As I mentioned yesterday after a fairly steady start to my swimming efforts in January, I'm about to step up my game to undertake the February Fitness Challenge. This is simply trying to swim everyday in the month. Why February? well firstly it's the shortest month, and usually entails only 4 complete weeks of work. It also lifts your motivation just as your New Year's resolution resolve is flagging.
There is the personal satisfaction of completing the challenge and logging your yardage, but for those of you with that ultra competitive genetic make up there actually is a great competition you could enter. Full details can be found on the Barracudas' website .
The event started in 1992 by the Crawfish Masters Swim Team of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1999, it migrated to the soggy hills of Oregon and fell under the tender loving care of "The Tualatin Hills Barracudas Masters" where it has flourished. In 2000 the Barracudas were awarded the United States Masters Swimming Fitness Award for their development of this event.
Have a look at some of the previous year's results they are really jaw dropping and for those of you with the ultra competitive gene you can send in an entry to claim a T shirt or a frog pin and see where you place. It is not necessary to swim everyday in February to enter.
So having completed the FFC you're well on the way to being a swimming obsessive and looking to later in the year you might be ready to take on the ultimate Binge Swim. The 2swim4life challenge, this event is being held for the second time following its successful launch in 2008.
The aim of this challenge is to swim 1 mile every hour for 24 hours, it’s due to take place at Guildford Lido from the 30th April to 1st May and the web site http://www.2swim4life.co.uk/ contains all of the information you could need and some really useful advice from the hardy souls who completed this event in 2008.
The nominated charity for the event is Help for Heroes. Bearing in mind that Guildford Lido is outdoors total respect to anyone who attempts this, never mind completes it, and has to contend with darkness, distance and probably rather chilly weather particularly through the night. It is worth bearing in mind that the Lido is heated to a fairly brisk 24 degrees so it should be about perfect to swim in.
If you are interested in taking part (and obviously completely bonkers), places are understandably limited then contact Lesley Zimmerman the driving force behind this fiendish little event, via the website.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Can you do it for 30 minutes?.....and get 1970 metres closer to your 2011 total.
Another green week in swim log but only 2100 metres this morning because after a degree of uncertainty and a lack of enthusiasm the Fairy Snow Baby, and I eventually decided that we really should make the effort and do the ASA's T 30 challenge. Synchro Dad joined in for a laugh, (he has a seriously deficient sense of humour and a very sad life.)
For the uninitiated this is a challenge swim that you can do in your home pool and it's pretty simple you just swim as far as you can in 30 minutes, record the distance and then have that distance certified by any sensible grown up (not that easy in our case) and send it off to the ASA. The snag is that the swim has to be completed by midnight on the 31st January. You don't need to be a member of the ASA as it's a challenge open to everyone. So if you're thinking about it for this year you'd better be quick, see the link below.
T 30 entry information
Anyway after a bit of a disastrous start to the day which involved in no particular order, forgetting entry forms and sweatshirt, spilling a thermos of coffee over swimsuit and towel, and a frozen car with matching frozen solid towel and cossie left in the backseat from Thursday, I eventually arrived at Heworth only 4 minutes late.
Fairy Snow Baby and Synchro Dad went first and I recorded their splits, Fairy Snow Baby swimming pretty consistent 40's per 50 and Synchro Dad equally consistent 42's, to give them 2270 and 2170 respectively. The FSB was being too clever and watching the clock and stopped at 29 mins and 5 seconds thinking he had finished I reckon that probably cost him the extra 5 metres for 2275. I was quite chuffed with my 1970 metres that's a bit over 91 secs per hundred.
So after the first full month swim log tells me that I've swum 37,600 metres, and it is forecasting that my total for the year will be 473,242 metres. My assessment for the month is not bad and I'm currently deciding if I should do a sneaky session in the endless pool, tomorrow or Monday just to round this month off, that might just be too keen.
Alternatively I could save my energy for the February Fitness Challenge. One of my successes last year was to swim every day in February and I covered 78,250 metres... what does next month hold I wonder.
For the uninitiated this is a challenge swim that you can do in your home pool and it's pretty simple you just swim as far as you can in 30 minutes, record the distance and then have that distance certified by any sensible grown up (not that easy in our case) and send it off to the ASA. The snag is that the swim has to be completed by midnight on the 31st January. You don't need to be a member of the ASA as it's a challenge open to everyone. So if you're thinking about it for this year you'd better be quick, see the link below.
T 30 entry information
Anyway after a bit of a disastrous start to the day which involved in no particular order, forgetting entry forms and sweatshirt, spilling a thermos of coffee over swimsuit and towel, and a frozen car with matching frozen solid towel and cossie left in the backseat from Thursday, I eventually arrived at Heworth only 4 minutes late.
Fairy Snow Baby and Synchro Dad went first and I recorded their splits, Fairy Snow Baby swimming pretty consistent 40's per 50 and Synchro Dad equally consistent 42's, to give them 2270 and 2170 respectively. The FSB was being too clever and watching the clock and stopped at 29 mins and 5 seconds thinking he had finished I reckon that probably cost him the extra 5 metres for 2275. I was quite chuffed with my 1970 metres that's a bit over 91 secs per hundred.
So after the first full month swim log tells me that I've swum 37,600 metres, and it is forecasting that my total for the year will be 473,242 metres. My assessment for the month is not bad and I'm currently deciding if I should do a sneaky session in the endless pool, tomorrow or Monday just to round this month off, that might just be too keen.
