Well I am just crap at keeping this up to date, so my latest attempt is going to be a weekly update of what I've been doing (that way I've only got to make one excuse for not writing a week!).
So last week was the first week after the Staffordshires and after a couple of conversations with Craig (Stockport) and Gary (Buxton) I've decided that whilst not particularly good, my times weren't quite as bad as I was making out (well may be not anyway!). But at least I've got a few things to work on/focus on over the next month or so, and that's:
- No more holding the gutter when doing open turns
- Unless I'm doing something specific, always finish from the flags "hard" (i.e. quick turnover)
- Do more Fly practice
- Do more high intensity practice
So with that in mind, what happend last week?
Tuesday - Swimfit (Stockport)
Can't really remember (sigh), but the main set was something along the lines of 50M free-up/fly-back. This I did with a new chap (Martin - makes there possibly three Martins now!) who is/was a Stockport Metro swimmer. So we had a good little session there.
Wednesday - Tri (Buxton)
This was a more traditional distance set, with the target to swim the two 400M swims faster than the previous two 800Ms. I was not swimming particularly well this night - arms and shoulders pretty sore/tired. The session was:
2 x 800M free (first being a warm up, the second being above ave speed)
2 x 400M free (with the total time of these to be less than the fastest 800M)
I swam 11:48, 11:32, 5:40 and 5:25.
Thursday - Swimfit (Stockport)
This was a good hard set. One of those you just know that if you did more of them you'd just automatically get faster and fitter. The main set was some "fast(ish)" 50M and 100M swims. Now if I were doing these on my own I'd never set such an agressive send off, also having Martin a couple of lanes up from me really helped me focus on a bit more speed/effort than I'd normally do.
Warm up:
1 x 300 (100 free, 100 back, 100 free)
6 x 50 kick
Main set:
8 x 50 free (on 0:45)
2 x 100 free (on 1:30)
6 x 50 free (on 0:45)
2 x 100 free (on 1:30)
Warm down:
1 x 100 free
The main set I swam the 50M repeats between 0:36 and 0:39 and the 100M ones on 1:19 - 1:21, so all "comfortably" within the send off times.
Friday - on my own (Stockport)
I got held up in meetings on Friday so ended up swimming on my own. I was going to do a bit of a Fly set, but ended up doing a free-pull set instead.
Warm up:
1 x 400 (free, back, free)
Main set:
10 x 100 free with paddles on 1:45
4 x 50 free with paddles on 1:00
4 x 25 free w/o paddles
Warm down:
1 x 100 free
The 100M swims were all around 1:16, the 50Ms about 0:33. I got quite tired by the end which was really my main objective!
Friday - Swimclub (Buxton)
This was a bonus, because my OH thought she wouldn't be back in time, but she was (bless her). So I got a good session with the speedies. And it was a good session, a bit of a medley.
1 x 400 reverse-IM (FR, BR, BK, Fly)
1 x 200 reverse-IM (FR, BR, BK, Fly)
1 x 100 reverse-IM (FR, BR, BK, Fly)
1 x 50 IM (half length of Fly, BK, BR, FR)
10 x 50 Fly-up, FR-back
10 x 50 Fly-up, BK-back
10 x 50 BK-up, BR-back
10 x 50 BR-up, FR-back
This was good fun and the 10 x 50M was the first set where I focused (especially on the free) on being fast from the flags.
