Swimming with Billy

Because I'm working from home on Friday, I swapped days and swam with Craig's lot today. And this time we got to play with toy footballs, you know the sort - those that you see in big baskets at Tescos and Woolworths for a couple of pounds that small children play with.

Well we each had one of those for a few lengths where we did two types of drills.

The first one was a real killer, and I'd suggest not good for those of you with "problematic" shoulders. We basically swum four lengths of "side-and-glide" (one arm extended and face in the water). However the wrinkle was that the lead arm held onto this ball and pushed it downwards - so that it was supposed to be totally immersed in the water. Now I could do this okay with my right arm, but my left whilst I could do it was a touch unpleasent, mainly in forward propulsion. For some reason forward propulsion looked like it almost stopped when leading with my left.

The second we did was "water polo-esqe" basically swim front crawl with your head out of the water and pushing the ball in front of you. This is obviously a skill, because whilst I can swim head out of the water, pushing this ball gently forwards was a challenge! I seemed to spend most time "tacking" up the pool!!

After all the drills (see below) we swum a fast 200. Mine came in on 2:25 but the real interesting thing was that my first length or so I really felt some good high-elbow/leverage going on. I suspect this was something to do with the side-and-glide-with-a-ball drill, because that really made you apply lever pressure to keep your arm in the "correct" place.

And we finished with a bit of diving from blocks. That was good fun because block-diving is definitely out in most pools. We started with just a few dives, then we played "chaise" with two swimmers in a lane; one in the water one on the blocks. The idea being that the one on the blocks had to catch the other swimmer. This was good fun, though I had to pull back somewhat when chaising otherwise I'd have caught the swimmer just after my breakout stroke. Whilst this was only playing it did show me that I am probably better/quicker diving using a "track" start with my right leg in front.

Warm Up:
1 x 200 (100 free, 50 back, 50 breast)

Drills:
4 x 25 under switch (long-dog as Craig calls it)
4 x 25 side-and-glide with a ball
4 x 25 Popov
4 x 25 water polo

Swim
1 x 200 (2:25)
diving

Saturday was a good shrimping session mainly because there were only six in the lesson this week which meant mainly that the kids didn't get in each others was and so could swim/practice better.

This week was mainly backstroke kicking. For Mart that's with two floats (one under each arm) and two rings on each arm. And doing this she really does motor: head back; ears wet and off she goes. This was really good to see. Now near the end of the session the teacher took one float away from her and made/tried to get her to clasp it on her chest and proppel herself backwards. This alas didn't quite work, because it was something different and all of a sudden the legs just wouldn't kick anymore. It was kind of funny to watch as clearly her brain could cope (had too much to think about) when she just had a single float! But it will come. Finally the did the get the toys from the bottom of the pool, we managed three this time (compared to one the last time they did this) but did we get our face wet?! Er no, apparently the water came up to her bottom lip...!

The saying is no pain, no gain. Well I had some pain on Friday and so I must of had some gain as well. I had two sessions that day one with Craig and his active swim group the other with the Buxton kids and both sessions were pretty gruelling.

Craig's was good fun, it was butterfly day so that's pretty much all we did. We did some kicking work and Craig managed to find a couple of mono-fins to use, which I was lucky enough to get one. Now they are definitely a skill to use! We did 4 x 50 kick with these with the instruction to "blast" off the wall, er no... not possible. But once of the wall speed is definitely an option. And after these we did 4 x 50 25 kick (underwater) and 25 fly back, my first was my fastest and that was 29s (much quicker than "humanly" possible by me). And then we did 4 x 100 where we did 4, 3, 2 and 1 length fly 'fly. I think it was far to say none of us looked very pretty there!

I shared a lane with Jim (same chap as last time) and we had a few problems passing each other so much to that I cracked my right hand a couple of times into the lane rope (the first part of my pain for the day).

