...including 7 swims in 7 days and feedback from filming.
(How's that for an alliterative subheading?).
This week I feel I've made real progress in the pool. I've worked hard on my technique over the last 6-8 weeks with the Tridynamic Winterworkshop swim camp afternoon giving it a real boost. Coach Dan Bullock writes about 7 swims in 7 days (see here), and how this is key to delivering big improvements, and I think he's right. Since my legs haven't been up to running again post-race, I've decided to go for 7 swims in 7 days (haven't quite managed the pattern of the 7 sessions that he suggests, but I've certainly mixed it out a bit doing drills as well as longer swims) and today completed the 6th of the 7. It's nice to have a good run of training - it feels like life was back in April before I entered too many swim races and then took up Tri - I can really feel the influence on my swimming.
My swims have been partly influenced by getting my DVD feedback from the swim training a fortnight ago which has voice over the video that I shared on my blog. I felt pleased that Dan was complimentary about quite a lot of my stroke, particularly the body position because that is something key to get right, and no point really working on some of the more peripheral things until that is right. There are two key areas for improvement:
1. As I mentioned before, there is an issue with my right arm not coming close enough to my body, particularly when I breathe.
2. I need to try to develop an earlier catch so that my forearm is vertical for longer, thus enabling me to pull myself through the water better and be most efficient.
It's been easyish to focus on number 1, although I need to try to develop the strength in my right arm a bit (watch out for a blog on stretch cords, once I've managed to find somewhere in the house to use them...); number 2 is a bit more difficult. Dan today recommended to me a couple of drills for improving this (thumb catch and catch) which I shall give a go, as I'm definitely convincing myself of the crucial importance of drills to training.
This morning I swam 1k, and then decided to swim 400/500m time trials. I was swimming up to 500m for completeness, but was really mainly interested in the 400m time. I didn't rest much between the three 400/500ms that I did, just to let the other swimmers get to a position in the lane where they weren't going to get in my way, so I was pleased to hit 6:18, 6:08, 6:08 for the three swims (with the first one definitely being slowed by getting stuck behind a swimmer on the last 2 lengths). I'm pleased with both the times (the last times I've measured, I've swum in the range of 6:15-6:30) and the consistency.
There's a long way to go still, and I'd love to hit 6 minutes in the pool for 400m; I know that I can do it outside because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get the times that I do for 1500m! Not sure if tumble turns would speed me up or slow me down right now, but with practice they should speed me up, and I still need to get my stroke improved because I did feel that it was sloppy towards the end of each 400m this morning, and especially in the last 400m,.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Musings on planning ahead
After my assertion at the beginning of the week that I needed to plan at least the next 12 weeks of training, I sat down last night to try to do it. How hard it is to plan that far in advance. The chief difficulty is the unpredictable weather at this time of the year; up until March I know we could be hit by snow that might disrupt my training for a week or more. Ice is a problem even if we don't get snow, affecting runs and bikes. So there's going to have to be a fair amount of flexibility. I think flexibility is important in training anyway to avoid injury - if you haven't recovered there's really no point forcing yourself to do a session because in the best case, it will just go badly, in the worst case, you'll get injured. Hence me deciding not to run home tonight as my legs aren't fully recovered from Sunday's run.
I have a basic pattern in my mind that I hope to implement eventually, along the lines of:
Monday - am: swim, pm: short run
Tuesday - am: swim, pm: turbo/bike for an hour
Wednesday - am: swim, pm: run home (extend as year progresses?)
Thursday - am: long swim
Friday - am: recovery swim/rest day
Saturday and Sunday: combination of long run and short swim or long swim and short run with bike or long swim with run off bike. Depending on weather, and what rides are available and other weekend commitments.
Obviously, extra rest days will need to be introduced before the events I have in the diary (I like to rest the day before I race ideally), and post-race I am likely to just do a recovery swim rather than whatever other sessions are in the diary. Unless the race was on a Saturday, in which case I'll have to force myself to get out on the bike or tackle whichever discipline wasn't race!
I think realistically, to improve my chances of getting around the half marathon on the 10th February, and to make the most of my time in Tenerife, I need to prioritise my running and swimming, and cut down cycling to a decent ride every other week with some turbo in between. In practice, the running should be prioritised and swimming used to plug the gaps where it isn't possible due to the weather. But I love swimming and I want to make sure that I'm in good shape for the training camp.
So, it's still all a work in progress. I have a vague plan from now until the end of the year, which is limited by various pre-Christmas committments, which I shall reveal/update on a week by week basis; I think I'll need to take stock again at the start of 2013 to work out how I want to play out the next 5/6 weeks. A 12 week planning period just seems a bit long at this stage.
