Fri 29 Sept. The end of another week

The training schedule is settling down into more of a rhythm now. Endurance and Lactate production this morning, just time to have lunch rest a bit then back in the pool to end the week off with some practice races. I also did some practice races with the small training fins to get some reference times to work out some new sets (I will be using the small fins about 80%) of the time now in order to save the feet some grief. Total for the week : 22k :

• EN1: Basic Endurance: 12200
• EN2: Threshold Endurance: 2200
• EN3: Overload Enduarnce: 900
• SP1: Lactate Tolerance: 800
• SP2: Lactate Production: 1850
• SP3: Power drills: 1500
• RP: Race Pace: 800
• R: Slow recovery 1900

It starts to get steeper from here on in.

Do Body Fat analyzers tell the truth ??

Interesting discovery today. As it was coming upto the end of the month I thought it was time I calibrated my stats more regularly. So out come the body fat machine. Took a measurement, then realised that I hadn't updated my age - did that and took another measurement - different result ! ..... but nothing changed. So then I asked my son Ross (aged 17) to take a measurement pretending he was me = same result as me. I changed my age to 17 and got the same result as he does = a drop of 7%.

Finally to cap it all I put all my height, age & weight back to the proper settings again but selected female = a massive rise of 11% !

How can this variation of 18% on the same person be true just by changing the settings ... I didn't change .... so what is it measuring ?

Tues 26 Sept

Early day at the pool 6-8. Its noticeably darker in the mornings, and colder. Managed to break my snorkel strap halfway through today's sessions - fortunately there was just enough left over to be able to re-string it.

• am: Lactate Production session again. 400m wu, 4x50/45 small fins, 100m interval, 4x50/45 small fins. 4x100 monofin, 4x50/45 and another 4x50/45. 800m recovery.
• pm: training with no-tanx at Elmbridge mixed session: 400m wu, 8x25m /1min apnea, 10x50m sprint /1min, 8x25m abs, 8x25m resistance against float, mixed swimdown.

Tried my old 'first' monofin today - felt really weird. Feet hurting again today and managed to acquire 4 blisters so far. Have to find a way of hardening the feet up after being in the water for these sessions. Picture is of centre snorkel used for racing.

Mon Sept 25th - in the pool again

Finally managed to re-work the plan to line up better with pool availability. 2 sessions/day on Mon Wed and Fridays, 1 session on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think this works better for recovery too. Ive put the sessions that are really heavy on energy on the Tuesday and Thursday slots, leaving the rest of the day to recover.

• a.m: Power and starts session. 400m wu; 10x50 tomstone float; 10x50 starts of the block and go for 6 full on strokes. Pretty pleased with most of my starts today. 10x200m basic endurance with small fins. 6x100m / 1:30 threshold and 4x100m / 1:20 overloaded endurance. 500m sd.
• pm: Lactate Production session. 6x (50m full speed+ 150m easy) - 200m interval and then repeat 3 times. Did 2 of these with the small fins as my feet were beginning to hurt with the monofin. Small fins make it even harder....Long session again. I think this works better without sticking to the 150m easy and just doing easy to repeat on about 3 minutes.

Pleased with todays progress (apart from feet hurting) since it started feeling it bit Blug from the cold that came on last Thursday. Early start tomorrow - yawn.

Thurs 21 Sept

Recovery day today - day off. Well only the 6k cross country cycle ride. Time to review and update the training plan - and make any adjustments. Sounds like managing a project - funny that.....Anyway nose feeling sore from all the Chlorine thats got up it in spite of the nose clip. Anyone got a cure for that ?

Wed 20 Sept...busy day again

Busy overload endurance and power day again today - it hurts

• am: 400m wu; 4 x (4x50m / 40s + easy 200); 4x100m / 1:20; 1000m recovery...3400m
• am: 6k cross country cycle ride
• pm: the power drill again: 400m wu; 3x (6x (50m 100% + 150 easy)); 500m sd... 4500m in all.
• total for the day 7900m !

tomorrow off - "your body gets stronger when it rests" - and back in the pool Friday.:-)

Tuesday 19th Sept

Another early start.... Power and drills today.

