Pretty much the same as yesterday today. Not very inventive I know, but if I’m going to experiment with drills for coaching I do need to have some idea of how hard they are.
Total distance for the month: 34,300m
Total distance for this year: 399,100m
Distance compared to annual target: 38,200m ahead
Feeling a bit tired from the tri session, so I just kept it simple, as 2km front crawl followed by 500m of experimenting with fly kick drills that I’m going to set for my swimmers later in the week. Turns out that fly kick on one’s side is a bit more tricky than I imagined. Or, at least, the kick bit isn’t, but breathing as well makes it a bit more awkward. I wasn’t doing it with fins though. My swimmers will.
Total distance for the month: 31,800m
Total distance for this year: 396,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 37,700m ahead
Lost track of things a bit at the tri fitness session this evening. As sometimes happens I started swimming and was concentrating on technique and lost track of the lengths. Fortunately the people sharing the lane hadn’t got quite so distracted.
As a result I can’t remember much of the set. The warm-up was eight lengths, swimming a different stroke for the fourth and eighth lengths and there was some single arm front crawl involved, but other than that I’m not sure. All I know is that I covered 2,000m
Total distance for the month: 29,300m
Total distance for this year: 394,100m
Distance compared to annual target: 37,200m ahead
After completion all the work for my Swimming Coach qualification I needed a bit of a break from thinking about writing sessions and the new head coach was comfortable with doing it, so I’ve taken a while off. Last week however I was asked if I’d like to start writing some again and I quite like the idea now so we’re going to start organising that, increasing the number I do over time.
This week I just have to write one, based around butterfly. The swimmers in question have a wonderful collection of problems that need working on, many related to synchronisation, but also leaving a “space” in the kick during the breathing stroke and one who does a sort of double arm front crawl recovery. The synchronisation problems are in the main breathing too late, which makes an utter mess of the entire stroke.
I think I’m going to go back to basics, work on the undulation of the body from the shoulders down and build up from there, probably adding a bit of biondi, some drills where they only take two or three strokes, single arm drills and doing one pull after multiple kicks. I might use one of my own pool sessions this week to try a few things out first.
Short session today and we didn’t actually get into the water until five minutes after it had started, so I just focused on doing 8x250m front crawl, putting in a tumble turn at the deep end at the end of the first, fifth and ninth lengths of each 250. Generally it wasn’t too bad, but it’s definitely harder work than just using open turns at the moment.
Total distance for the month: 27,300m
Total distance for this year: 392,100m
Distance compared to annual target: 37,200m ahead
Today I felt slightly more on top of things and not so tired, managing 2km front crawl as 8x250m followed by 6x50m front crawl kick and 200m as 50s working on turns again.
Total distance for the month: 25,300m
Total distance for this year: 390,100m
Distance compared to annual target: 37,200m ahead
Still a bit tired today, but did 2km from the start all bilateral breathing and then 300m as 50s working on setting up the turn, basically working out where I need to breathe, or where I can breathe, such that I can adapt to how I arrive at the “T” to enable the turn to take place smoothly and to get decent distance off the wall on the way out.
Total distance for the month: 22,800m
Total distance for this year: 387,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 36,700m ahead
I was still quite tired from yesterday’s session when I got to the pool today, but pushed on regardless and managed 2km with bilateral breathing after the first 250m, followed by 300m front crawl kick, but by that time I was shattered and couldn’t do any more.
Total distance for the month: 20,500m
Total distance for this year: 385,300m
Distance compared to annual target: 36,400m ahead
Back to the tri fitness session tonight, and fairly tough it was:
4 lengths swim
4 x ( 2 lengths running the first and last 10m, 2 lengths turning at the far flags)
2 lengths fast, 2 lengths easy
3 fast, 3 easy
4 fast, 4 easy
5 fast, 5 easy
4 fast, 4 easy
3 fast, 3 easy
2 fast, 2 easy
6 lengths swim down
for a total of 2,400m front crawl. The pyramid had twenty seconds rest interval between each swim.
I did the fast lengths breathing only to my left and the easy lengths breathing bilaterally as I just couldn’t keep the pace up otherwise.
Total distance for the month: 18,200m
Total distance for this year: 383,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 36,100m ahead
Now we’re back to the term-time hours, Friday sessions are shorter and that wasn’t helped today by the lifeguard being a bit late opening up.
My arms were shockingly tired today. I think swimming with full bilateral breathing is definitely faster for me, but partly because I’m able to use more power from my arms which is tiring and making greater demands of the muscles, particularly my triceps and lats. Until they accommodate the changes I think it could be a bit tough.
Anyhow, I knuckled down, did a single 250 alternating breathing sides each length and then seven more with bilateral breathing. I could perhaps have sneaked a few more lengths in before the end of the session but by that point I was utterly exhausted, so I called it a day having done 2km.
Amazingly even as I write this, more than seven hours after I got out of the water, I can still feel my back, neck, shoulders and upper arms generating heat.
Total distance for the month: 15,800m
Total distance for this year: 380,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 35,700m ahead
