The Last Lap

Final session before flying out to Montreal on Thursday just beginning to get a little bit excited
although that"s tempered by the amount of work I need to get through tomorrow.

Still swimming in the week before an event, now I haven't done that for a while although 13 weeks of work is way too little to be properly competitive.

Last session at Stanley this evening in the public Masters session. Fairly steady aerobic set and coped pretty well with the tight turn round holding 3:05-3:07's and 92's for the 100s. The problem is I know I should really be doing some horribly hard sprinty stuff.

Interestingly my bid to frighten the opposition in the 200 Breaststroke by entering a time which would be a British senior record and have won me a bronze medal at the commonwealth games is still alive and kicking as despite an email to the meet organisers I'm still heading up my age group. oops!

500 warm up
4 x 200 @ 3:30
8 x 100 @ 1:45
1 mins RI
2 x 200 @ 3:30
4 x 100 @ 1:45
200 swim down
3100 metres

Hercules? don't bother, 2 hours of your life you won't get back.

We had a family trip to the flicks last night, and there was a heated debate about which movie we saw. Now heated debate is a bit of an overstatement, Bob said "I'd like to see Hercules" and TT and I said "OK".

We went for dinner first and on the way into the movie Bob handed me his tub of ice cream to look after while he nipped off to the loo. (I'm not normally so obliging, but it did give me a chance to taste Ben and Jerry's Smores ice cream.)

TT and I located our seats and I sat down and without thinking I dropped Bob's Ice Cream into the Drink Holder on the arm of the chair. I then looked into the holder and realised that the tub was about 4 inches below the level of the arm rest and it was virtually impossible to extricate from the hole.

Now you know when something's not really that funny but for some reason it just strikes you (and only you ) as absolutely hilarious? TT turned round to see me absolutely creased with tears rolling down my cheeks as I struggled unsuccessfully to remove the tub. Just incase you wanted to know, Bob, being an engineer, was able to remove the tub and enjoy what was left of his ice cream, which of course was enhanced by the thumb prints I'd left in it during my efforts.

TT and I both thought that there was an element of justice in this for inflicting on us the worst movie we'd ever seen.

So onto training today, this week I was Billy No Mates as I was the only Master who turned up, botheration no where to hide from EMSC 1.0 so I had to work pretty hard throughout the set. The hard stuff was encouraging and I'm clearly going in the right direction but not as quickly as I would like. A case of Binge Swimming chickens coming home to roost perhaps.

400 warm up @ 7:30 (should've been 7 mins but sneaked an extra 30 secs!)
200 hard @ 4 mins 2:58
2 x 200 @ 3:30 steady
2 x 100 hard @ 2 mins 1:25.9, 1:23.9
4 x 100 @ 1:45 steady
3 x 66 hard @ 1:30 59, 55, 53
6 x 66 @ 1:10 steady
6 x 33 @ 40 hard  29.1, 29.7, 28, 27, 26, 25 ish
700 pull swim down
3100 metres

No Coach "T" is for Taper not 30 minutes timed swim!!!!!

It's funny isn't it how sometimes you miss the most amazing things right in your own backyard.

I've worked in my office for almost 30 years and yesterday I was shamed by Teenage Triathlete into walking down to the local Morrisons to buy lunch.

Ordinarily I would simply wander along Middle Street to Greggs for my lunchtime sustenance. However on our return we walked up a back lane and about 75 metres from my office we came upon this little oasis of calm.

I was blown away and whiled away a glorious half hour eating my sandwiches there at lunchtime today. This snatched peace and tranquility was a far cry from the frenzy of the Saddo Session at Newcastle this evening.

EMSC 7.0 was in fine sadistic form and was heard to mutter "oh oh she won't like this" as I walked onto the poolside this evening. He has very obvious psychic qualities because he was darned right I did not like it not one little bit! Does he not understand the T word is taper not timed swim and certainly not thirty minute timed swim.