We finished with some pool games/races lots of running in the water/surface dives and forward/backward tumbles. Apparently I got disqualified in one for doing forward rather than backward roles. My "punishment" 10 press ups at the end. But my real punishment was bashing the soft/fleshy bit under my knee cap as I got out on the backstroke starting blocks. I would have sworn a lot but I couldn't get any words out! So that was pain number two.

Then in the evening it was lots of extended IMs, so after one lot of butterfly (300M+) it was... another long lot of butterfly and my last lot of injuries for the day - more right hand crashing into the lane ropes. But I survived the session and wasn't too knackered (which I put a lot down to my PowerBreather I think). So when I got home my right knee was a mild colour of purple and my right hand mottled pink!

But was that the end of the injuries? Oh no, because from Saturday lunchtime and still now, my upper stomach muscles (around the ribs) are absolutely shot. Sit up straight and they hurt a lot, poke them and the hurt a lot... Yes lots of pain to end the week on.

Active Fit:
1 x 200M (100 free, 50 back, 50 breast)
4 x 50 mono-fin dolphin kick on back
4 x 50 mono-fin 25 underwater kick (like free divers) 25 'fly
4 x 100 (100 'fly; 75 fly + 25 free; 50 'fly + 50 free; 25 'fly + 75 free)
1 x 100 fast (1:10 this was extra to give me something to do whilst the rest finished)
3 x 25 free with rubber brick between feet (horrible)
1 x 25 fly with rubber brick between feet
some silly games!

Buxton Kids:
1 x 400 free
the following swum continuous
1 x 100 free, 1 x 75 breast, 1 x 50 back, 1 x 25 fly
1 x 75 free, 1 x 100 breast, 1 x 25 back, 1 x 50 fly
1 x 50 free, 1 x 25 breast, 1 x 100 back, 1 x 75 fly
1 x 25 free, 1 x 50 breast, 1 x 75 back, 1 x 100 fly

the following swum continuous
1 x 100 fly, 1 x 75 back, 1 x 50 breast, 1 x 25 free
1 x 75 fly, 1 x 100 back, 1 x 25 breast, 1 x 50 free
1 x 50 fly, 1 x 25 back, 1 x 100 breast, 1 x 75 free
1 x 25 fly, 1 x 50 back, 1 x 75 breast, 1 x 100 free

6 x 100 IM on 1:50

Looking at the above I know why I was/am knackered!

After waxing lyrically about my PowerBreathe, a chap a work (fintness runner-cum-triathlete) decided to buy one and started using it this last weekend. He's aiming for a half-marathon (mad fool) in March so is hoping for some real breathing benefits prior to then.

It'll be interesting to see what his experiences are.

Tonights tri session was a long one, but I had the pleasure of watching as Francis (young speedie) set off on a hard session. Actually she swam the same as the rest of us, but the main set she had to go out harder. So that meant lots of "letting" her overtake - which I'm quite good at.

The session was split into two sections, the first was Francis's quick set - she looked fairly stoked by the end of it, and she must have been because on the 100M, I wasn't that far behind (I think I'd have been about the same time if my second 50 hadn't clashed with Tim's last start).

Again (this is becoming a good habit I think) the session didn't take as much out of me as before - my little PowerBreathe(r) is definitely becoming a secret weapon I think.

Anyway the session:

Set 1 (30s rest between starts)
1 x 800 @ 60% (11:40)
1 x 400 @ 70% (5:40)
1 x 200 @ 80% (2:33)
1 x 100 @ 90% (1:14)
1 x 50 @ 100% (0:34)

Set 2
5 x 100 on 1:50 (breathing 3, 5, 3, 5)
5 x 100 on 1:40 (breathing 3, 5, 3, 5)

Warm down:
3 x 100 choice on 3:00

Seperate post from my weekly review for this one. On Friday lunchtime I joined Craig's "Active Fit" group at Stockport and it was time trial day. Apparently every few weeks he does pretty much the same session of timed swims. I shared a lane with Jim (same chap as last time) and had a really good swim.

