Trent's Monday swim session

I arrived a tad late due to some wombat running his truck into a rail bridge at Graceville and for some reason that affected all trains.  It was a good day not to have my QR badge visible to the public.... again.

Anyway, I only missed the first 10mins.  Trent said that they were doing 100mtrs of 75m swim 25 kick so I jumped in and managed to do 3 or 4 before the next set so at least I was semi-warmed up.

The next set was 2 x 100m, first 50m building to flat out, the 2nd 50m what Trent calls a "mini-max" session.  So this is where you swim as fast as you can and keep track of your stroke count.  You add the two up, ie: secs it took to swim 50m added to the strokes you took to swim 50m.  The first one for me was 97, the second was 98.  So, the aim of the game is to reduce that number.  I am going to pick out a random number and say that I want to break the 90 barrier.  This would involve swimming the 50m in 45secs with a stroke count of under 45.  I think this is achievable. 

The next set was 3 x 600m; first 600m swim, 2nd 600m 100m swim, 100m pull, 3rd 600m was all pull.  This was good, it was a nice aerobic session and it was certainly nice to be in the pool without the dreaded paddles.  I'm beginning to have a love/hate relationship with them (mainly hate!).

Trent gave me some tips on the catch part of my stroke.  I tend to have a very lazy stroke, almost a catch-up stroke, Trent has said to visualise a high elbow under the water reaching out over a barrel before invoking the pull.  I have heard this before, but have never really 'got it'.  I played around with it and it certainly changed my stroke, I tried less gliding of my stroke out the front and trying to pull it through a bit quicker after entry, pretending that I was grabbing a barrel out in front of me and pushing it behind me.  I think this worked ok, I'll continue to play around with it and fine tune it a bit.  It felt a bit awkward to begin with, but settled in OK.  I might arrange for Craig to videotape my stroke, we are probably both due and now would be a good time to get it sorted seeing as we are both going to be swimming a fair bit over the coming months leading up to Ironman NZ.  Yikes!!

Trent's Lunchtime Swim

Friday's session is sprints and hypoxic. Both things that I most definately need work on!

We did some drills and sprints. I was doing the 50mtrs (the pool was chopped in half) in around 43 secs consistently. So, that's good - at least I have some benchmarks. I haven't timed my swimming over any sor of sprint in ages.

We did some hypoxic swimming which consisted of breathing every 5 strokes for 8 x 50mtrs. This kills me, I really suck at it! I managed to do the session without cheating on the swim, although I did take a huge gulp of air at the end of the 25 before turning around to come home!

I spent a fair bit of time concentrating on my hand entry into the water, my grap of the water by tilting my hand down towards the bottom of the pull and then pushing it back building up speed through the stroke and giving a final push out at my thighs. This needs a lot of work as I am lacking strength to get a really good pull through the water, but I will keep this in mind as I am swimming from now on.

I felt great for the rest of the day, I am feeling fighting fit at the moment. I just hope that I can remain this way for the next few weeks.

Lunchtime Swim with Trent

Swimming for the 2nd time this week by Wednesday! Anybody would think that a major triathlon is just around the corner!

The swim session today was brilliant. I get so much out of Trent's sessions. We did a fair bit of work on the stroke today. Basically the triggers for me are to put all of my fingers in the water at the same time, fingers a little bit apart, glide a little, then point down towards the bottom of the pool as if painting it, bend the elbow and once I have a good hold on the water try and push the last bit of the stroke through strongly right through to the thigh. This should push my body through the water over the top of the downward stroke. Don't rush the first part of the stroke, but I can accelerate through the last part of the stroke to get that lift.

Of course, I have a long way to go in this regard, but I will try and visualise those triggers when I am swimming and see if I can get some improvements happening.

The session was 100m free, 50m pull, 100m free, 50m pull, 100m free
1km made up of 200m free, 200m pull, 200m free, 200m pull, 200m free
4 x 50mtrs - 25 one arm drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 46 stroke count, 47 secs
4 x 50mtrs - 25 fingertip drag drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 46 secs
4 x 50mtrs - 25 catch-up drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 45 secs
4 x 5mtrs - 25mtrs fist drill, 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 46 secs.
Warm down was 100m free, 50m breaststroke x 2

This was a really good session for me. I am hoping that I can continue to improve with tips like this.

Lunchtime swim squad is back

The Valley pool has been inundated with school swimming carnivals during the month of February... Very inconsiderate! So, I have been pretty slack with my swimming; I've been doing 1 or 2 sessions a week at Somerville House pool, but very relaxing social swims with the guys from work - hardly heavy training sessions prepaing me for Mooloolaba Triathlon!

Today was the first day that Trent was back at the pool for lunchtime swim squad sessions. This is seperate to Brisbane Tri Squad, but I find it easier to get to these sessions and I get to avoid the whole night time swim stuff which I really hate.

I love Trent's sessions. We have a 50mtr pool, there is usually only a few of us in a lane and he is great at giving out tips on stroke correction. I had only just finished the warm up today and he told me that I was turning out instead of in with my right hand when I enter the water. This makes sense to me as I have been getting an aching hand and arm when swimming, but couldn't work out why. So, I really concentrated on keeping my hand turned in - to the point that my pinky was going in first. Normally I enter the water with my index finger so this will get a bit of getting used to and will probably go through a few incarnations before it is right (or better at least!).

The session for today was as follows:

800mtrs warmup - 200 hypoxic (every 5th stroke), 200 drill, 200 hypoxic, 200 drill.
3 x 300mtrs with pull buoy. First 300 easy, 2nd medium, 3rd hard 1min break between each.
4 x 50mtrs 25mtrs easy, 25mtrs hard 10 secs break at each 50mtrs.
4 x 50mtrs 25mtrs hard, 25mtrs easy 10secs break at each 50mtrs.
400 warmdown, 50 free, 50 choice.

I found the session pretty good. I didn't struggle too badly with the endurance so I think that I am going to be on track for Mooloolaba. I have just under 4 weeks to polish it up a bit. Of course if I had started training in earnest 2 months ago (or earlier) I would be in a lot better position... Oh, hindsight.