Swimming with Billy

Quite possibly I over did it today, working in the office today meant I could do a lunch time session, and I'd already agreed with Craig that one sessionthis week should be a repeat of last weeks fly set. So we (I) did that again today - it was hard!! I finished the first repeat and could feel my body saying nope - this is a bad idea. Some how, and I mean some how, I got to the end but it was a survival of the (none) fittest thing. Actually I even managed to pick up the last repeat, not by much but just enough... totally knackered at the end.

And then I went to our weekly triathlon session tonight to find us doing 20 x 100 on 15 RI! Actually it might not have been that bad, except I was physically tired from lunch time, and Gary threw in a bit of a few 25M sprints - just to muck the whole body up. I didn't swim well, which was unfortunate because one of the less able swimmers decided to get up on deck and watch me and Tim.

So now it's bed time and I am knackered, my legs are tired, my shoulders are tired and I've got a head ache...

Swim Fit Set.
Warm Up
1 x 400 EZ
1 x 200 kick free with first 5M after each turn *fast*

Main set:
12 x 75 fly on 1:30
swum as 1 x 25 EZ on 30
1 x 50 build to max(?) on 1:00

Warm down:
1 x 100 kick
1 x 100 breast stroke
1 x 100 free

Triathlete Set.
4 x 500 swum as
3 x 100 RI 15 progressive (65 - 85%)
2 x 100 RI 15 25 focus left; 25 focus right; 25 focus stroke; 25 sprint

Warm down:
1 x 50 back
1 x 50 breast
1 x 100 IM

Probably the best bit about the evening session was when Steve came up before we started and thanked me for my help/coaching points last week. He was really up beat about the difference they seemed to have made - which is nice.

And so for the first swim of the week... it was more of the same - repeat fifties. I (think I) really enjoy these however they kill me at the moment. May be it's my age, may be it's the fact my OH's phone went off at 01:45 then my girlie bashed her mouth on her bed and woke up crying at 03:45 and then my boy decided that 06:00 was about the right time for a snuggle... who knows, but today's set was really tiring.

The first part was okay, and I did some more "playing" with the front end of my stroke. Basically I am slightly flatter (less on my side) than normal, with my hand entry slightly wider and a real emphasis on getting a real-early high-elbowed catch. I have to do the first two parts because my shoulders just don't bend enough not to do this. Now as with the last time we did this, the slower repeats felt good, still not getting much power from the stroke but it does feel interesting. And again as we upped the intensity, my stroke fell away, so I got more tired, and slower, and by the end I just wanted to stop!

Now, Dave (the very quick) was in the lane next to me, we started at around the same speed - he was taking it far to easy. But by the time we got to the second (PB + 4) and definitely the third (PB + 2) cycle he was miles a head. I watched (not really because he was just "gone") him accelerate away, and now I know just how far 7 seconds in sprint terms is (a loooonnnnggggg way)!

So to the set...

Warm up:
1 x 300 EZ (should have been 400 but I was late)
4 x 50 fly kick (I did mine on my side)
4 x 50 free kick (I only did one because I was late)

Main set:
8 x 50M free PB + 6 (on 70)
8 x 50M free PB + 4 (on 70)
4 x 50M free PB + 2 (on 90)

Warm down:
1 x 200 EZ

I managed the PB + 6 , and the first PB + 4, but the rest ended up PB + 4/5 ish. The last couple were a but quicker, but I was past caring!

This was the home leg of the Crusader league competition. Our open team had a new entrant in it, young Connor (14) joined the "team" and Rick returned. Connor's a very nice young lad, who's just recently moved into the seniors group, and it was I think a big thing for him to swim in our relays. And to be fair to him, he swam really well (anchoring the IM relay and leading the free style). Hopefully he took away a really positive feeling from the whole experience. All three of us oldies took time to talk with him and encourage him. For me, because of team changes I suddenly had the 100 IM to start with, it was a touch grim!

Just for completeness, our freestyle relay:

And for me 28.16 is a PB, getting closer to 27s - may be Scarborough in a couple of weeks...

Working from home, no swimming today. My OH away tonight - no swimming tonight either. Still there's a Cursader tomorrow.

Yesterday we did a speed set, what was good about this was Dave the very speedie was in the lane next to me and during our pre-set he basically said, my turns are (at least yesterday) rubbish. To be fair he's right, at the moment I think I turn like an old man (hey I am getting to be an old man). But it's good to be reminded of the fact.

Warm Up:
1 x 400 EZ
1 x 400 EZ-swim,
on the odd turns: fast turn, 7M underwater fly kick, 7M fast

Main set:
From a dive, two lots of (first set free, second fly)
2 x 15
2 x 20
2 x 25

Finalle
1 x 50

I like sets like this - I enjoy diving from blocks (as it's not stuff I get to do often). The last 50 was 29.1. Something I think I'll get Craig to check next time we do similar is the drop-off on the second half. I suspect that I "die" on the second length, but I don't know whether that's down to a poor turn, or lactate-build up.

From my last post, you can see that I was pretty glad not to be swimming last night with triathletes, rather I was on deck as Gary and Di were/are off on holiday. The tirathletes run a "winter series" of which once a month there's a 400M time trial and that coincided with last night.

I haven't been on deck for this lot for a long while so it's nice to have a change in perspective. And I have to say that overall the technique isn't too bad (and for a triathlete group that swim once a week it's pretty good). I did manage to talk/suggest one or two things to a few swimmers. To be fair most of them suffer from the same set of problems (don't all swimmers) and most of those are the same faults that I (still) have. The funny thing is that I am not sure they believe me because the difference in technique/speed between them and myself is significant (but then I swim 3-5 times a week and have done for a number of years).