• am. 400m wu, 5x100m drills (left, right, back, front stretch, soldier), 10x50m / 2min - 6 strokes all out then easy rest of length, 10x50m / 2min apnea - all out for 10 strokes tomstone float, drop float all out 10 strokes then breathe and easy to the end. 400m sd. Finished off with 4x50m slow apnea with the sun shining on the bottom of the pool - nice.
• am: 6k cross country cycle ride
• pm. Training with noTanx freedivers at Elmbridge this evening. (www.notanx.com)

Monday 18th Sept

Endurance and Lactate production work today - very tiring - that burning feeling:

• am: 400m wu, 4x400m/1:20 + easy 200; rep 4 times, 400m sd
• pm: 400m wu, 6x(50 full speed + 150 easy)/3m; rep 3 times, 400m sd. Took a long time to do this set.

Sunday 17th @ Southampton - success with tank turns

Club at Southampton going again after the Summer holidays etc. 2h hour session - Various Drills. This is a 25m pool and you really have to tuck up tight to do sensible turns - back still a little stiff. Legs still ache after yesterdays weight training.

• 400m wu
• 400m descending each 100m
• 12 x 25m apnea / 1min
• 10 x 25m 'one legged' drill with small fins
• Fast turns and turning technique with scuba tank (this is much trickier than it looks - as you have to hold onto the scuba tanks all the time - and its attached to your face with a stiff rubber hose).
• Various easing off stretching drills.

At last - got the turns going with the 2ltr tanks in the shallow pool here - hooray.

Friday 15th Sept - In the pool at last

Ok in the pool with the main programme this time.

• am. 400m wu, Recovery Session: 20x100m on 1:45 with monofin, 5x100m ease off with small fins, 400m sd
• pm. using small fins only as pool was quite busy. 400m wu. Lactate session 6x(50m full speed + 150m easy / 3min) - repeat times 3 with easy swim between. Much harder work with small fins. 400m sd.

Thursday 14th Sept

More easing off recovery swimming with the freedivers. Strangest thing happened this evening - its quite possible to do a 1 min 30 breathhold and straight away do a length underwater - much less fuss than going for the length straight off. Must the initial stages of calming everyhing down before the swim - which feels much more relaxed.
[NEVER freedive alone]

Tuesday 12th - Setback this week

Well this was supposed to be the ramp up into the training programme starting today. But I've managed to hurt my back - must be a combination of training on Saturday, lifting heavy tanks & stuff into the car, competing and the 8 hours driving to Wales and back.
Managed to draft out a detailed training schedule from the Maglischo book though - covering all drills and weekly targets from now till Feb ... its not long when you see it on paper.
Easy finswimming, drills and breathholds with the NoTanx freedivers at Elmbridge leisure centre this evening. Practiced turning with the tanks - a mess - need to work on that

British Open Water Championships 2x Silver 1x Bronze

This was my first open water swim. I was expecting the water to be much colder than it was. Sunny and an outgoing tide. Competition was supported by the local lifesaving club and the competitors included 2 ex channel swimmers. Very pleased with the result. Came 2nd on the 200m and 400m and third on the 800. Very hard to see where the buoys were - even with such a small swell. ..... if only I had swum in a straight line on the last leg of the 800m. Someone needs to make a small goggle compass or something...

Immersion

First serious try at the immersion discipline on Saturday. This is where you race with a small scuba tank. Made a complete mess of it. Plopped into the water off the block. Speed of the water took the regulator out of my mouth half way down the pool and in the turn - went straight down. Much practice at steering the tank around is needed I think. Still not a bad time in the end for 100m in 60 seconds.

Starting Out

Well here I am starting up this blog for all my friends to see how Im getting on preparing for the first Commonwealth finswimming competion in Feb 2007.
Although I have been training much more seriously over the last few weeks - getting in the pool for 6am - it all starts to get quite serious now. 2 sessions a day etc. It all starts up this afternoon with using the small scuba tanks for the immersion discipline. And tomorrow is a competion in sea - (someone has managed to organise that on an outgoing spring tide - doh) .

Picture is of me starting the 2km length down Lake Bled in Slovenia. Best time was 26 mins.