I have a basic pattern in my mind that I hope to implement eventually, along the lines of:
Monday - am: swim, pm: short run
Tuesday - am: swim, pm: turbo/bike for an hour
Wednesday - am: swim, pm: run home (extend as year progresses?)
Thursday - am: long swim
Friday - am: recovery swim/rest day
Saturday and Sunday: combination of long run and short swim or long swim and short run with bike or long swim with run off bike. Depending on weather, and what rides are available and other weekend commitments.
Obviously, extra rest days will need to be introduced before the events I have in the diary (I like to rest the day before I race ideally), and post-race I am likely to just do a recovery swim rather than whatever other sessions are in the diary. Unless the race was on a Saturday, in which case I'll have to force myself to get out on the bike or tackle whichever discipline wasn't race!
I think realistically, to improve my chances of getting around the half marathon on the 10th February, and to make the most of my time in Tenerife, I need to prioritise my running and swimming, and cut down cycling to a decent ride every other week with some turbo in between. In practice, the running should be prioritised and swimming used to plug the gaps where it isn't possible due to the weather. But I love swimming and I want to make sure that I'm in good shape for the training camp.
So, it's still all a work in progress. I have a vague plan from now until the end of the year, which is limited by various pre-Christmas committments, which I shall reveal/update on a week by week basis; I think I'll need to take stock again at the start of 2013 to work out how I want to play out the next 5/6 weeks. A 12 week planning period just seems a bit long at this stage.
Monday, 26 November 2012
Week ahead/WIDDIU
Today, I am unsurprisingly, a little bit uncomfortable after yesterday's run. It turned out that my chip time was 54:13, which is closer to 54 minutes than 55, so a really good effort (even if I only came 416 out of 520 participants..). I utilised my compression calf sleeves and my calves are not actually too bad this morning, but my hamstrings are killing. They weren't too bad yesterday so I didn't stretch them out as much as I probably should have done, and I probably need to get full length compression tights..
On the plus side, my arms were beautifully fresh in the pool today, even if I couldn't do any drills because my legs weren't up to much kicking!
Whilst I showered, I decided that I really need to do more planning of my training, especially with the half marathon 11 weeks away and swim camp 12 weeks away, and only 9 months til the 1/2 ironman. I do need to sit down and make an actual plan, at least as far as the swim camp, which I aim to do this week, but for now here's this week's details. And if you're wondering about the acronym in the heading, it stands for "Write it down, do it up", which is a weekly meme started by my internet tri friend Carrie at Fitness and Frozen Grapes. Here's her explanation:
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I’ll post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
I'm a day late, but here goes (and hopefully once I've formulated my plan, I can do this every week!).
Monday: 45 minute swim am (recovery), rest pm
Tuesday: 45 minute swim (including 1500m breathing pattern mainset), rest pm (Tuesday will be turbo night in due course but Mr Tuna is still setting it up)
Wednesday: 45 minute swim (drills and technique), run home if legs have recovered (7k)
Thursday: 75-90 minute swim (1k of drills, and then 6 x 600m, then cool down).
Friday: 45 minute swim (easy)
Saturday: 5k run, 1 hour swim (hard drills session)
Sunday: long bike with the tri club (will force myself to go out with the club as it is the nice guy taking the group out and I'll see if I can find out the route so I can work out a get out clause if necessary.)
On the plus side, my arms were beautifully fresh in the pool today, even if I couldn't do any drills because my legs weren't up to much kicking!
Whilst I showered, I decided that I really need to do more planning of my training, especially with the half marathon 11 weeks away and swim camp 12 weeks away, and only 9 months til the 1/2 ironman. I do need to sit down and make an actual plan, at least as far as the swim camp, which I aim to do this week, but for now here's this week's details. And if you're wondering about the acronym in the heading, it stands for "Write it down, do it up", which is a weekly meme started by my internet tri friend Carrie at Fitness and Frozen Grapes. Here's her explanation:
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I’ll post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
I'm a day late, but here goes (and hopefully once I've formulated my plan, I can do this every week!).
Monday: 45 minute swim am (recovery), rest pm
Tuesday: 45 minute swim (including 1500m breathing pattern mainset), rest pm (Tuesday will be turbo night in due course but Mr Tuna is still setting it up)
Wednesday: 45 minute swim (drills and technique), run home if legs have recovered (7k)
Thursday: 75-90 minute swim (1k of drills, and then 6 x 600m, then cool down).
Friday: 45 minute swim (easy)
Saturday: 5k run, 1 hour swim (hard drills session)
Sunday: long bike with the tri club (will force myself to go out with the club as it is the nice guy taking the group out and I'll see if I can find out the route so I can work out a get out clause if necessary.)
