Toiler's Constant

Kurt Godel

Thurs PM 3.1k OW swim

A brilliant night to be in Wicklow Harbour, I got there early and chatted with a guy going in without a wetsuit. We agreed to do a lap of the boats, and this lad could shift a bit. I ended up going a fair bit faster than I'd intended, which is a bonus way to start the night. A brief chat after the lap, he exited, and I went around again for a second time. This was a good lap, the fear from yesterday came back to me in remembrance and I was able to exorcise it away.

By now a few lads from the Tri club had arrived, so we agreed to do a lap of the boats, which would be their first time doing so. Some of these lads could hardly swim a length of the pool a few months back, and now they are able for 750m OW swims. It's great to see that sort of progress. Indeed, Ray was so happy to go around that he went on another lap by himself. I hung back a bit on lap 3, just to make sure everyone was ok, and swam across the mouth of the harbour and back while waiting. What a glorious evening to be doing so! A final fourth lap to finish, and out. The lads were visibly buzzing, tonight was a real marker in their progress. As one of them said, it represents the knowledge that they can swim the Sprint distance. Now it moves on to being about times.

Kurt Godel

Fri 14km easy run

Along the forest, started with the missus, she told me to feck off and speed up, so I did. Still kept it an easy pace though:D The legs were a little stiff from I guess Wednesday's race, this rainy, splashy, plod should help with that.

Beer mile tonight, helping/laughing rather than participating, good luck to all at it:D

joey100

Just so you know Kurt, we had a group of lads down in Wicklow Harbour on Wednesday with work and we weren't let into the water by the lifeguard, said there had been a bit of an oil leak into the water and that the water wasn't clean enough. Be careful what your swimming through down there!

menoscemo

Thanks for all your help at the Irish Beer Mile Championships last night Kurt. If you hadn't been driving I think you might have won the damn thing.

Kurt Godel

menoscemo wrote: »

Thanks for all your help at the Irish Beer Mile Championships last night Kurt. If you hadn't been driving I think you might have won the damn thing.

It was great to watch, even if I couldn't run (damn drink drive laws!). Fair play to DrQuirkey for organizing it, there's a load of good ideas here that never get off the ground, great to see one followed through. Very easy to make predictions, who knows what favourites might fall on the night! Very good use of the English language meno, who knew what comes up from your stomach and out your gob is termed "foam" and not "puke";)

Sat 1 hr turbo

Sufferfest "Downward Spiral", very hard intervals effort, a great workout.

TRR

menoscemo wrote: »

Thanks for all your help at the Irish Beer Mile Championships last night Kurt. If you hadn't been driving I think you might have won the damn thing.

That's all heresay Nice to see you yesterday. I hope you haven't washed that autograph away

Kurt Godel

TRR wrote: »

That's all heresay Nice to see you yesterday. I hope you haven't washed that autograph away

I'm getting it tattooed right where you wrote it. My hero, swoon:)

Kurt Godel

Sun 67 km bike

Home-Aughrim-Aughavannagha-Slieve Maan-Glenmalure-Greenan-Macreddin-Aughrim-Home.

It's Fathers Day, so my darling wifey gave up her Sunday slot so I could go on a long spin. This was my first time ever biking over Slieve Maan, it's a toughie! Although, the hill up by Greenan is even steeper, right down in the granny ring. This was a very lumpy route, longest time in the saddle in a while. The roads aren't great in places, so I had vibro-ass pain from the get-go.

Kurt Godel

Mon 13km easy run

Up along the forest walk- the legs felt tired today, they're not used to climbing on the bike. I'm trying to build up my running volume, and doing this on tired legs will get a reward in the Oly races I have coming up.

Kurt Godel

Tue 2,250m swim

500m warm up
5*100m off 1:55 (in 1:40-1:45)
5*100m off 1:50 (in 1:40-1:47)
5*100m off 1:45 (in 1:35-1:45)
250m wd

This was better than last week, slightly faster. I'm still having a bit of difficulty finding a good stroke, and the benign scowling from the absent coach is sorely missed. Reckon its good for at least 5 seconds per 100m. I'll have to look around at joining a masters group or something, I need to be swimming with faster people in order to progress.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

TueI'll have to look around at joining a masters group or something, I need to be swimming with faster people in order to progress.

Is that a dig at your open water swimming buddies???:D:D:D

Kurt Godel

griffin100 wrote: »

Is that a dig at your open water swimming buddies???:D:D:D

If you and Joe take it as a slap across the face rather than a gentle dig, everyone gains

(School Board meeting this Thurs, can't make Wicklow harbour myself)

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

the benign scowling from the absent coach is sorely missed.

It is pretty adorable, isn't it??

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

It is pretty adorable, isn't it??

I'm reduced to asking poolside strangers to abuse me. Imploring the lifeguards to hurl a water bottle at me mid-length. Pleading with fellow swimmers to shout at me. And that's all before the lack of stroke corrections... roll on next autumn;)

Kurt Godel

Tue pm 10k steady run (44mins-ish)

Only three turned up for the club Tuesday run, and one of them is a real speedster. He didn't know the route, so I said I'd run to the turn with him and he could blast back himself. We weren't 3k into the run before he decided lost and fast beat not lost and slow, and he took off. I tried to follow, but tired legs meant he was soon gone, and reached the turnaround a minute before me. I felt the pace returning, found it a struggle to keep up any speed, and was dead when I finished. (I'm just guessing my time, speedster did 41). Tonights was a lot faster than I had intended, but its done now and in the bag.

