September 2016 Week 8 Session 3

This weekend I've swum, run and swum and found the two disciplines excessively hard work. I think that the stress of work hasn't been helpful especially as it's meant that I've missed swims and condensed efforts together. I have noted that my morning heart has been raised for weeks - 10% on Saturday morning and that isn't a good sign!

September 2016 Week 8 Session 1 (and Week 7 Session 3)

I lost some data today but I could still work out that I managed sub 2:00min/100m for 18 of the 20 sprint lengths. I suspect that I was faster on one of those too, but fumble my watch. Overall though that's not as good as last week's beginning but as i undertrained last week that wouldn't have helped.

At the end of last week I did a cut-short Week 7 Session 3 swim. That wasn't great either. Even though I did only 5 of 10 'fast' 100m sets I surpassed 2:00min/100 on just 3 of them.

Really this work on going a bit faster is proving hard work and with slight gains so far.

September 2016 Week 7 Session 2

I had to cut today's long session by a quarter but even so I was slow. The warm up time was good, and I had a clear lane to work in. I'd hoped I'd have been faster therefore, but it was OK.

The main sets were a mess. Really I didn't speed up beyond the first set and I thought that I was taking that very steady. The supposedly fast set, in which I worked hard was only 1 second faster than the first! I suppose that count as a negative split which isn't too bad across a total of 1800m. I'd certainly put in some effort as the next set was very slow even though I was trying. This is a hard routine.

Sunset to Oxstones

DIY work today was fairly tough, working under the floor and coming back up to cut insulation. I estimate that I placed 12 sections so that amounts to 11 or 12 trips. The combination of crawling, cutting, adjusting and knocking panels into place gave me a good work out.

After a late lunch and a break with Columbo I ran up to Oxstones. I got there after sunset but whilst the sky had some red light, with the clear sky it was a good view to the lights of Sheffield. There was a strong breeze and it was cold so I was right in my decision not to try to stop out overnight. I think my muscles would have seized up!

During the run I did filtered and although I was aware of my knee and ankle I think they were as trouble free as they have been for a long time. Even though the run was only 14km it felt to be enough when I returned home. After some rolling my legs felt much better.

September 2016 Week 7 Session 1

Today I read the programme and executed it correctly. The alternate fast and slow lengths felt more comfortable although I know that I was holding back at the beginning as I knew I'd 40 lengths to do. It is important in interval training to work hard, but it is essential to be sensible at the beginning so you can  do hard work near the end. Early burn-out means that the intensity level won't be sustained as long as intended.

Anyway, the result of the pacing was that all of the fast lengths were better than 2:00min/100m, with four at 1:50min/100m or better. Overall the numbers are pretty similar to last week except that stroke count might be a touch higher.

September 2016 Week 6 Session 3

Now I'm supposed to do 2 x 100m each in 1:54min or less; and repeat it five times. That's not going to happen and indeed it didn't happen. The first pair of 100m were done in 1:56min/100m which I was very happy with. Unfortunately from then on my pace slackened until the best I could manage was 2:11min/100m. (As an excuse, the water was incredibly rough by the end of my session.)

I'd only just worked up to 9 of 10 100m sets at a sub 2:00min/100m pace so doubling up was destined to fail. Anyway I'll work at it and probably find after a few weeks that I'm struggling but could achieve an earlier goal readily.

September 2016 Week 6 Session 2

Session 2 is hateful.

Maybe by the end of the 12 week block I'll feel that I've mastered it but currently I hate the combination of pace and the duration. Having to make an effort when tired is tough.

The chart shows distinctly how my strokes per length increases as I fatigue but also as I increase stroke rate. That tends to mean less efficiency and more fatigue...

Today I didn't manage the intended negative splits as well as last week but this actually hides an improvement. In the first 1600m my final pace was with a second of last week but my starting pace 8 seconds better.  For the second 1600m the difference was much more marked. For the first 400m my pace was 42 seconds faster and for the last set 26 seconds better.

I knew that I'd started the seconds super set faster than last week and assumed that I'd not pushed myself as much in the first superset as I didn't feel as worn. That might well be true, but if so I've basically worked less hard to achieve the same outcome! (Looking back over a few weeks it's clear my pace has improved by a few seconds for each set.)

Now I need to capitalise on this slight increase in fitness by trying to establish distinct negative splits again without setting off artificially slowly. That means more effort at the end.