The session was set out as:

Warm Up:
1 x 200 (100 free; 50 back; 50 breast)
4 x 50 kick (0:15 rest)
6 x 25 drill (any)

Time Trial:
2 x 25 from dive
1 x 100 from a push
T15
1 x 200 from push

Now one of the good bits about this active fit session is that you are allowed to dive (normal Stockport swimming this is a no-no). So the 2 x 25 were a blast. We did them in two waves (so as not to crash) and I set a new record for me with 12.7 - what a difference a dive makes!!! My second was 13.1 but the dive wasn't as good.

I kind of felt sorry for Jim as he's not as good a swimmer as me and I think the rest of the set was not intimidating (that's the wrong word) but "hard" for him because I think he tried too much to keep up so got himself out of his normal rhythm. For me I needed to start each of these following swims reasonably fast because we were swimming together (seperate sides) and I hate tumble turning with another swimmer approaching the wall next to me in the same lane.

So that meant the 100, T15 and 200 I set of significantly faster than normal. This had a benefit on the 100 as I hit the wall on 65.4, which for the second time in the week would give me a qualifying time in the Derbyshire Short Course event coming up (okay admittedly this is a slow qualifying time - but it is a qualifying one!)

The T15 was next. This is basically a timed 15 minute swim (hence T15) and the idea is to swim as far as possible in 15 minutes. Now I didn't "race" this one. I settled on a reasonable pace swimming a 100M breathing pattern (changing sides every 4 lengths), this has an advantage of making it pretty easy to count where I am up to. I didn't swim this as fast as I could, because me arms were slightly fatigued from the 25 and 100M swims (sad I know, but they were). When I finished I'd done 42 lengths (around 1:25 100M pace) which I'd like to class as around the middle my range. It was nice (yes I am vain!) to have the rest of the group go "wow, how many?!" when we gave are numbers in, I think the closest had done 32. But then as I said to them - I do swim more than they do.

Finally we did the 200M and my body was pretty tired by then. I cam in on 2:30 (slower than last weeks 2:27 and 6 seconds of the Derbyshire qualifying time). Apparently I went out on 1:10, so I obviously died on the second half, which to be fair I could feel myself doing.

But overall a good swim. Did I say 12.7 for 25M? That surely must mean I can beat the 30s barrier soon - even with a push...? (Here's hoping)

I've posted one article about this week (the incident with the "strange" lady). Well I have done a few other practices.

Thursday I did pretty much the same set as Tuesday (10 x 100 IM on 2:00, then drills and a bit of freestyle). In this session I managed another 1:16 IM which incidently would qualify me Derbyshire Short Course Championships! So I was pretty pleased with that. And I had that odd effect (thanks to my Powerbreathe) after that swim.

Wednesday was triathlon swim night and that was quite good fun as well, we did mainly short distance work. The main set was 20 x 50, followed by 20 x 25. The 20 x 50 were swum in groups of 4, the first four on 1:05, the next 1:00, then 0:55, then 0:50 and finally 0:45 (different intervals for the slower lanes). I did pretty well on these I started on 0:37 dropping to 0:35 then raising to 0:38 and finishing back somewhere in 0:36-0:37. What I was trying here was to maintain a reasonably brisk pace with "good form" thoughout, which I think I managed.

The 20 x 25 (on 0:30) was slightly different. Francis and Emily (in my lane) were told to swim these as first ten 'fly, the last ten back. Gary said I could join in if I wanted to. So I did, except I could only must four lengths of 'fly and back whilst keeping reasonable form. The other lengths I went back to free, swimming the first few as a relaxing recovery swims (about 0:18) with the last one of each fast (just under 0:15 I think). So all in all a good practice.

I've been using my Powerbreathe for almost a month now (I think!) and can definitely report that it seems to have the Ronseal effect (doing just what it said on the tin). I've now worked my way up to level 4 (and a bit) and definitely don't get out of breath as much as I did before-Powerbreathe.

