Friday, July 23, 2010

Well today is my third day at home since my Epic swim last Monday and I was begining to feel human until I was kidnapped by Frank McNamara last night and he re introduced me to GUINNESS !!!! So today I also have my 1st Hangover in over 10 months !! Not sure if I miss them !!

I am floating on top of the World absolutley thrilled with myself and I have to pinch myself regularley to remind myself that I have Swum The English Channel.

I would like to thank all my crew who helped me to achieve my goal and a huge word of thanks goes to of you the people who sent texts tweets prayers and positive thoughts which helped me accross the Channel.

I would love to know how many people were tracking my swim on the GPS tracker it seems that everyone I speek to was watching my progress.

I will do another blog over the next few days
Monday, July 19, 2010
Liam finished his
English Channel Solo swim in 13 hrs 11 mins...... What can I say!!!! Great achievement. Im so very proud Kaye
Jim has no signal so finding it hard to tweet , keep sending tweets he will get them eventually. Last update liam doing really well they can see France no signing of landing yet.
Im here in Goudhurst with Sarah my cousin trying to pass a few hours but we are still keeping a watchful eye on the tracker. Kaye
An early start for everyone, we woke at 2.15 am . Liam slept really well even if I didnt but hey he is the one swimming. We all left Varne Ridge and down to the Marina. It was very busy there Relay Teams , solo swimmers loading boats and getting the last few minutes on dry land. A little hiccup we forgot the passports so after me speeding back to the caravan park for them it was time to leave.
Liam set off from Shakespere beach ,I am not on the boat as i dont have great sea legs so I watched him leave from the road.. The weather conditions are very good its going to be about 22 deg today. Now all I have to do is wait ...........
Sunday, July 18, 2010
OMG!!!!!!
The time is here we are off to the boat at 3.30 am the weather here is fantastic. The view from Varne Ridge is great you can see the coast of France very clearly. Thanks to everyone for the messages of goodluck we both really appreciate them.

Liam.To day is what the last year of hard trainning was for. I know in my own heart that you will make it, you have a great crew that will look after your needs and see you saftely to France. I will see you in Dover later..My love always Kaye
Well we arrived in Dover yesterday around lunch time and found Varne Ridge Caravan park our base for the next few days. I spent some time looking at the placks on the wall of all the Channel swimmers who have stayed here over the last couple of decades. Lots of Irish I must say!
Dave and Evelyn our hosts here take a very keen interest in the swimmer and they go out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.

We meet some other Channel aspirants in the Mobile Home Park (Eddie from Brazil, Thomas from Wexford/London and Luke from the UK, Steven Black and Finbarr due here tonight)
I was anxious to get in the water and have a stretch out so down to the port with the lot of us where we met allot of the gang who came over for the Sandycove Swim Camp along with Freda Streeter who was training some 50 swimmers who are either soloist's or team members.

The waves were crashing in over the harbour wall and it was quite rough inside as well. getting into the water is quite a challenge on the steep stoney beach and when in the water it was strange not being able to see your hand as it glided through its very cloudy and extra salty too.

My crew who are here with me in Dover are Kaye (wife and emotional support) Eddie (support swimmer and the reason i'm here) Imelda (invaluable knowledge and motivator) Jimmy (communications and photographer) and of course Ozzi (Kaiser & physio and massage) .

The weather has improved overnight and it was lovely on the cliffs at 6am this morning, its not quite right for a solo crossing yet but i think 1 or 2 relays are heading out. I will get a better idea from mike my pilot at Lunch time today but i may not get final confirmation of the swim till 2 hrs before....it all down to weather conditions at this stage.

We called in to the White Horse a pub where most successful swimmers go to put their name on the ceiling, the photo attached is of Eddie writing his name up and me looking on.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Track Liam by Gps
Thursday, July 15, 2010



I've got the call from my skipper and my team and I are traveling to Dover on Saturday morning next. The hope is that I will swim either Sunday Monday or Tuesday and looking at the weather i'd be hoping for Monday.


What Happens Next I hear you say!


Well I will wait in Dover until the alotted time to meet the skipper and his boat "The Gallivant"


which you can track at www.bit.ly/trackliam , and we load up the crew in the Harbour and then make our way to the Beach at the end of the pictured cliff above.