Alternatively I could save my energy for the February Fitness Challenge. One of my successes last year was to swim every day in February and I covered 78,250 metres... what does next month hold I wonder.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Wearing too much underwear? .....but still reduced total to 464,200 metres
I hate going training from work, looking like a grown up and wearing too many clothes, (especially underwear) but I was forced to go via a Law Society Roadshow "defending Legal Aid" this evening. God I really live on the edge sometimes.
Anyway the doom and gloom from the government's idiotic proposals for slashing this fundamental service for the disadvantaged and marginalised was leavened somewhat by the 2nd appearance of Bart the Shark at training, we obviously didn't work him hard enough on Tuesday.
Despite his Eastern European origin he's got a fantastic Geordie accent, and I was treated to " How* man" and "yee gan furst," which made me chuckle. I spent the session trying to draft off him (unsuccessfully as he left me for dead) and I expect that it won't be long before he gives the Fairy Snow Baby a run for his money.
I hadn't much thought about the session, now there's a surprise, and Matthew (I'm too tired to think of a silly nickname for him at the moment) set the warm up and I took it over from there. We were back to 600's well sort of and the different strokes and teaching points meant that the session flew past.
4 x 3 x 100's
100 free @ 1.45
100 back @ 2.00
100 IM @ 2.00
3 x 400's swim @ 7.30, drill @ 8.00 swam as
100 free, 50 back, 100 free, 50 brst, 100 free
6 x 50 @ 60 free working on turns, dolphin kick off the wall
3 x 50 brst @ 70s trying to pick up the pace a little
6 x 50 @ 60 free adding two strokes per breath cycle
3 x 50 brst @ 70s trying to pick up the pace a little
6 x 50 @ 60 free DPS reducing strokes per length from 19 -15
200 swim down
Total 3800m
Anyway the doom and gloom from the government's idiotic proposals for slashing this fundamental service for the disadvantaged and marginalised was leavened somewhat by the 2nd appearance of Bart the Shark at training, we obviously didn't work him hard enough on Tuesday.
Despite his Eastern European origin he's got a fantastic Geordie accent, and I was treated to " How* man" and "yee gan furst," which made me chuckle. I spent the session trying to draft off him (unsuccessfully as he left me for dead) and I expect that it won't be long before he gives the Fairy Snow Baby a run for his money.
I hadn't much thought about the session, now there's a surprise, and Matthew (I'm too tired to think of a silly nickname for him at the moment) set the warm up and I took it over from there. We were back to 600's well sort of and the different strokes and teaching points meant that the session flew past.
4 x 3 x 100's
100 free @ 1.45
100 back @ 2.00
100 IM @ 2.00
3 x 400's swim @ 7.30, drill @ 8.00 swam as
100 free, 50 back, 100 free, 50 brst, 100 free
6 x 50 @ 60 free working on turns, dolphin kick off the wall
3 x 50 brst @ 70s trying to pick up the pace a little
6 x 50 @ 60 free adding two strokes per breath cycle
3 x 50 brst @ 70s trying to pick up the pace a little
6 x 50 @ 60 free DPS reducing strokes per length from 19 -15
200 swim down
Total 3800m
* "How" of course is the contraction of that more familiar term Howay ie North-Eastern, or Geordie, slang meaning 'come on', 'hurry up' and so on. Voice intonation specifies the exact definition, often not understood by anyone outside of the Newcastle area and thus causes much confusion for non-natives.
'Howay man!'
'Howay, we're gonna be late'
'Howay, we're gonna be late'
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Binge Swimmer 1 Excel Spreadsheet 0 .....with 468,300 metres to go.
Woohoo! no sooner had I posed the question and accepted the challenge as to whether or not I could outsmart my swim log, I enter tonight's session and it wimps out of the fight and tells me that my target for the year is sensible! So I reckon that's 1:0 to me, although I predict that there will be some twists and turns in this tussle before the 31st December.
We had a new guy join our squad tonight, a Polish Geordie no less, seriously out of condition but clearly a nifty swimmer, he plonked himself in the slow lane and cruised up and down well in control and sporting a mean looking tattoo of the star of the 1974 Peter Benchley novel. Anyway, somewhat predictably I immediately nicknamed him Bart the Shark and I spent the last set of 100's trying to beat him (unsuccessfully I may add)
Awesome Emma, turned up for the first time since she completed the set of 16 25's fly the other Thursday, having been struck down with a mystery illness immediately after that session, proof positive (as if you needed it) that swimming butterfly can seriously damage your health.
Turning to tonight's work out I was beginning to try and ramp up the sessions a little as we've had almost a month to try and re acclimatise ourselves to swimming again, still trying to keep each piece of work interesting by changing strokes or focusing on a different aspect or a certain pace.
12 x 75 @ 5s RI 50 free, 25 back or brst
6 x 100 breast @ 2.15
9 x 200 odd ones free @ 3.45s sharp/steady pace
even's IM order 200 fly*, 200 back, 200 breast steady/long stroke @ 4mins
4 x 50's brst @ 75 secs hard but not eyeballs out
4 x 100 pull with paddles @ 1.50
4 x 100 drill @ 2 mins
4 x 100 free @ 1.55, 1.50 1,45,
4 x 25's free @ 45s**
200 Swim down
Total 5000
* I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to swimming fly so I drilled this bit.
