Success 6min 01sec..

At last some success, over the past week or so i have cut out the big breath up's and found success in slow, deep inhales. exhales. Tonight whilst training i hit 6mins once again. I had a complete weekend off
work and relaxed with my Daughter, hadn't trained since last Tuesday and wasn't really expecting much at all. I started again by just timing when the first contraction kicked in on each hold.

Hold 1 : 2min 30sec (1st contraction)
2min rest
Hold 2 : 3min (1st contraction)
2min rest
Hold 3 : 3min 15sec (1st contraction) 4 packs
2min rest
Hold 4 : 6min 01sec (4 packs)

My 1st contraction started at 3min 35sec on hold 4 and i took the first 10 nice and slowly which took me round to 4min 35sec, the next 10 contractions took me to 5min 15sec. I was going to stop but remembered i had hit 5min 30sec a few weeks ago so thought i should at least go to that point. When i hit 5min 30sec i had already taken 40 contractions so just pushed for another 31secs just past 6mins. I took 50 contractions in total but they felt o.k and fairly light and manageable.

I still believe that the hyperventilating was having some negative effects on my performances and that i may of been over training this year. I never give my body time to rest or recover. Over the past couple of months due to my performances going backwards i have laid off the hard training and rested as i was losing motivation. After tonight, my motivation is back, I'll crack back into the same tomorrow and Wednesday and see what each session brings?

Just say "NO" to hyperventilating?

As you can probably tell if you read through my blog, since my first competition i have been slowly going backwards. I've had the odd bit of success but still nowhere near where i thought i would be at the end of 2009! I really targeted myself with 7mins static at the end of this year as i had been over 6mins five or six times but nothing was working for me since May.

I've tried max attempts everyday, yoga, no warm up's and FRC holds but again no progress? I went into lots of Co2 tables, crazy tables, you name it, I've tried it.

I believe that hyperventilating has great immediate effects on your performance but if you rely on them they have a bad effect on your long term development. With this in mind i continued my training this week but cut out the 2/4/2 breath up's and replaced with relaxed, slow deep breaths before each hold. The aim was to take each hold up to the point of the 1st contraction and rest for 2mins and repeat.

Day one
2min hold
2min 30sec hold
3min hold
3min 15sec hold

Day two
2min 30sec hold
2min 45sec hold
3min 15sec hold
3min 30sec (1st contraction) continued to 5mins with 19 contractions

Only doing three warm up's, no packing, no 2/4/2 breathing saw my contraction kick in time only 15secs behind where i was when i was doing over 6min holds. My contractions earlier this year did not start until 3min 45sec. I know that i need to take more control of the contractions and slow them down, this was key earlier this year. I have started to mouth fill during a static hold at the point of 1st contraction and also in between contractions to delay each one as long as possible.

Off to the pool tomorrow, this time with no pre-conceptions of what i want to achieve although i must say i will be happy to say goodbye to the whole "4mins something" sessions...

Involuntary week off...

I had to go away last week for a few days to Marbella in Spain at the Andalucia hotel and was ordered to drink copious amounts of alcohol by my hosts, bummer! For those that know me well, will be aware that i don't do drinking very well. Anyway it was a great few days and also nice to take a bit of a break away from training.

I went back to training tonight and went for a good ride in the blustery weather we having at present, my times were way down but then i never trained in 60mph head winds.

I did some Co2 tables when i got back which went surprisingly well and i got through them with ease. Tomorrow will bring another similar days training and hopefully convert into a good pool session on Wednesday?

Max Attempts vs. Performance

Well, i thought i would try lots of max attempts in the hope of boosting my times back to where they should be but after doing a nice 5min 30sec STA, i went to the pool and it didn't go great. I used the same breath up as i did the day before and i gave up at 4min 30sec! I did place a 1min 40sec FRC hold before my last one but it just didn't work.

I have read before that max attempts should only be done once a week but i thought i would give it a try two days in a row and i felt tired. I'm going to try two or three max attempts next week in dry training to give it a bit more time but not the day before i train wet.

Dynamic session went o.k, again only 100mtrs but working on my turns which were really poor last week. This week they had improved.

5mins 30sec..Getting Back on Track.

The last weeks training has gone well, plenty of cycling, dry statics and tables with good results. One of the main things I'm doing is getting back to what worked for me last year and earlier this year. I have also just started max attempts which i'm going into everyday! (started today)

Breath up's were all 2/4/2 and i extended them each time to delay the build up of Co2...

2/4/2 breathing for 2mins (hold for 2min 30sec) no contractions
1min rest NTB
2/4/2 breathing for 3mins (hold for 3min 15sec) 2 contractions
1min rest NTB
2/4/2 breathing for 4mins (hold for 3min 30sec) 2 contractions
1min rest NTB
2/4/2 breathing for 5mins (hold for 5min 30sec) 27 contractions 8 packs

Whole exercise took just less than 32mins from beginning to end. I was really happy with the results and tomorrow I'm off to the pool to do the same, i might put in one FRC hold at the end before the last one to see what happens.