January 2016 Week 2 Session 2

Back-to-back swim today resulted in some poor pace and above-average strokes/length. It was clear that I was tired, at least in my arms. My morning resting heart rate wasn't raised. My recorded performance was also impaired by having enforced breaks and slow-downs due to other lane users. That's life. Basically I failed to increase pace beyond the first set where my best 100m was 2:08min/100m.

Four swims this week and the distance starts to look respectable

Importantly I tried the paddles again. I should have been using them since Week 1 but my previous experience was of them being so unwieldy that  I found excuses not to bother. Today the excuses ran out and the paddles weren't so bad. I think that this means that I'm getting a better approach to the water and better, more powerful, catch so that the paddles don't twist awkwardly. I could feel the increased load on each stroke. Hopefully I'll be able to lift my arms tomorrow.

January 2016 Week 7 Session 3

Perhaps it wasn't a a good idea to do my week's worth of 3 sessions on consecutive days but at least I can say I've experienced some physiological overloading of my arms!

The session got off to a bad start with the warm-up just over 5:30 minutes but I managed to complete the task! I was even able to achieve success in the alternate 66m fast/slow sets until the lane became congested. By then it was nearly time to go anyway!  All of the pacing was slower than in week 6, presumably due to the density of the sessions this week, but even so I achieved a pace of 2:10min/100m for 2 of the 66m sections.

January 2016 Week 7 Session 2

It's quite simple, I was tired. For each set today I was a few seconds slower than for Week 6 Session 2. Today was back to back with a long (actually my furthest ever) session yesterday evening whereas last time I had 2 rest days in between.

In that background it was OK with the warm-up in under 5:30 and a grand average under 2:30min/100m. My 'fast' 100m were also a few seconds down on last time so my hopes of 5% improvement across 5 weeks have taken a small step backwards.

Almost too much to handle

The combination of a swim on Tuesday and this afternoon which was then followed by the circuit class has felt rather too much. I felt generally tired at the class and only managed a slow jog there and back. By the end I was very aware of upper body muscles. It is fair to say that swimming is a good upper body exercise.

...resting...

Today has become a 'rest day'. It had to happen as I found the run to circuits yesterday rather hard going and I was generally lacking in energy. I suspect that the cause is basically 2 long swims; Sunday and Tuesday, both longer than I've ever swum before. These followed on from a reasonably long run on Saturday so altogether I'm feeling the strain.

My morning heart rate has become elevated at a fairly consistent 47bpm which is a 15% increase. I've just measured by HRV and at a resting of 51bpm it was 40 which is rather low too. These parameters both support the idea that I'm tired!

It seems to be impossible to do 3x runs, 3x swim, 1x cross training and at least 1x rest day per week.

10 day swimming break

It's been nearly a fortnight since I last went swimming and it shows. I went along after work today and found my usual 32 lengths to be very hard work and slightly slower than usual. At first I was trying to exhale more deeply but I have to say that at the pace I'm working it feels too much. As time progressed and my pace settled a gentler breathing pattern felt more natural.

Earlier this week I saw an online article commenting that whilst technique is important in swimming one mustn't forget strength and fitness. Today I really felt that both of those were lacking.

Throughout this week I've felt weak even though last week was a nominal rest week. Circuits on Wednesday felt tough - although I did the run there and back a little faster than usual. before that, I could barely face going out on Tuesday for a run and eventually cut it a bit short.