** for consistency's sake I should have swum this breast but by then I was caught up in the futile quest to beat Bart the Shark
Although I'm still swimming really really slowly, this evening I was beginning to get my feel for the water again and my swimming felt a litttle sharper
We had a new guy join our squad tonight, a Polish Geordie no less, seriously out of condition but clearly a nifty swimmer, he plonked himself in the slow lane and cruised up and down well in control and sporting a mean looking tattoo of the star of the 1974 Peter Benchley novel. Anyway, somewhat predictably I immediately nicknamed him Bart the Shark and I spent the last set of 100's trying to beat him (unsuccessfully I may add)
Awesome Emma, turned up for the first time since she completed the set of 16 25's fly the other Thursday, having been struck down with a mystery illness immediately after that session, proof positive (as if you needed it) that swimming butterfly can seriously damage your health.
Turning to tonight's work out I was beginning to try and ramp up the sessions a little as we've had almost a month to try and re acclimatise ourselves to swimming again, still trying to keep each piece of work interesting by changing strokes or focusing on a different aspect or a certain pace.
12 x 75 @ 5s RI 50 free, 25 back or brst
6 x 100 breast @ 2.15
9 x 200 odd ones free @ 3.45s sharp/steady pace
even's IM order 200 fly*, 200 back, 200 breast steady/long stroke @ 4mins
4 x 50's brst @ 75 secs hard but not eyeballs out
4 x 100 pull with paddles @ 1.50
4 x 100 drill @ 2 mins
4 x 100 free @ 1.55, 1.50 1,45,
4 x 25's free @ 45s**
200 Swim down
Total 5000
* I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to swimming fly so I drilled this bit.
** for consistency's sake I should have swum this breast but by then I was caught up in the futile quest to beat Bart the Shark
Although I'm still swimming really really slowly, this evening I was beginning to get my feel for the water again and my swimming felt a litttle sharper
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Can I outsmart an excel spreadsheet?..... 473,300 metres to go
I am sitting here feeling quite smug and proud of myself having managed to drag myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7.15am this mornng (well it's ungodly for a Saturday) to make training at 8am. The first major obstacle was the lack of petrol in the car, probably not enough to get there, and then I couldn't find my wallet. My crashing around the house at this time of the day went down well with the rest of my family trying to enjoy the luxury of a Saturday morning lie in, and I ultimately had to make do with stealing back my daughter's bus fare from her blazer pocket.
One of my successes this week was to locate my swim bag with all of my toys in, you know paddles, fins, pullbuoy, kick-board etc. I don't know about you but when not in use this bag of paraphenalia usuallly lives behind the sofa and is dropped on the floor as soon as I walk into the house. At my most slothful I can't even be bothered to take my cossie out to dry it and I end up draping this fairly essential bit of swimming kit on the top of the car dashboard and driving to my next session with the heater on full blast to dry it out; mists the windscreen up a bit and gives off a bit of a chloriney pong...but hey it works for me.
Anyway I had tidied the bag away on Christmas Eve as part of my annual clean up, (the only time you can guarantee my house is tidy is Christmas Eve), and couldn't remember were I'd put it, it finally came to light in the garage under a pile of empty boxes. I haven't been completely devoid of swimming toys as my TYR kickboard managed to work its way out of the bag and has spent a month or so kicking around the back of my car and this has doubled as a pullbuoy so far this year.
Arriving at Heworth this morning there was only three of us initially so we had the luxury of a lane each, that is until Synchro Dad got in to keep the Fairy Snow Baby company. We were as organised as usual and after some discussion FSB and myself opted for a slow plod. Opening the bag I discovered that I only had one training paddle although for some reason Bob's Speedo hydrofoil paddles which are also a large size had somehow made their way in there, so I was forced to make do, it took a couple of lengths to get used to them but I was pleasantly suprised that they weren't as difficult to use as I had thought.
8 x 50's free @ 55 warm up
3 x 400's free @ 7.30 pull with paddles,
2 x 400's free @ 7.30 pull
1 x 400 swim.
8 x 75's IM Order @ 1.40swum as 25 kick, 25 drill, 25 swim
100 Swim down*
Total 3500 metres
* probably should have done some more here but thought that I'd done enough this week.
In my previous post I mentioned about Trondi's swim log spreadsheet, well I'm even more impressed with it. It cleverly calculates your target distance each week and displays this in a box next to your weekly total. I hadn't thought about it before but it displays the weekly total in red, I added today's yardage (ok I know that it's metreage but that doesn't sound so good) and having exceeded the weekly target; lo and behold the weekly total was displayed in green. I know little things.....
I had to laugh as well cos when I completed the box with my target yardage for the year, it then advised me that this was not a sensible target, so extra motivation there can I outsmart an excel spreadsheet?
One of my successes this week was to locate my swim bag with all of my toys in, you know paddles, fins, pullbuoy, kick-board etc. I don't know about you but when not in use this bag of paraphenalia usuallly lives behind the sofa and is dropped on the floor as soon as I walk into the house. At my most slothful I can't even be bothered to take my cossie out to dry it and I end up draping this fairly essential bit of swimming kit on the top of the car dashboard and driving to my next session with the heater on full blast to dry it out; mists the windscreen up a bit and gives off a bit of a chloriney pong...but hey it works for me.
Anyway I had tidied the bag away on Christmas Eve as part of my annual clean up, (the only time you can guarantee my house is tidy is Christmas Eve), and couldn't remember were I'd put it, it finally came to light in the garage under a pile of empty boxes. I haven't been completely devoid of swimming toys as my TYR kickboard managed to work its way out of the bag and has spent a month or so kicking around the back of my car and this has doubled as a pullbuoy so far this year.
