Recovery Swim. Arf arf.

Back in the pool. Today’s swim is labelled a recovery swim, something to settle me back into swimming after the race two days ago. No kick lengths, no drills, but some timed 100s with the pull buoy, and some sprints at the end.

Warm Up
———-
400m swim
———-
Main Work
———-
8×100 4pull 4 swim on 1:45 (1:32, 1:38, 1:40, 1:39, 1:40, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38)
16x25m building pace to close to max sprint on 45 (Started at 30 secs, then got it down to 16 secs for the last 2!)
———-
Cool Down
———-
200 swim

Total length only 1800m, and some rest, but plenty of hard work too. I managed to get the last couple of 25s down to 16 seconds, which at least shows that I have some speed now to go along with my glide. I certainly felt zippier in the pool tonight. Working hard, but far more able to keep up with the times. But then, it was a recovery swim….

I see the swim on Thursday looks pretty tough….

Swimming swimming swimming

Back in the pool. My eyes are not as bad as they were, but my eczema is bad, and it’s needing a lot of emollient to keep on top of. I have new goggles, and new spray, so I think the sore eyes are just a consequence of my atopy and dry eyes, rather than the chlorine, or the spray.

Warm Up
———-
400m swim
8x50m alt kick/drill
———-
Main Work
———-
2×400 pull on 7:00 – 6.35 then 6.45
4×100 on 1:50 swim tempo – 1:42, 1:42, 1:38, 1:38
4×50 on 1:00 hard pace – 42, 42, 38, 36
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy

I was much better with the pacing this time. Didn’t try to kill myself at the beginning, and tried to keep it steady for the 100s. I felt much better after this week’s swim, over last week’s.

Thinking about it, I am hovering between a full TI stroke when I want to glide along and take it easy, and a Swim Smooth stroke when I sprint. The longer the distance goes, the more TI I swim, and the shorter and quicker, the more it’s Swim Smooth. It’s nice to have the ability to change my stroke according to the situation, which I wasn’t able to do at all earlier this year.

Races. I contacted the organiser of the Aberfeldy middle distance triathlon to see when it’s going to be – it clashes with our anniversary, so I won’t be doing it, then. We are going to do the Walk For All instead. Then I got e-mailed about a middle distance race in France – it clashes with Etape Pennines. BUT, there’s the Irish Triathlon Half Ironman in September, Galway bay, ride and run around Connemara. I’m very tempted.

And today I had e-mails from the guys who are doing the Etape Caledonia with me asking about doing a training weekend in April.

And I need to sort out a training camp for the week we had planned to go to Majorca. We have the time off, and JEdge wants to go out. I will phone the company tomorrow…..

Pace your swim…

More work required on swimming pacing, it seems.

The 100m swim intervals are clearly a favourite of Graeme’s – every week more 100m intervals, with decreasing rest between the sets. The problem I have every time is poor pacing. I do the work well enough, but I very quickly run out of steam as the rest periods are too short. I think this is probably because I do the work too hard, push myself into anaerobic work, and then can’t recover quickly enough to get back to the work in time. I know this, really. I should slow the work down into aerobic work, and leave less recovery time, but make it all easier. But, it’s hard for me to feel the pace. Here’s today’s workout:

Warm Up
———-
200m swim every 4th 25 back
10×25 kick
10×25 drill
———-
Main Work
———-
12×100 as 4 on 1:50, 4 on 1:55, 4 on 1:40 decending rest so be carfull to control pace!
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy swim

The first of the 100s felt great. Really nice – strong, rhythmical, and quick. But I was relaxed, so didn’t think I was going too quickly. I figured on a 1:35, maybe a 1:40. !:26. I did the rest of them at 1:30 to 1:35, and tried to make the most of the recovery time. By the time the repeats were at 1:40 I was pretty knackered, and almost didn’t make the next to last of the repeats. I need to really work on slowing down into the aerobic portion of the swim, and see how that goes.

So, I’m faster, I can do more repeats than 6 weeks ago, all about 10 seconds quicker, but it still kills me. That’s all good, right?

