andyinnorway autumn 2015 training diary

[andyinnorway]

Saturday 11 December 2015 - lane conditions congested

I had a very long day of music performance yesterday with my community choir so didn't want to use up too much of the day's energy in the pool but still wanted to have a morning stretch of the muscles and try some things.

My 2 goals of the day were to start to test 6bk flutter at sprint speed and to improve my skills at snatching a seamless breath at higher stroke rates.

After a brief warm up (uncounted)

1 conditional set.

Start with TT@0.85. Swim 2x25m as follows

push off (3 beeps)
6 head down strokes
2 lope strokes (6 beeps)
6 head down
1 lope/glide in (1-3 beeps)

17/18SPL with 23-25 tt beeps.

if successful click tt down 1, otherwise repeat.

I found that the 6bk gave me a better sense of stability in the mid range tt 0.80-0.72, after that my legs weren't used to kicking at that speed in time.

I'll work on improving this next week until my kick feels comfortable at race tempo of 100 strokes per minute.

[andyinnorway]

Monday 14 December 2015 - lane conditions very good

My foster Dog arrived from Portugal following a 32 hour van ride at 7pm last night so keeping him company on the sofa wasn't the best night's sleep but he was good considering so I was up for a swim this morning.

After 3 weeks of good progress I'm approaching the point of marginal returns so need to plan for that in my training.

I also want to get used to swimming within 10% of sprint speed

4x50 warm up - long and steady strokes


4x25,2x50 of
1. TT=0.8 lope stroke hold 17SPL - pace 1:36
2. TT=0.72 lope stroke hold 17SPL - pace 1:26


Practice kick alternatives at higher stroke rates (2bk and 6bk)
4x25
tt=0.66
3 beep push off
12 head down strokes
1 extra beep breath
9 strokes
total 25 beeps= 16.5s

tt=0.60
3 beep push off
12 head down strokes
1 extra beep breath
10 strokes
total 26 beeps= 15.6s

tt=0.72
3 beep push off
12 head down strokes
9 strokes
total 24 beeps=17.28s

My short term goals are to eradicate the extra beep for breath below stroke rates of 0.72 and also to take a stroke off each of these scenarios to bring my repeatable 0.60 length down to 15s flat.

I'll work on the 0.72 first to imprint only breathing for one beep after the first 12 strokes.

I'll then do focal lengths of swimming straight, testing more precise kick timing, my line of sight angle and finally my reach effort with each spear.

[andyinnorway]

Tuesday 15 December 2015 - lane conditions very good

2x200 warm up. Steady swimming thinking about line. Mostly getting any stiffness out of the muscles. By the second 200 my SPL had settled on 19 and pace around 3:30/200m


Main set - sprint conditioning. Strong pace with short rest
3 sets of
4x(4x25 off :30)

set 1 tt0.72 3push - 4head - 2lope - 4 head - 2lope - 2 head = 25 beeps =18s
set 2 tt0.66 3push - 8 head - 2 lope - 8 head = 25 beeps = 16.5s
set 3 tt0.6 3push - 8 head - 2 lope - 9 head = 26 beeps = 15.6s

Set 1 felt comfortable
Set 2 felt manageable
Set 3 I dropped some strokes especially on the 3rd and 4th repeats.

I'd have liked to have repeated the warm 200's but pool time was up.

[jenson1a]

Hi Andy

Am enjoying reading your training sessions, but have a question. On this last post, what was the total time from start to finish compared to previous sessions?

Sherry

[andyinnorway]

Originally Posted by jenson1a

Hi Andy

Am enjoying reading your training sessions, but have a question. On this last post, what was the total time from start to finish compared to previous sessions?

Sherry

ah good spot - i had a very short session today as the aforementioned foster dog needed a walk before swimming and I slept much longer than normal after the previous night on the sofa with him.

[andyinnorway]

I write about full lope strokes a lot which may not make total sense to some people.


I was watching this today to try to understand the difference between my 15-16s wall push 25 to a pro's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nllkROqrLzE


there's a lot more loping going on than in the super elites. The guy in lane 2 appears to be doing the same stroke as i would call a full lope, with twice as long spent on the right arm as the left in the stroke cycle.

they are also 'plodding' out 13-14 SPL in sub 15s without a big kick.

[andyinnorway]

Wednesday 16 December 2015 Lane conditions - ideal

Tune up 4x50m bilateral with flip

It's interesting how you get an idea about the day's swim from these first few lengths. These felt tidy, relaxed and enjoyable. And the whole session followed suit.

Today's objective was to test how near to sprint speed I could lope.