Arriving at Heworth this morning there was only three of us initially so we had the luxury of a lane each, that is until Synchro Dad got in to keep the Fairy Snow Baby company. We were as organised as usual and after some discussion FSB and myself opted for a slow plod. Opening the bag I discovered that I only had one training paddle although for some reason Bob's Speedo hydrofoil paddles which are also a large size had somehow made their way in there, so I was forced to make do, it took a couple of lengths to get used to them but I was pleasantly suprised that they weren't as difficult to use as I had thought.
8 x 50's free @ 55 warm up
3 x 400's free @ 7.30 pull with paddles,
2 x 400's free @ 7.30 pull
1 x 400 swim.
8 x 75's IM Order @ 1.40swum as 25 kick, 25 drill, 25 swim
100 Swim down*
Total 3500 metres
* probably should have done some more here but thought that I'd done enough this week.
In my previous post I mentioned about Trondi's swim log spreadsheet, well I'm even more impressed with it. It cleverly calculates your target distance each week and displays this in a box next to your weekly total. I hadn't thought about it before but it displays the weekly total in red, I added today's yardage (ok I know that it's metreage but that doesn't sound so good) and having exceeded the weekly target; lo and behold the weekly total was displayed in green. I know little things.....
I had to laugh as well cos when I completed the box with my target yardage for the year, it then advised me that this was not a sensible target, so extra motivation there can I outsmart an excel spreadsheet?
El Tel returns........and 3500 metres less to swim.
Oops a bit late updating this after Thursday night's session, but here's the feeble excuse, came back home, downloaded the session from my way too clever HRM (Heart rate monitor, hereinafter referred to as toosmart watch!) filled out my jazzy spreadsheet which is snappily entitled "Masters metres memory 2011" provided to me by both Katie Bun and Ruthie but developed by Trondi, to save my typing I will refer to it as "swim log". If anyone reading this would like a copy, email me at bingeswimmer@googlemail.com or if you leave me your contact details in the comments section of this blog I will happily email a copy to you.
Anyway after all of this obsessive behaviour, (I am beginning to worry if there is a swimming equivalent of OCD) all I had the energy for was to scoff a Marks and Spencer's curry, referee an argument between daughter and husband about chemistry homework and collapse into bed.
Thursday's session was notable for one thing; the reappearance of Terry Edwards, I don't think I've seen him for about 6 years, but he strides onto the pool deck (half way through the warm up!) large as life (a little larger than I remember him, although that is truly the pot calling the kettle black as he has worn much better than I have.)
Terry and I go way, way back having swum together in the newly formed Gateshead Metro club in 1974, he's a couple of years older than me and I used to think he was so cool because he had a pair of Patrick trainers (which he maintained were the epitome of style,) whilst all of us teenagers were nagging our parents for a pair of Adidas Rom or Samba. You will appreciate that this was in the Prehistoric Pre-Nike era. Terry and I have swum as Masters together during the 90's and early 2000's until the arrival of a family gave rise to the current hiatus in his swimming career. It was great to see him and the crack was as good as ever. We'll see if he makes it back after his skiing holiday.
I was completely devoid of any imagination for a session tonight so the Fairy Snow Baby chipped in with this rather cheeky little work out; see below. It was a deceptively sneaky piece of training, the 50's and 75's don't sound much but actually it was 2000m in total and a pretty good chunk of work.
200 Free
400 alternate 100 back 100 brst
8 x 50's freestyle @ 55
8 x 75 @ 85 25 s 25 IM drill 25 swim
8 x 50's freestyle @ 60, 55, 50, 45*
8 x 75 @ 90 cycling through IM order, 25 fly, 25 back, 25 breast then 25 free, 25 fly, 25 back etc
4 x 150 @ 3mins 50 pull, 50 kick 50 swim
300 swim down
Total 3,500 metres
*I am somewhat embarassed at the slow rate at which I am currently swimming, and whilst the turn around time of 45 secs was really tight and meant that I had no rest before pushing off for the next one you only actually have to do one and then you're back to a reasonable rest on the next repeat.
Anyway after all of this obsessive behaviour, (I am beginning to worry if there is a swimming equivalent of OCD) all I had the energy for was to scoff a Marks and Spencer's curry, referee an argument between daughter and husband about chemistry homework and collapse into bed.
Thursday's session was notable for one thing; the reappearance of Terry Edwards, I don't think I've seen him for about 6 years, but he strides onto the pool deck (half way through the warm up!) large as life (a little larger than I remember him, although that is truly the pot calling the kettle black as he has worn much better than I have.)
Terry and I go way, way back having swum together in the newly formed Gateshead Metro club in 1974, he's a couple of years older than me and I used to think he was so cool because he had a pair of Patrick trainers (which he maintained were the epitome of style,) whilst all of us teenagers were nagging our parents for a pair of Adidas Rom or Samba. You will appreciate that this was in the Prehistoric Pre-Nike era. Terry and I have swum as Masters together during the 90's and early 2000's until the arrival of a family gave rise to the current hiatus in his swimming career. It was great to see him and the crack was as good as ever. We'll see if he makes it back after his skiing holiday.
I was completely devoid of any imagination for a session tonight so the Fairy Snow Baby chipped in with this rather cheeky little work out; see below. It was a deceptively sneaky piece of training, the 50's and 75's don't sound much but actually it was 2000m in total and a pretty good chunk of work.