The only silver lining in this piece of excruciatingness was that we could swim it how we wanted and with whatever aids we wanted. I therefore selected pull with paddles and set off. I'm not really sure that this was particularly sensible in the week before the Worlds start, but I guess my swimming will naturally tail off next week anyway as I try to clear my desk before leaving so it probably will have worked itself out of my system.

12 x 50 @ 75 Progressive 1-4, 5-8, 9-12
30 mins timed swim pull with paddles 1950 metres
6 x 50 @ 75
50 swim down
3000 metres

7 days to Montreal and Binge's still swimming!

There were only three of us at the public Masters session this evening, I wonder how long they will continue to support this if the attendance doesn't improve?

I expect the Commonwealth Games, gorgeous sunshine and holiday time has interfered with the turn out. Like most swimming around here it shut's down for August.

Anyway I spent an interesting hour trying to hang on to Kelly in the next lane, who has a wicked sprint and is probably 20 years younger than me.

Had her by the end of the second round, but couldn't quite get her on the final 25! Bu**eration.

3 x 150 metres @ 30s RI
4 x 100 @ 2 mins 92's
4 x 75 @ 1:30 68's
4 x 50 @ 60  44's
4 x 25 @ 30 22's
3 x 100 @ 2:00 89's
3 x 75's @ 1.30 65's
3 x 50's @ 60  42's
3 x 25 @ 30  21
2 x 100 @ 2:00 86's
2 x 75 @ 1:30 64's
2 x 50 @ 60 41's
2 x 25 @ 30 21
1 x 100 @ 2:00 83
1 x 75 @ 1:30 62
1 x 50 @ 60  40
1 x 25 @ 30  19
150 swim down
3,100 metres

EMSC 1.0 demonstrates his lack of imagination and Queenie Reid is advised to **** off

It was a tough call this evening on the one hand there was training and on the other the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Mmmh

Well actually it wasn't tough at all I just went swimming! Once there
I got a bit narked with Queenie Reid  as she was encouraging me to swim the 100's flat out as breaststroke.

Is she MAD!!!!! on TWO MINUTES!!! when am I supposed to get any rest. Any way I advised her (politely of course) to eff off and went back to swimming freestyle.

I was also incredibly popular with my fellow swimmers this evening as I arrived a little late and EMSC 1.0 had promised the swimmers already in the water that it would be an hours work. Unfortunately he intended to repeat the session we had swam yesterday (unimaginative bu**er) and was snookered when I walked out onto the pool side.

The result was a variation on last night's theme but it took nearly 90 minutes!

266 warm up
10 x 66 @ 1:30
1 x 100 flat out @ 2:00
300 swim down as 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim
8 x 66 @ 1:25
1 x 100 flat out @ 2:00
300 swim down as 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim
6 x 66 @ 1:20
1 x 100 flat out @ 2:00
300 swim down as 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim
4 x 66 @ 1:75
1 x 100 flat out @ 2:00
300 swim down as 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim
100 swim down
3866 metres

Desperately trying to avoid the "T" word

So the editor of the comic (aka The Swimming Times) calls me up today to discuss the publication schedule and my deadline dates for next months print ramblings. 

The problem with next month is he goes to press in the middle of my week in Montreal, and despite a bit of wheedling and pleading the latest I could wring out of him was the Wednesday. I guess I'll be burning the midnight oil on a couple of occasions.

But I've still 9 days to go before I travel and rather miraculously I find myself still swimming! (careful there Binge or EMSC 1.0 or 5.0 or 7.0 might start to mention the T word)

Usually by now in the run up to a big meet I've given up  the training charade completely knowing that it's not going to make any bl**dy difference to how I swim.

I can't really say that I have improved or can demonstrate a change of pace, but I managed the first set this evening repeating on 1:40's although the rest was definitely diminishing as I struggled to finish the 50's with about 3 seconds rest.  