Kurt Godel

Wed 3km OW swim (54.39)

Met up with Abhainn on a great summers evening at Wicklow Harbour. I felt tired before we started, but I was surprised at just how slow I was (actually, I was surprised at how fast Abhainn was, but he assures me after he wasn't going fast). First lap, he drafted off me, and I found it useful to have someone so close, reminded me of the race last week. I could try a few techniques to focus on my own swim. The second lap I tried to grab a draft, but I lost it a couple of times. Abhainn got a jump each time I dropped off, at least thats how it appeared to me. I found it hard to keep his pace. The third lap, he just took off (as it seemed, actually I slowed) and opened quite a gap. By the time the fourth lap started, I was way behind. I decided my ego couldn't take the battering it was being given, so I increased the effort in an attempt to reel him in a bit. It took the full lap, but the gap closed by the end, and that was me swimming hard.

So, 3km done, but I'm a little disappointed at the effort involved, and in how tired I was. Guess the past few days have been a bit heavy, and they're catching up. But I still think Abhainn was going a good bit faster than he usually does. That's what I get for slagging him;)

Kurt Godel

Thurs 13k easy run

It was like running in France this morning, brilliant day up at the forest. I started this very easy, moved up to easy, and then upped the effort going up any of the "hills". My calf had been tight starting off, and I felt a twinge at the turnaround point, had to walk a while and stretch it. I continued easy going back, and its a bit sore now. I guess upping the volume recently has a price, so I'll ease back for a few days.

Abhainn

My guess is that you swam intentionally slow last night;).

A good sleep works wonders. I need one tonight.

Kurt Godel

Fri 2,250m swim

500m wu (1:51 pace)
4*(100 catch-up, 100 ripple, 100 high elbow, 100 swim) (swims in 1:31, 1:28, 1:28, 1:25)
250 swim down

My calf is still very sore, although getting better. I figured I'd risk the pool tonight- thankfully my calf played ball throughout, although I could only push off the walls with one leg. The swims were a good test to see how the drills were working, and I'm happy with the set. These are some of my fastest 100's ever, and were done without my best kick-off's. I found a good stroke early and kept it streamline. Lovely feeling when that happens. What I'm most happy about, is being able to make the corrections and find the good stroke myself, without the coach advising me the past few weeks. I know what faults to look for, and what to correct. The swim coaching was the best bang for training buck I ever spent.

Kurt Godel

Sun 1 hr Turbo

Sufferfest "Angels". My calf is sore enough for me to forgo running for a week- must be a minor tear there, and I don't want to exacerbate it. Yesterday was spent digging a flat circle into my sloping back yard, to fit my bag of water, and today I had achey mescles where I usually don't. A decent spin on the turbo today seems to have worked its magic all round.

Dory Dory

Oh good lord....your bag of water. Too funny!! I hope it works out for you - if nothing else it will keep you busy with a project and out of the missus' way for a while. And what's this about you being an eager guinea pig??

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

Oh good lord....your bag of water. Too funny!! I hope it works out for you - if nothing else it will keep you busy with a project and out of the missus' way for a while. And what's this about you being an eager guinea pig??

It's all gonna work out great Dory, to be honest I want a pool like yours, so that's the starting point. Can't afford it, and it would take up most of our back yard, so I dropped the idea down to an endless pool. That got me thinking about force vectors etc, and when I saw the tethered swimmer I knew it was the way to go. We'll see what transpires, but I imagine it will be a good way to work on stroke, if nothing else

Kurt Godel

Mon 3,000m pool in 1:02

In my haste to get away from work today I grabbed the wrong shorts, so entered the pool with trunks that had only one end of the tie sticking out (the other end had disappeared to that twilight zone of the stitching- its never coming out). Decided on a steady swim for an hour, swam the first length, turned and kicked off, whoosh, my trunks were around my ankles. So the rest of the swim was a tentative exercise in holding the stroke while swimming, and holding the shorts while turning. This explains the slowness of the swim, because otherwise it seemed to be going well. I was catching the water quite well, and had a decent stroke throughout. A lot of the time was spent stretching an imaginary piece of liquorice between my thorax and my hips. This seems to be a useful exercise for position, although if the liquorice actually existed it would have been better used as a makeshift belt.

griffin100

Liquorice?? You'll have to explain that one to me.......

Oryx

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Mon 3,000m pool in 1:02

In my haste to get away from work today I grabbed the wrong shorts, so entered the pool with trunks that had only one end of the tie sticking out (the other end had disappeared to that twilight zone of the stitching- its never coming out). Decided on a steady swim for an hour, swam the first length, turned and kicked off, whoosh, my trunks were around my ankles.

And that, m'lud, is the case for the defence.

Kurt Godel

griffin100 wrote: »

Liquorice?? You'll have to explain that one to me.......

Think I read it in the Swim Smooth book-

Imagine a piece of string (or liquorice, whatever), tied between your ribcage and your pelvis. As you swim, imagine keeping it as taut as you can. This (I believe) helps your position, and engages your core muscles into the pull stroke. I've tried this mental exercise a couple of times now, and my belly feels like I've done 100 sit-ups after. Seems to help with my stroke too, stops my bad habit of pulling from the shoulder.

Oryx

Put a mirror on the floor of your new pool. (All the best endless pools have them.) You'll get to observe things like your position and it helps with your liquorice technique cos you can see your torso.

shotgunmcos

Jesus, pool bag, liquorice, endless mirror, dropped by Obe One... I used to feel motivated by the swim talk in this log

Oryx

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Jesus, pool bag, liquorice, endless mirror, dropped by Obe One... I used to feel motivated by the swim talk in this log

Dude gone crazy but were humoring him.

Dory Dory

I can't help but think of one of the great female swimmers I "grew up" with...whose quest to defy age as a limiter to the Olympics, and whose use of cables in training might be of interest to you. The pertinent part begins at 3 minutes.