for me was just pumping. And I just felt like I was just really, it took me about an hour to really calm down

from that swim cause I think just, you know, the adrenaline and the whole, the whole experience had really just, you know, it had really just sort of stirred something in me where I thought, shit, that was really exciting. And then so if you’re looking at the map from Nusa to Malula Bar and, you know, such an awesome piece of coast and we’ve got two camps up in Nusa next year in 2020 where it’s just, it’s so, it’s so nice there. And, you know, if you look at that bit of coast and you look at that on the map and go, I actually swam from all the way around. That’s a pretty cool thing. And, you know, the good thing about this stuff is you can be creative with it too. There’s no, there’s no rules around what, you know, constitutes an exciting swim. Like obviously the English channel, you got the rules and all of that stuff to make the swim count. But that’s a good thing about open water swimming. There’s so many possibilities that it’s really up to you

and what you want to do and what you want to achieve. And, you know, you can make it up all on your own which is what you’re doing by the sounds of it. Yeah, oh yeah, exactly. You know, what was it, July, doing an ice mile up in the snowy mountains at Lake Krakenbach. And, you know, that was ridiculous. So it was 3.9 degrees water and it was snowing when I swam. But, you know, once again, you put the work in, things are achievable. I only started ocean swimming, you know, not long ago. And I reckon probably about three, four years ago someone said I had to go and do a 1K ocean race. I’ll probably say that it was about 950 meters too far.

But I really had this dream of swimming the English channel all my life. You know, I’ve grown up with, you know, seeing, you know, English channel swimmers like, you know, Cece Moroney and Hurt of Des Renford and, you know, all these guys that just seemed so mystical. And I watched, I reckon, every YouTube clip of people swimming the English channel. I just thought, you know, I want to do that. And I found a coach and I started getting in the ocean and in the space of what, two years, three years, there I was swimming the English channel. You know, swimming the English channel is the Everest of open water swimming. And it’s possible, but even, you know, getting out and doing, say, 5K swims or, you know, 10Ks, those kinds of things, you know, you go at your pace and you go at your level of fitness and expertise. And you just, the idea is to get out there and enjoy it. You know, if you’re racing, it’s hard. But if you’re not out there racing

and the aim is just to finish that swim, then it can be such a beautiful experience and, you know, really enjoyable. But, you know, you can work up to these big swims, you know, in the space of a year or so. That’s what I like about your, I guess you were reflecting back on your, on the swim a couple of weeks or last week was that it’s, you’re happy to, you’re really enjoying the journey by the looks of it. It’s not, it’s not about the destination. And that’s, and really that’s, that’s where the enjoyment comes from. Because if you, if you don’t make the crossing, it’s like, well, the last, you know, however many months have been a failure. It’s like, well, no, not at all. It’s like the end result, it’d be great to get there. But in reality, it’s like, it’s those open water swims. It’s that mental toughness that you’ve built up. It’s the things you’ve seen out in the ocean. That’s what really, you know, can stick with you

and can make, is what makes life enjoyable. It’s not about hitting those goals along the way, even though they are nice to do. It’s a smaller part of the entire thing. Yeah, absolutely. The journey is probably 99% of the enjoyment of it. Getting out and doing the event, whether it’s English Channel or Ice Mile or something like that, it’s almost like the victory lap. You know, it’s just the end part, more of a formality of starting that moment. But the, you know, the whole journey, whether it’s a year or two years, however long it is, that’s the most rewarding part, knowing that you’re standing on the shores of England, about to start on that swim and knowing how much work you put into it, how, you know, all the effort, the, you know, the discipline and, you know, but also the sacrifices that you’ve had to make to get to that point. It’s personally such a brilliant experience to have.

You know, when I first signed up to do the English Channel, I, first person I contacted was Trent Grimsey, who, you know, coaches people to make English Channel crossings. And he gave me my program and I looked at this thing. It was, you know, really quite daunting, but I just said, well, you know, if this really is my dream, then I have to do the training. And for me, that was going to be the real test. Can I dedicate myself to getting out of bed, you know, five mornings a week, doing what Trent Grimsey tells me to do.