I can pick up the bike tomorrow – with it’s new stem, and it’s double. Early start to get down the road to pick it up! Maybe a wee swim with PW afterwards.

Swim swim swim swim

The problem I’m having with swimming, no, one of the myriad problems I’m having with swimming is getting the pacing right. I have little concept of if I’m doing a 1:45 100, or a 1:35 100, particularly at the beginning of the sets. So this set is meant to help me with my pacing…

Warm Up
———-
400m swim
8x50m alt kick/drill
———-
Main Work
———-
2×400 pull on 7:00
4×100 on 1:50 swim tempo
4×50 on 1:00 hard pace
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy

The 100s were on about 1:40, the 50s on about 45 secs, best one just under 40. Hard work, but I can feel myself getting quicker, and more powerful. I run out of steam, though. The rest periods ore short, and I really feel I need more rest as it goes on. I recover quickly, but not quickly enough!

Feels good to be back in the pool, certainly. New goggles, different goggle spray, celluvisc in both eyes before and after – no red eyes. So maybe it’s the goggles, or the spray, or just that my eyes are really dry; who knows, but I’m back in the pool.

Swim pacing

Last week I missed the cycle time on one of the repeats, this turns out to be “bad”. Looking at the sessions where I missed the time, it seems I started off too quickly, so got tired and missed the time. So the plan for tonight was to try to get a feel of pacing.

Warm Up
———-
900m rolling 75s crawl/back/drill/kick
———-
Main Work
———-
2×300 paddles and pull buoy
8×75 1-4, 1st 25 fast; 5-8, 1st 50 fast then easy
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m kick
100m easy swim

No times to hit, so no times to miss, but I tried to make the fast bits fast, and the easy bits easy. 25m in 16 secs, 50m in 34 secs, not too shabby. My SPL has come up to 16 to 18, and my speed has certainly come up too. Too much glide at the front end, SwimSmooth tells me, is bad for speed. I have downloaded the SwimSmooth training guide, and it seems to make sense.

I tightened up my goggles for tonight’s swim – after Tuesday’s swim I had a very sore left eye – I think this is because there was a small leak on the left socket just before the end. Tighter goggles means, well, tighter goggles, so by about 50 minutes in they were too tight, and a bit sore. I had to loosed them off a bit, don’t think I let any water in, but my eye was still sore after the swim finished. I wonder if the seals have gone a bit…. The sore eye on Tuesday took 36 hours to settle down, so we’ll see how it settles time. Irritating.

Swim. Stepping up.

This week’s swim sessions are a step up from the previous sessions. More work. More intensity. More speed.

Warm Up
———-
300m swim
6x50m alt kick/drill
———-
Main Work
———-
2×300 pull on 5:50 – 5:20, 5:20
3×200 paddles pull steady 3:50 – 3:40, 3:30, 3:35
6×100 swim picking up efort on 1:50 – 1:40, 1:40, 1:40, 1:35, 1:35, 1:32
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy
———-
This was tough. 2600m, most of it at pretty high intensity. If I’m being critical, I tend to cross my left arm over the midline when I get tired, and I lift my head a bit too much when breathing to the right. On the positive side – I actually did this set, which I wouldn’t have even thought of doing last year, or even 2 months ago, if I’m honest. I felt strong, but by the end, I was peched.

2x100s down the pool tonight.

I’ve been looking through the sessions I used to do last year. 5x 50s at the end of a session, leading to me wanting to vomit! Things have moved on a bit.

400m warm up
8x kicking
8x drills (Underswitch, spearswitch, zenswitch)
4x 100 at 2 mins (1:35, 1:35, 1:40, 1:40)
4x 100 at 1:55 (1:40, 1:37, 1:40, 1:35)
4x 100 at 1:50 (1:35, 1:37, 1:33, 1:35)
200 cool down.

Those times are 10 seconds faster per 100m than I was doing 12 months ago, and I’m doing 12 of them now, rather than the 4 I was doing then.

