Reviews

Review by Montserrat Tresserras (from Madrid, Spain)

In page 170 of your wonderful book "Dover Solo", you thank the 444 brave Channel swimmers who preceeded you in your Channel swim. Lots of thanks: I'm among them!!! I swam the Channel in 1958 and 1961 and I wish to congratulate you for your book.

"Dover Solo" is a very good help for the aspirants and for readers who are devoted to long distance swimming.... Your book is very, very good; it contains all the things about training, feeding, preparation, cold acclimation, etc.

Review by Arnie Green

Solo Swimming the English Channel by Marcia Cleveland

This is a book that any swimmer will find rewarding. It's a snapshot of three years in the life of a working woman, wife, and USMS swimmer, culminating in her 9 hour, 44 minute swim of the English Channel on July 29, 1994 -- making her the 445th person to complete the official Channel Swim.

Like any worthwhile accomplishment, it did not just happen.

"I set up a long-range training schedule and gradually increased my swimming yardage to a level which would give me the endurance to swim the distance," Ms. Cleveland writes. She increased her yardage from 20,000 per week to 45,000, supplemented by twice-a-week weight training. For her final six weeks' training she averaged 80,000 yards per week. She knew she needed this kind of regimen to be ready for the Channel's 23 mile distance in the Strait of Dover. And because the summer water temperature in the Channel averages only 60 degrees F. (compared with most indoor pools which are usually set at about 80 degrees) some serious "acclimation" was required. This she did by swimming in water as cold as 48 degrees F., and by moving from her home in New York City to Bailey Island, ME for a three week "training camp" in the cold waters of Merriconeag Sound.

"Being in Maine before my Channel swim made the difference between just crossing the Channel and swimming it as well as I did," she writes.

But her book is a lot more than a "how-to-swim the Channel," or a memoir. It's a compelling look at one swimmer's determination to accomplish a major life goal without sacrificing marriage, career, or friends.

It may well be classified as a "how-to be a dedicated swimmer without sacrificing everything else in your life," book. As such, it offers good advice to all of us who swim.

In February, 1998, Ms. Cleveland and her husband, Mark Green, (to whom this book is dedicated), had their first child, Julia.

"Although my family is my top priority," the author writes, "swimming will always be a part of my life. Even with a super-busy schedule, I make sure swimming and fitness remain within the big picture."

Add Dover Solo to your bookshelf. It will inspire you to keep swimming and to keep fitness within the "big picture" of your life.

Dover Solo, 176 pps, illustrated, MMJ Press, 1999. $20.00 U.S., plus $4.00 shipping and handling, check or money order, available from the author through the website at www.Doversolo.com, by e-mail at Doversolo@aol.com, or via snail mail:
Marcia Cleveland
P.O. Box 252
Riverside, CT 06878-0252
USA