But there does seem to be an obscure side-effect which I've noticed once or twice before, and definitely noticed today. As with my list Grand Central swim I did a fast IM to finish that set off with and came in again on 1:16, now just as Tuesday I was blowing hard at the end of it. But that's just half the story, my breathing wasn't as laboured as before-Powerbreathe, but my heart was still banging away at its "stress" limit (somewhere around 160+). And this was where the really perculiare effect came in. I could feel that my heart was under some "trauma" but my lungs - and breathing - whilst laboured just weren't matching the excesses of my heart rate. And my brain was really having problems coming to terms with this obvious difference. Before Powerbreathe both heart and lungs would be in synchronisation (i.e. both severely in trauma), but today/now... nope that's not the case. And it feels really odd. I guess I'll get used to it over time, but it is the most funny sensation...

... teach, well at least that's what the old saying says. I use that as the title for this little posting because my other proposed title was definitely not politically correct and probably offensive. So we'll live with this one.

Today I did a couple of things: some IMs and a bit of drilling and I did them in that order because I wanted to have a bit of a workout and wanted to use my drills as a "cleansing" phase of the session. I think it worked out okay.

On the other side of the boom, Craig was doing his "active swim" session (I think it was him but I'm quite blind so it could have been anyone!) I went last Friday and it was good, though I also want to keep a handle on my own work so hense I am only going (or trying to go) on Fridays to his sessions.

IM wise I did 10 x 100 on 2:00 with the 6 - 9 accentuating one of the strokes ('fly, back, breast and free) with 10 as a recovery. Then after a rest I did a 1 x 100 IM "really quickly" after a little bit of rest. The main set of swims all hit 1:30 or just under which appears to be my comfort zone. And my "really quick" one, well that was 1:16 which I was quietly astounded by.

But where does the title of this post come from. Well two places, firstly after the IM's I did some drilling. And the drilling was really a set of underswitches. But the image I had was of Craig demonstrating his variation of unserswitch from last Friday. What he was doing (and I don't) was really accentuating the recovery arm's forward thrust and pulling arms (well) pull. When I do underswitch I don't usually accentuate these. So today, that's what I thought I'd do.

Now from what I know of Criag (little, but I've seen him swim and talked a couple of times with him) he clearly can do, and he can coach - though from one session it's not that easy to quantify this aspect yet. But the prognosis is good. Now because Craig can swim and has a good understanding of the mechanics it's possible to get soem good quality information off him. Which is what I hope I did from these focus points.

But there's another side to the starting quote - the "those that can't". Well there was a mature lady swimming in the round in a circle bit who was watching some of my IMs and talking to some chap. Anyhow when I finished my "really quick" swim she decided to have a quick talk at me. "Oh your hyperventilating..." was how it started. Well no I wasn't, I was breathing hard because of the exertion in 1:16 IM pace, but she wasn't having any of that.

After a couple of minutes I realised this conversation wasn't going anywhere, so I made my excuses and started drilling. I turned at the deep and and... bloomin' heck she's doing the "ladies breaststroke thing" (sorry for the patronisation but it's the best annalogy I can do) down the wrong side of the lane I was in on my own. So I stop, re-adjust and set off again.

She eventually moves into the next lane where two talking ladies-that-swim where and I thought that was that. But no, whilst I was resting before setting off on my warm down (just swim 1:10 for 100 free) she decided to have another fo at my hyperventalating. And then she started waxing lyrically about the power I must have for lifting my body out of the water and, this and that and the other. The she decided that apparently my legs should be tied together to make my kick better. I tryed to explain that my version of 'fly doesn't have an aggressive kick, but she was off and said that whilst she could swim 'fly (okay not everyone can) she did teach it... (er no I don't think so).

Perhaps she was just a bit lonely, or perhaps she... no I'm not going there.

Warm Up:
1 x 200 free

Main set:
10 x 100 IM on 2:00 (last half accentuating on stroke style)
1 x 100 IM really quick (1:16)

Drills:
2 x 100 side skating
2 x 100 underswitch

Contrast:
1 x 100 free fast (1:10)
1 x 100 free EZ

God just so far behind in this blogging stuff - lucky being punctual wasn't in my resolution list. So what's been happening. Well my lunchtime swims have been lots of medleys again, although on Thursday I was invited to join an "active" swim session on the other side of the boom. The chap running this a "proper" swimmer from Stockport Metro is one of the super speedies I sometimes see at lunch time. So after a quick chat with him I said yes and joined in on Friday.

