Open Water Swiming Nirvana

Do you ever have swimming sessions where you feel at one with the water like you could swim for ever?

This has happend my past two OW Swims

Last nite i did my longest ever non-stop swim - over 4 miles

The lake was very chopy when i got in but the wind droped not long after the first Mile
I only swim once per week so i was very happy, each lap was just over 1-mile and my splts were:-

• 31 Mins
• 29 Mins
• 27 Mins
• 28 Mins

I lost a bit of form towards the end - but overall very happy

One Hundred Push Ups

Came across this on the forum, a bunch of people are doing. So I thought I’d give it ago – I’ve never been good at push ups and thought it may be fun..

It’s basically about improving the number of push ups you can do by means of a 6-week programme, apparently most people are as cr@p asme at push ups.

You start by doing an initial test and use that to guide your training and retest at intervals throughout the programme.

On my initial test I managed 26 good form continuous push ups – so watch this space to see how I improve over the next few weeks.

LINK: http://hundredpushups.com/

Great North Bike Ride

On Sunday of this weekend I did the Great North Bike Ride, it is the first time in have done this event and it is in aid of The Chris Lucas Trust. It starts in Sea houses and winds its way down minor roads finishing at Tynemouth.

I haven’t really done much cycling and I thought id use this ride to test my cycling fitness. I wore a full backpack to add a bit of resistance and weight and set off at what I thought would be a sustainable pace.

There was a bit of a head wind but nothing to problematical – and I managed to do the 55miles in 3:15 (16.92mph) I was quite pleased at that but I faded a bit over the last 10miles as I’d been averaging much closer to 18mph up to that point – but still quite pleased.

The thing that got me was that I spotted people ‘cheating’ this was not a race just a leisure ride, so the only ones they were cheating were themselves – I saw people taking shortcuts and loading there bikes into / out of vans … shame on them.

But for me it was a great day out.

My wife also did this ride with her (retired) father – neither have ever done anything like this before and I am immensely proud of both of them … Well done Sharon & David

Swings and Roundabouts

After Tuesdays disappointing run, things turned on their heads last night with my Open water swim.

I went to the lake straight from work and the evening was wonderful, I sat in my car for about an hour watching nature at its most amazing (even dozing off at one point).

I got changed into my wetsuit when someone else arrived and went for my swim, the water was very cold due to all the bad weather we have been having, buts what new. I acclimatised with a width or so then set off on my first 1-mile lap with another guy. He wasn’t as fast as me so I waited for him at 3 points which made it a good warm up lap.

The guy I had been swimming with said farewell and off I went on a continuous swim – I felt at one with the water, smooth, fast, great! – I did 2 full laps (2 miles) non stop in 52-53mins. - considering I only swim once per week at the most

I felt I could have kept on going, but I had ran out of time

So to recap – I did 5k in 1:30 with the last 2miles in 53mins

All-in-all …a GREAT SWIM

Poor Run

I'm still not feeling on top form, still suffering with by sinuses etc so that may account for some of this but i was very disappointed in last nights run.

I did 11.5miles averaging 83% MHR for me this should have equated to around 9:15mm (or so) but i actually ran 10mm pace and didn't feel strong at all - as i said im very disappointed in this performance

:(

Lack of Trainng W/E 16/08/08

Not a lot of training happening this week last week due to being under the weather but I did enjoy a good swim on Thursday – Met up with Ed (another Pirate) and did 4 full lengths of the lake (probably just short of 4k) in 65 mins – its amazing how training with someone better than you can bring out great session.

So that was a big jump in my swim distance, at the end of the swim I felt I could have done more – but instead we ran 3 laps of the lake, about 5.5 miles in 40mins. I’m glad we didn’t swim any more as later in the evening my shoulders felt pumped and very sore.