200 Free
400 alternate 100 back 100 brst
8 x 50's freestyle @ 55
8 x 75 @ 85 25 s 25 IM drill 25 swim
8 x 50's freestyle @ 60, 55, 50, 45*
8 x 75 @ 90 cycling through IM order, 25 fly, 25 back, 25 breast then 25 free, 25 fly, 25 back etc
4 x 150 @ 3mins 50 pull, 50 kick 50 swim
300 swim down
Total 3,500 metres
*I am somewhat embarassed at the slow rate at which I am currently swimming, and whilst the turn around time of 45 secs was really tight and meant that I had no rest before pushing off for the next one you only actually have to do one and then you're back to a reasonable rest on the next repeat.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Musings on the Great North Swim with 480,300 metres to go
The crack at the pool this evening was all about this years Great North Swim, 4 or 5 of us had entries for the event last year and we were gutted when it was cancelled because of an outbreak of blue green algae. Presumably to avoid a similar situation they've moved the event to June, however it's been scheduled on the same weekend as the British Masters Championships. The Fairy Snow baby and I eventually decided that we would swim on the Friday and Saturday at Leeds and make the dash overnight to catch the lunchtime GNS wave on the Sunday.
So back to training for this year's event (amongst other things) and still working on just getting back into the groove and trying to keep everyone interested, no big numbers in terms of distance or sets.
600 Warm up change stroke every 25 m
3 x 200 IM @ 20s RI kick, drill, swim
3 x 200 pull @ 3.40
4 x 100 @ 1.50
4 x 100 @ 1.45
4 x 100 @ 1.35
4 x 50 kick hard 1st 25, easy 2nd 25 @ 90s
8 x 50 @ 65s add 1 stroke per breathing cycle per 50*
8 x 50 catch up @ 60s
8 x 50 dps** @ 60s
300
4,700 metres
* This wasn't as difficult as it sounds because you could breath in and out of the turn, I probably shouldn't have started breathing every 6 strokes though.
** DPS distance per stroke, shorthand for taking as few strokes per 25 as possible.
So back to training for this year's event (amongst other things) and still working on just getting back into the groove and trying to keep everyone interested, no big numbers in terms of distance or sets.
600 Warm up change stroke every 25 m
3 x 200 IM @ 20s RI kick, drill, swim
3 x 200 pull @ 3.40
4 x 100 @ 1.50
4 x 100 @ 1.45
4 x 100 @ 1.35
4 x 50 kick hard 1st 25, easy 2nd 25 @ 90s
8 x 50 @ 65s add 1 stroke per breathing cycle per 50*
8 x 50 catch up @ 60s
8 x 50 dps** @ 60s
300
4,700 metres
* This wasn't as difficult as it sounds because you could breath in and out of the turn, I probably shouldn't have started breathing every 6 strokes though.
** DPS distance per stroke, shorthand for taking as few strokes per 25 as possible.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
eff off I'm doing breaststroke....... with 485,000 metres left.
Having resolved the problematic piano lesson, I was free to work late and then make the Thursday night session at the new pool in Heworth. For any of you familiar with the aquatic establishments in Gateshead you will know that they have had a huge capital investment programme in swimming pools, Replacing pools in Felling and Blaydon and refurbishing the other three pools in the town.
This is the replacement for that concrete monstrosity which was Felling pool. Sadly the new pool is only a 4 lane 25m but that is a dramatic improvement on the initial plans for a 4 lane 20m pool. There is also an additional surfing thingy! learner pool and kids pool with a fountain and waterfall. I've never managed to make training there since it opened at the end of last year but very nice it is too, a great temperature, decklevel and wave eraser lane ropes so it makes a welcome change to swim in calm water rather than plod through the storm surge in the old Blaydon and Felling pools.
There were only 6 of us turned out for the session and only 3 of us were survivors from Tuesday night. I am also feeling a little smug because I managed to persuade my heart rate monitor to work properly and it finally downloaded all the pretty graphs. I'm not sure if it's not too clever though, cos when I downloaded Tuesday's session the calendar told me that I shouldn't swim on Wednesday (it was red) and today Thursday was amber and it told me that I could train but I should avoid high intensity work or races. I instinctively knew that, cos my body was telling me that I was too knackered to put any effort in, so it was a fairly steady swim and quite uneventful although I did react quite poorly to a suggestion that the 12 x 25's should be swum butterfly, "eff off" was my supportive comment "I'm doing breaststroke."
9 x 100 @ 2.10 warm up 100,free, 100 back, 100 IM x 3
6 x 100 25 swim, 50 catch up 25 swim @ 2.05
6 x 100 @ 2.05 breathing 8 strokes for 1st 25, 6 strokes 2nd 25 and breathing every 4 for last 50
12 x 25 breast @ 45s
12 x 50 @ 65s working on turns
300 pull swim down
Total 3300m
Cumulative total 15,000m
This is the replacement for that concrete monstrosity which was Felling pool. Sadly the new pool is only a 4 lane 25m but that is a dramatic improvement on the initial plans for a 4 lane 20m pool. There is also an additional surfing thingy! learner pool and kids pool with a fountain and waterfall. I've never managed to make training there since it opened at the end of last year but very nice it is too, a great temperature, decklevel and wave eraser lane ropes so it makes a welcome change to swim in calm water rather than plod through the storm surge in the old Blaydon and Felling pools.
