Yet Another) Road Trip Day 10 The start of a rest day after a record breaking August

It was all getting just a bit much for me today so I decided I'd take the rest of today and tomorrow morning off. I am also celebrating because August (thanks to two rather long road trips) has just been my most successful month in terms of people reading this blog so thanks guys (all 7 of you)

So after a rather leisurely swim and breakfast I did a stretch and relax class and then flopped down with a rubbish novel and spent the rest of the afternoon on a sunbed.... isn't that what holidays are for?

Oh and practising the black art of taking selfies, Bob seems to need more practice at it though!


AM Session
200 f/c steady @ 20 s RI
2 x 50 Bk/s steady @ 10 s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 s RI

2 x 50 Br/st steady @ 10 s RI

200 f/c steady @ 20 s RI

2 x 50 Fly steady @ 10 s RI

200 f/c steady @ 20 s RI

Main

400 f/c build to 90% @ 30 s RI

2 x 200 IM @ 30s RI

4 x 100 f/c (50 drill, 50 kick) @ 20s RI

8 x 50 IM Order (Fast?) @ 30s RI

4 x 100 alternate back best  stroke length

2 x 200 IM @ 30s RI

400 f/c reduce from 90% - easy

100 swim down

4000 metres

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 9 - Binge succumbs to a Snickers Ice Cream Bar and a Magnum (in the interests of science)

Another cloudless day with empty swimming pools and blisteringly hot sunshine I was almost looking forward to this afternoon's swim.

So this week I've covered, at a fairly ponderous pace 32,450 metres which is a distance pb for this year and I've still got tomorrow's swim to count.

My arms and legs start malfunctioning once I get into the high twenty somethings so I might not be in a fit state to finish off blogging about this road trip.

I have successfully managed to get through today without undertaking any extraneous activity, purely because although psyched up to do the AB Attack session I turned up at the wrong venue!

I did however discover that the supermercardo sells Snicker's Ice Cream Bars, which look suspiciously like a Magnum.

In the interests of science (of course I had to try both to decide which was the most superior product (especially as I have waxed lyrical about regular Snickers bars (here and although I never mentioned them in the post they kept me going here.) I can say without hesitation the Magnum Almond bar won hands down (just incase you were interested)

AM Session
Warm Up
8 x 50 @ 10s RI Brst, 25 drill, 25 swim
4 x 100 @ 20 s RI 25 drill, 25 swim
8 x 50 @ 20 s RI Progressive 1-4 & 5-8
Main
9 x 200 f/c as
no 1 steady 15s RI
no 2 25 fast 75 steady @ 20 s RI
no 3 50 fast 150 steady @ 20s RI
no 4 75 fast 125 steady @ 30s RI
no 5 100 fast 100 steady @ 30s RI
no 6 125 fast 75 steady @ 40 s RI
no 7 150 fast 50 steady @ 40 s RI
no 8 175 fast 25 steady @ 60s RI
no 9 200 fast
8 x 100 IMs @ 2:30 (25 fast IM order rest steady)
8 x 50 pull paddles DPS @ 75  reduced from 32 - 25
100 swim down
4300 metres
PM Session
Warm Up
5 x 200
no 1 f/c easy @ 20 s RI
no 2 f/c build to 85% @ 20 s RI
no 3 IM Drill @ 20 s RI
no 4 f/c build to 90% @ 20s RI
no 5 IM Kick
4 x 50 Br/st drill @ 10s RI
4 x 50 Br/st kick @ 10s RI
2 x 100 @ 30 s RI  1:35 : 1:37
400 pull with paddles 6:17
4 x 50 f/c drill @ 10s RI
4 x 50 f/c kick @ 10s RI
350 swim down
2750 metres
7050 metres total

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 8 - An Accidental Selfie!, Stand Up Paddling & Pilates

Well another tough day in paradise! The start of the second week and as I worked my way through this morning's session the sun appeared and burned off the cloud cover leaving a brilliant blue sky, which of course I thought I'd show off with a black and white piccie!

