Twist to the left

In today's swim I practiced floating with my legs high although they still fall. Importantly I also did some lengths with breathing to the left although with the aid of a small pull buoy. Doing this certainly felt stiff and awkward and I struggled to get flow into my stroke. At least it was manageable, I could feel my core muscles working! To complement this I did a few short sets of 3-3-2-2 breathing favouring the right side finishing with a full 100m set.

Starting to drill

My latest swim coach, Craig, has stressed the usefulness of drills to help body position and enhance hip roll. Yesterday I worked on simply floating and keeping my chest down and legs high. I think I've improved since being shown it on Monday.

Today I took the fins and did quite few lengths of kicking on my side. After a few seconds of each length I was aware the water on my cheek which is a goal I was striving for. It seems to take a little while to set myself up. After a few lengths I managed to do it reproducibly on both sides. I found single sided strokes a lot harder especially to the left as on each stroke I tend to pass through a brief time of sinking which would coincide with breathing in a traditional stroke.

Even though I've not swum far I am tired and feel that I've used a different group of muscles.

To London

This weekend we were in London for a birthday party and I took the opportunity to visit London Fields Lido on the Saturday morning. There's a thought-provoking article here about the pool's place in the community and whether it represents the aspirations of most of the Hackney people. As a non-Londoner that's impossible for me to say but this weekend it was busy, the new facilities well-designed and the fee reasonable. Importantly their timetable is easy to understand and features plenty of lane-swimming opportunities, unlike many pools where 'just swimming' is ousted by aquarobics, school classes, over-95s only etc etc.

For me a 50m pool is hard work with each length being a little more effort than is comfortable. But with the water slightly chill the only option was to keep swimming, even with very brief pauses to catch my breath. In every lane there was a distinct drive to keep up the pace so no time to slacken. However swimmers were polite and tried not to push in front or chase unreasonably.

My pacing was poor, for some bilateral breathing single lengths I was below 2:15min/100m but after 1500m I couldn't achieve 2:30min/100m for a 100m set. Oh well, such is fatigue and hopefully some training effect ensues!

Of course I don't have any photos poolside so here's one from the Olympic park.

The slide looked 'interesting' but needed to be booked ahead

A mixed week

This week I've exercised indoors and outdoors, on land and in the water. Generally a good combination. Last Friday I managed the longest run I've done in months, it was a massive 15minutes of slow running with 15 minutes of woodland walk. My foot wasn't especially sore over the weekend, just a bit stiff, so I'll take that as a success.

Swims have varied between short sprints in the pool and an open water mile. Once again this is a step up after injury niggles as it's ages since I've done 1600m as a single swim. I can' claim this was a single 'set' though as I had to stop a few times on my second lap of the lake. I think I set off too fast (my watch reckoned 2:12min/100m) and thus it didn't count as steady pace.

Whilst my Sunday runs have been off limits I've used the tim to walk briskly in the woods. Today I saw the controls for the Round Sheffield Run and used that as a prompt to detour via Wigley Farm. The ascent from the Limb Valley path is very picturesque, the latter half not so much fun with long grass (ticks?) and cattle with calves (dangerous?). I'm hoping these walks are keeping some degree of long-run aerobic fitness.

Not quite a 1000m personal best

This evening I set out to do a well paced 1000m set. Initially I set a SPM at 61 and after 200m moved up to 62SPM. This was hard work and my pace showed a decline from under 2:20min/100m to approaching 2:30min/100m. I'm sad to say that at 900m I stopped for a break as my chest felt as though it was going to explode! After 20seconds or so I put the final effort in and finished the set.

Excitingly even WITH the pause the time is a PB of 24:13minutes, ahead by 9 seconds. If I could have completed the set in one go it would have been a stunning 30 seconds taken off. No wonder I was finding it hard work. I'm fairly happy with 9:24minutes for the first 400m with RHS only breathing. This isn't a PB but I know that I lost a few seconds in the lane and it wasn't a 400m CSS set but the start of a longer set.

Carry on swimming

I've put a bit of effort into my swimming this week and although no 'long' swims I've managed some interval work and practice at bilateral breathing, as well as testing my arms with the paddle. In total I've swum around 5km which is the most for many month although I appreciate that this is only really a day of training for some!

Some single lengths have been at 2:05min/100m pace and I've completed 100m sets at under 2:20min/100m with bilateral breathing. These intervals show that I can now generate some power as required but the endurance aspect is probably the deficiency now. I've done a few longer sets with the ToyBuoy to facilitate this but must work to get over 15 minutes.

This morning @fairplay_al arranged for the circuit group to meet at Hathersage pool for a dawn swim.

This morning's dawn from https://twitter.com/fairplay_al

Previously the various systems to swim at Hathersage have put me off but today it was very simple and I'm now tempted to return as it was a very pleasant swim.

My left arm feels distinctly fatigued now, hopefully it'll settle before next week.

On the road to recovery?

Over the last few days I've felt a small turnaround in my fitness. I've done a few short runs and on Saturday afternoon undertook a major 7 minute jog. On Sunday and today my ankle/heel weren't complaining so that's a good sign. Yesterday I walked 9km in running shoes and that was all good.

My swimming is positive too, today I even felt speedy! I've been to Doncaster twice and each time coped with just over half an hour and, importantly, my left arm hasn't been unreasonably stiff afterwards. Today I even felt  to have some power and managed 200m in 4:24 minutes which is only 3 seconds off my personal best. On advice I did 2 lengths, well separated, with the paddles and I'll see how my arms/elbows/shoulder react to that. Todays' swim was basically an interval set, after Saturday's cruise around the lake, and I am very pleased to have been teetering around 2:02min/100m for sprint single lengths. Some of those included bilateral breathing as did some paired lengths.

Whilst on holiday I managed to get stiffness in my right shoulder but that actually improves with movement and is aggravated by sitting infant of the computer. Hopefully the physio will be more effective than my use of a tennis ball.

Incidentally, next time I'm at Doncaster I want to try my rather tight HUUB wetsuit as I've noticed quite a bit of flushing in my ALPKIP Silvertip which isn't good news for keeping warm. I wonder if part of its ease of use lies in being a bit large for me?