The Worlds Best Gives His Support..!

Big Ricks 'Basher' Bates;
Paul has his mind on swimming even when he is skiing in the Alps.!

Things really are starting to fall into place, after weeks of seemly doing loads of ground work which lead  nowhere, this week has been totally different. Our British Heart Foundation flyer is almost ready to printed, we have to thank Warren and Charlotte at the BHF for all their hard work and understanding over the past weeks. Thanks to them we now have something that we all think demonstrates perfectly the reason why 'Big Ricks' team are swimming the English Channel..!

On the sponsorship front that to is also on the move, thanks mainly to Richard, we hope to have some great news by the end of the week in terms of amounts. We, as a team, cannot thank everyone enough for your support, no matter how much every penny will go to help save lives.!! It's that simple..

We have some more great news this week, Thomas Lurz has agreed to lend his support to 'Big Ricks' Team, for those of you who don`t about Thomas, well he is arguable the best open water swimmer in the world today, he is a multiple World Champion and Olympic bronze medallist from the 2008 games.


Thomas has been voted 'World Open Water Swimmer' of year on three occasions. We are very lucky as a team to count on the support and advice of Thomas and we thank him for taking time out of his busy training schedule to help us..

Thomas Lurz
The worlds No1 Open Water Swimmer

All things Channel are going great, The British Heart foundation flyer has been finished, so hopefully that will be printed of ASAP . all the training is going to plan..all the team are starting to  get   fit and fast..all the hard work we are doing in and out of the pool really is showing.!! its great to see...and gives us a lot of hope for the months to come   that we really can achieve our swim goal and get under the magical  10 hour mark for the Channel..!!!!!! 

Basher still makes time to swim 
while on Holiday.!!

  If you wish to support 'Big Ricks' English Channel challenge in aid of The British Heart          Foundation and Cancer Research UK,then please log onto our Virgin Money Giving Page;

                               Big Ricks Channel Swim 2011 Virgin Money Giving

This Weeks Sessions....

Monday 24/1/11

Warm Up: 600..( 3x200..1st 200 Freestyle, 2nd 200 backstroke,3rd 200 choice stroke)

Main Set: : 3600..(6 x 600..1st 600 Straight, 2nd 600 (3x200) ,3rd 600 straight , 4th 600 (6x100) ,5th 600 straight , 6th 600 ( 300x200x100) ) have  almost no rest after each swim..only 10 seconds at most.!!. try to swim at even pace, well within our selves.., looking to double this set this set to 12x600 by end of January 2011.

Swim Down:..Easy paced 400..still thinking of stroke technique even though its our warm down swim.

Thursday  27/1/11

Warm up:..600..( 3x200..1st 200 freestyle , 2nd 200 freestyle Pull, 3rd 200 freestyle )

Main Set...Pyramid ..(100,200,300,400,500,400,300,200,100) working at a good pace..its meant to be a  hard swim don`t be scared of it. working on 1min 30sec per 100..

Swim Down:...nice 6x2..backstroke 1st length choice 2nd length 

Saturday 29/1/11

Warm Up: .. 600 easy paced..thinking bi lateral breathing, thinking a strong long stroke, 

Main Set: ..7x400( 2x400, 4x200,3x4,4x100,6x2) again working at a good pace, maybe 80%.only resting for 5 seconds after each swim..its our way to keep record of the distances we are doing and trying to make it a little more interesting than just doing a 2800m stright off..

Swim Down: Nice easy 6x1 choice..