On a completely random note I found this picture of Kathy Tunnicliffe waiting to swim at last year's European Championships, while I was picking though the Lifelong Swimming site here and it just made me smile so I thought I'd give the Montreal Pics a rest this evening. Love the pink crocs Kathy!

5 x 100 @ 2 mins warm up

no 1 easy

no 2 75 easy 25 hard

no 3 50 easy 50 hard

no 4 25 easy 75 hard 

no 5 hard

200 @ 3:20

2 x 150 @ 2:30

4 x 100 @ 1 :40

8 x 50 @ 50 s

100 active rest swim down

1 x 150 @ 2:40

2 x 100 @ 1:45

4 x 50 @ 55

100 active rest swim down

100 @ 1:50

2 x 50 @ 60

100 active rest swim down

1 x 50 

200 swim down

3100 metres

Binge no mates!

Turned up for swimming this afternoon (yes really this afternoon as I am finally caught up with this blogging lark) and there was no one there.

Well apart from EMSC 1.0 and 1 other swimmer, Kate so we spent an hour swimming side by side.

The final set of 33's was a bit of a continuous swim, but I've covered over 15k this week and I'm now past half way on my mile a day challenge.

Last full weeks training before Montreal. Beginning to get a bit excited. Although a bit worried when I saw the entry list for the 200 Breaststroke. For some reason my 3:33 had morphed into a 2:23, quite simply the fastest women's time in the whole meet!

Oops I hope they fix it or I feel a supreme humiliation coming on!

200 swim
2 x 100 @ 15 s RI 100 pull/100 Kick
3 x 66 @ 15s RI 66 kick, 66 pull 66 swim
5 x 100 @ 2:00
3 x 66 @ 1:20
1 x 33 @ 40
3 x 100 @ 1:50
3 x 66 @ 1:15
3 x 33 @ 35
1 x 100 @ 1:40
3 x 66 @ 1:10
1 x 33 @ 30
300 swim down
2700

Binge tri's out a new pool

I'm so far behind with this blogging lark that I've forgotten to record my Wednesday and Thursday sessions.

So thankfully, (for both you and me) I'm just going to say that under the guidance of Proudie on Wednesday and EMSC 1.0 (yes he's back) I covered 3800 metres and then 2700 metres.

I've never trained at the Freeman's Quay pool in Durham although I've swum a couple of meets there.

But today I missed the Gateshead session (lie in), and the Blaydon Tri session (errands), but managed to blag my way into the Durham Tri session.

The essays between the repeats are a complete give away to the coach who was of course EMSC 4.0

1650 warm up as
25 @ 10s RI
50 @ 10s RI
75 @ 10s RI
100 @ 10s RI
125 @ 10s RI
150 @ 10s RI
175 @ 10s RI
200 @ 10s RI
225 @ 10s RI
250 @ 10s RI
275 @ 10s RI
200 free alternate 25 drill 25 swim (catch up)
2 x 100 @ 15 s RI progressive through 100
4 x 50 hard @ 60
200 free alternate 25 drill 25 swim (fist)
2 x 100 @ 15 s RI progressive through 100
4 x 50 hard @ 60
200 free alternate 25 drill 25 swim (catch up)
150 m
3200 metres

On No the Coach is putting brackets around the set! (Sunday 13th July)

Last Sunday (13th July) I covered a gruelling 4200 metres, under the direction of EMSC 7.0 who had just put her Royal Highness on the train to Glasgow to make preparations for the Commonwealth Games, (well according to her Facebook Post).

He obviously was taking out his feelings of abandonment and resentment on us as I was forced to endure 20 x 100 on 1:45

This was a bit of a wimp out as the set he actually put on the board was 5 sets of 4 x 100 and there was brackets around them (never a good sign for a swimmer) They should really have been decreasing to 1:40.

