Very late to the pool today and missed about a third of the session, so I just got on with some front crawl and swam until the bell went for the end of playtime, which turned out to be 2,400m so I wasn’t at all displeased with my performance. I could possibly have squeezed another 100m in, but I’d have been taking the mick in all honesty.
Total distance for the month: 42,500m
Total distance for this year: 189,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,100m under
Today I finally decided to move on to the next Swimfit session, which was comparatively short, but involved quite a few pairs of fast/slow lengths:
20 lengths front crawl
1 minute rest
6 x 1 length front crawl, 20 seconds rest
6 minutes front crawl, alternating slow/fast lengths
rest until breathing returns to normal
same number of lengths as previous set, but faster, 15 seconds rest after each length
3 minutes breaststroke, alternating slow/fast lengths
1 minute rest
6 lengths easy front crawl
I made up the distance to 2,500m with more front crawl and 300m front crawl kick practising breathing to the right.
This wasn’t a bad session at all. I think I managed twelve lengths in the six minutes of front crawl, but was slowing down quite noticeably towards the last. In the breaststroke I think I only managed four lengths. I feel as though I could justify repeating this session once more later this week and then moving on again.
Total distance for the month: 40,100m
Total distance for this year: 187,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,500m under
I was contemplating another SwimFit session today, but didn’t get myself organised in time and was feeling somewhat jaded having spent another weekend at Millfield pool, so took the easy option and ploughed through 2km of front crawl followed by 500m of front crawl kick practising breathing to the right and finally back to front crawl for a 300m swim down.
I still don’t really feel very relaxed breathing to the right though that may just be residual stiffness in my back from the weekend. I shall continue with the kick for another session or two before swapping to pull.
Total distance for the month: 37,600m
Total distance for this year: 185,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,000m under
A slightly different session today. I’ve decided it’s time to actually put some work into learning to breathe bilaterally. I didn’t learn to do so as a child and now find that if I try to breathe to my right I just can’t get my head to move in co-ordination with the rotation of my body. I’ve decided the first step must be to get myself used to moving my head to the right to breathe by whatever means possible and then try to work that into the full stroke.
After 1,000m of front crawl to warm up I got my float out and kicked up and down the pool with my left hand resting on top of the float, pulling with my right arm every eight to ten kicks and attempting to breathe to the right as the arm recovered. At first it was quite awkward and I was having trouble getting my mouth clear over the water, but over the course of a few lengths things improved and whilst I was still not wonderfully synchronised by the end of the session (still exhaling fairly strongly as my head came out of the water) there was a definite improvement over the course of twenty lengths or so.
My intention is to continue with this drill for a few days, then either attempt it without the float or if it’s going well switch straight to pull (with a pull-buoy) and attempt to swim lengths breathing only to the right, gradually working my way up to the full stroke.
And if all else fails, 500m or more of kick each day is hardly going to do me any harm 🙂
Going back to free swimming for 100m swim down after the kick did feel very strange. I was so much more relaxed in the shoulders. I don’t know if that’s just a side effect of working with the float, or just an indication of how hard I was concentrating on the breathing.
Total distance for the month: 34,800m
Total distance for this year: 182,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,800m under
[Just realised I’d understated my distance behind target by 800m since 12th May. Now corrected.]
I weighed the egg trays again today. The weights of the eggs this time are 1055g for the Suro incubator and 1062g for the Brinsea, giving losses of 91g and 101g or 7.9% and 8.7%. At this point I’d be looking for between 6.9% and 8.2% so the Brinsea is still on the high side, but I’m quite happy with the Suro. I might try to bring the humidity up a bit more in the Brinsea by filling both the water channels and reducing the ventilation a bit more to try to reduce the weight loss a little.
A return, probably for the final time I think, to that same Swimfit session today:
12 lengths front crawl
8 lengths breaststroke
4 lengths backstroke
1 minute rest
2 x ( 2 lengths each of front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke ) 15 sec rest after each length
8 x ( 1 length each of front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, 30 sec rest )
10 lengths fast front crawl, 30 seconds rest every 2 lengths
8 lengths easy front crawl
I’m still finding the breaststroke and backstroke tough, but it’s time to move on now. I think I’ve done this one enough. I made the distance up to 2,400m with front crawl. I was hoping to get to 2.5km, but they kicked me out of the pool for the lessons that started afterwards which I wasn’t entirely happy about as I’d started late because I had to wait for the pool staff to find a lifeguard. Hey ho.