So in brief:

Tuesday
Lots of 100M IM swims (fifteen I think) all done at a leisurely pace really.

Wednesday
Tri session in the evening, what did we do (can't remember... oh yes) 5 x 400 followed by 8 x 25 kick (with 10 squats out of the pool) then 4 x 25 sprint. In this session I was paired with Emily for the sprints. I think she was trying on the first sprint, but I "beat" her and got a well done from Gary. I say I think she was trying because after that she asked if she coule do backstroke. I don't care, I'll take beating a speedie any which way!!

Thursday
Again more IMs, a bit more difficult today because June and a bald, ignorant, chap (no their not mutually expclusive!) where in the lane and out of sync. This made it a touch tricky to keep on a 2:00 repeat. Any how I guess I managed 15 again as my main set. Just before the end was the chat with Craig (Metro-speedie man) and his active fit thing seems like a fun idea. The only downside is that they haven't got anyone particularly good there. The best is a 1:20 100M man so the main downside is the "oposition", I guess it'll be a bit like our tri-sessions in standard. However if Craig can rustle up something extra then that'd be cool.

Friday
A busy day two swims, lunchtime with the "active" swim group and evening with the Buxton-kids. The active swim group was okay. Not overly strenuous but some interesting perspectives on swimming. We did some trilling (a bit TI-like, but with different names) and some swimming. Craig pulled me up on two points: low head position and my left arm crossing the centre line when I breathe to my right. I am not convinced about the head position - that's an old chestnut that I am not really prepared to change too much but the crossing the centre line - have to sort that one out. We did a "fast 200" which I came in on 2:27 about 40s a head of the next and 1:10 ahead of my lane-pal.

Probably the best thing in the session was a bit of bungie-chord work. Craig had one chord and put it between me and Jim(?) then we did 6 x 25, the odds I pulled him, the evens he pulled me. And when you hit the flags the person being pulled spreads out like a star/anchor. Now that was a real shock, I thought I was doing okay pulling Jim until he did the star then, then... BANG... within almost touching distance of the wall but it was like a mile away!!! I think I could really enjoy this bungie stuff, probably the best reason for joining the active swim lot.

Phew, and then in the evening I swam with the Buxton lot. And that was good fun as well. I was in a lane with tall-Tim (the elder speedie); Jamie (a young speedie - I was faster than him at the beginning of last year, but no more!!) and Nicholas. And throughout the session we swam in that order except when Tim hopped out (to the loo) and Jamie didn't want to lead the 'fly set, so I did!

Something interesting in these Buxton sessions is how I compare with the young 'uns. It's interesting because I am not the slowest, I think I should/would be. And when you look at the minimum entry times for the next open competition I am right on the limit (okay outside) for just about every discipline. And yet swimming in a session like this I am somewhere near the top(?) of the bottom half by speed. But I guess this says more about the "youth of today" (because I am, let's face it old) than anything else.

Any how, I've not put any sessions down in this post so here's what we did on Friday:

Active Fit
1 x 150 (50 free, 50 back, 50 breast)
4 x 50 Kick descending on 90 (72 - 59)
Drills with fins
3 x 50 under switch
3 x 50 zipper switch
3 x 50 catchup
3 x 50 "Popov" (10 kicks per stroke)
1 x 200 fast (2:27)
3 x 25 bungie
4 x 25 baywatch (running 10m the swim 15m)

Buxton
Warm Up:
1 x 200M
1 x 200 kick
1 x 200 pull

Main Set:
2 x 200M free all (on 4:00)
2 x 200M breast/free (alternate 25M)
2 x 200M back/free (alternate 25M)
2 x 200M fly/free (alternate 25M)
8 x 50M free "fast" on 1:00

Warm down:
1 x 100M

Ooops I seem to have missed a week of M's shrimps lessons. Well let's just say that last week's experience was pretty dreadful, her swimming was the worst I've ever known - let's put that down to that nasty Christmas break. But today, well today was really very good. Luckily they picked stuff that she's quite comfortable with, but she was a real star.