Not surprisingly it was all I could do to swim a fairly consistent 1:33/1:35 and I simply couldn't pick up the pace to make the step down to 1:40 so just tried to hang onto that pace.

600 warm up 100 free, 100 back
5 x (6 x 33 @ 60 )
no 1 Kick
no 2 stroke total control
no 3 drill
no 4 stroke total control
no 5 odds, half hard half easy, evens half easy half hard
20 x 100 free @ 1:45
200 swim down 100 back 100 free
6 x 66 @ 1:30 33 free, 33 brst drill
4200 metres

Enter EMSC 8.0 (Tuesday 15th July )

On Tuesday Teenage Triathlete and I made it to the local public masters session.

EMSC 1.0 was on holiday so enter EMSC 9.0. Mr Paul Woodley which again made me feel ancient. (that's because you are ancient you silly cow!)

I remember swimming in the top lane with Gateshead's A squad about 20 years ago, when he was swimming in the bottom lane as a 9 or 10 year old.

Interestingly (well I think it is, marginally) he was coached at the time by EMSC 7.0 we're such an incestuous lot up here. His session showed all the hall marks of a sadistic swim coach.....

300 as 50 free 25 back, kick, drill, swim, hard
12 x 50 @ 60 no 1 focus legs, 2 focus pull, 3 focus full hard
4 ( 4 x 75 @ 90)
   ( 2 x 25 mini max @ 45)
Round 1 hard 1 steady 3
Round 2 hard 2 steady 2
Round 3 hard 3 steady 1
Round 4 hard 4
200 swim down

Saturday Tri (ing) Session July 12th

I missed the Gateshead session this morning (July 12th) but caught the Tri session in the afternoon.

You can tell it's a EMSC 4.0 set because of the essay between the repeats.

You can also tell I'm losing the will to blog.

200 free @ 20s RI
4 x 50 progressive @ 10 s RI
200 free @ 20s RI
4 x 50 progressive @ 10 s RI
200 free @ 20s RI
4 x 50 progressive @ 10 s RI
400 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs
300 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs

200 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs

100 free  hard @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs

200 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs

300 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
4 x 25 sprint @ 30 secs

400 free first 100 hard remainder steady @ 30 s RI
600 pull with paddles swim down
4300 mteres

Swimming on a Friday Binge the Saddo (July 11th)

I'd had a nostalgic trip to Sheffield this morning (Friday 11th July) when I dropped Teenage Triathlete there for a University Open day.

I spent an hour or so wandering around the student's union. It's changed pretty dramatically from the rather grungy and tired venue I frequented in the late 70's and early 80's.

It brought back some great memories of the Jam, Dire Straights, Mud, UB 40, Dr Feelgood to name a few gigs. It also made me feel very old.

She was travelling on to London for the Saturday and so I found myself on my own on Friday evening. I therefore set off for the Newcastle saddo session, where EMSC 7.0 put us through this little tester.

300 swim
2 x 50 kick brst @ 1:15
200 swim
4 x 50 kick brst @ 1:15
200 swim
6 x 50 kick brst @ 1:15
4 x 50 @ 1:15 20 metres max
100 steady
4 x 25 odds max even moderate
100 steady
2 x 50 's max
100 steady
4 x 200 @ 3:30
2700 metres

Binge imprisons child in car and wimps out of session. Wednesday 9th July

It was Wednesday before I managed to get back into the swim of things after the weekend's little jaunt. It should've been Tuesday but the Brazil v Germany game took over.

My head wasn't really in the session and I dived out after just under an hour. I was also very popular with my family as I had managed to lock teenage triathlete in the car (playing with her new phone) and Bob had to divert to Gateshead to save her.

My exit was carefully planned after EMSC 5.0 had left to go and watch the footie of course.