En route to the Beach I will change into speedos and start lairing on the grease (Lanolin and Vaseline) I then jump over board swim to shore and turn around and wave at the boat when the clock will start.


I am not looking to beat any time just to achieve my goal and to cross the channel. My start time is looking like 4am so it will be dark but not for long if you are tracking me you might notice that i'm not swimming in a straight line, well i'm trying to but the tide is pushing me one way and a few hours later the opposite so my swim should look like an S.


As I near the French coast there will be a strong current so I will have to conserve energy to swim through it and not be dragged up to Belgium. Asuming I make it accross I will have a few minutes on the beach after which I will swim back to the boat and we will power back to Dover....


I am still raising Money for both the Hospice and for the RNLI







Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I swam in the & hogs swim on Sunday last and it was a really tough one.
2 meter swells in places, poor enough viz and lack of local knowledge made it a very tough swim for me.

However i was minding myself for this weekends big swim which is going to be the Channel......
Monday, July 12, 2010
We took the kids out of school for the last few days and high tailed it off to Orebic (a small village on the Croatian Coast oposite the Island of Kortula).The average temperature was 29deg and the water was a lovely 22deg.
The deal with my family was a 2hr swim every 2nd day and I must say it was a great way to taper (coach may not agree but we'll soon find out if twas good or bad).
We ate loads of fish and read a couple of books and generally spent much needed time with the kids.
Well we're home nearly 5 days at this stage and although I feel very rested it has been hectic between work and fitting in some swims.

Roll on the swim 8 or 9 days to go !!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Well we are just finished 8 days of swimming in the Sandycove Swim Camp, organised by Ned Dennison the week was a tremendous sucess with swimmers from Ireland the Uk and the US all enjoying a fantastic week of weather and some great swims to boot.
I swam close to 85km last week and by Sunday i was knackered (thats over and back the channel on a bad day)
We swam every morning at 6am in Sandycove and every evening we swam in a different venue Ballycroneeen, Fermoy, Iniscarra lake, Inchegelagh with everone's highlight being the Lough Hyne Swim in Baltimore.
I'm taking a few days off now to let the body recover (slight injury to shoulder) and a massage booked tonite.
Huge Thank you to Ned and all the volunteer's
Friday, June 18, 2010
Well nearly all the training is now done, a few more big swims this weekend and the it will be my tapering period.We have had a fantastic few weeks with 2 x 2hr swims per day in Sandycove and the water temperature has come right up to a point were we can now wear shorts and tee shirt after the swim.
The Swimcamp organized by Ned Dennison has been fantastic, getting into the water with loads of lunatic's like myself and trashing it out for hours...some fine battles have been had and the up-shot of it all is that I know i'm as ready as i'm gonna be right now to tackle this Channel.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Life is so busy at the moment with some fantastic swims over the last few weeks that I am finding it hard to keep up the blogging.

Sorry
Well we had a fantastic result with the Racenight last week where I believe we have raised close to €9000.00 ....

It was a great night (twas like a wedding as I knew nearly everyone in the bar)
A huge thank you to all who showed up on the night and to those who sponsored a horse thank you.

Thank you to those who donated prizes and special word of thanks goes to Nime for the program Sean for the drawing and to Kaye foir putting up with me (last minute.com)
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
YES !!
I caught up with my training partners yesterday when I reached the 1,000,000 meters mark. That is 40,000 lenghts of a standard pool since September.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Yes its next Friday night ... if you haven't supported me already maybe you would come along next friday night to the Shelbourne Bar on Mc Curtain Street....if you can't make it don't worry you can still pledge €20 to buy a jockey or a trainer alternativly log on to Mycharity.ie and you canm support either Charity.
Thank you all again for your kind support.

