Channel & Distance Training Week Itinerary

We will meet in the late afternoon for the mandatory safety briefing. Topics covered include: swim preparation, swim routes, feeding, prevailing weather, and safety procedures. We will then complete an acclimatisation swim in a sheltered bay. This allows the swim guides to assess your stroke and start preparing an individual plan for you for the week. Following this we will relax and have dinner, with time to discuss the week ahead. (If for any reason guests are unavoidably delayed, the briefing may be deferred to Sunday morning.)

After breakfast we will jump in for our first swim (45 min to 1 hour) which will be a bay swim at Kanali. If not completed the day before, during the session the guides will be film you above and below the water. This will be a continuing theme throughout the week. Regular filming is an invaluable tool, and at the end of the tour you will receive all your films for future reference. The afternoon swim will be a slightly longer swim (up to 1.5 hours) allowing you to think about the stroke session.

After breakfast, we will embark on an exciting long swim to the historic Castle Island (Bourtzi). This swim is approx. 2 hours in the water (although adapted depending on your personal challenge). After a well-deserved lunch, we’ll head out once more for a bay to bay swim, east out of Kanali, towards Askeli (up to 3 hours in the water). In the evening we will host a seminar on ‘mental preparation’ for a Long Distance swim over drinks and nibbles. That evening, we will complete our night swim to give you an opportunity to try out swimming in the dark.

Today we will run one long swim along Poros’ beautiful southern coastline (up to 4 hours) which will enable you to experience an extended time in the water and put feed regimes into practice. The afternoon offers a chance to relax prior to a long swim the following day. We will continue with the informal seminars on topics such as swim preparation (logistics), training schedules, feeding programmes and support crews.

An early breakfast, after which we will start the mandatory 6 hour qualifying swim (or your equivalent qualifying swim if you are training for another event or a relay).  We try to ensure you qualifying swim is as varied as possible. Your swim will be a mixture of bays and coastlines. The experience you have gained during the week will give you the best opportunity to see what you can achieve! For the solo Channel swimmers in training, it will be the mandatory six-hour qualifying swim, and for all other guests we will have agreed a time to work to as your longest swim. All of you will be supported all the way by the guides with appropriate feeds and words of encouragement.

Today will be a relaxing day of recovery after the long swim on Wednesday, with a gentle recovery swim. If the weather dictates, we may use today to complete the long swim if this isn’t possible on Wednesday. The rest day will include a late breakfast and the chance to chill. We also use today to chat collectively about the long swim, continue with seminars and advice and share suggested improvements to existing training programmes. Lunch will be arranged in a local taverna, but the key to the day is to relax and enjoy your surroundings.

As this is the last day, there will be a short pre-breakfast swim as you prepare for your onward journey.