April 2016 Week 1 Session 2

After a week of not swimming today's session felt rather unfamiliar. The warm-up set was over 5:30min, the first time this has happened in weeks, mainly due to the lane being blocked.

The main session comprised sets of 6 lengths slow and then 2 fast, being repeated 10 times; potentially with a rest every 2 sets. Despite starting slowly my early fast sets weren't any better paced but as I settled in (read tired?) there was more distinction. I managed lengths at paces of 2:05 and 2:01min/100m in the middle. By the end I was slower but managed to set up my pace by 10s for the 'fast' pair. Initially the lane was fine but towards the end it became busy and that stopped me doing as well as I could have and spoilt the data recording.

The first week on one of Julian's programmes is always physically demanding and a bit confusing as I'm not sure what is needed and how fatigued I'll be. By the end of the 12 week block I feel in need of a change. This reminds me of the very old fashioned 'Muscle Confusion Principle' from the Weider training programme!

Naturally some sort of scheme is needed too to make sure that overload is progressive and focussed o weak spots. This isn't an excuse to be totally random...

Training aids for swimming

Over the last week I have exchanged a number of emails with senior staff at the Goodwin centre about the use of training aids in the pool. It seemed that I was pushing at an open door as they quite readily agreed that it would be reasonable to allow fins, paddles and snorkels in some lanes for some of the time.

I was told that new signage would appear once team briefings has taken place. Well, when I went for today's swim gold stars had been placed on the Medium and Fast lane boards stating that aids were allowed. Since I wasn't sure when this permission would occur I'd not taken anything along but now I can do next time. Perhaps the faster 2 lanes are not ideal for me as certainly initially I know I'll be slow with the hand paddles as they are quite distracting to use. Fins do speed me up however.

During the students' vacation period the pool isn't too busy so perhaps this will be a test period for the  pool and a time for me to get my act together in the effective use of the aids.

Swim session 4

I missed swim session 3 two weeks ago due to a lack of days in the week and sessions 4 and 5 didn't happen early this week due to me having a cold and feeling a great need for rest and recovery. So feeling ready for action I decided to skip the integration of session 3 and return to kicks.

Overall I don't think that I can say that the drill went very well nor have I shown any signs of speeding up. However the total distance was over 1600m which is probably the most I've ever swum in a single session (I don't think I did a 2000m badge or such when I was a child).