This was an accidental selfie as we walked back from the beach. (TT and I'd been stand up paddling! see below) I noticed she took a picture using one of the buttons on the side of her phone. I tried with mine and voila or should that be vila!

We also had an interesting hour on a "stand up paddle board" what on earth is the point of that? It took forever to paddle up the lagoon and is no comparison to a kayak. Although on reflection I suppose your legs can get tanned as they are in the open rather than shoved in the cockpit of a canoe.

Teenage Triathlete had cunningly taken a lesson in stand up paddling before I arrived but I did eventually get the hang of it.

I didn't really feel like swimming properly today, but there's something about having someone put themselves out for you, (in this case EMSC 4.0 who had kindly written the session out for me) anyway I dropped into the water and worked my way through all of this morning and a fair bit of this afternoons. My swim workout was curtailed because I had to fit it into the 50 minutes between Ab Attack and Pilates.

I'm not really sure why I chose to undertake any of these activities as a full day on a sun bed would have been just as exhausting. And the only good thing about AB Attack is it only lasts 25 minutes! (and I can only do 20)

AM Session
Warm Up
400 f/c steady 20 s RI
100 kick 20 s RI
300 f/c steady 20 s RI
100 IM drill 20 s RI
100 IM kick 20 s RI
100 IM swim
Main
1 x 200 IM steady @ 30 s RI
2 x 200 f/c @ 3:45
4 x 50 fly @ 15s RI
2 x 200 f/c @ 3:45

4 x 50 back @ 15s RI

2 x 200 f/c @ 3:45

4 x 50 brst @ 15s RI

2 x 200 f/c @ 3:45

4 x 50 f/c @ 15s RI

1 x 200 IM steady

Swim Down

300 metres

4200 metres
25 mins AB Attack
PM Session
300 f/c steady @ 20 s RI
2 x 50 Back @ 10 s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 s RI
4 x 50 (2 x back, 2 x brst) @ 10s RI
100 f/c steady@ 20 s RI
6 x 50 (2 x back, 2 x brst,2 x fly) @ 10s RI
400 f/c steady 30 s RI
4 x 100 @ 30 s RI (25 IM fast 75 f/c steady)
4 x 50 IM order fast @ 30 s RI (should've been on 60s but I wasn't going very fast and I was running out of time
200 steady swim down
2,400 metres
6,400 metres total
50 minutes Pilates class......

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 7 Vorsprung durch tecknik

The really great thing about being here is you can pretend to be a full time athlete, and swimming two sessions a day is a lot easier to do here then at home. (although it is still a pretty painful experience)

I think I need to take some better photos to illustrate this blog, especially as I've done most of my swimming in the old pool, which for some reason I'm more comfortable in.

It might conceivably be something to do with the wind tunnel effect at the new pool which is obviously created with car design in mind.

I suppose it might help out a swimmers streamlining as well, especially as it had a pretty dramatic effect on my swimming with paddles two days ago. Really teaching you to recover your hands properly!

EMSC obliged again with two sets written out for me and scheduling a mere 8.6 k! for me today. I completed this mornings set but needed the sanctity of a sunbed to recover and after an afternoon slobbing around I arrived at the pool way too late to complete the main set which should have been 3 repetitions of the 900 metres 300 easy, 2 x 200 and 4 x 50's as you can see I only managed 1 and then had to get out because the pool closes at 7pm and dinner was calling.

My other achievement of today was to completely miss any sort of class..... not quite sure how Teenage Triathlete let me off with that one







AM Session
Warm up
5 x 200  @ 4:00 as
no 1 steady
no 2 build to 85%
no 3 50 drill 50 swim
no 4 build to 90%
no 5 50 kick 50 swim
Main set
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 f/c drill2 10s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 f/c with paddles
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 brst kick @ 10 s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 f/c pull with paddles @ 10s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 brst kick @ 10 s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 f/c with paddles @ 10s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 f/c drill @ 10s RI
200 f/c steady @ 20 sRI
4 x 50 Progressive 1-4 @ 30 sec RI
200 swim down
4400 total

PM Session
Warm up
200 f/c easy
4 x 50 f/c @ 20 s RI progressive to 90% (in your dreams)
300 f/c steady @ 20 s RI
6 x 50 f/c progressive 10s RI to 100%
Main
8 x 50's f/c 25 @ 20s RI fast kick, 25 fast swim
300 f/c steady @ 20s RI
2 x 200 @ 30 s RI 85% (3:17 and 3:12)
6 x 50's @ 10s RI at 90%
200 swim down
2,600 total
7,000 metres

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 6 EMSC 4 to the rescue

Decision for the day: which lane do I swim in?