There were only 6 of us turned out for the session and only 3 of us were survivors from Tuesday night. I am also feeling a little smug because I managed to persuade my heart rate monitor to work properly and it finally downloaded all the pretty graphs. I'm not sure if it's not too clever though, cos when I downloaded Tuesday's session the calendar told me that I shouldn't swim on Wednesday (it was red) and today Thursday was amber and it told me that I could train but I should avoid high intensity work or races. I instinctively knew that, cos my body was telling me that I was too knackered to put any effort in, so it was a fairly steady swim and quite uneventful although I did react quite poorly to a suggestion that the 12 x 25's should be swum butterfly, "eff off" was my supportive comment "I'm doing breaststroke."
9 x 100 @ 2.10 warm up 100,free, 100 back, 100 IM x 3
6 x 100 25 swim, 50 catch up 25 swim @ 2.05
6 x 100 @ 2.05 breathing 8 strokes for 1st 25, 6 strokes 2nd 25 and breathing every 4 for last 50
12 x 25 breast @ 45s
12 x 50 @ 65s working on turns
300 pull swim down
Total 3300m
Cumulative total 15,000m
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
don't use the term floppy in male company......and only 488,300 metres to go this year
What started so well last week floundered on the rocks of a teenager's piano lesson and the usual domestic communication snafus which are all too common in our household. Even when experience constantly tells me otherwise, I continue to operate under the assumption that if I know something then Bob (husband) must know it as well, (even if I haven't remembered to tell him.) It does make married life interesting! and whilst Bob often employs this standard operating procedure as well, interesting is perhaps not the adjective he would use to describe the inevitable carnage.
Having gone a week without a swim I think I also need to refine my resolution to make it a bit tougher so that the period between sessions is no longer than 1 week. Provided that I manage to make another session this week then although I'm a bit light on the distance I'm still hitting my commitment to swim twice per week.
So down to business, there was a good turn out for this evening's session tonight with 18 of us making the pool side. "I'm Chris fly me" our very own Jetpoodotcom pilot confessed to me that he not only had read this Blog but he had actively searched for it. Now, I'm not really sure what that says about him but I'm reassured that when I jet off on my summer holiday the person driving the plane can at least a. read and b. use google. That wasn't the only feedback I've received this week, the excitement of making it into print in last week's post had obviously invigorated the Park Ranger who not only led the lane the whole session but stayed in until the bitter end.
The programme this evening continued last week's theme of easily digestible chunks i.e nothing more than 600m sets, and to try and trick the rest of our squad into thinking they weren't doing 9 200 repeats I broke them down into 3 separate sets with a different emphasis on each set. We're talking survival swimming and trying to work on stroke length and breathing patterns rather than speed.
12 x 50's Freestyle @ 55s Warm Up
3 x 200 pull @ 3.40, 3.30 steady pace with a decreasing rest
3 x 200 @ 3.45 reducing stroke rate by 1 stroke on every 25 on the 2nd and then the 3rd repeat
3 x 200 @ 3.45 adding an additional stroke per breathing cycle on the 2nd and then the 3rd repeat.
6 x 100 IM @ 2.10
6 x 100 free @ 2.00 progressive no 1 floppy*, no 2 steady pace, no 3 fast 1st 25 steady pace 75, no 4 fast 1st 50 steady 50, no 5 fast 1st 75 steady last 25, no 6 fast.
12 x 50's @ 65s 1-4 back, 5-8 breast, 9 -12 free.
12 x 25's swim down & mixed drills **
Total 4500 metres
Cumulative Total 11,700
* by floppy I mean simply swim easy without any effort, however the use of this term obviously threatened and unsettled the only bloke in the girlie's lane (and given my age I use this term very loosely) as Beckleberry commented, rather defensively I might add "you shouldn't use that word in male company"
** the fairy snow baby accused me of using drills from the 1970's coaching manual, now I know for a fact he spent most of the 70's in the baby pool and improver groups so I don't think he's qualified to comment and anyway they were fun if rather inappropriate for a swim down!
Having gone a week without a swim I think I also need to refine my resolution to make it a bit tougher so that the period between sessions is no longer than 1 week. Provided that I manage to make another session this week then although I'm a bit light on the distance I'm still hitting my commitment to swim twice per week.
So down to business, there was a good turn out for this evening's session tonight with 18 of us making the pool side. "I'm Chris fly me" our very own Jetpoodotcom pilot confessed to me that he not only had read this Blog but he had actively searched for it. Now, I'm not really sure what that says about him but I'm reassured that when I jet off on my summer holiday the person driving the plane can at least a. read and b. use google. That wasn't the only feedback I've received this week, the excitement of making it into print in last week's post had obviously invigorated the Park Ranger who not only led the lane the whole session but stayed in until the bitter end.
The programme this evening continued last week's theme of easily digestible chunks i.e nothing more than 600m sets, and to try and trick the rest of our squad into thinking they weren't doing 9 200 repeats I broke them down into 3 separate sets with a different emphasis on each set. We're talking survival swimming and trying to work on stroke length and breathing patterns rather than speed.
12 x 50's Freestyle @ 55s Warm Up
3 x 200 pull @ 3.40, 3.30 steady pace with a decreasing rest
3 x 200 @ 3.45 reducing stroke rate by 1 stroke on every 25 on the 2nd and then the 3rd repeat
3 x 200 @ 3.45 adding an additional stroke per breathing cycle on the 2nd and then the 3rd repeat.
