Sunday 27 November 2016

September 2016 Week 8 Session 3

This weekend I've swum, run and swum and found the two disciplines excessively hard work. I think that the stress of work hasn't been helpful especially as it's meant that I've missed swims and condensed efforts together. I have noted that my morning heart has been raised for weeks - 10% on Saturday morning and that isn't a good sign!

Tuesday 15 November 2016

September 2016 Week 8 Session 1 (and Week 7 Session 3)

I lost some data today but I could still work out that I managed sub 2:00min/100m for 18 of the 20 sprint lengths. I suspect that I was faster on one of those too, but fumble my watch. Overall though that's not as good as last week's beginning but as i undertrained last week that wouldn't have helped.

At the end of last week I did a cut-short Week 7 Session 3 swim. That wasn't great either. Even though I did only 5 of 10 'fast' 100m sets I surpassed 2:00min/100 on just 3 of them.

Really this work on going a bit faster is proving hard work and with slight gains so far.

Thursday 10 November 2016

September 2016 Week 7 Session 2

I had to cut today's long session by a quarter but even so I was slow. The warm up time was good, and I had a clear lane to work in. I'd hoped I'd have been faster therefore, but it was OK.

The main sets were a mess. Really I didn't speed up beyond the first set and I thought that I was taking that very steady. The supposedly fast set, in which I worked hard was only 1 second faster than the first! I suppose that count as a negative split which isn't too bad across a total of 1800m. I'd certainly put in some effort as the next set was very slow even though I was trying. This is a hard routine.

Friday 4 November 2016

Sunset to Oxstones

DIY work today was fairly tough, working under the floor and coming back up to cut insulation. I estimate that I placed 12 sections so that amounts to 11 or 12 trips. The combination of crawling, cutting, adjusting and knocking panels into place gave me a good work out.

After a late lunch and a break with Columbo I ran up to Oxstones. I got there after sunset but whilst the sky had some red light, with the clear sky it was a good view to the lights of Sheffield. There was a strong breeze and it was cold so I was right in my decision not to try to stop out overnight. I think my muscles would have seized up!

During the run I did filtered and although I was aware of my knee and ankle I think they were as trouble free as they have been for a long time. Even though the run was only 14km it felt to be enough when I returned home. After some rolling my legs felt much better.


September 2016 Week 7 Session 1

Today I read the programme and executed it correctly. The alternate fast and slow lengths felt more comfortable although I know that I was holding back at the beginning as I knew I'd 40 lengths to do. It is important in interval training to work hard, but it is essential to be sensible at the beginning so you can  do hard work near the end. Early burn-out means that the intensity level won't be sustained as long as intended.

Anyway, the result of the pacing was that all of the fast lengths were better than 2:00min/100m, with four at 1:50min/100m or better. Overall the numbers are pretty similar to last week except that stroke count might be a touch higher.