The group can really be split into two sets: three kids who are better-than-shrimps, and the rest. So those three get to go in the deep end of the nursery pool and do stuff without (or with reduced) arm bands/floats whilst the rest have everything you could think of.

Today they did most "swimming" on thier backs, and what was really good for me was that M did this really well, out of the rest of the group she definitely (when she puts her mind to it) one of the more proficient. But lying on her back means that she needs to put more of her head in the water, and she did - I think her ears were covered today (first time I think). Now being that she's got grommits (nice!) and wears ear plugs with a head band she's a bit (a lot) scared of putting her head anywhere near the water. But hey today... brilliant. So there was loads of praise today and boy (girl!) did she milk it - lovely

Warm up:
sit down, lie down stand up in the shallow end/on the steps.
Walk to the "deep" end and back.

Main set:
With arm bands and two floats, lots of backstroke kick across the pool
With just a woggle, lots of backstroke kick
With nothing... a bit of backstroke kick (but using your hands to walk with in the shallow end)

Ending:
Duck under and into a hoop (no chance!!)

"... I HAVE THE POWER!!". Well more accurately I have the PowerBreathe from eBay. It's a wonderful toy, and for those of you out there (not just sad people like me) but others who enjoy looking after themselves - go get one!!

What is it? Well according to the hype/propoganda it's "weight training for your lungs". The hypothesis is interesting: most people when they do exercise, do it to get fitter/healthier and spend a lot of time exercising their external system. Yes there are a number of exercise regimes that execise from "within" (Tai Chi, and yoga for two). But they none of them really hit the lungs. And according to studies (all selling websites have them don't they?) it's possible to train your lungs and improve your ability to work (i.e. exercise).

One of the things they site is the classic of getting out of breath when walking up stairs. Now I am pretty fit (for a 38-year-old) compared to a lot of my peer-group, and I also walk up to my office (when I am not working from home) which is on the top/fifth floor. I tend to walk upstairs "briskly" and generally reach the top, not so much out of breath (certainly when compared to the other stair walkers) but breathing pretty hard, so much so that the last thing I want to do is hold a conversation with Ann (our receptionist). Also when swimming I control my effort/engery expenditure pretty well but I do some what "blow" when I put a lot of effort in.

So the idea of the PowerBreathe is to exercise your lungs such that they improve their ability to get air/oxygen in. According to their training regeme: 2 x 30 breaths a day is all it takes.

So I bought one of these things (their "fitness" model) and have been using it since New Year (call it a resolution). And have I noticed any difference? Well yes I have!! Both in stair climbing and "blowing" after a hard swim set. For the later, during my lunchtime swims I am doing a lot of 100 IM repeats, and I feel no where near as under stress at the end of these as I used to. And climbing stairs? Well I am not breathing as hard then either (though I still wouldn't want to chat with Ann!).

So I think, so far it's a really good exercise toy.

How does it work?
Well it looks a bit like an adults asthma inhaler. There's a nose clip (doesn't work for "my shape" of nose, so I hold my nose with my other hand) to stop you breathing through it. And an inhaler. All you do is simply stand/sit comfortably with your back straight and inhale deeply and quickly. Exhale normally and repeat 30 times. Simple!

The PowerBreathe works by increasing the resistance of the inhilation (apparently there seems exhaling is not a limiting factor). And theres a simple dial (think of a screw top bottle) that you can set to adjust the resistance level. Currently I've set mine to 3.75 (haven't got the units to hand at the moment), and I started on 1.5 - actually I tried 4.0 to start with and... no I couldn't inhale at all!! Anyway 3.75 seems comfortably challenging at the moment, but I would hope to surpass 4.0 in the next week or so.