6 x 100 IM @ 2.10
6 x 100 free @ 2.00 progressive no 1 floppy*, no 2 steady pace, no 3 fast 1st 25 steady pace 75, no 4 fast 1st 50 steady 50, no 5 fast 1st 75 steady last 25, no 6 fast.
12 x 50's @ 65s 1-4 back, 5-8 breast, 9 -12 free.
12 x 25's swim down & mixed drills **
Total 4500 metres
Cumulative Total 11,700
* by floppy I mean simply swim easy without any effort, however the use of this term obviously threatened and unsettled the only bloke in the girlie's lane (and given my age I use this term very loosely) as Beckleberry commented, rather defensively I might add "you shouldn't use that word in male company"
** the fairy snow baby accused me of using drills from the 1970's coaching manual, now I know for a fact he spent most of the 70's in the baby pool and improver groups so I don't think he's qualified to comment and anyway they were fun if rather inappropriate for a swim down!
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Go-Go Fairy Snow..... and only 492,800 metres left
Owww and ouch! I am now really suffering as in a rare display of mental resolve and dedication I made the Gateshead and Whickham session at the new Blaydon Pool tonight, and with the help of some well timed encouragement from the original Fairy Snow Baby ("FSB") (it's a very old and involved story but he now masquerades under the name of David Chaney) I stayed in for 95 mins during which time we covered 4000m.
I can't really complain too much cos I set the workout, typical Gateshead Masters session no prior consideration, everyone just arrived on the pool side and after a brief consultation discovered I was the only one who had a cunning plan as to how we could amuse ourselves for the next couple of hours.
The work out was very loosely based around a one sided 600 m Hungarian. Regrettably I am too tired and probably incapable of explaining this concept properly, suffice to say that for any non swimmers who may have stumbled upon this Blog and for some unknown reason have continued reading, please just take my word for it that I am not talking about a very tall one legged Eastern European.
600 Warm up
2 x 300 pull @ 5.45s
3 x 200 progressive @ 3.45 No 1 easy, No 2 hard 100 easy 100, No 3 hard 200*
4 x 150 @ 3.30 drill (25 swim, 25 catch up 25 fists**, 25 kayak, 25 catch up, 25 swim)
6 x 100 @ 2.30 working on 4 dolphin kicks off the wall and 2 strokes before take breath on each 25***
12 x 50's @ 70 s up IM order, down free
16 x 25's @ 5s RI Swim down trying to stretch your stroke out and reduce your stroke rate to counter act the fact that for the last hour your stroke has been shortening as you become progressively more tired.
Total 4000m
Cumulative Total 7,800m
My limited thought processes behind this programme were; that this was the first time back after the Christmas break for everyone, (I don't think I'm giving away any state secrets if I divulge that I am not the only Binge Swimmer in my Masters squad, although even if I say so myself I am by far the most accomplished.) so we needed to have a bit more to think about as we were swimming, other than the pain and tedium of churning out length after length, whilst getting progressively slower with an ever increasing stroke rate. Also I have previously referred to my gnat like attention span and therefore I didn't want to do any single swim which would be too long or too many repeats of anything so basing the set around 600 seemed just about right.
For the sake of completeness the swim down should probably have been 24 x 25's but I originally only planned to do 8 so the 16 suggested by the FSB seemed a good compromise and rounded the set out quite nicely. I have added some notes covering my personal struggles and thoughts on the session which may assist if anyone has even more limited imagination than me and wants to try it out.
* the problem with this bit was there was no such thing as easy,
** I should really have known better than to include this drill in the first session back cos fist swimming is bloody hard work, (the full stroke equivalent of kick according to The Park Ranger (Kelly)),
*** the last 25 of each repeat should have been own choice kick, but I was having serious senility issues and kept forgetting the kick bit
Night Night
I can't really complain too much cos I set the workout, typical Gateshead Masters session no prior consideration, everyone just arrived on the pool side and after a brief consultation discovered I was the only one who had a cunning plan as to how we could amuse ourselves for the next couple of hours.
The work out was very loosely based around a one sided 600 m Hungarian. Regrettably I am too tired and probably incapable of explaining this concept properly, suffice to say that for any non swimmers who may have stumbled upon this Blog and for some unknown reason have continued reading, please just take my word for it that I am not talking about a very tall one legged Eastern European.
600 Warm up
2 x 300 pull @ 5.45s
3 x 200 progressive @ 3.45 No 1 easy, No 2 hard 100 easy 100, No 3 hard 200*
4 x 150 @ 3.30 drill (25 swim, 25 catch up 25 fists**, 25 kayak, 25 catch up, 25 swim)
6 x 100 @ 2.30 working on 4 dolphin kicks off the wall and 2 strokes before take breath on each 25***
12 x 50's @ 70 s up IM order, down free
16 x 25's @ 5s RI Swim down trying to stretch your stroke out and reduce your stroke rate to counter act the fact that for the last hour your stroke has been shortening as you become progressively more tired.
Total 4000m
Cumulative Total 7,800m
My limited thought processes behind this programme were; that this was the first time back after the Christmas break for everyone, (I don't think I'm giving away any state secrets if I divulge that I am not the only Binge Swimmer in my Masters squad, although even if I say so myself I am by far the most accomplished.) so we needed to have a bit more to think about as we were swimming, other than the pain and tedium of churning out length after length, whilst getting progressively slower with an ever increasing stroke rate. Also I have previously referred to my gnat like attention span and therefore I didn't want to do any single swim which would be too long or too many repeats of anything so basing the set around 600 seemed just about right.