The Stats

SUN	__	__	FLU
MON	__	__	FLU
TUE	__	__	FLU
WED	PM	00:27	RUN : 5K Easy tester
THU	PM	01:05	SWIM : 4K (see note)
THU	PM	00:40	RUN: 5.25mile Tempo
FRI	__	__	REST : Photographing a wedding
SAT	__	__	REST: Family Day

SWIM	01:05
BIKE	00:00
RUN	01:07
OTHER	00:00
TOTAL	02:12

Im still feeling a bit under the weather but hope to get back into things this week as i have the Great North Ride on Sunday

Training W/E 09/08/2008 ... Man Flu

This week was looking like it was going to be a good one, but as the week wore on I started feeling a bit on the rough side and by Friday i felt really ill. So i'm not a happy chappy

Thursdays open water swim session was a bit of an adventure this week. I went up to Northumberland to find many of the roads closed due to flooding and it was blowing a gale. When i got in for my swim ... i was of the opinion i could have taken in a surfboard. It was actually hard to find space to breath ... but all good practice.

On the run after the swim ... i think i was wetter than when i was in the lake due to the amount of rain coming down.

SUN	AM	01:24	RUN : 8mile long and easy (felt poor)
MON	AM	00:45	WEIGHTS : Circuit trainng
TUE	PM	01:35	RUN :8.5 mile easy
WED	AM	01:00	BIKE : 17.9mile spinning session
THU	AM	00:40	WEIGHTS : Circuit trainng
THU	PM	00:55	SWIM : 2.3k OW in rough conditions
THU	PM	00:25	RUN: 3.5mile Tempo
FRI	AM	00:32	BRICK : Speed brick session 21min/11min
SAT	__	__	REST - MAN FLU

SWIM	00:55
BIKE	01:21
RUN	03:35
OTHER	01:25
TOTAL	07:16

Beast of a session

We all have sessions now an then where we seem to be flying ... feel great ... on fire. Well today was one of those for me.

I did an hour on the gym bike, … you know the type where you have to mop the floor and clean down the bike when you’ve finished

Did –

Warm up	7mins
Out of the sadles (hard level)	5x1min : 1min rec
Spints @ 120-125rpm	5x1min : 1min rec
Recovery	3mins
Spead Builds	5x (20s @ 90rpm, 20s @ 115 rpm, 20s @145rpm)
Out of the sadles (hard level)	3x (2mins :1min rec)
Recovery	1min
1 legged drill	5x(30s each leg)
Tempo spinning	5mins @ 120rpm
Warm down	5mins

As I said felt on fire by the end

Training W/E 02/08/2008

Had a rather wet experience on the bike on Saturday, we we most the way round the 34mile hilly loop and the heavens opened = for what turned out to be a flash thunderstorm. within minutes the drains could no longer cope with the deluge and the roads were running like rivers. So we (my brother and myself) ended up rather wet.

Luckily the storm only covered 3 miles so we were quickly through it - but my shoes are still drying out now.

Back to the training
====================
After a big week last week (well for me at the moment it was) i took it much easier this week totaling only 6sr 30mins this week but with a focus on upping my OW swim (see previous post)

So the Stats...

SUN	__	__	REST DAY
MON	AM	00:40	Weights / Circuit Trainng
TUE	AM	00:30	SWIM : 1100m drill Session
TUE	PM	01:00	RUN : 6miles at an easy pace
WED	AM	00:40	Weights / Circuit Trainng
THU	PM	01:05	SWIM: 3k OW (see post)
FRI	__	__	REST DAY
SAT	AM	02:35	BIKE : 35 hilly miles

SWIM	01:35
BIKE	02:35
RUN	01:00
OTHER	01:20
TOTAL	06:30

A Good Swim

Yes a good swim

I've been going back to the lake now for a few weeks and last night was the first session that i actually felt like i was getting somewhere.

It was raining like cats and dogs, but it doesn't really matter when your getting in a lake anyway.

I got in and started of by swimming 2k non stop - felt smooth and quick - followed that with a couple of 200m widths and finished with a 500-600m effort.

Did over 3k in all and no sign of dizziness and felt good on leaving the lake

:o)