It's half term and with the extra time I find myself having available to train, I've completed two sessions in one day. The first being a lovely little swim session that I cut short to 45 minutes and the second being a 45 minute indoor cycle.
Whilst swimming I was really trying to focus on my pull in order to make it more efficient. I started with a 400m warm up that I completed in just under 10 minutes. A 100m sculling drill was next after which I did another 400m but this time focussed on pushing my arm all the way to the end of the stroke to result with it flicking out the water. I really don't know if this is a good technique or not (especially as it took me just over 10 minutes) but I wouldn't mind to keep experimenting with it in the future as I need to really get my stroke rate down and to be more efficient. My average stroke rate during this set was 14spl and 19spm. Apparently my best rates were 11spl and 27spm. Up until this point I'd always thought the stroke rate is more efficient the lower it is, but looking at the data I'm now guessing that if I have a high 'stroke per minute' yet a low 'stroke per length' then that is optimum. Time to get back in the pool, because when I completed another 400m it then took me over 11 minutes... I need to get my stamina up.
On a slightly different matter, there are 271 days until "Operation Ironman" and, even though there are still two months until I will officially start my training, I'm feeling the pressure. I know it is going to be a hard journey and that IMUK-Day is going to be even harder, but this no-mans-land of time/training is just plain strange. I'm feeling that I should be doing more to get to a good level of fitness prior to the 'Base Phase' of my training yet I also feel that if I do too much training I will suffer some sort of burn-out and end up not putting in the full effort needed to complete the training.
Thinking about it, the only way forward is to be proactive. At home we're in the process of redesigning the house, so many hours have been spent tidying, moving and redecorating. The office is pretty much done now so my next step is to also look at my training schedule for December and work up to that level of training whilst still trying too enjoy it.
Be Brave, Be Strong, Be Bold. See you later.