Sunday, 25 November 2012
10k PB
Today was my first running event of the year (well, pure running event as opposed to triathlon), and goodness me, how far I have come since I took up Couch 2 5k 14 months ago. I did the Eynsham 10k in 2011 after running for about 2.5 months, and finished in 1:03:52. Today, with about the same total of running this year (I have not really been running much all year until the Autumn), but with greater fitness from swimming and of course from cycling, I finished in around 54:30 (the exact chip times aren't up yet, this is based on my watch and what the gun time said. I was aiming for sub 1hour so to go sub 55 minutes, I am BEYOND pleased with.
A run event is a bit strange for me. I lacked safety pins so I utilised my triathlon race belt (which is pink!) and only saw one other person doing the same. Unlike a tri or swim start, I positioned myself at the back not to get trampled on. It was pretty chilly waiting to start but at least it wasn't raining and the wind had finally died down.
I thought that I set off a bit too fast for the first 2k. I did have my iphone with me as my Log Your Run app tells you your realtime pace whilst running but in the end, I didn't look at it until the last k. Instead, I looked at my watch and the k signs, calculating my speed using those. I knew that I needed to run less than 6 minutes for each k to make it around in under an hour. It seems that my overall pace was 5:27. After 2k I settled down, and we were running along the main road in single file; I felt that I was stuck behind a few people which was annoying but that probably helped to maintain my pace. By 5k I was really into it and felt that I could go on forever, despite the slight gastric discomfort from a gulp of water at the water station. I did the first 5k in 25 minutesish, so I was confident that unless something bad happened I could get in under the hour. I was a little nervous as had done the first half so fast and had not run more than 6.5k in 2012, but I tried to keep pacing myself. By 6.5k my legs were getting heavy, and by 8.5k I was having to work quite hard to keep pushing on, so much so that I did retch briefly and slowed down temporarily. Kept going, saw the water station again which is 500m from the end, and started wondering if I might make it under 55 minutes (I'd been thinking 56.5 or 57 from about 8k), saw the 400m sign, 200m sign and started to fly towards the finish and then came in, as I said at around 54.30. No retching on the finish line this time!
Collected my t-shirt and 25th anniversary of the race commemorative shoe bag and time to walk back to the car park. Last year I famously LOST my car and it took me 45 minutes to find the carpark in the town that I don't know very well. This year, did better due to my iphone... So back to the car, and off for a brief swim. Breastroke really seems to help stretch the legs out. My calves are quite sore, especially after sitting down for a while, but I've got my compression sleeves on them, and I know that tomorrow and Tuesday will be painful but hopefully it will wear off fairly soon.
WOOP!
A run event is a bit strange for me. I lacked safety pins so I utilised my triathlon race belt (which is pink!) and only saw one other person doing the same. Unlike a tri or swim start, I positioned myself at the back not to get trampled on. It was pretty chilly waiting to start but at least it wasn't raining and the wind had finally died down.
I thought that I set off a bit too fast for the first 2k. I did have my iphone with me as my Log Your Run app tells you your realtime pace whilst running but in the end, I didn't look at it until the last k. Instead, I looked at my watch and the k signs, calculating my speed using those. I knew that I needed to run less than 6 minutes for each k to make it around in under an hour. It seems that my overall pace was 5:27. After 2k I settled down, and we were running along the main road in single file; I felt that I was stuck behind a few people which was annoying but that probably helped to maintain my pace. By 5k I was really into it and felt that I could go on forever, despite the slight gastric discomfort from a gulp of water at the water station. I did the first 5k in 25 minutesish, so I was confident that unless something bad happened I could get in under the hour. I was a little nervous as had done the first half so fast and had not run more than 6.5k in 2012, but I tried to keep pacing myself. By 6.5k my legs were getting heavy, and by 8.5k I was having to work quite hard to keep pushing on, so much so that I did retch briefly and slowed down temporarily. Kept going, saw the water station again which is 500m from the end, and started wondering if I might make it under 55 minutes (I'd been thinking 56.5 or 57 from about 8k), saw the 400m sign, 200m sign and started to fly towards the finish and then came in, as I said at around 54.30. No retching on the finish line this time!
Collected my t-shirt and 25th anniversary of the race commemorative shoe bag and time to walk back to the car park. Last year I famously LOST my car and it took me 45 minutes to find the carpark in the town that I don't know very well. This year, did better due to my iphone... So back to the car, and off for a brief swim. Breastroke really seems to help stretch the legs out. My calves are quite sore, especially after sitting down for a while, but I've got my compression sleeves on them, and I know that tomorrow and Tuesday will be painful but hopefully it will wear off fairly soon.
