Diana nyad training program

Unlike running a marathon, climbing an awe-inspiring mountain peak or trekking the Appalachian Trail, there's no guidebook for this one. When Nyad reached out to exercise physiologist Tim Noakes, Ph. Nyad's event, he said, what she's asking of her body, is as good as off the map. In other words, on paper, it falls under the heading of "not humanly possible. Mark Sollinger, one of the boat drivers, agrees. She's writing the roadmap.

It's not like we can go to some body of information and say this is what we need to do. Not only was she training, she was her own guinea pig at the same time. Nyad's training started in secret about six months before she told a soul what she was doing. She began by testing the waters, swimming just 25 minutes at a time in a small country club pool with fins to take the pressure off of her shoulders.

By October, about three months after she first dipped a toe, she was up to four- and five-hour pool swims and in January she made up an excuse to take a trip to Mexico for a frigid 6. Completing that test drive sealed the deal: She was going to do this. The first person she told was Bonnie Stoll, her best friend and business partner they own a fitness company, BravaBody, targeted at women older than 50 who would become her head trainer.

It's Stoll who sits on the lower deck of the boat, fixated on Nyad for every stroke of her training swims, watching for changes that could indicate danger. Stoll, who figured out the proportion of water, sports drink, protein and electrolyte gel that will keep Nyad hydrated and fueled, and hopefully prevent the violent retching that marked early distance swims like this.

And it's Stoll who glops Aquaphor onto Nyad's angry-red, chaffed shoulders every hour and a half throughout the swim. The duo also works out together nearly every day, just as they have for much of their year friendship. On land, Nyad's workouts are simple and targeted, and work in opposition to the swimming: The more she swims, the less she does out of the water. At the height of her land training, up until about January, she'd do burpees a day: a perfect-form military-style push-up paired with a vertical jump to engage and strengthen just about every muscle in her body.

Early on she would bike miles every Friday, but by April it was time to put the bike away. Too much of virtually any form of cardio other than swimming builds the legs too much -- counterproductive when you're trying to be as buoyant as possible over some odd hours of swimming.

To train in earnest required searching for a body of water she could do eight, nine, 10 and up to hour swims through the winter and spring. Along with her nephew, Tim Wheeler, a filmmaker who is making a documentary about Nyad's story, the pair researched as far as Fiji, but ultimately settled on St. Over the course of the winter she spent 10 days at a time in St.

The book is 30 years old and still gives sane advice on exercise and diet. Exercise machines have come a long way in this time period though - some of the machines she uses look like medieval torture devices. Gini rated it it was amazing Jul 19, Susan Crowe rated it really liked it May 17, Kent added it Sep 14, Rindelle marked it as to-read Sep 23, Holly marked it as to-read Oct 11, Priscila Dantas marked it as to-read Feb 11, Teya Voyce marked it as to-read Jul 28, Nancy marked it as to-read Aug 22, Mohsenfahmy Moussa marked it as to-read Aug 22, Rebecca marked it as to-read Oct 02, Georgia marked it as to-read Feb 16, Barbara Wendelberger marked it as to-read Jun 01, Patti added it Oct 15, Maureen Flatley marked it as to-read Dec 25, Kristi marked it as to-read Dec 31, Elena Quilter marked it as to-read Apr 06, Robin Griswold marked it as to-read Aug 28, Lisa Olmstead marked it as to-read Jun 23, Alan Field marked it as to-read Oct 05, Chelsea marked it as to-read Dec 06, Sadie marked it as to-read Oct 19, Angela Jones marked it as to-read May 26, Last year, Nyad claimed that had lined up at Hamilton to start the race.

A four-hour swim can hardly be called epic, so Nyad also inflates the time. In a presentation last May , her ballooned to over 18 hours. In her Beachbody program , Nyad reported winning at Hamilton by swimming across the lake — rather than 20 times around a half-mile course near the beach — in 37 hours and 38 minutes.

Ideal conditions also fail the epicness test, so Nyad fiddles with the thermostat. She drops the water temperature — variously reported between 64 and 66 — down to