As triathletes, we can certainly appreciate extreme endurance efforts. Two New York-based swimmers will make the brave stroke across the mighty English Channel this August. Inside Triathlon contributor Amy Wu caught up with Channel-aspirant Willy Blumentals to ask about his motivation, training and nutrition.

Willy Blumentals will celebrate his 36th birthday on August 13 having crossed the English Channel.

By day he’s the program director for medical data analytics at Roche Laboratories in New Jersey, but outside of work swimming is his passion. For the past year he’s focused on training for the English Channel. After swimming in Croatia with SwimTrek—a tour operator of open water swim vacations—in 2006, he started thinking about tackling a swim that is considered the Mount Everest for swimmers.

Blumentals leaves for Dover, England, August 1 and is scheduled to swim sometime between August 7 and 16. “Not a day goes by where I don't think about this,” he says, as he prepares for the final leg of training.

How did you get into open water swimming?
Back in 1996, a family friend took part in a triathlon in Florida. The triathlon required a one-mile swim, and when he took a longer time to complete the swim, I felt that I could do better. That's when I started looking for open water ocean swims.

When did you train for the English Channel?
I first seriously began training for the English Channel in July 2007 by swimming across the 26-mile Santa Barbara Channel as part of a six-person relay team. It set the stage for a lot of United States Masters Swimming workouts indoors during the fall months. This usually involved practice at least three to four times a week—with interval sets leading to a 3,000- to 5,000-yard workout.

How did you train for the English Channel?
I did a series of two- to four-mile open-water practices in the Gulf of Mexico at Florida’s Fort de Soto Park while visiting family during the holidays. The water temperature ranged from 63 to 65 degrees, but it gave me an idea of what I might expect—only that it will be colder. There were some days where the Gulf swims were almost completely against the current. The pool training continued through the spring, and I also took part in the Tampa Bay marathon swim as part of a two-person relay in April 2008. After a couple of races in the early summer, I have spent the last month consistently building to longer swim sets (15km to 20km), even though the waters off Brooklyn are quite warm now.

How important is diet in your training?
Diet is important, though I have to admit I haven't focused on it as much as I probably should have during my training. It's important to gain some weight, but not on junk food. Eating healthy foods, especially those high in protein content, is helpful. That's what I have tried to do during the past several weeks. Besides staying hydrated during long workouts, treating yourself to a smoothie afterward is a simple and healthy reward.

How do you mentally prepare for the English Channel?
Mentally, I like to visualize what the swim might be like from start to finish—imagining my stroke and style under different conditions. It's pretty simple: My only advice on doing the Channel is if you can dream it, you can do it. I dream to do it in August.

What is your next big challenge after the Channel?
I take one swim at a time My focus is on the Channel first, and I'll look at other challenges later.