Regards


Liam
Today a few of us Channel aspirants are swimming in the Dam in Iniscarra hopefully for 6 hours or so.The forecast is for an excellant day with air temp up to 24deg hopefully the water will be a toasty 13/14 deg which will allow us to swim for 6 hours.
The forecast is so good that some of our families and friends are comming to support us from the river bank and they intend to fire up the BBQ's and maybe evn go for a paddle on the lake.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Well guys I have managed to continue my training which included only 3 rest days in the last month and a total mileage of 194,500 (7780 lenghts)
My target was the 200k but a small neck injury after a tough swim in ballycroneen last tuesday night has forced me to take a couple of days off and a few visits to Jimmy Cosgrave (Chiropractor Extrodinaire)
My Race night is getting closer and i'm finding it difficult to get on the blower and beg for sponsorship and or prizes..
We are taking the weekend off as a very good friend of ours is getting married in Blarney and afterwards to Inchydonney Island......so i'd say I might have to break out and have a pint or 2......don't tell Eilis..
Sunday, May 09, 2010
The last 2 weeks have certainly been the toughest for me.
My joints are begining to creek under the pressure, I have swum nearly 100,000 meters in the last 14 days thats 4000 lengths of a 25m pool !!
Now over half of these have been in water less then 11deg.Coach has us on a very tough regeme for the next month or so with loads of hours in the open water.

My Racenight is in 3 weeks time and I need all of you to dig deep and support my swim and the chosen charities.

I don't think we will see the pool again unless the weather turns against us....

Another Degree or so would be good for the long swims though....

11 weeks to go to my swim date....

Liam
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Well we went to the river today 5 of us brave souls 3 without wetsuits and swam 5 km in the cold river water....
I was sick of Ned doing rings around me as I was so slow and he was really speedy today......


Good swim though and Thank you to all the Hurley Family for the hot tea and support Kayak's..

Liam
Well done to all of my training partners who along with myself swam for 9 hours in the pool on Friday last and then we went to the sea for over a half an hour....
Approx 1140 lenghts of the pool and then another 40 or so in the sea.... with a temperature difference of 20deg's (29 in the pool and 9 in the sea)

We all felt great after the dip in the sea.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
We are heading to the open water for the month of May...all the time
I am counting down now to my swim 12 weeks to go.
We have our last long swim in the pool tomorrow our aim is ten hours and approx 28-30km.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sink or Swim Racenight !
Shelbourne Bar, Mc Curtain Street,Cork.

I'm organising a race night to race funds for my charities.
Come along and lest have a bit of fun on the GiGi's........

Myself and a dedicated team of helpers are now out there looking for Owners,Jockeys and Trainers for our Race Card

There are some fantastic prizes to be won on the night.

I have had a fantastic 10 days training, Having accepted the challenge laid down by Coach I must say i feel the better of my training twice a day. I have swum on average 8k (320 lenghts) every day except Saturday last but best of all i am in the sea every other day swimming for at least an hour and my best is 1hr 25mins.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Coach Eillis has set me a challenge that is to swim twice a day for 2 weeks for more then 90mins and text her when i'm done!!!!
I Reckon she dosen't trust me !!
Anyway I have been doing what I was told to do and swimming twice a day...going from 27deg water to 9deg open water I even had to swim in Mayfield swimming pool last night in 31.5deg bathtub..
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Well i've been dabbling with the sea in Ballycroneen since Christmas and we all went for a dip down there after our last long swim.....
But this week the transition has been made and I swam Friday and Sunday for between 40 and 50 minutes with Eddie Irwin.
Tonight myself and the finned Gaayybor, Atlantic headed Sylvian and the Phiser duo of Rob and Ciaran swam 2 laps of Sandycove island.....
A great swim where Rob and I had to resort to some extreme warm up games to heat up...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
I have been complaining of a blocked and runny nose for the last 6 months which I was putting down to a side effect of all the Pool swimming. To my delight i discovered that I had Polyps(non cancerous growths in the sinus area) which could be removed by a simple operation.
Well job done on the 1/4/10 and after ten days rest i got back to training last Friday.

I can breath through my nose, and I am able to smell again, and of course Kaye is getting a better nights sleep from the lack of snoring......
Saturday, March 27, 2010
We had a great swim yesterday with the fastest 20k in the pool.
This was down to the type of session, we swam a 4k,3k,2k and 1k and then went back up again with nomore then a minute between each set.
A good dip in the sea at 6.8 deg was better then any ice bath...

Felling great today!!!!

Well done all who swam!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Yes its Friday the 26th March and anyone who knows me would understand that I've been out playing cards last night...... but i'm up at 5.45 trying to get a large bowl of porridge into me before our swim today
The weather looks gr8 for our dip in the sea later...

