Here We Go Again......

Day 1, started training again today. Not the most challenging of training but a start at least. I came home and had a good bike ride, bike stats as follows....
Ave Sp : 14.9mph
Dist : 5 miles
Time : 20mins
Max Sp : 20.5mph

A marked improvement from the other week, i guess the body has enjoyed the rest! I felt stronger and ready to start training again. When i returned home and did some relaxing breathing techniques for 10mins and then some nice easy holds, not timing them just feeling them, up to a few contractions on each. The contractions felt so easy, again i guess my body needed the rest from them. I'm keeping the stopwatch packed away for the next couple of months, even the rest period between holds are not timed, just holding when i feel i can and breathing through the rest period no matter how long it takes.

Time to Repair

2010 has not been kind to me, lack of experience? Yes! Over training? Yes! Fed up of contractions? Yes! Had enough of red cards? Yes! So what to do? Well since the Liverpool comp i have stayed away from the pool and the daily Co2 tables, i have decided to take a small break from training for now and give my body and mind some time to repair. The weight is slowly going back on which is great seeing i lost almost a stone during March and eating 5 times a day is enjoyable, especially since I'm eating all the things i should stay away from. I'll start training again in a week or so which will mean my body would have had a 5wk rest. When i return to training there will be some big differences in my approach, mainly down to what i have learnt and also what my body is telling me. 2009 was a great 1st year for me but one that cant be repeated with my current training regime, my approach gave me quick big performances but were rubbish for my long term development. Here's to rest and here's to the rest of 2010!

I did manage to get myself down to SaltFree at Chepstow last weekend. It was great to get back into the green with some familiar faces and work on some of the things i learnt in Dahab last month. The sun was glorious but the water was freezing! 4-5 degrees. This made relaxing hard and mouthfill even harder. During a simple 30mtr dive i found myself with my first throat squeeze. Not pleasant but not painful, again i learn another lesson...keep ya chin tucked in and dont look for the plate.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

This morning, i took my 7yr old daughter to the pool just to round off our Easter weekend. My daughter only learnt how to swim last year. Every time we go to the pool we play for about half an hour and then she does some swimming. Usually she does 25mtrs and then we get out and go home after collecting a couple of chocolate doughnut's.

Today she said "i going to try for two lengths" but knowing how tired she gets on the 25mtrs i doubted this and said "come on, get on with it", "what if i swim three lengths?" and so on...

She got ready and off she went, one length seemed easy and she turned and off she went again, i couldn't believe that she was going for 50mtrs! At the end of the 50mtrs she turned again, the encouragement kept coming and before i knew it she was turning at 75mtrs. She managed a huge 100mtrs, spent most of it underwater and finished each length off with a nice little dolphin kick.

I was absolutely made up!!!!

Later this afternoon i went for a ride on my bike as i thought one week off training would be more than enough (i cant stand sitting around for too long) bike stats were down but to be expected as i have done no cardio for ages.

Ave Sp : 13.9mph

Dist : 5miles

Time : 21.26sec

Max Sp : 23.9mph

The wind was really strong so the ride back through the country lane was hard. It felt good to get back in the saddle and get the heart racing once again. I'm stripping my training right back to the most basic parts now so Co2 tables and O2 tables start tomorrow with a difference. Weight is still not going on even though I'm eating for England at the moment, 11st 02lbs, I've only put 2lbs on in the last week!

I'm gagging to get back in the pool on Wednesday night and start all over again.