4x25 on full lope descending TT as long as SPL stays under 18 for all 4 lengths. breathe right up and left down.

tt 0.66 - spl 16
tt 0.63 - spl 16/17
tt 0.60 - spl 17/18
tt 0.57 - all 1 beep over - I stopped here to do my drills.

4x25 breast stroke tt0.75 10 beep push off 7 strokes =22.5/23.25s

4x25m kick with tempo trainer @0.6.

my right side breathing lengths are all a quarter or half stroke faster than my left at the moment so I stuck to the right for my final effort

tt0.5 - full lope 25's and look for to improve

I started off 3 beeps over target (33), and held that for 3 lengths.

I then swam 2 stroke cycles between breaths (6 beeps). 4 lengths

Then during a rest I started to daydream and thought about greyhounds and chasing the rabbit.

I then imagined doing the same in the water. 31 beeps, 3 lengths.

This gave me a 15.5s lap which is faster than my best the other day with normal stroke timing.

The big difference is my oxygen management with the lope timing feels more than double as efficient. After a sub 16s effort with head down strokes I need almost 2 minutes to recover and feel fatigued as the repeats mount up.

With the lope it feels more like a mix of 75/100m effort.

Next session I'll do a specific tune up and then swim the TI 4321 set a couple of times on this tt0.5 full lope setting and record SPL decay over the repeats and interval length.

A sub 1:20 100m feels like it's around the corner.

[andyinnorway]

Thursday 17th December 2015 - with Jason and James - Lane conditions moderately restrictive

4x50m bilateral warm up

There was a good element of aerobic effort in today's set, mildy hampered by a busy lane (I had to rest longer on a lot of intervals to allow gaps to build up)

I'm doing a set like this to build some sprint fitness to extend my 25m pace towards 50m.

3x TI4321 different stroke rhythms similar pace effort around 100m pb pace.

1. TT@0.66 lope
2. TT@1.0 straight 2 stroke breathing
3. TT@0.70 'lazy lope'

I held 17/18 SPL for the whole session, a few 16's in early repeats and no 19's. I did however, lose a few beeps on breath rotation on the lope sets and slower than necessary turns.

My counting was less precise as I had two lane buddies to manage too and I was 2-3s a length ahead of them so had to balance rest intervals so that we could swim together.

tt@1.0 with a regular stroke felt very relaxed after all the tt@0.5 lope strokes I've done recently. I could use it to attack a 100m pb, swimming 3 lengths with regular time then an all out final 25. If I hold sync then I'll come in around 1:20

It was a short set around 50-55 minutes but an enjoyable one.

[andyinnorway]

Saturday 19th December 2015 - Lane Conditions weekend mayhem with Stuart

4x50m warm up

Weekends in my pool are narrow lanes full of people especially the first hour of the day. We adjusted our set accordingly.

2x400m (FR up BR back)

I used this as a big old mix up, breathing each side every 1-4 strokes almost on a whim. Breast stroke lengths were a little more regulated.

Pace was according to the lane snake around 7:15 for 400m.

TI4321 @ 100m pace

I like to do this with my boys who swim once a week as they struggle with the short rest intervals :) but they are younger than me so can cope.

I held 18 SPL and pace throughout around 1:27 per 100m (TT0.66 all lope)

Max speed

We had 10 minutes of pool time left so decided to do 4x25 all in, the first two with pool side dive starts. I've got work to do with my breakout from dive timing but it was fun to do a 25m race pace trial or two.

The second two I did at tt=0.6 and full lope and managed 16SPL with an extra beep on the push off. I am pleased that my stroke is holding length at faster tempos now. These last two lengths felt very controlled and precise. 16.8s

I left the pool feeling really satisfied, I think I'd enjoyed swimming without expectation and consequently relaxed more even at sprint pace.

Last swim tomorrow before Christmas shut down and maintenance.

[andyinnorway]

Sunday 20th December 2015 - lane conditions murky

4x50m glide with pride - focusing on a good sharp switch movement with engaged core.

There were too many swimmers in the lane to do any intervals so as a primary focus I tested some maths (stroke rate SPL combos), as a secondary focus I wanted to build some 50m stamina.

12x50m tt0.60
4-24-4 (push off, lope strokes, final stroke and turn)=32 beeps up on lope,
double timing back (e.g tt=1.2) 16SPL (38 beep equiv). 1:24 pace

I also used this relatively relaxed stroke rate to practice breathing low in the water. (face printing)

I did 15-20 of these and was able to hold precise SPL at this pace.

I then tested how far I could hold this SPL but only got to tt0.57 before I was losing a beep on the first turn.

The best I could make out of a very busy Sunday morning public session.


Goal of the week ahead - swim 4x4x100 pace under 1:30 off 2:00 with 2 minute rest after each 400m