500 free
3 x 100 IM @ 20 sRI (no 1 Kick, No 2 Drill, No 3 Swim)
6 x 75 25 pull, 25 kick 25 swim
8 x 150 @ 2:50
100 steady
2 x 150 @ 1:40
2700 metres

Girls on Tour: The Trip to Trieste Day 3 July 6th

Our trip sadly came to an end but not without a great night out, starting with kir royal's and then  dinner in the company of our new found friends.

We left them watching the Dutch v Costa Rica, and set off on a shopping expedition. It was festival time and the shops were open till midnight.

It's great wandering around continental cities late at night, the cafe culture, the crowds, there were dance competitions going on and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours refining the art of the selfie.

Determining to squeeze the last amount of value out of our trip, after a leisurely breakfast (including cake) we had to sneak out for a last swim in the women only beach.

We thought we'd get there early (9:30) only to discover the world and his wife (or rather just all of the wives) were out on the beach. We found a spot to drop our towels about four metres from the water's edge and hobbled painfully across the pebbles into the sea (much to the local's amusement they were all suitably attired in Jelly sandals).

Made it (just)

We were also seriously overdressed in our speedos as most of the others were wearing bikini bottoms only. We did however cover another 1000 metres of head up breaststroke.
Not really sure that this will assist in the Montreal preparation but it was a very civilised.

The trip back for our flight was interesting, (in an adrenalin rush sort of way ) we thought 40 minutes for the ride to the airport, absolutely wrong!

The Taxi arrived about 15 minutes late to start with and the road out of Trieste to the motorway was nose to tail traffic. I was trying to suppress a growing feeling of anxiety and unease which was only slightly allieviated by the taxi driver playing opera at full blast. He spoke no English but obviously realised the urgency and where he could put pedal to the metal depositing us at the airport at 12:28pm the flight left at 13:00. We cleared security and made it to the gate by the skin of our teeth.

Girls on Tour: The Trip to Trieste Day 2 Lost in Translation Saturday 5th July

Saturday 5th July and we were off to the Bruno Bianchi Swimming Pool for the Masters Swimming Open Day.

The Italian day was focused on the over 65 years and they had thought about trying to arrange a Guinness world record attempt for the most over 65 year olds in a relay.

The day started with a tour of the  facilities which were incredible an indoor 10 lane 50 metre pool, Outdoor 50 metre pool and a diving competition pool.

We met our host and the delegates from the Netherlands and LEN and then attended a round table with representatives from different sports,
the medical profession and local government.

Now this was not as informative as you may imagine because it was conducted in Italian and my language skills just about manage to communicate in and comprehend English.

Shazza and I were assisted by the LEN rep Katharina (who spoke no fewer than 6 languages engendering feelings of complete inadequacy in me) and pretty much picked up the gist of it.

By now the swimmers had graduated to the outdoor pool for their relay, and we had the opportunity to chat about Masters whilst enjoying the spectacle, (note a 55 x 50 over 65 years relay team does take rather a long time and loses a touch of urgency).

Whilst photos and presentations took place we managed to sneak into the outdoor pool for a quick swim (a rather token 600 metres).
Our day concluded with a meeting to discuss the project and results and then Shazza and I hit the Beach.

Now the term "Beach" may well be introducing a note of hyperbole, as there was no sand and  amazingly it was segregated with women on one side and men on the other.

Anyway it was a gorgeous early evening and we covered a very civilised 800 metres (extremely  rough estimate) head up breaststroke before dragging ourself off for dinner.

Girls on Tour: The Trip To Trieste Day 1 July 4th

My training was significantly interrupted by a trip to the Italian City of Trieste this week.

The purpose of this road trip was to attend a swimming conference with our new Masters Swimming Officer Sharon Lock

The trip was funded by the EU and gave me the chance to catch up with Sharon, who is just as obsessed with swimming as I am and we managed to talk about Masters pretty much the whole weekend.

Of course because it was funded by that fat cat institution the EU we flew by that blue ribbon airline Ryanair out of Birmingham. I drove to Loughborough to pick Shazza up and we hit our first snag.

