Carl Wark

Considering that tomorrow is the Summer Solstice the weather this morning was exceptionally damp and misty. Indeed ascending to Carl Wark and then Higger Tor I was basically in mist.

Capping stones on the ramparts of Carl Wark

Without a compass bearing I descended from Higger Tor to the road but went a little westerly of my goal. Fortunately there is a path alongside the road so I could run to Burbage Bridge away from traffic.

The total run was just under 24km and done in under 3 hours. In view of my heart rate restriction on 'long runs' and the near-scramble up to the uppermost sections of Carl Wark and Higger Tor a reasonable percentage of the route was walked.

Overall my legs were OK, a bit of soreness in my left hip flexor as last week and a return of irritation from the right peroneus ligaments. The latter does seem to be associated with some local tenderness and not just referred pain from triggers in the muscle body.

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).

Wet but not too cold

After a week of lovely weather the weekend started, as forecast, with wet and cool weather. The change has been dramatic over the kit 7 days from signs of real summer to something more akin to November, although in all honesty it isn't cold.

Strangely I've not run all that often in the rain despite keeping to a routine and I suppose that shows that it doesn't rain quite as often as one might think. Anyway, at 6am this morning the rain was heavy and I didn't think I'd be going out. By 7:30 it was noticeably lighter and I committed to go out. After all, I might sign up to an event and it rain on the day.

I decided that dress code would be shorts and cagoule in an attempt to not be too hot nor suffer from cold core. I think it worked out well as when I felt too hot really it was also an indication to low down and on slight descents I needed to keep up speed. The only unpleasant bit was eastbound along Houndkirk Road when the wind and rain were in my face and my legs were cooling.

One advantage of being out a little earlier than usual on a slighter wetter  than usual day is that the wildlife hasn't been disturbed. In Blackamoor woods I spotted a heron and a stoat in quick succession; for obvious reasons I haven't included photos here.

For the first time I had a little hip flexor tightness on ascents. I wonder if this is secondary to more swimming this week than I'm used to? It seemed OK for walking later in the day so hopefully nothing much to worry about.

Swim session 2

Today's session focussed on trying to keep a high leading arm whilst breathing. For many of the lengths I felt very asymmetric and it was only towards the end of the session I started to understand what was happening.

In my effort to focus on keeping a high leading arm, mostly the left, I was almost stopping, certainly breaking the rhythm of the stroke. I also noted that my body roll was also one-sided. Once this had struck home I did some final lengths trying to incorporate a high leading arm into a regular stroke with even roll. It did feel easier.

On land, just standing, I can't get my upper arm adjacent to my head so that isn't going to happen in the pool. I juts need the arm not to drop! Additionally when doing the short pause with  my leading arm I noticed a habit of lifting my hand and then splashing it down. This must be acting as a break.

Breathing to the left feel less natural and doesn't seem to allow as much breathing. However I feel my arms are better positioned.

From my timings today I was doing 3minutes/100m on the 200m sets. This is much slower than my 'time trial' last week but might be due to a combination of trying to reconstruct my stroke and being tired after work.

Fins!

What a contentious issue. I've looked online and the prohibition of training aids is widespread and often ridiculed. It seems there are genuine concerns about injury but also many coaches advising their use!

I have contacted the manager of the Goodwin centre at Sheffield and he is willing to discuss the matter with his colleagues. That might be a step forwards. I have found that Birmingham University are far more reasonable.

You can't bring those in here!

Today was the first session of my 8 week programme from Julian and I managed to fit an hour in between two work commitments. I had a problem in that the Cofield pool at the University doesn't allow either fins or hard paddles.

Soft, glove-style paddles are allowed. Julian had told me that council-operated pools usually didn't permit stroke training aids due to 'Health and Safety' concerns but we'd both hoped the University would be more up-to-date in its thinking.

I also enquired at King Edward's pool that is run by a private Trust and they don't allow anything except floats. I'm still waiting to hear from Hathersage, supposedly a triathlon club trains there...

By the way, I did ask before attempting to use the things so I was spared of the embarrassment suggested in the title!

It is widespread panic!

The crazy thing is that such training aids are sold widely often with 'professional' endorsements.