Here We Go Again....

The freediving has been on hold since my last competition in March this year. I've now completed 7 triathlons. Had a great time competing this year and dropped loads of time from my previous year on the same triathlon courses. Most of the time was saved during the ride so all the cycle training certainly paid off!

So what's next? The UK National Freediving Comp dates for next year have now been published so this gives me a very nice 6mths to get my freediving back up to standard. I've had a great deal of neck & back injury's this year, not sure why? I have recently changed the mattress on my bed so hopefully this will help me and even more recently got myself back into the gym to strengthen the muscles and make myself more resilient to injury. I have also just found a great yoga class and i have booked myself in for my second session this week, I'm determined to keep at it this year!!

This week has been my first proper week of tables, i have mainly done mixed tables which start of nice and easy and more based on o2 tables where as at the end they are based on Co2 but have a higher apnea time than a standard Co2 table. Confused? Yeah me too!

I tried out my first static breath hold in the pool last Friday as a guide to find out where i was in terms of performance, 3min 30sec was all i could manage, i wasn't too discouraged by this as i haven't done any freedive training since March. Today i tried again (dry) and managed a very easy 4mins hold straight after 28mins of doing mixed tables, which felt fine.

Well, onwards and upwards....

One More Pic...Thanks to Daan Verhoeven

Great Northern Pics....

Great Northern Comp

Last weekend was the Great Northern Comp which is the UK's finest pool competition run by our very own Mr Steve Millard from Apneists UK. The comp has grown from strength to strength over the past three years and gains interest from the very finest freedivers in the UK. Nation records are always broken in every comp which really shows how talented the athletes are now in the UK. So how did i fair amongst these fine athletes, pretty well as a matter of fact. It was my highest scoring competition so far and i saw three, yes three white cards which is a real rarity for me. I think i was more relaxed going into the comp and trained slightly differently than usual i.e not panicking about my performances and ensuring i was peaking at the right time during training. I entered dynamic no fins on day one and completed a very nice 102mtrs which was a new PB for me. I came up clean and clear showing i could of gone much further. My new suit ran well but i felt slightly heavy during the performance and struggled to keep off the bottom, a white card was shown and that was that. John Moorcroft (the daddy of dynamic no fins) re-gained his NR from Chris Crawshaw who broke it later that day and swam over 160mtrs, amazing!

Day two went well and we started static performances in the morning, i completed a nice 5min 01sec static and again came up clean & clear and was shown a white card (points in the bag!!) Later that day i completed a 136mtr dynamic performance which gave me my third competition PB and white card over the three events. I did miss judge my 140mtr mark in the pool which is what i was aiming for and again i felt heavy during the performance even though I'd packed a little extra air in my lungs than my previous dynamic no fins. It felt amazing to achieve the results i did and i placed 4th out of the UK men and 5th overall. There were some amazing athletes competing and again i continue to learn whilst watching and listening to them.

I warmed up during all my performances with some different types of holds etc before which i don't normally do but they really worked for me during this competition. Training starts again now for the UK depth competition which is hopefully being held in about 10wks time. Its been a long time since I've done any depth training so I'm hoping to get down to Chepstow over the coming weeks to tune myself in a little to the green depths once again.

One Week & Counting...

Over the past week I've slowed on the tables and increased the diet strictness. Friday pool session was a bit of a disaster. Static session didn't go too well and i was still struggling at 4mins! I targeted myself a 125mtr + a turn in dynamic and ended up finishing at 50mtrs, my mind wasn't in it and I'd made the fatal error of targeting myself with a distance. Straight after i did a very easy 100mtrs and left the pool session behind me. Saturday was a better day, i went to SaltFree was some fun in the green. The water temp was 6 degrees and it was my first bit of depth training in a long while. I stayed on the 25mtr line and made some descents to the plate okay. Equalising was okay but the coldness causes some stress on the body and the dives were uncomfortable. It was great to catch up with the gang and meet some new faces also.

Static session tonight went much better.
Hold 1 - 2min 25sec no breath up
Hold 2 - 2min 40sec no breath up
Hold 3 - 3min 2/4/2 breath up for one minute
Hold 4 - 3min 35sec 10 deep slow breaths
Hold 5 - 5min 10 slow breaths

Finally i got to 5mins, its been a while and felt fine, nice and clean at the end and only 25 contractions. This has given me a bit of a lift, I've only got another day at work and then a few days off before the comp.

2wks and Counting...

The past few weeks training has been slightly mixed, tables every day and some good performances in the pool. Statics are still somewhat behind and I'm still struggling around the 4min 30sec mark? Not sure whats going on lately with statics but after having a good read through it maybe that I'm doing too many tables. I remember the days of over 6mins and all i was doing at the time was a Wednesday pool session with a couple of tables in the week. With this in mind i have toned down the tables as of yesterday to give myself a small rest.

Dynamic sessions have been going well, 125mtr DYN and an 80mtr DNF last week. I came up clean on both and found the recovery easy going. Target distances are 150mtr DYN and 100mtrs DNF. I've done the 100mtrs DNF once before but i think i may struggle with the 150mtr DYN performance, mainly due to the barriers in my own mind than capability.

Not sure how I'm going to manage a good static time yet, I've changed my diet this week and started some light triathlon training which will hopefully make some changes in health. Quite looking forward to the triathlon season this year. I have 8 triathlons this year I'd like to have a pop at, I've entered 6 already but there are a couple of local ones that I'd like to have a go at also.

In the deep pool tonight for some fun and hopefully off to Chepstow next Sat for a rare play in the deep green stuff. Looking forward to that!