After yesterdays epic fail, Dr Bob (also known as Evil Mutant Swim Coach four point zero) stepped in to put my swimming back on track by writing a couple of sessions for me.

it"s always easier to follow a preplanned session than to make it up on the spot. Now admittedly his turnaround times were just a bit optimistic so I had to amend them a tad, but I did work my way through 7K.

I am now knackered and also starving, don't care what I have for dinner as long as there's a huge portion of chips to go with it. (very healthy!)

Note to self Pina Colada's and hot chocolate doesn't really mix very well.

AM Session
4 x 300 warm up
300 free 100 drill, 50 kick, 100 swim, 50 kick
300 brst 100 drill, 50 kick, 100 swim, 50 kick
300 back 100 drill, 50 kick, 100 swim, 50 kick
300 fly   100 drill, 50 kick, 100 drill, 50 kick
4 x 50 IM order @ 10 s RI
2 x 100 Brst @ 20 s RI
4 x 200 progressive @ 3:45  3:35. 3:30, 3:25, 3:20
4 x 50 IM order @ 10 s RI
2 x 100 Brst @ 20 s RI
4 x 200 progressive @ 3:45 3:37. 3:32, 3:25, 3:20
200 swim down
3800 metres

PM Session
2 x 50 free @ 10 s RI
100 breast drill @ 20 s RI
4 x 50 free @ 10s RI (build to 80%) yeah right
100 breast kick
8 x 50 free @ 10s RI (build to 90%) hmmm
200 free @ 3:45  (3:20)
4 x (4 x 50 breast pull @ 10 s RI)
200 free @ 3:45 (£:20)
4 x (4 x 50 free pull @ 10s RI)
200 swim
3200 metres
7,000 metres

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 5 Binge bored of being Billy no mates

Well today was almost a complete swimming fail, while it's nice to have 2 side by side 8 lane 50 meter pools to train in; it's quite lonely when there are only 3 people in the water and you have the whole of a pool to yourself.

I lost all motivation to do any work, so got out after a mere 1.8k and then tried two or three dives off the blocks experimenting with a track start and the position of the back foot rest.

My start is pants see here and if I wasn't on holiday I might seriously do some work on it.

Anyway a multi grain croissant and a decent cup of coffee were calling so I sauntered back to the apartment for breakfast and then for some reason decided I would spend the rest of the morning in a pilates (intermediate) class followed by a yoga (for beginners) class. Trying to revitalise my Zen, actually the easiest way to do that was to spend the afternoon reading trashy novels on a sunbed.

600 easy swim
16 x 50 @ 70 25 easy 25 hard @ 70
4 x 50 breaststroke kick
4 x 50 free pull
200 swim down

(Yet Another) Road Trip Day 4 (Monday) Binge swaps Ab Attack for 2nd Swim Session

The holiday mood really began to take hold as I only made it to the pool for a morning dip today (Monday) although it was a reasonable session and I covered a fairly respectable distance.

As punishment I was forced to go to yet another ab attack session parts of which were undoable and hurt quite a lot.

This evening we made a bid for freedom and taxied into La Santa for dinner as we wandered back they were closing up the pools for the evening. It was a pretty impressive sight two side by side 50 metre pools, that's a lot of water.

800 warm up free, down drill
5 x 200 @ 3:50 progressive from 3:37-3:20
20 x 50 @ 60 pull with paddles
4 x 100 @ 2:15 25 fly, 75 steady
4 x 50 kick
200 swim down
3600 metres