Total distance for the month: 33,200m
Total distance for this year: 180,600m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,600m under
Now I’m in the market for a new pair of goggles I’ve decided to have a think about what works and what doesn’t.
The pair that have just broken (Speedo Aquapure) have been very good from a comfort point of view and haven’t ever leaked, but the straps do tend to slip. The spare pair I wore today (Speedo Aquapulse) were larger and less comfortable as a result, and in fact the straps on those also slipped, though probably not as much. My first couple of pairs had (different) locking mechanisms and didn’t slip at all. That seems like a good idea. One of those was a pair of Speedo Biofuse goggles. I can’t recall what the others were.
Goggles with larger lenses and those with large seals don’t actually seem to seal very well and eventually leak. I’ve had one pair where the seals turned almost inside out in places because they didn’t fit my face well enough. I think my preference is probably for ones that just fit into the eye sockets and don’t extend too far to the side or below the eye onto the cheek where movement of the face can dislodge the seal.
The positive side of the larger lenses is that they do let in a lot more light. They also appear to place the lens further from the eyeball. I suspect from the vertical streaks that appear on the inside of some pairs of my goggles the first time I wear them after cleaning them that my eyelashes can touch the inner face of the lens, depositing small amounts of the natural oils around the eyes onto the lens causing them to fog up more readily. If the lenses are further away from the eyeball that tends not to happen.
For indoor use I prefer clear lenses, but it would be nice to find a model that also come with tinted or mirrored lenses for use outdoors when we’re on holiday.
So overall I think I’m looking for goggles with some sort of locking adjustment on the strap and smaller size seals that fit into the eye socket and as I’m not into the idea of trimming my eyelashes I’ll probably just have to live with them fogging up.
Speedo’s website recommends the three pairs I’ve already owned, but none are perfect (the Biofuse pair had seals that were too large) so it may be time to start looking elsewhere. The TYR Velocitys look like they might be worth a try, or the FINIS Bolts. The former do seem to come with mirrored and smoked lenses as well as clear. Not sure about the FINIS ones yet.
Slightly late to the pool today and immediately I got in the water the nosepiece of my goggles broke. Fortunately I carry a few spare pairs including some for the children when they’re training, but it took me five minutes or so to find a pair that fitted and didn’t leak. In fact I still wasn’t that happy with them, but more on that later…
Given the late start I just cracked on with front crawl, working on keeping my elbow high during the pull and overall it went pretty well, though I lost count in the middle and may actually have done ten more lengths than the one hundred and twelve I eventually counted.
Now I just need to go and order some more goggles.
Total distance for the month: 30,800m
Total distance for this year: 178,200m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,000m under
Today I returned to that old, old Swimfit session. Actually, it didn’t go that badly. I’m really not happy that my breaststroke is genuinely improving, but I did spend a fair bit of the session working on having my arms moving continuously in the backstroke instead of having a bit of a pause when the hands reach the hips (more like “backstroke catchup” I guess). I also worked on my front crawl, trying to keep my elbows in the same plane as my shoulders and hips during the “pull” phase. This did result in a noticeable increase in speed (though nowhere near as significant as some other swimmers I’ve seen, I have had a tendency to allow my elbows to drop during the pull), so I’ll continue to work on that.
After the Swimfit work I made the session up to 2,500m with a mad dash of front crawl before the session finished.
Total distance for the month: 28,000m
Total distance for this year: 175,400m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,800m under
I really wasn’t looking forward to swimming today. On the way to the pool and even through the first 800m or so I felt very tired. It may have been down to spending much of the weekend two hours drive away in a large public sauna with uncomfortable seating, humidity at maximum and having my ears assaulted by a PA that rendered the announcer almost but not entirely utterly unintelligible. Or, as it’s often abbreviated in the swimming community, “going to regionals”.
Once I’d got over the initial horror however, I found myself quite enjoying it and swam 2,800m front crawl even getting out before the public session was finished.
Total distance for the month: 25,500m
Total distance for this year: 172,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 18,300m under