But the end result of last night is that I am encouraged to may be write one or two longer articles about bits of technique that I do well/badly but differently to the rest of the group - it might help explain why I am a bit quicker than them.

Yesterday was a killer, a real killer. Due to work/family commitments it worked out that I could do a swim fit session in Stockport yesterday. And I had a word (Tuesday) that I really could do with a bit of 'Fly practice - Darlington Masters and the last Crusader both told me more than I need to know about my stamina and ability over 100M. Which is fair enough because somehow I/we never get around to much fly these days.

So yesterday was different - there were five of us: Dave (super speedie), Martin (super speedie), two lady improvers and me. Craig gave us a choice - IM or fly, I chose fly everyon else IM. The IM practice was grim 10 x 100 IM on 1:30 followed by 2 x 200IM "best effort"! Thank you very much, I'll do the other... It was after the second repeat that I realised this could have been a really bad move:

Warm Up:
1 x 400 EZ
8 x 50 (25 torpedo kick, build to max; 25 EZ swim)

Main set:
12 x 75 fly on 1:30
swum as 1 x 25 EZ on 30
1 x 50 build to max on 1:00

Let's just get it straight - there wasn't much build to max on that one! I did manage the set and I was doing a rather fine impression of an asthmatic fly in a bowl of soup by the end (ok from about repeat 6).

For some reason I asked to do it again next Thursday...

Haven't posted a set for a while, so here goes what we did today:

Warm Up:
1 x 400 EZ
3 x 100 fly kick, 50 free build to max RI 15

Main set
20 x 50 swum:
4 x 50 PB + 10 on 70s
4 x 50 PB + 8 on 70s
4 x 50 PB + 6 on 70s
4 x 50 PB + 4 on 70s
4 x 50 PB + 2 on 80s

I managed up to +4 okay, when I was +5 and +3/4 to finish - very knackered! The first 12 were good, I was trying out my improved catch on a breathe every three pattern. It felt kind of lopsided, but then that could have been because I was accentuation my catch action on 1, or 2, of my three stroke pattern. Have to say the pattern/structure fell apart on the last 8 repeats!

One slight funny over this last weeks coaching I've been doing, is that on a couple of sessions I was being shadowed by a couple of ladies wanting to become coaches, or to learn a bit more. The first actually takes some of the beginners (width's) groups, the other is one of the pools teachers who I know by her face because she's taken my girl's splash class a few times.

So it was funny/strange taking a couple of sessions with them asking me questions about style and the hows-and-whys about bits and pieces.

... I can play. Well may be not. But I got asked to stand in on a few sessions this last week and next week (except I can't do next week). So I've done Tuesday, Friday and Sunday this week just gone. Some of it's been really good (most of it) but today's Junior B(?) group were hard work. There are a couple of lads (12-14) who are just in the age for pratting about and challenging authority.

I think I did okay - because I didn't go shouting at them (though I really wanted to). One I had to have a quiet word with along the lines of two choices: (a) go into the end lane with the girls... or (b) shut up and start behaving or you can get out and sit on the side until your mum comes. He opted to kind-of shut up. He spent a lot of the rest of the session being sulky-little-boy, his mate also tried that line as well. But his mate actually decided to respond to praise and work a bit harder. I was quite worn out at the end!

The best sesison was Friday night when there were only two Junior A, both 9-year-old girls, both really good swimmers, both eager to please and swim well. A true dream.

But alas not good enough for Gold. So Mark Foster ended up with a silver. I reckon he could have gone a touch faster if Draganja(the winner) hadn't been in an outside lane. Having said that Draganja "smoked it" in 20.81 a new world record. Still silver and a 47th(!!!!) medal placing at an elite event isn't too shabby. Now the question is what can he do in the 50M Fly final tomorrow?

Just been watching the World Short Course Championships on EuroSport and watched the semis of the 50M. First semi, lane 4, Mark Foster. Result 21.32 1st and seeded first for the final. I watch him swim and think... how does he do that? Absolute monster. The Eurosport commentator got so carried away that he panicked when the guy in the lane next to Foster (called Kebbabb!) almost missed the wall on his turn and Steve Parric (commentator went ultra-sonic "FOSTERS MISSED THE WALL, HE'S MISSED THE WALL... Oh, no he hasn't that was some other guy... sorry!!"

Oh - his suit stayed in on piece this time.

Mental note, must record the final tomorrow night, whilst I'm swimming slowly with the kids!!

Last Saturday was round 2 of this year's Crusader league meeting, and this time it was at Stoke-on-Trent, the home of the COSACSS (http://www.cosacss.co.uk/). The pools quite nice really - 33 meters, but with a floating boom and a diving tank (up to 5M).

The open team (15 and over) consisted of me, Tim, Ben and Nick (in descending age order) and overall we swam okay. I think we finished second on the night, and given that we've no under 10 boys team that wasn't too bad.

The 50M were pretty good - fly was a joint PB, and the free was just outside a PB. 100M fly was a bit grim, but I just "beat" our open female flier - so male ego still entact!

The next meet is our home leg at the end of April.

He's 38 and he's made the Olympic team in the 50M free! This is especially poinient because he missed out last time around because of Sweetenhams criteria - he missed by .02s and clocked a time that would have medalled last time around. But today, that's forgotten because he clocked 22.30 and comfortably into Bejing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/swimming/7325574.stm

Way cool