Author of Across the Pacific, endurance athlete, and Tripler Crowner Jamie Tout will be 71 next month, but he is still competing with younger swimmers this week at the 2024 SCAR Swim in Arizona.
Tout spoke about SCAR before Day Two when he crossed Canyon Lake in 5 hours 26 minutes during his fourth career SCAR Swim.
Since starting his channel crossing and marathon swimming career in 1985, Tout has seen it all after crossings of the
- English Channel
- Catalina Channel
- Kalohi Channel (Molokai to Lanai)
- Maui Channel
- Pailolo Channel (Maui to Molokai)
- Sea of Galilee in Israel
- Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 1985, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2015 with a lightning-stopped attempt in 2005
- SCAR Swim in 2016, 2018, 2021
- 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim (n 2016, 2017
- END-WET (in 2018, 2019, 2023
- Swim the Suck
- Big Tortuga
- Swim Around Charleston
- ‘Au I Na Mokupuni Ekolu Endurance Challenge Invitational in Hawaii
…and all the training swims in Barton Springs in his native Austin, Texas that have gone behind all his successful open water swims.
Tout is the only person to complete the Triple Crown of Endurance Sports: a successful Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon (way, way, way back when in 1981, a Boston Marathon run in 3 hours 30 minutes in 1982 with a qualifying time of 2 hours 48 minutes, and a crossing of the English Channel in 1987 on his fourth attempt in 10 hours 33 minutes. He attempted the English Channel in 1981, 1983, 1984, and 1986 (but didn’t get off the beach), and made it in 1987 when he increased his weight from 148 pounds on a 6’1” frame to a 187-pound Channel swimmer.
DEFCON
Tout created a DEFCON training program to help him prepare for his challenges. DEFCON is an acronym for defense readiness condition or a start of alert used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system prescribes five graduated levels of readiness for the U.S. military.
He describe his hardcore-to-the-bone DEFCON training approach, “My DEFCON training regimen is a minimum of 12 weeks long with the goal being 5 months. DEFCON 5 is 5 weeks. I think this training regimen is good for someone how has not swum a marathon swim in awhile or who has never swum a marathon. I you have a few marathon swims under your belt, you can get by with a couple of months of 35,000 to 40,000 yards a week. Although 5 months is the goal in DEFCON 5, I would say you made it if you complete 12 weeks at 50,000 yards plus the 8-mile swims.“
DEFCON 1
First month of training: 4 weeks of 10,000 yards a week including a 4-mile swim with no days off.
“The training is very easy with an emphasis on the 4-mile swim. This is the time you make financial and work/family commitments to do the swim. This, in the long run, is the most important part of the training. If you start off making some wrong decisions, they will only multiply later on in your training. If you train with a masters group stop training with them prior to starting DEFCON 1. “
DEFCON 2
Second month of training: 4 weeks of 20,000 yards a week including a 5-mile swim with no days off and the emphasis still on the 5-mile swim.
DEFCON 3
Third month of training: 4 weeks of 30,000 yards a week including a 6-mile swim with no days off, but the emphasis shifts to the weekly yardage.
DEFCON 4
Fourth month of training: 4 weeks of 40,000 yards a week including a 7-mile swim with no days off with the emphasis continuing on the yardage.
DEFCON 5
Fifth month of training: 12 weeks of 50,000 yards a week with eight 8-mile swims, nine 9-mile swims, one 5-hour swim, one 6-hour swim, and one 7-hour swim.
“If you come along too fast, you will fall apart at six weeks into DEFCON 5. On the other hand, if you get through the 12 weeks of DEFCON 5, you are ready.
The last time I was able to complete DEFCON 5 was in 2015 when I swam across the Catalina Channel at age 62 11 hours 18 minutes, flew across the U.S., and four days later, swam my fastest Manhattan Island Marathon Swim of the ten circumnavigation swims I have done in 7 hours 31 minutes [see below].
Tip: try to negative split the 9-mile swims. Do the first 3 miles in 29 minutes, then the second 3 miles in 28 minutes, and the third three miles in 27 minutes (each).”
Shown below with his escort kayaker Kathleen Wilson and fellow SCAR competitor Antonio Argüelles who he first met at tthe 1999 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in New York – a quarter of a century ago.
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