For the sake of completeness the swim down should probably have been 24 x 25's but I originally only planned to do 8 so the 16 suggested by the FSB seemed a good compromise and rounded the set out quite nicely. I have added some notes covering my personal struggles and thoughts on the session which may assist if anyone has even more limited imagination than me and wants to try it out.
* the problem with this bit was there was no such thing as easy,
** I should really have known better than to include this drill in the first session back cos fist swimming is bloody hard work, (the full stroke equivalent of kick according to The Park Ranger (Kelly)),
*** the last 25 of each repeat should have been own choice kick, but I was having serious senility issues and kept forgetting the kick bit
Night Night
Monday, 3 January 2011
Confessions of a Techno Numpty (oh and 496,800 metres to go)
Well 2 swims in 3 days, not a bad start to the year in terms of actual sessions, but a rather poor 1300m swim, giving me a cumulative total of 3,200 m for the year so far. I am pretty hopeless at swimming on my own having the attention span of a gnat.
I'll confess that in our household we are all gadget freaks and over the last two sessions I have been testing out my latest toy; a heart rate monitor. This was a Christmas present from long suffering husband. Now in a different cyber universe this might be viewed in quite a romantic light, you know a gift which records everyone of my heartbeats, but trust me that's not the case here. The watch downloads the results of the session to your personal training diary on the manufacturer's website and then produces pretty graphs of how your heart rate varies. In a very sad way I find this all fascinating and quite a good motivational tool.
All great in theory but I was just a bit disgruntled when tonight's session didn't load properly, and in actual fact I spent more time trying to get the damn thing to work than I did actually swimming the set which was:-
2 x 400 @ 8mins and 7.30 mins
200 free @ 4 mins
2 x 100 free @ 2mins
100 swim down
Total 1300 m
Cumulative Total 3,200 m
I do know that each swim was progressively faster as I ratcheted up the speed on the Endless Pool after each repeat and my heart rate progressively climbed at the end of each repeat, starting from a steady 135 at the end of the first 400 to a max of 166 at the end of the second 100. Not that any of the swims were particularly fast just that I'm really unfit and struggling.
Back to work tomorrow and my first real test a proper swimming session with my club tomorrow night.
I'll confess that in our household we are all gadget freaks and over the last two sessions I have been testing out my latest toy; a heart rate monitor. This was a Christmas present from long suffering husband. Now in a different cyber universe this might be viewed in quite a romantic light, you know a gift which records everyone of my heartbeats, but trust me that's not the case here. The watch downloads the results of the session to your personal training diary on the manufacturer's website and then produces pretty graphs of how your heart rate varies. In a very sad way I find this all fascinating and quite a good motivational tool.
All great in theory but I was just a bit disgruntled when tonight's session didn't load properly, and in actual fact I spent more time trying to get the damn thing to work than I did actually swimming the set which was:-
2 x 400 @ 8mins and 7.30 mins
200 free @ 4 mins
2 x 100 free @ 2mins
100 swim down
Total 1300 m
Cumulative Total 3,200 m
I do know that each swim was progressively faster as I ratcheted up the speed on the Endless Pool after each repeat and my heart rate progressively climbed at the end of each repeat, starting from a steady 135 at the end of the first 400 to a max of 166 at the end of the second 100. Not that any of the swims were particularly fast just that I'm really unfit and struggling.
Back to work tomorrow and my first real test a proper swimming session with my club tomorrow night.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Only 498,100 metres to go!
New Years Day and the quest starts in earnest. It’s amazing the things you do to avoid the things you have to do, I found myself this afternoon baking gingerbread and contemplating washing the car for goodness sake! If procrastination was an Olympic sport I'd be giving Michael Phelps a run for his money in the medal stakes. Anything to avoid that New Years day dip.
Anyway I eventually dragged myself to the pool and before you all start being impressed by my dedication to the cause, I’ll mention that I am a sad individual and I own an Endless Pool (albeit a very underutilised one (she shamefully admits)) which is in a room off our living room so it’s hardly a chore. You can tell how regularly I've used it by my waistline, my lack of fitness and the fact that I never switched the pool heating back on after our return from our summer holiday until after I started this blog on Thursday.
Well the water temperature reached a pleasant 28 degrees yesterday so I couldn’t put it off any longer and in an effort to swim off the effects of way too many Kir Royals and glasses of red wine last night, I took the plunge and was surprised to survive a 40 minute session of which 30 minutes was actual swimming time (well 29mins and 56 seconds but whose counting.)
The session was pretty unimaginative and all front crawl, oh yeah and the odd 300m in the middle was because I lost count of my strokes.
2 x 250 @ 4.30s
1 X 300 @ 5.00s
2 x 250 @ 4.30s
6 x 100 @ 2.00 pull
Total 1900m
As you can imagine swimming in a flume the distances are a bit rough and ready, so I count my strokes and reckon that 100 strokes is 100 metres give or take, this is probably a bit of an underestimate as I usually take about 80 strokes per 100 in a 25m pool, but as there are no turns and push offs from the wall I reckon that adds about 20% as I usually manage to clear the flags before I breathe.
Secretly I have to confess there's something really satisfying and just a little bit smug about being able to swim on days and at times when usually you can't access a pool, but that still hasn't been sufficient motivation to persuade me to use the Endless Pool regularly. Maybe that will be another positive spin off from this blog....... as another flying pig is sighted in Deepest Darkest North West Durham
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