And if I can do that, yes, I’ll, you know, I know that the man will deliver me to the shores of England. And sure enough, you know, with the right coach, I did exactly what he told me to do and it works. You know, it was just, and I am so proud of myself for being disciplined and dedicated to following the program. And, you know, let’s face it, it’s why you have a coach, you know, to, for someone to tell you what to do.

But, you know, when you’re paying a coach money, you know, what’s the point if you don’t, if you don’t do what they say? Yeah, that’s exactly right. No, it doesn’t take much accountability to have you actually follow through on things. Like a friend of mine has just started on program, she’s doing triathlon, started on program with a coach. And the first session was a swim session that she had to do and wasn’t feeling good at all that day. It was feeling kind of sick, wanted to get out, but the thought in her mind was, like she got halfway through the session and would have otherwise gotten out. But the thought in her mind was, oh, I don’t want to be this to be the first session that I have with the coach and to tell him that I actually had to get out of the pool, that I got out of the pool because I wasn’t feeling well. So it’s just, yeah, it doesn’t take a lot to really just help you sort of follow through with those things.

And that can either be just entering an event. Like once I’d entered Rotnest, I started the training and I didn’t sort of, you know, I wasn’t going to cut myself short that way. And it’s just in the back of your mind, it’s like, oh, I’ve got that coming up, I need to do it. So as soon as there’s some sort of accountability there or some sort of like a deadline or you’ve booked in, like that’s what can really make you follow through with things. And yeah, and you know the difference between having something there that’s coming up compared to not having something set in stone. It’s like, well, I could go to the pool or I could just keep watching the end of this TV series. It doesn’t take a whole lot. Yeah, well, that’s exactly right. And I use my sort of goals as my massive motivator. I swim at Kwanapool under a coach called Michael Sage who’s the Australian Open Water Coach. And so you can imagine that the sets we do are

pretty massive, but the kids that I swim with, the 15 to 20 year olds, they all race at nationals. There’s probably five, six of them on the Australian Dolphins team. And I’m the slow old bloke at the end of the lane. But every single session I reckon that I have, that I’ve had there, four days a week, I just want to stop and make some excuse to hop out of the pool. But when those thoughts start to go through my head, I start to visualize why I’m there.

It’s to swim the channel. And I also say, I’ve got this phrase that goes around my head almost every day. I didn’t come this far, I only come this far. I haven’t done the last three months of training just to quit now. And if you quit now, you’re gonna make an excuse for next time, you’re gonna keep quitting. And so I’ve never quit a session.

I’ve never tried to take a shortcut. And yeah, you just need to stop yourself from quitting. And the more you get in the pool or out in the ocean or if it’s running, the more you get out running,

the more you teach yourself not to quit. The amount of times that I want to quit doesn’t reduce, but it’s easier to talk myself into continuing on and putting the effort in. And to the point of, I can suppress that side of me, which is wanting to stop as opposed to the part that wants to really soldier on and achieve better. Yeah, and it sort of builds up. You get that momentum going with your training and how you’re feeling. And it’s easy to get out of bed. And you’re just in the habit of having those successful habits, I guess, or traits, they just continue to build up. And that only makes it easier. It’s like, if you haven’t been training for a few weeks, it’s very hard to get up those five o’clock starts at the start, but as soon as that’s like three, four weeks in, much easier to do. So it helps once you’ve got that ball rolling. Well, Sam, thanks so much for being on the podcast. And for anyone who wants to learn more about what you’re doing

or keep in touch, where’s the best place for them to go? Oh, either my website, sampenney.com or my Facebook page, which is Sam Penney middle-aged bloke Bixen Swingood.

Good, I’m sure there’s only one page called that. So that’d be easy to find. And we’ll provide a link on our website as well in the show notes here. So Sam, thanks again and all the best with your swimming. And I’m sure I’ll see you somewhere up on the sunny coast in the next couple of months. Yeah, fantastic. Thanks, Brenton. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you’d like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.