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.

Session 14, again

Due to an early-ish finish at work, another swim today. Session 14 again.

Dawn was in the pool when I got in. She was clearly a very good swimmer in her youth, in fact she’s a good swimmer now, but by her own admission was a sprinter. Anyway, she was very nice to me months ago, telling me I looked like a “club swimmer”. I did my warm up 50, and when I got back to her end she was lovely, telling me that I was “really moving through the water quickly”. It did feel good, actually.

Anyway, the drills came much easier tonight. I think the muscle memory needed a wake up yesterday, but today felt much more like actually swimming! What was obvious, though was the fall off in my fitness. I’m managing an SPL of 14 at the start of the session, but it fell off to nearer 18 by the end of the session. And my HR was in the sky! I recover quickly, but after 10 lengths, I’m not as comfortable as I was over summer. I remember with rowing that the fitness would fall off dramatically over the holidays, and take a week to come back, at least. If I can get to the pool 3 more times this week, then I’m sure I’ll be back on the upslope. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon after the curriculum review; Saturday with Mother; Sunday morning in Stirling with P-Dub.

P-Dub wants a turbo trainer too. We can get one from Road and Rock.

Might run down to main campus tomorrow – in my fives, if it hasn’t snowed too much.

Session 14

Back in the pool. I was keen to get to the pool straight after picking up the new car, but I had to pop back to work, so a swim after tea.

Finally managed to bring home a copy of the training program, so picking up where I left off with the drills, however many weeks/months ago. Session 14 – one arm spear switch, of all things.

Swim an easy 50
Skate/swim x4 – relaxed hand, laser beam
Spearswitch x4
Single Arm Spearswitch x8 – this is a new one. Starting off in CBP, single arm forward in spearswitch, driving the hip down. Without using the other arm, pull the him up and pull the extended arm back with it. It’s really hard to get the most out of this without a snorkel, I discover. But, it is very interesting. Hip drive is important, clearly, but this exercise shows how it’s actually most important in pulling the leading arm back, as much as pushing the other arm forwards. Interesting, really.
Zenswitch x4
Zenswitch Transitions x4
Swim and Nod
x2 Circle the elbow forward
x2 Patient lead hand
x2 Wide relaxed recovery
x2 Patient lead hand
Rhythmic swimming x4
Ladder set
4x 25m
3x 50m
2x 75m
1x 100
Warm down

I was shattered after all this. It just goes to show that there’s a big difference between swimming with the kids, teaching Jedgcombe down in Edinburger, and actually doing a *training session*. Arms were very heavy afterwards. Need to get back in the pool soon…

Loads more Zenswitch…

Back in the pool. It has walls at each end. It’s a little bit too warm in there. And I can’t see fish, or hear birds…

Practice session 8. More Zenswitch. The drill sessions are great. Splitting up the stroke into specific focus points, spending time on the important parts of the stroke: it all makes so much sense. I see so many people battling up and down the pool, 30 strokes per length, arms like windmills, flapping about. Every time I go to the pool, someone stops and asks me about the drills, ask me what I’m up to, why my stroke looks different. I tell them about TI, they look bemused, and I go back to the drills. Happened today – a woman asked me about my “unusual stroke”. She used to swim competitively as a girl, and swims now as exercise. She looked pretty skeptical about it all, but said she would come to TI club… once she’s had her baby. The water was hiding a 29 week bump!

So the session.

