No joy

My plan to do a triathlon this weekend, my first triathlon, as part of a training for the Sprint Tri at the end of November has been aborted. My wife had to change her plans late on Friday night which meant that I was no longer free on Sunday morning.

Very bummed, but that’s life. The Mrs. gave me the option to go to the tri and she would cancel her thing, but I couldn’t say no. She has been very good about letting me get out of the house for training especially when it means she doesn’t get a sleep in. If I go out before a day shift, it means she has to get up at 7am when the girls do (or earlier), and she doesn’t get to sleep till 8am (or later). It didn’t feel right puttingmy needs wants ahead of hers. She gets precious little time off as it is so what right do I have to take any more from her?

So, my weekend has ended up being a quiet, house cleaning affair. It also meant I got to have a nice little nap yesterday afternoon, and rest is an important part of the training process, so hey, I enjoyed it.

Back to the pool tomorrow. If I can organise myself properly, and I have an ok night on-call, I will run and swim tomorrow. If not, I’ll just swim.

Challenge Completed

A few days ago, I set myself the challenge of completing a 750m swim non-stop. When I set the challenge (6 days ago), the furthest I’d ever swum non-stop was 200m.

When I started swimming in October last year, I could barely swim 50m without feeling exhausted. After a few sporadic swims, I gave up for a while. In August this year I started again, and the situation was the same. I was unable to complete two laps of the 25m pool without stopping, and when I did, I was exhausted. My lungs were burning. It literally hurt to breathe. In short, I was crap. So I engaged a swim coach, and he set about correcting all the things I was doing wrong. The first few lessons were painfully slow and repetitive – change was slow. It was a slow two months, but I finally started to make some progress. From that point onwards, I’ve improved in leaps and bounds. First it was 4 laps straight, then 6, then 8. 5 days ago, I did 10 laps straight for the first time ever, and yesterday, I did 16.

Sixteen was a bit of a milestone, because at 400m, I’d covered the swim portion of this weekends triathlon. The local tri club has a “training” day at the end of every month and for the first time since winter, there is a swim component. So, I should be able to complete all three legs now without too much difficulty.

The next step was obvious – 750m non-stop. The distance of the swim in the Elite Energy triwagga Sprint Tri at the end of November. I’ve blogged a couple of times that I could do further than the distances I’ve been doing, but have been limited by time and circumstance. Today, I had no such limitations. I literally had the entire pool to myself. So I decided it was time to see what I could do.

And I did. I completed the distance, non stop. In 18m30s. For good measure, I added another 10 laps, bringing my total to 40 laps (or 1km) non stop. To say I am happy is somewhat of an understatement. I’m ecstatic. I’m almost bouncing off the walls. I had the tiniest of pauses at the end of the 750m to stop the timer on my watch, but the pause was literally a couple of seconds.

Challenge Completed!

So what now? Other than practice practice practice, I need to continue to work on my stroke. I don’t kick much when I swim, which is the polar opposite of what I did when I started. So I need to continue to work on my kick, although there are obvious benefits to having somewhat fresh legs at the end of the swim.

The other thing I’ve noticed, is that I’ve never done more than four laps straight from the outset. I get in the water, I do a couple of warm up laps, have a break, do another 4 laps, have another break and then I swim properly (because of this, my actual distance today was 1150m) It takes me those first few laps to feel like I’ve got my “rhythm”. So I need to be able to just jump in and go.

And finally, my swims to date have almost all been in the 25m pool. I feel a lot more comfortable in that pool because I can touch the bottom along the entire length. If I get into trouble, I can just stand up. That’s not the case in the 50m pool and it makes me feel less comfortable, less relaxed in the water.

Which leaves me with the following minor goals over the next 4 weeks:

1. More leg work. Stronger kicking will help me get my time down to closer to 15min over the next month.

2. Swim 750m non-stop, from the first lap. No warm up-laps.

3. No more 25m pool. From here on in, it’s the 50m pool only. Except if it’s raining. Or it’s a coaching session and the coach says so.

1km non-stop. Oh yeah!

Rested

A quiet weekend with my girls, and now I’m well rested (my legs are too). So today I took advantage of that and went out for a short early morning run. Nothing too difficult, just a simple 5½km around the block. Unfortunately, I’ve been neglecting my running of late and the run felt harder than it should have. Despite really feeling it, I came home in a little better than 5min/km, which I’m quite happy with.

It wasn’t so long ago that I was trying to keep all of my runs at 5:41min/km pace (or 4hr marathon pace). So, while that remains my marathon goal pace (as well as actually completing one), I’ve decided its time to increase my speed for shorter runs. So I’m now hoping to do all runs in sub 5 min/km times (for 12km or less), and sub 5m30/km for everything sub 21.1km. It really is time that I start to get faster.

Later in the day, the girls and I went down to the pools and while they splashed around with mum, I fired out a quick 22 laps, including a 16 lap (400m) non-stop set in just under 10minutes. The local tri group has a training tri on this weekend and I’m taking the 400m swim option. If I get the opportunity tomorrow, I’m going to take a crack at the 750m (30 lap) challenge I’ve set myself.

It’s really amazing (and obvious) what a good rest does. THe last swim I did, not three days ago, drained me and I struggled to string half a dozen laps together. Today, they felt easy.

