April 2016 Week 11 Session 3

The pump at the pool seems to be on '11' this evening! The swimming felt tough and the chart shows how much of an effect it had on my pacing.

Just look at those castellations. A pool with a current.

I did get off to a good start with the first 200m (with legs) in a PB of 4:52 minutes. Perhaps that was too much effort as after that things weren't great. I only managed 1 length at a pace better than 2:00min/100m and the effect of the current was more potent than my attempts to pick up the pace. Overall I think I was tired, as in the past, fast lengths were simply more splashy.

April 2016 Week 11 Session 2

This session showed a data error on the Garmin Swim which makes me wonder about the  accuracy of all of my previous swims! One set was recorded with a total time of just under 15 minutes and yet adding up the individual lengths it was closer to 18 minutes. Oddly, the watch knows that this is the case as the average pace of that set is shown correctly. The 'missing' time seems to have been allocated excessively to a 'rest' as there is now way that I stopped for over 2 minutes, in the same way that  800m in less than 15 minutes isn't going to happen in the next day or so.

On a more positive note I did manage 6 lengths at a pace better than 2:00min/100m and I didn't fade as much as I have previously at the end of the session.

Looking back it's great that today I managed all three 800m sets in under 18 minutes, corresponding to less than 9 minutes for 400m. This is distance for the time trials I've been doing and 1 year ago in August 2015 my time was 9:07 minutes. Today, in my final set, I beat that having already swum 2000m.

April 2016 Week 11 Session 1

Today's swim is aimed at endurance. I'm getting very slightly faster and finding it a spot easier each week. I am pleased that today my average pace was a few seconds better and my pacing pretty consistent.

Of course there's a slight fatigue but not much. The warm-up was rather badly paced, partly due to lots of people in the lane.

Review of Alcatel Pop D1 for navigation: 3. ViewRanger further testing

In part 2 of this review I reviewed ViewRanger on a basic Android 4 phone.  I've used it on and off frequently now and have found that it even works well as a 3G modem as a tether to a tablet on a budget £5 Virgin SIM.

This post is just as a brief update to comment on today's use. This is the first time that I've used the GPS all day as my principle mapping and GPS device. We walked for a little under 18 miles in around 8 hours. The battery was freshly charged before setting off and at the end of the hike it was down to 69% charge. That implies it might mange 24 hours. I checked the route occasionally but I must confess that I know much of the route from memory and so the screen wasn't activated very often.  The GPS was being repeatedly activated by a helper app but the phone was in 'airplane mode' to disable 3G and WiFi sections.

Note that this is a 1:25 000 OS map

 The screenshot gives an indication of the GPS accuracy. The wooded section in the Haddon Hall estate just east of Bakewell has substantial tree cover and the contours are such that it is in a gulley. This is as good as one could expect from a retail GPS unit.

The sun was mostly screened by mist although I'd classify the day as 'bright'. The screen was readable throughout.

Blacka half marathon

It was a hot, humid morning. I didn't want to irritate my ankle so went slowly!

At least my heart rate reflected my lazy approach! I did get tired and once home I was aware of my right ankle and left knee, but just niggles.

April 2016 Week 10 Session 3

Today's swim has at least 1 PB in it. The warm-up was a best time, I think, in 4:54 minutes which is 2 seconds faster than previously.

The spike set was as tough as usual but I got some good times. In the first set I managed 3 out of 4 fast sections in 2:00min/100m or better which isn't bad going as that included the last length after over 1000m of swimming. I'm putting that down as a second personal best.

Above, or touching, the 2:00min/100m pace a few times

In the second and third sets  I showed a distinct speed-up for the fast lengths but couldn't manage to beat 2:00min/100m pace again. By the 4th set, which are all supposed to be fast lengths, I was clearly fatigued as my pace had dropped to average despite my faster arm turnover. Even so this last set was faster than last week.

April 2016 Week 10 Session 2

I was on 4:56min for the warm up today which is great having swum yesterday. The main sets of 8 slow and 4 fast were indifferent though in that I managed only 1 length at a pace better than 2:00min/100m. Perhaps I was trying too hard on the easy sections as my total average pace was fairly good and the last set was markedly faster than last week.

I'm still struggling with how best to apply the power. I'm currently thinking about swimming 'tall' with good reach and I think this is making me a bit smoother but also a bit slower.