Good Week...

A good week training so far, I've been doing the Co2 tables everyday and always following up with a crazy tables.

Bike stats were...
Ave Sp - 16mph
Dist - 4.99miles
Time - 18min 38sec
Max Sp - 22.3mph

All in all a good solid week getting back to some basics, into the pool tomorrow, I'm going back to some serious warm up holds and FRC warm up's.

Back to tables Back to basics...

Last night when i got home i had a good read through my blog and although I've never been a lover of tables i realised that my times and performances were always better after doing them. Sounds obvious i know but with that in mind i thought i would go back to some hard work on Co2 tables.

I went for a ride on my bike which went great, really enjoying my new route and i also put on a tri-athlete bar which i found helped massively on the straights, i could really get my head down and bring the speed up.

Bike stats were..
Ave Sp : 16.1mph (fastest yet)
Dist : 4.97miles
Time : 18.31sec
Max Sp : 22.3mph

I've totalled up 15 hours on my bike this year and covered 202 miles

As soon as i got home i went straight into Co2 tables and then straight into a 4min crazy table after. It felt good and i took 3mins of contractions on the crazy table which should put me back on track if i carry on. I did 2min 30sec holds (not 50% of PB but i will work up to this) and i also knew i wanted to do the crazy table at the end. Contractions started at 45sec on the crazy table as you start with empty lungs then i had one or two little sips of air every 15secs all the way up to 4mins until i was fully packed. Not my best but a good start.

Felt great after, i will carry on like this till the end of the year and get back in the pool next week.

Brick Wall......

My training tree has produced very little fruit over the past couple of months. I've tried changing things around, I've listened to all sorts of people, their advice and none have worked, in fact i have gone backwards!

Over the past couple of weeks i have even invested in some pranayama private lessons and done some pretty intense yoga lessons with a great guy called Paul, and whilst i understand the reasoning behind these techniques i have found no use for them at all apart from being a little more relaxed than i usually feel before a hold or dive.

For those that know me any type of this kind of training is laughable but i had to give it a try and it's not for me. Many people swear by it and make great gains with it and fair play to them. I'm more about physical gains, numbers and results. We are all born with the same body, internal organs etc we just have to work at it to be good. Some lucky people make it happen by strength of mind, others like myself have to work at it. After all Co2 is Co2 no matter what i do to my mind it's always going to build up and I'm going to have to deal with it.

I am changing things around as of next week and cracking on with what i know best, after all it got me 6mins 20sec STA and 133mtrs in DYN this year, i also won my first competition and ranked No1 in the UK in dynamic and No3 (same time as No1 but penalty points added) in static this year, my first year, so it must be working some how.

The main aim is to gain a higher base level of performance before year end and then go into 2010 at that level and build on it till April for a competition. Clarity in thinking is everything and over the past couple of months I've been as confused as a doorman with no one to punch!

Samba time....

Last week was a mad week at work and i found that i had no time to train at all, no tables, no bike rides, sod all! I got down to the pool on Wednesday night and found my static time down to 4min 05secs which was a joke, don't think it had anything to do with no training as 5 min's is usually always on the card no matter what i do but i think the work load had played on my mind and i couldn't get into my stride. Dynamic session went well, the pool was very busy with the Diving club but i was still trying to weight myself correctly so it wasn't an issue.

Training this week has been virtually non-existent, i did get out on my bike which was great and i smashed my old times...

Ave Sp - 15.8mph
Dist - 4.98m
Time - 18.53sec
Max Sp - 21.8mph

I went down to the pool last night after fasting for 12hrs!! I had some squeezed lemons (1st time for ages) as i wanted to really push my statics for the first time in ages. I did the same breath up's as in previous weeks, two small warm up's followed by one long breath up and then onto the big one. I lifted at 5min 02sec as i knew i wasn't going to do very well and missed my recovery breaths completely! My arm started to shake and i nearly punched myself in the face then i went into a full samba. Oops!

Not sure what's going on with my performances lately, I've just hit a wall and haven't moved forward for ages. Again I'm going to change things around a bit and see what happens? I going to have to dig deep! A good friend gave me some great advice tonight and i know what i have to do, be more relaxed, take the pressure off and get back to some basics. They worked for me earlier this year so they should work now.

Training Updates....

After finally cleaning off the horrible virus on my laptop I'm finally able to to put up some posts. Training has been going well and i found a new route to go on my bike sessions. It's virtually the same distance and a much more enjoyable ride that my old route which i was getting bored of. I found many other cyclists on the route which had amazing bikes and looked the part, i was stuck behind a group and thought "I'd better not over take" they looked awesome in all their kit and expensive bikes. After a few miles i thought this is too slow and went flying past them on my £300 bike and £20 helmet from Halfords. I felt good about myself until i got to the back end of the route which was all up hill and they all flew past me at god knows what speeds! Lesson learnt!

Bike stats on the new route are as follows...
Ave Sp - 15.5mph
Dist - 5.16miles
Time - 19.53sec
Max Sp - 21.2mph

Ride two
Ave Sp - 15.3mph
Dist - 5.17miles
Time - 20.13sec
Max Sp - 21mph

My static session last week went great, when i first went back to training after 5-6wks off my times were down to 3min 30sec! After two session back i hit an easy 5min 15sec and i have left my long extended warm up's behind me.

2min NTB (normal tidal breathing)
2min hold no packing, no purging
Repeated again
3min very slow breathing (3 breaths in 3mins)
2min 2/4/2 breath up with packing - 3min 30sec hold
3min 30sec very slow breathing (3 breaths in 3min 30secs)
4mins 2/4/2 breath up with packing - 5min 15sec hold (27 contractions)

My dynamic session in my new FOOR suit was great, i usually kick 4-5 times per length depending on how well i kick off from the turns but with the new suit i was down to 3 kicks. I used a different neck weight with 2.5kgs in and had a 2kg weight on my belt which seemed to work fine. I'll do a full write up on the suit later as i get used to it and make some small adjustments.

Training Updates

Bike stats
Ave Sp : 15.1mph
Dist : 5.26miles
Time : 20.49sec
Max Sp : 21.4mph

Co2 tables went well which i done as soon as i got of my bike so my heart rate was very high, my resting heart rate is still high which i put down to my 5wk break? I moved straight from Co2 tables into pack stretches and reverse packing which seemed slightly easier than before.