Easy 50 (SPL 14!)
(Fist gloves on)
2x SG (Shinji can do a length in 2 glides!, I take 4)
2x Skating – relaxed hand focus
2x Skating – laser beam focus
2x Skating – pushing through the bullseye focus
2x lengths swimming with a laser beam focus
2x multiple Spearswitch – good skating position focus
2x multiple Spearswitch – trip wire focus
2x multiple Spearswitch – hip drive focus
2x lengths swimming with a trip wire focus
4x Zenskate
4x Zenswitch – crook of elbow, wide recovery focus
4x Zenswitch – mid forearm, wide recovery focus, then trip wire focus
4x Zenswitch – wrist, wide recovery focus, then trip wire focus
4x Zenswitch – trailing ‘fingers’, wide recovery focus, trip wire focus
(Fist gloves off)
Swimming with different foci:
2x relaxed neck, looking down
2x wide relaxed recovery
2x hand enters across from the extended elbow
2x patient lead hand
2x connect the patient lead hand to the weight shift
An easy 50
A faster 50
An even faster 50 – 32 seconds, SPL 16. Not bad for a brick.
2x multiple spear switch, just to cool down.

This was hard work, to be honest. The Zenswitch exercise is tiring, pushing so much water forwards, whilst trying to move forwards. And with fist gloves too. Those 58 lengths took me a full hour to finish off, and that’s with breathing in sweetspot.

Breathing in sweetspot is a great exercise in its own right. Rolling in a tube to go from skating to sweetspot, then from multiple spearswitch into sweetspot, then from zenswitch into sweetspot. Great way of controlling the drill, keeping concentration, and making sure all the time in the water is useful.

But now my shoulders are sore. Outdoor swimming tomorrow, back to Silver Sands with PW.

2 up, 2 down.

Back to the pool for a late night swim. It’s nice swimming at 20:30, there’s no-one in the fast lane, and I can drill, swim, drill-swim, and not get in anyone’s way.

Beginners’ Session 3 again. It went well yesterday, so a second go at it today.

Easy 50 to loosen up.
2 x SGF – still bunged up with snot, so no 2 breath lengths today.
2 x Easy swimming with plenty of glide
2 x sweetspot – at this point, Mrs Coach wanders past waving wildly. Hopefully my form was tip top.
4 x Core Balance Position – this exercise must look completely ridiculous to the casual observer, but it’s a great exercise.
6 x Skating (2 x Laser Beam, 2 x Wide Track, 2 x Rotation). Snorkel.
4 x skating-swimming – alternating skating positions, lengthening the stroke, taking it easy.
10 x spearswitch (2 x best skating position, 2 x trip wire, 2x hip drive, 2 hand race, 2 x smooth strokes). Snorkel useful here again.
4 x single lenghts, trip wire focus.
Easy 50: SPL 14, 51 seconds, EFF 33

Then I did 4 x 100 again, just to see if I could maintain consistency, like yesterday.

1. SPL 18, Speed 101, EFF 34
2. SPL 18, Speed 100, EFF 34
3. SPL 18, Speed 99, EFF 34
4. SPL 18, Speed 100, EFF 34

So yesterday I had consistent EFF 34, but with a SPL of 16, and 3 or 4 seconds slower per 100. Today I have a consistent EFF of 34, but with higher SPL and quicker. Interesting. My focus during the swim today was the trip wire today, I think it might have sped me up a wee bit, tomorrow I will focus on marionette hand, I think, try to slow it down a bit, but keep the speed.

When I rowed we had a concept I really liked, and used to coach later on: “Easy Speed”. The kind of speed that comes with minimal effort, maximal efficiency, relaxed and, well, “easy”. I am trying to find a similar way of swimming – easy speed. I think currently I find it easier to swim a bit more quickly, at a slightly higher SPL, and keep “tapping it on”. Terry Laughlin talks about maximising the speed “below the curve”: when I drop my SPL to 14, which I can do, I slow down a wee bit too much, and lose momentum. Anyway.

After the 100s I did another few lengths trying to sort out this 2 beat kick thing. I can do the right leg going in both directions, but the left leg only when breathing to the right. Grrr. So snorkel, concentrate on the legs, and try to embed the left foot kick. After 8 or so lengths with the snorkel, I could do 8 without, and it was definitely better. More progress!

Swimming smart, if not massive distances at the moment. But certainly swimming smart.