Different Models
There seem to be three models: Wellness; Fitness and Sports. I opted for Fitness, because whilst I'd consider myself a sporty person I have decided that at my age I am really only "playing" at being sporty. The difference between them is the resistence levels achievable for example Sport level 1.0 is equivelent to Fitness level 2.5 (I think) and it overtakes the Fitness model somewhere around 6/7.

Uses
They market this as an exercise tool for pretty much any/every one (well most people do these days don't they?). But it would seem to be an exercise tool that could benefit a lot of types of people. They talk about how it can help asthma sufferers (and people with other breathing difficulties); they also quote its (positive) effects on singers and so forth.

I got mine for three real reasons: firstly to improve my endurance whilst exercising (swimming); secondly to generally keep my innards healthy; and thirdly I am paranoid (not too strong a word) about the effects on my body as I get older - I know that lung capacity as with a lot of other things reduces as you get older but if I can retard that process...

Any how, give it a go: www.powerbreathe.com

First triathlon swim of the year and it was a gentle effort.  Actually I enjoyed it because I "beat" not one, but two of the young speedies!!  Including Emily (she of the get your picture in the paper fame).  To be fair to the speedies they definitely were not trying, but hey - it doesn't happen often.

As far as the set goes we did some pull-only work.  Now I have a real hatred of pull-buoys and Gary knows better than to give me one, so he didn't.  So on the pull sets I concentrate more on gettin my body balanced (as though I was using a buoy) and trying to make my legs do nothing.  What ends up happening is that I conventrate on digging in more with my stroke and rotating from my hips, kind of instigating the rotation from my hips without any leg help.  I think it's a skill, and it can be learnt.  Actually I think the speedies let me over take so they could check out whether or not I was kicking - because kicking would be cheating on a pull set... wel I wasn't

The pull sets were interesting because the 200M repeats all came in on 2:45 +/- 2s and on around 14 SPL, which by my reconning was okay considering we weren't swimming "fast" (sort of a 70, 80, 90% thing going on).  So I enjoyed it, and may be I should do some pull only stuff on my own sometimes, because I recon I can get pretty close to 2:30 pull only, which would be interesting.  But that's for a later day when my body's gotten over its Christmas holiday.

Warm Up:
  1 x 300M EZ
  1 x 100M pull
  1 x 100M kick

Main set:
  4 x 100M 0:30 rest
  5 x 150M pull 0:30 rest (70, 80, 90%)
  4 x 200M pull 1:00 rest
 

Well first swim of the new year.  I thought I'd start with an easy long distance effort (like I finished last year with), but because it's still the school holidays (aka very busy) and because I was feeling knackered I stopped after 400M and decided to do something completely different - some gentle IMs instead.  So that's what I did.  I did finish with a reasonably brisk 100, which hopefully bodes well for the rest of the year.

My session today:

1 x 400M free EZ
14 x 100 IM on 2:00
1 x 200 IM
1 x 100M brisk

I also thought I'd have a couple of different swimming goals this year (because I never seem to get close enough to last years). 

So here we go:

1: sub 5:00 400M free
2: sub 13:00 1000M free
3: sub 20:00 1500M free
4: do more coaching
5: enter some Masters competition(s)
6: get my little girl off the arm bands
7: get my little boy into the pool

Of the above 1 is a perenial.  2 and 3 are linked (must do 2 to achieve 3).  I've decided that this year will be a long distance year rather than a (failed) sprint year, this is because I feel I ought to be able to hit, and sustain, 19.5s average length times with a bit of practice and some real applied drill work (not the mucking about that's been going on recently).  4 is something I want to do, but need to try and find some more spare time over.  5 is kind-of new, our club coach has been entered into a couple of events at the start of this year, and that's given me the spur to investigate how I go about doing this.  As for 6 and 7 well my girl is now into her lessons, so this should happen soon (hopefully), and my lad well hopefully 2007 will see him being fitter and stronger and more able to go swimming without getting ill, and because he's older I hope he'll understand that it's supposed to be "fun".