26 Jan 2007 - Hobart here I come...

Thats it - all the training and prep is behind me now. Had some great sessions in the pool this week - everything seemed to come together just right.
I have just a couple of short sessions in the pool next week in Sydney after the long flight and then off to Hobart to win some events. Im in for the 50m apnea, 50 surface, 100m surface, 200m surface, 400m surface and the 3k river swim.
See you when I get back - Im having a bit of a holiday out there too.
Then I need to start thinking about the British Long Course Championships on 21 April and the World Championships in July - when there will be a GB team selected to go.
Also this year I would like to get going on the immersion events.

22 Jan 2007 - Wintersprinkpokal 2007

Ive just had a great time in Halle, near Leipzig, Germany for the winter sprint cup. I came in second in the Masters category. Very funny result - two of us who were older than 45 (category M2) beat all the others who were over 30 (category M1) on points. I took part in the 50m apnea, 50m surface and 100m surface. There were over 200 competitors at the event which was great. Unfortunately this also meant that the 200m was cancelled due to lack of time. Its all over so quickly.
This was a great practice for me to get into the race mind set before going to Oz. I was pleased with my starts and turns for once this time and came back with a few things to tidy up on this week.
50m apnea: 21.45s
50m surface: 23.99s
100m surface: 51.32s

18 Jan 2007 - 1 week to go

Only one more week to go and this weekend Im taking part in the 'Wintersprintpokal' in Leipzig. (Here is the link: http://www.wintersprintpokal.de/ ) in the 50m apnea, 50 surface, 100 surface and the 200 surface.
After that a few more sessions in the pool next week as I complete the taper and then its off to Oz. It seems very strange nearing the end of this training plan after 21 weeks of training. The plan is based on one from 'Swimming Fastest' by Maglischo and Ive adapted the routines (endurance, threshold, lactate, power, race, recovery etc) to various finswimming and kicking with training fins drills. Time to check all my kit over. I do hope Qantas are understanding about my baggage weight.

12 Jan 2007 - tough week

Its been a crazy week. It now looks like Im the only one going to swim for England at the Commonwealth champs. (Simon vs Australia ?). Very difficult to get motivated to get in the pool on Monday and it felt like I was starting to get a cold - felt terrible.

Anyway, all the clouds seemed to have blown away by Wednesday and a nice note to finish the week today with a new PB in 400m of 4m:22s (very pleased with that). Earlier in the week I stuck to lots of lactate and strength drills with the float and small fins.

Looking forward to competing in the Winter Sprint Cup in Germany on 21st. I hope to come away with a prize.

DISAPPOINTED......

I heard today that apart from teams from England, Australia and 1 person from NZ - no other CW countries have bothered to enter a team as yet so there is a real risk that the whole competition may get cancelled. This is a real shame and Im concerned about what this means for the development of the sport internationally. The folks here in England are very disappointed.

I feel absolutely gutted as Ive been looking forward to this for months and put so much effort and time into training, already bought my plane tickets etc.

... and I had a new PB on the 200m on Friday 1m 55s (this was at the end of the day with a soft fin).

4th Jan - Its the final countdown

Counting the days down now until 26th when I fly out. 2 more weeks of more intense sessions and then start the taper. 9500 m yesterday including 650m of lactate work, 650m of power work and 1000m of race pace (10x100m) - prettty pleased with these as they were all under 55s and that was after already swimming 8000m earlier in the day. 500m recovery to finish. Same again on Friday. Good turns today - straight over and past the flags before surfacing.
Tried some different goggles today 'swedish style'. It took a while to get over the magnification effect of the flat faces. Nice not to have a side adjustment buckle sticking in my head too.
Heart bustin run again today averaging 150-160 and getting upto 174-176. (not bad for 47y old )

1 Jan 2007 - Happy New Year

Well after a dry and chocolate free Christmas ;-( it was back in the pool again last Wednesday - felt terrible just after 4 days of not being in the water.
I had planned last week to be a 'quiet' week - which it was and still needed to get through 18k of various excercises concentrating mainly on speed and lactate work again. Prior to Christmas I had spent a week mainly doing 100m and 200m simulated races - which was good pace testing work. So this week was 1000m of lactate and race pace drills each of the pool sessions which was very tiring. My leg muscles were shaking when I got out the pool on Friday. Still I managed to get some reaosnalble times, as well as you can time your self, about 22-24s for 50m surface and always under the 2 mins (about 1:58) for 200m.

I witnessed a very interesting dive reflex one day with the heart rate monitor in the water on Friday. After doing some hypoxic work my HR was always around the 80-90 at the end of 100m. On the last 100 (breathing every 8th stroke) my HR was 89 and within seconds of lifting my face out of the water it rose to 112 and then gradually declined back to about over the next minute.

Well back in the water again this week for the final run into the competition. 2 weeks of specific race and pace practice and then I start the taper. I will be going for the early morning sessions in order to try and shift my body clock closer to Aus time.