WOOP!
Last week
It's going to be a two-post day today as I meant to post yesterday, but forgot. Here's the first one - a catch up on the last week.
So last week was a bit of an odd one, training-wise. I had Monday and Tuesday off work for "study-leave". I have a professional qualification which has given me Chartered Membership of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, which all good librarians should revalidate every 3 years by producing a portfolio. It's not compulsory, and I'm about 6 months over my 3 year period, but I have done a lot of CPD over the last 3 years so this is a good way to record and formalise it. My employer grants two days of study leave. I intended to get in some training around the self-study, but this had mixed success. Although I got a run in first thing on Monday morning, I don't really like swimming at lunchtime as it is busy and I am always too hungry, so my swim on Monday was only 2.75k. Intended to do a longer swim on Tuesday am but slept badly so it had to be lunchtime lengths again and only managed slightly longer 2.8k.
Wednesday was back to work and the routine so that was fine, getting in my commute on the bike as well as an early morning swim even though it was pouring with rain. Thursday was my first day off in about 12 days. I had an interview for a job which I didn't get, which was a shame as the new job had the potential to fit rather well with training. So I was annoyed that I had missed my longer swim session for a fruitless interview (hmm, priorities), and am now working on ways that I can maximise training around my current work. Friday was back to the pool and quite a good session.
Saturday I was originally going to go out with the local cycling club beginner's taster ride. Unfortunately the friend who was taking me wasn't able to make it and I didn't want to go on my own. I then thought I'd do a long swim and save my legs for my 10k run on Sunday, but then a lady from the tri club asked if I wanted to go out for a short ride before it started raining. So, we met up for a ride which was nice. I've finally met someone who is slower than me which really boosted my confidence! We did a rather slow 23 miles and did get wet. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go out with her often as I need to be challenged over speed and distance; I know I am going to have to brave the tri club ride again next week.
So, totals for last week:
15k running (inc 10k running race)
37k bike (1 single ride)
13.6k swimming (across 6 sessions...)
There's only 4 weeks now until Christmas holidays, so hopefully some time to get in some more good swimming and good running, it's only 11 weeks until I attempt a half marathon and only 12 weeks until I hit Tenerife for swim camp. Bring on that sunshine!
So last week was a bit of an odd one, training-wise. I had Monday and Tuesday off work for "study-leave". I have a professional qualification which has given me Chartered Membership of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, which all good librarians should revalidate every 3 years by producing a portfolio. It's not compulsory, and I'm about 6 months over my 3 year period, but I have done a lot of CPD over the last 3 years so this is a good way to record and formalise it. My employer grants two days of study leave. I intended to get in some training around the self-study, but this had mixed success. Although I got a run in first thing on Monday morning, I don't really like swimming at lunchtime as it is busy and I am always too hungry, so my swim on Monday was only 2.75k. Intended to do a longer swim on Tuesday am but slept badly so it had to be lunchtime lengths again and only managed slightly longer 2.8k.
Wednesday was back to work and the routine so that was fine, getting in my commute on the bike as well as an early morning swim even though it was pouring with rain. Thursday was my first day off in about 12 days. I had an interview for a job which I didn't get, which was a shame as the new job had the potential to fit rather well with training. So I was annoyed that I had missed my longer swim session for a fruitless interview (hmm, priorities), and am now working on ways that I can maximise training around my current work. Friday was back to the pool and quite a good session.
Saturday I was originally going to go out with the local cycling club beginner's taster ride. Unfortunately the friend who was taking me wasn't able to make it and I didn't want to go on my own. I then thought I'd do a long swim and save my legs for my 10k run on Sunday, but then a lady from the tri club asked if I wanted to go out for a short ride before it started raining. So, we met up for a ride which was nice. I've finally met someone who is slower than me which really boosted my confidence! We did a rather slow 23 miles and did get wet. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go out with her often as I need to be challenged over speed and distance; I know I am going to have to brave the tri club ride again next week.
So, totals for last week:
15k running (inc 10k running race)
37k bike (1 single ride)
13.6k swimming (across 6 sessions...)
There's only 4 weeks now until Christmas holidays, so hopefully some time to get in some more good swimming and good running, it's only 11 weeks until I attempt a half marathon and only 12 weeks until I hit Tenerife for swim camp. Bring on that sunshine!
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Cycle speedo
So, my new toy for my bike is cheap little speedometer. We picked it up from Halfords yesterday, and Mr Tuna set it up on the bike for our trip out today.