I can't wait for it!!!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
With just under 5 months to go to my swim date i'm begining to feel the pressure.
I have a niggle in my left elbow that i need to be careful of, and i'm off to the Bons next week for a bit of work on my Nose..... Its been bugging me for months now and after a visit to a specialist i discover that their is a cure and i won't be divorced for snoring!!!!
It won't affect my training shedule too much..out for no more then a week I hope.
Tomorrow we have our 3rd big swim, this time we alternate between the Pool and the open Water.
The plan is to swim 7 hours in the pool first then out a bit of lunch and then down to Ballycroneen Beach for a dip in the Ocean (an hour or so)....

Mad or what !!!
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Yes my sponsorship cards have arrived and there are 21 lines on each card.
Please send me an email if you would like me to forward a sponsorship card to you.
I Can't believe I haven't posted anything here since the 11th of Febuary.....
I will try and keep at least a weekly update if not More.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Thank you to Sarah who kickstarted my fundraising.....
there's a long way to go to my targets but hey you have to aim high as I am doing with my Channel attempt....
1,000,000 meters to swim in training only

C'mon Dig Deep Please for my Charities !!
Well Coach gave us our March training list last night..........................
She must have heard Danny telling her that her sessions were too easy!!!!!!
This on is a really hard one with lots of hard long swims.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
On Friday lastI slapped my left ear off the water and ended up with an awful earache for the weekend.....
Back in the Pool monday evening (twas my 1st time on Monday night) did 2500m.....nice and handy!!
Tuesday and Wednesday were great mixed sessions felt really good after them.

Plan to swim with Breccene Ennis on Saturday morning for a couple of hours !!

Liam
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wow did Eillish kill us this morning, She had us using paddels, pull boy, band, and swimming all strokes....
I know their's method in her madness but hey she hasn't swum 35km in the last 6 days.....

But hey thats why we love her.... its for these hard unexpected mornings.....

Thanks for pushing us Coach.


Liam
Monday, February 01, 2010
Well the seven of us "Aspirants" Channel that is !!
had a great training swim on Friday last.

The swim started in Scource 25m Swimming pool at 07.30 and our goal was to swim for 8 hours, which we managed, finishing at 15.40 having swum a total of 21,500 meters (860 lenghts of the pool)

Eilish Burns our Coach set out the session for us in 4km slots. I can honestly say that 6 hours had passed before I looked at the Clock for the 1st time.

After some jostling for position sence prevailed and Rob got us all in tow and from then on the perfect pace was swam for the duration.

I had stocked up on Pasta and Chicken for a few days in advance of the swim, a big bowl of porridge and my pieces of fruit .........the morning of the swim.....
I ate a combination of grapes/blueberries and orange/bananna/kiwi during the swim while drinking 6 ltrs of liquid.
We had a 15 min break when I ate Pasta again.....

The biggest fear I had was the Leg Cramp Issue..... thanks to a few words of advise from coach I changed my liquid intake to a mixture of Water/Cordial and a pinch of salt. Not a Cramp insight!!



Our last set of the day was a 1500m hard and I was thrilled to have plenty in the tank to be able to take it out while Rob, Donal and Ciaran stuck to my toes.

After a warmdown 6 of us got out of the pool and watched Donal Buckley swim his last hour on his own.....(he won't be late again :-) )

I must admit I thought it was mad doing such a long session in the Pool but hey its done and it went very well for all of us.
Thanks Coach !!

Liam
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Well our 1st long training swim is upon us
Tomorrow the 29th of Jan '10 the Six of us lunatic's who are training under Eilish Burns
Have agreed to swim 8 hours in Scource.
I'll let you know how I get on !
Liam
Liam
Friday, January 22, 2010

Welcome to my blog. I am preparing to swim the Channel in July 2010 and hope to use this blog to record my progress and outline my goals for myself and the charities I am supporting. I hope you enjoy it.

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Marymount Hospice

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About me

I am a 40 year old happily married man with 3 fantastic children and a very supportive wife...........And I'm going to swim the English Channel !!

I live in Cork City, Ireland and I am the owner of Sheilas Hostel (www.sheilashostel.ie) and Gabriel House (www.gabriel-house.com) .

I have returned to my childhood sport of swimming after 26 years and I now train in Source under the watchfull eye of my coach Eilis Burns.





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