Techno geek that I am, on leaving SportsPark I asked Siri to "navigate to Birmingham Airport" only to be met by the retort "It is quite a way from here" well I bl**dy hope not cos we only had 3 hours until our flight took off!

My incompetent phone then tried to give me directions for the 4241 miles to Birmingham Alabama.

Hmm Great start! a change of tactics simply asking him to take me to Birmingham, West Midlands and we were off, we were so busy chatting that we missed the turn off on the motorway resulting in about a 12 mile detour.

Anyway after a very uneventful flight courtesy of Ryanair we arrived in the North Italian City of Trieste, checked into our hotel and hit the streets for a pizza for supper (well when in Rome?)

We spent all day Friday preparing a paper for funding to run a Masters Conference in November and we finally finished around 6:30. We then set off to look for a swimming pool to try and get some yards in. By the time we wandered down to the beach it was around 7:20pm and the whole place closed up at 7:30pm so botheration a swim free day.

Now as devotees of this Blog will know a swim free day (or month for that matter) for the Binge Swimmer is something I can take in my stride.But, I suspect that for Sharon it was a big deal and I felt pretty guilty that I had to be prised away from a game of Candy Crush on the iPad.

Not sure about the quality of the pool though as we wandered into a rather dilapidated 1930's art deco concrete structure which must have been very grand at one time in its history but was sadly in need of some TLC and some walls to turn on at the end of each lap.

So no swim session to blog about although on Sunday 29th June I put in a 3000 metre session with Newcastle but can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Very Short Saturday Set and even shorter post Saturday 28th June

A short Saturday set with the triathletes, forced upon me by the need to meet teenage triathlete for some shopping.

So I skived off early can't say I was upset about that.



200 steady @ 20 s RI
2 x 50 hard @ 10 ri
200 steady @ 20 s RI
2 x 50 hard @ 10 sri
200 steady @ 20 s RI
2 x 50 hard @ 10 sri
500 steady @ 20 s RI
4 x 25 @ 10s RI
400 steady @ 20s RI
4 x 25 @ 10s RI
300 steady @ 20s RI
4 x 25 @ 10s RI
200 swim down
2600 metres

Bl**dy Butterfly set (more like a drowning moth) Wednesday 25th June

Sorry I'm still on the catch up blogging bit so bear with me.

I was rewarded for making the trek to Gateshead this evening (25th June) with EMSC 5.0 living up to his especially evil credentials as he inflicted the following set on us.

The 20 x 25's fly were a bit of an effort particularly with the single arm drills which really confused my breathing patterns.

I have to say it was pretty ugly but I completed them (in a fashion) I was reminded of the reason why I rarely swim fly in competition!

600 free as 100 catch up, 100 finger trail, 100 DPS
8 x 75 @ 10s RI alt brst/free 25 k 25 d 25 s
4 x 25 fly @ 40 s Rt arm drill
4 x 25 fly @ 40s left arm drill
4 x 25 fly @ 40s ssddssdd
4 x 25 fly @ 40s sdsd
4 x 25 fly @ 40s swim
5 x 200 150 free steady, 50 no 1 hard in IM slot
5 x 100 IM @ 2:00
200 swim down
3400 metres

Tues 24th June & some catch up blogging which is short but not particularly sweet

I've had a massive fail in publicising how my Montreal training is going so I'll try and catch up over the course of this weekend.

Week 8 saw me hit the Tuesday Gateshead session for the second time, this month.

EMSC 5.0 was in great form and mixed it up with more medley stuff and some Breaststroke (have I ever mentioned I hate training breaststroke.)

300 free long strong
4 x 100 IM kick
400 shark drill
4 x 350 @ 6:00
8 x 25 @ 45 build 1-4 & 5-8
4 x 100 breast @ 2:10
8 x 25 breast @ 45s build 1-4 & 5-8
2 x 175 @ 3:00
3700