[As an aside, I was supposed to be getting a remedial ride with one of the coaches from the tri club today, but he was too busy. Until I get that, I don't think I am exactly encouraged to go out with the "beginners" ride, so I had to persuade Mr Tuna to take me out. Actually, he offered. I feel guilty about needing him to take me out, but I'm just not confident enough on my own. On the plus side, I didn't get as irritable as I sometimes do so he said that he really enjoyed today. And on the double plus side, because I have plans for Sat and Sunday next week he could do TWO rides on his own next weekend if he wants].
Anyway, it was fascinating to see my pace, and a good incentive to try and keep pedalling hard to hit the numbers. Mostly, going along, my pace seemed to be 13-14mph. I slowed down quite a lot to go up hills (down to about 8-9mph, but I was still moving, and I guess that's faster than walking!), but I speeded up sufficiently fast going down the hills and up the other sides to hit over 20mph a few times. My average pace was 12.9mph; I had pushed it very hard though, and I need to be able to maintain that pace for twice the distance that I covered on Sunday (29 miles...).
I can definitely improve my average pace too as I noticed a big drop off in pace for going round corners and approaching junctions (probably don't need to brake quite so much so soon) and I still brake going down hills. Although less. I need to get to first the stage where I don't brake going down hills and then to the stage where I pedal as wel!
[As an aside, I was supposed to be getting a remedial ride with one of the coaches from the tri club today, but he was too busy. Until I get that, I don't think I am exactly encouraged to go out with the "beginners" ride, so I had to persuade Mr Tuna to take me out. Actually, he offered. I feel guilty about needing him to take me out, but I'm just not confident enough on my own. On the plus side, I didn't get as irritable as I sometimes do so he said that he really enjoyed today. And on the double plus side, because I have plans for Sat and Sunday next week he could do TWO rides on his own next weekend if he wants].
Anyway, it was fascinating to see my pace, and a good incentive to try and keep pedalling hard to hit the numbers. Mostly, going along, my pace seemed to be 13-14mph. I slowed down quite a lot to go up hills (down to about 8-9mph, but I was still moving, and I guess that's faster than walking!), but I speeded up sufficiently fast going down the hills and up the other sides to hit over 20mph a few times. My average pace was 12.9mph; I had pushed it very hard though, and I need to be able to maintain that pace for twice the distance that I covered on Sunday (29 miles...).
I can definitely improve my average pace too as I noticed a big drop off in pace for going round corners and approaching junctions (probably don't need to brake quite so much so soon) and I still brake going down hills. Although less. I need to get to first the stage where I don't brake going down hills and then to the stage where I pedal as wel!
A good week's work!
This week has been a departure from the previous weeks where I have struggled to complete the sessions that I wanted to. I've done all of the sessions that I wanted to and completed a total of over 9 hours of training across 9 sessions. My mood has definitely been better this week, and completing all of the sessions helped with that!
This breaks down as:
5 1/4 hours swimming (5x45 minute sessions, 1 x 90 minute session)
1 1/4 hours running (1 x 30 minute run; 1 x 45 minute run)
2 1/2 hours cycling (post to follow on that!)
1/2 hour poolside conditioning (6 x 5 mins)
In addition, I have done 8 x 4.5 mile rides to work (c.27-30 minutes), which I'm not counting, because I don't really push myself hard, and walked around for at least half an hour every lunchtime.
This week ahead is a slightly weird one. I have two days off Monday and Tuesday as study leave to give me a chance to work on revalidating my professional qualification. I hope to fit in a swims both days. However, I have a commitment on my Thursday morning off which means that I won't get my usual long Thursday am swim in. Also, on Saturday, I will be out with the local cycling club's taster ride, and on Sunday, I will be doing a 10k running race, so no swimming then either.
This breaks down as:
5 1/4 hours swimming (5x45 minute sessions, 1 x 90 minute session)
1 1/4 hours running (1 x 30 minute run; 1 x 45 minute run)
2 1/2 hours cycling (post to follow on that!)
1/2 hour poolside conditioning (6 x 5 mins)
In addition, I have done 8 x 4.5 mile rides to work (c.27-30 minutes), which I'm not counting, because I don't really push myself hard, and walked around for at least half an hour every lunchtime.
This week ahead is a slightly weird one. I have two days off Monday and Tuesday as study leave to give me a chance to work on revalidating my professional qualification. I hope to fit in a swims both days. However, I have a commitment on my Thursday morning off which means that I won't get my usual long Thursday am swim in. Also, on Saturday, I will be out with the local cycling club's taster ride, and on Sunday, I will be doing a 10k running race, so no swimming then either.
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