Someone recommended the swim-smooth website to me, so I’ve been looking at the Mr Smooth swim console, and subsequently at some elite level swimmers, to look into more advanced techniques. I’m an over glider, according to Swim Smooth, and they recommend increasing my rate, whilst keeping the stroke long, and less patient lead hand. I’ve upped the rate a bit, and I’m trying to change my timing a wee bit. I think what I really need is a session with Graeme so he can see what he thinks about my stroke.

Splish splosh, with added paddles

Post work swim session tonight. I got swim paddles from of off Wiggle – they have no instructions. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but there’s a long bit of elastic to fiddle around with: not sure how many hoops to make, how tight for them to be, how high up the fingers etc. Anyway, I managed to cobble something together and have a crack.

Warm Up
———-
400m swim
8x50m alt kick/drill
———-
Main Work
———-
4×200 swim
1×400 paddles
1×400 swim descending pace 100-400
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy

Total distance was 2600m. The paddles really accentuate the catch, and isolate the lats. When I took them off, it was like the opposite of taking off the swim gloves. It certainly allows a more fluid stroke when the paddles come off.

Hard work. Sore shoulders now.

Glutes have ached all day – this must be a good sign.

Swim, physio, turbo, relax

Swim session this morning, to make up for the swim session I missed on Tuesday, because I was driving up from God’s own county.

The sessions Graeme gives me are hard work – the warm up is generally a medium distance swim (400m or so) then another 400, or so, of kicks and drills, then the main set of a kilometre or so, with strict timing, and then a warm down.

I’m avoiding the kick float, so superman glide with flutter and the snorkel for the 12 (!) lengths of kick only, then another 12 of skating drills.

3x 100m at 2:00 fixed interval
3x 100m at 1:55 fixed interval
3x 100m at 1:50 fixed interval

I have to admit to struggling with the last couple, as there’s only 5 to 10 seconds gap between each 100m rep.

Anyhoo, back from the swimming to the physio, down at H.E.A.L. Her name is Kirsten, and Emma thinks she knows her from Hawkhill, back in the day. She was great – she watched me stan, squat, stand on tip toes, then run outside. Apparently my gait is fine, which is such a reassurance, but my balance is terrible. I can barely stand on one leg, it seems. I certainly can’t squat on one leg without falling to one side.

She did a very thorough check of my legs, and it turns out I have very short hip flexors – she was pretty amazed by my lack of flexibility at the hip. My quads are a bit tight too.

So, it’s a stability issue – whenever I run, I’m on one leg, so my lack of stability means I have to compensate by using my VMOs massively, and also my peroneals, and weak assed glutes.

My ligaments, and bones are OK, and my gait is OK, so that’s all a massive relief. She’s prescribed me a series of strengthening exercises to get along with. I can also do Graeme’s functional bits and pieces. Running will be kept to a minimum, only doing 20mins initially, I think, and keeping it very low impact, slow, and in my more cushioned shoes. And I’ll chase Lorna for the Newtons, too, I think.

A massive relief, but LOADS of work to do to strengthen everything up in time for the first Duathlon of the Winter season, the first weekend of December. At least it’s only a 4 K run…

This evening, after the kids bedtime, I brought the Aeron into the kitchen, and did one of the cycle sessions from earlier in the week, but on the Turbo instead.

2×15 mins Tempo cadence, 5 mins at 70 rpm, 5 mins at 90 rpm, and 5 mins at 60 rpm. HR capped at 165.

And another 30 mins of spinning.

The garmin data

Splish Splosh

Back in the pool for the second time this week. The new training plan is quite different from the TI style of plan – far more work, not as much drilling, and harder work overall. But it’s good for me, I know.

———
Warm Up
———-
400m swim
8x50m alt kick/drill
———-
Main Work
———-
4×200 swim
1×400 paddles pull steady controld
1×400 swim descending pace 100-400
———-
Cool Down
———-
200m easy
———-

I didn’t have any paddles, so I had to do something else. I did fist closed swimming, instead. GS tells me that’s the opposite drill, but I wanted something that would help me re-enforce the catch a bit better, and the fist drill does that for me. Anyway, I’ve ordered some paddles, as they seem to be the thing to have….

Knee is still a wee bit sore, but I think it’s just a bit of VMO weakness. I should do some more knee strengthening exercises, I suspect.