Additionally, I’m going to try to do two disciplines on at least two days each week. I’m keen to not only finish the Sprint Tri in November, but to do well. I’m thinking about my goal times now and I’m sure they’ll be a stretch for me.

Tired

A hard session in the pool today. I doubt I even did twenty laps and I struggled through every single one of them. I think it’s a combination of a few things:

1. Nearly 2.5km in the pool this week

2. A week of 5am starts

3. A sprint at the beginning of todays session that left me feeling less than ordinary

4. Hayfever flare-up all day.

I’m planning an easy weekend , with absolutely no swimming. Think I’ll try and take a ride after work on Sunday, and a run early on Monday.

Bit by bit

Bit by bit I’m getting closer to my goal. Yesterday it was 750m split over half a dozen sets. Today, it was three sets of ten laps each with short breaks between them.

I’ve got a coaching session tomorrow so I probably won’t do the whole 750m but I will at least take a crack at 15 laps straight.

Confidence and Enjoyment

I’m really starting to enjoy my time in the pool. For me that’s a big thing. When I started I hated the pool, but as with my riding and my running, it’s slowly winning me over. Perhaps it’s the endorphins, perhaps it’s just the enjoyment that comes from improving at something at which you previously sucked. But for the third swim in a row, I didn’t want to finish. I just want to keep swimming but I had places to be and was squeezing in the swim as it was.

Today, another 750m, again without any aids. It took me a while to settle into my stroke, but once I did, I felt like I could just keep going. At the beginning, I did 4 sets of 2x25m laps, to settle in. Once I had my stroke and breathing working well, I did 2 x 3 laps, then 2 x 4 laps. I finished off with 8 straight laps. That’s 200m straight. For me, who struggled to swim 200m in half an hour when I started (through sheer exhaustion), I am over the moon. As I said, if I’d had more time, I would have kept swimming, but I promised myself I’d stop at race distance (750m).

The biggest thing for me is overcoming the fear that I’m going to drown through sheer exhaustion. The idea is stupid especially since my feet touch the bottom along the entire length of the 25m pool. It’s a different issue in the 50m pool, but as my distances increase, so to does my confidence.

As I was swimming today, I realised that it was a shade over 5 weeks to go before the triathlon. If the local tri club have a full tri option as part of their month end training day in 11 days then I have till then to swim 400m non stop. But I realised in the pool that I wouldn’t be happy with that, so I’m setting myself the challenge of swimming 750m non-stop by the end of the month. Challenge accepted

Back on Shanks

First run today in three weeks. Any semblance of endurance that I had has just about gone. The run to work this morning (at 5.45am), was the usual 5.75km in just over 28min. At this point, I’m happy with a sub 5min/km run, although I’d like to get the time down to sub 25mins at some point.

On the way home, fatigue definitely set in,  a result of the 7 hour work day and the now hot sun as much as the lack of running in recent weeks. A shorter route home, a little under 5kms in a little under 26minutes. I’d like to maintain sub 25 minutes for all future 5km runs (at least until after the triathlon).

Tired now, earlyish night. 6am start in the morning and another swim session after work tomorrow.

Distance Done

I’ve done it. I’ve finally swum the distance I’ll need for the swim portion of the triathlon. 750m. Not non stop, but it’s the first time I’ve done the distance with any form of aid. No flippers, pull buoys or kick boards. Just me And I am very happy about it too.

Next part of the process is to swim the distance without stopping.

Good Week

It’s been a good week.

On Sunday, I completed my first 150km ride of the season (on the back of very little training), Tuesday I started to get the feeling like I am really starting to make some serious progress in the pool, a strong 60km ride on Wednesday, and then today, my first 1km in the pool.

That’s 1000m! Sure it wasn’t non-stop, nor was it all pure laps, but it was good to get some serious lappage in (I may have just made up a word). Today, 400m of laps, interspersed with 300m of arms only and 300m of legs only. It’s not a lot to some, but to me, it’s a HUGE breakthrough. I was exhausted by the end of it, but could’ve done more – once again, time constraints.

More swimming tomorrow. I’m very excited.

Oh, and I think I just agreed to (attempt to) run the Gold Coast Marathon in July next year.

Swim Update

Another swim today, and for the first time I felt like I’d made some serious progress. I know I have – my stroke is a lot better, my breathing is a lot better, but today, everything just felt easier.

I didn’t just do laps. I did a couple of warm up laps first followed by ten laps with pull buoy. Pulling nearly 90kgs through the water with only your arms is hard work, but it’s great for muscle strengthening. At least I assume it is. When using the pull buoy, I can also concentrate on just my arms, so I feel like it really helps my stroke form. It allows me to concentrate on rolling my hips and torso and not worry about my kick.

Following the arms, it was time to work the legs. A ¼k with the kickboard and it felt great. Nice and slow, and this time concentrating on nothing except the legs.

I’d usually finish off with a few laps with the flippers, but today I didn’t. I just started swimming and took it nice and slow. I didn’t rush my stroke or try to kick to fast, and I felt like I glided through the water. The laps felt effortless and before I knew it, I’d done ten more. I wasn’t short of breath, my arms and legs weren’t tired. If I wasn’t about to get kicked out by the Swim & Survive group, I genuinely think I could have done ten more.

I stoked, almost buoyant in fact. I wish I could go back now and do more. I’m really starting to enjoy being in the pool and I’m starting to believe that I might just be able to pull off the swim at the end of November.