After a good 20k swim, the next week I did 13k – pool closed one day because of chlorine issues. This week only 6.9k. Again, the pool was closed on one day because of a shortage of chlorine. Also, had a few early meetings at work which didn’t help getting to the pool.
My times are going down though. The plan has been to use paddles and pull buoys to do lots of 100m’s. The rest intervals for the session is a planned 10 seconds but sometimes it is a bit longer as I need to tie in with other people in the pool.
My average times have got quicker over the three weeks, but why?
1. I have got better! I hope so.
2. My tumble turns are more consistent.
3. I am trying harder (i.e. putting in more effort). Perhaps. More likely it feels easier to put the effort in.
4. I am drafting more. Perhaps. There were two quick-ish people in the lane today and I couldn’t help drafting a bit.
5. I have “gamed” my watch. The software hasn’t been updated but I notice that I glide in the last little bit so as to touch with my watch hand first.
Here’s a graph of my times. Most of the sessions are at least 3k long (one is just 900m averaging 1:44 as I wasn’t feeling well). Even if the whole of the 11s per 100m is not all me getting quicker, I think it is still quite good in three weeks. But I do need to start doing more on my bike…
I want to get my swimming back to where it was a few years ago. Recently,I have been in the habit of going back to sleep when the alarm goes off and so this week I gave myself the clear purposes of doing a swim every morning. I’d also read some blogs which helped:
- Paulo Sousa: Practice makes perfect (and a few days before, one of his tweets: “Technique goes a long way in swimming, but it’s nothing without fitness. Working on your fitness works on technique. The opposite is not true”)
- Joel Filliol’s blog: The Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming
Paulo’s tweet and Joel’s blog really rang a bell for me. In particular:
- Swim more often
- Do longer main sets
- Use paddles with awareness of engaging lats (which ties in with what I was doing before my first Lanzarote Ironman)
- Do many short repetitions for stroke quality
- Repetition is your friend
So, on Sunday I did 30x100m (first 1k-ish without paddles, the rest with) with 10s rest at the end of each 100m. I then did the same every day over the rest of the week but this time with paddles on all the time. The number of intervals also increased on the days when I had more time. A few times I did 150m when I should have done 100m. A couple of times I stopped to talk to someone in the lane but in general I was very “honest” about the 10s-ish rest. All of the sessions were recorded automatically on my watch without me pressing any buttons. This morning I added a few more laps to get to exactly 20,000m (roughly 12.4 miles).
Average pace per 100m:
- Sunday: 1:48
- Monday: 1:48
- Tuesday: 1:43
- Wednesday: 1:44
- Thursday: 1:44
- Friday: 1:44
The aim in terms of pace was (i) to be consistent so that I would not slow down significantly at the end (ii) but at a level that meant that it was my arms that ached rather than my lungs. I think I achieved that.
Tomorrow I will give swimming a rest but the plan for next week is similar but a bit different. Work will stop me swimming on a couple of days and so it won’t be as frequent. Also, I plan to include some groups of 3x in the hundreds where I will go a bit faster but have a 30s rest at the end of the third interval.
I have been very pleased about how I have done. I did much more on the bike that I expected and am also pleased with my PB for 21.1k on the rowing machine. It’s a shame that I didn’t do anything of two days. But that’s life.
The summary of what I have done is:
Swim: 5:23
Bike: 10:12
Run: 7:54
Row: 2:50
Rugby: 1:00
Total: 27:19
So, that is an average of 2 hours 16 mins over the 12 days (and 2 hours 43 mins over 10 days).
Today I did a 1 hour 20 minute swim. The first hour was spent doing 100s on 2 minutes with a pull buoy and paddles (with 10s – 15s rest). Not fast by any means but a start.
In the afternoon I did 21,097m on the rowing machine in 1 hour 29 mins 37s. That was hard and I spent quite a bit of time shaking once I had finished. Weird. I did well for the first 63 minutes. Then I ran out of music and I didn’t want to get off to put something else on. After that the pace slowed a little more than a fraction.
My previous personal best (before triathlon) was in April 2004 when I did 1:39:44. So, in nearly eight years, I have improved by just over 10 minutes. Not bad.
So, I got out and did a long bike ride. Went to Streatley – which has a steep hill. I got a puncture at the bottom of it and then a huge flint caused another about 10 mins later. Not fun.
All-in-all I did 3 hours 56 mins (plus puncture stops). The power that I put out was pretty poor though.
The afternoon was spent walking the dog in the pouring rain. I quite enjoyed that.
I have decided to give £300 to a charity if I don’t meet my weight goal targets. The trouble is the charity I have chosen (which I will not name) is one I don’t like. It’s not that I just don’t like them. I dislike everything that they stand for, their attitude and their behaviours. In the normal scheme of life, I wouldn’t give to them in a million years. But, I will give to them if I don’t meet my weight loss goals. It will be horrible, but I will give.
So, my goal is to be less than 70kg by 23 March 2012. But to avoid me going on a crash diet the week before, I’ll set myself two way points:
Now: 75.7kg
31 January 2012 target: 73.6kg
29 February 2012 target: 71.5kg
23 March 2012 target: 69.9kg
The plan is to give £100 to this (anti-) charity if I don’t hit each of the targets. The money will roll forward so that if I meet the first two but don’t get to under 70kg then they will get the whole of the £300.
5.8kg is around 12.8 pounds. So that is roughly a pound per week. Very achievable. And if I don’t achieve it, very embarrassing paying the money to my anti-charity.
Nothing. That’s what I did. I got up late and then went shopping. After that I tried to get my stuff to work. Then it was too late to do anything. Oh well.
Today I rested. Actually, I felt lazy and completely unmotivated and so did nothing. Well, I did walk the dog for a couple of hours but nothing that counts.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
Day 8: 3 hours 59 mins (+59 mins)
Day 9: Nothing (-180 mins)
So 20 hours 31 mins (-389 mins)
On the 8th day, I did a 1 hour 37 mins swim (mostly easy 100′s) and a 2 hour 22 min bike ride. So, that is 3 hours 59 mins.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
Day 8: 3 hours 59 mins (+59 mins)
So 20 hours 31 mins (-209 mins)
So, on the 7th day of my Christmas, I did a 50 minute run with Sparkie (and he ran away, which wasn’t fun). I got home and then went to the track with Jack where after a warm up he showed me that he can absolutely thrash me over 100m. In June he beat me at the start and I caught him up after 50m. Yesterday, he beat me from the start and at the end he kept on looking around to see where I was. So, he can now beat me at chin ups, push ups, sit ups and 100m.
We then jogged over to the rugby fields, just for it to start raining. Fine. Then it rained harder. Oh dear. Then it rained harder still. I wanted to go back but Jack was fine so we carried on for a few seconds. Then the heavy rain turned into heavy hail and so we turned and sprinted back for the car. Then a drive home, get a waterproof jacket before heading back and doing an hour of passing, catching, running, kicking and so on.
Summary:
Day 1: 3 hours 42 mins (+42 mins).
Day 2: 2 hours 22 mins (- 38 mins)
Day 3: 1 hour (-120 mins)
Day 4: 18 mins (-162 mins)
Day 5: 4 hours 17 mins (+77 mins)
Day 6: 3 hours 3 mins (+3 mins)
Day 7: 1 hour 50 mins (-70 mins)
So 16 hours 32 mins (-268 mins)
