The Good Mood Cookbook

RacoonQueen

Are you doing Donadea?

Oryx

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Are you doing Donadea?

I hope to.*


*Im afraid to say yes to that in case fate trips me up again.

Oryx

Club swim, and tonight the keyword was EFFICIENCY. For most of us this meant getting our stroke count down from the rotund and wasteful mid twenties, to the lean mean teens. Part of the main set was 20 x 25 no breath, counting strokes. With the coach's steely glare and sharp words to contend with if you did too many strokes or didn't glide enough.

For me, this was a brilliant hours training. My stroke count was 28 s little while back, and hovers around 25/26 most of the time (terrible). By the end of this set I was holding consistent 21/22 and did manage a few 19s. Coach reckons 18 is where I should be. Massive progress on such short time. This coach is temporary but I want to keep her!

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

Club swim, and tonight the keyword was EFFICIENCY. For most of us this meant getting our stroke count down from the rotund and wasteful mid twenties, to the lean mean teens. Part of the main set was 20 x 25 no breath, counting strokes. With the coach's steely glare and sharp words to contend with if you did too many strokes or didn't glide enough.

For me, this was a brilliant hours training. My stroke count was 28 s little while back, and hovers around 25/26 most of the time (terrible). By the end of this set I was holding consistent 21/22 and did manage a few 19s. Coach reckons 18 is where I should be. Massive progress on such short time. This coach is temporary but I want to keep her!

That's a great looking session. Isn't it wonderful to swim without breathing- you really focus on stroke efficiency. You slowed right down for the hypoxic stuff, I take it?

Oryx

Kurt Godel wrote: »

That's a great looking session. Isn't it wonderful to swim without breathing- you really focus on stroke efficiency. You slowed right down for the hypoxic stuff, I take it?

I found it really hard - for the most part I failed, taking a breath close to the end of the length a lot of the time. But the point of it was to force efficiency. We moved slower, I dont know how our speed was, clock was not important.

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

I found it really hard - for the most part I failed, taking a breath close to the end of the length a lot of the time. But the point of it was to force efficiency. We moved slower, I dont know how our speed was, clock was not important.

Go even slower next time, you'll make the whole 25.

Check out the World Record, and note how slow and efficient he is.

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

Oryx

I made it a good few times, but the oxygen debt kicked in after about 6 lengths

griffin100

My kids' coach gets them to swim with a front facing snorkel to take away the breathing issues and allowing them to concentrate on their stroke.

RacoonQueen

Tried the one breath thing in a 20 m pool before. Took a breath after maybe 18 metres. Apparently I was almost blue at the end...

Dilbert75

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Check out the World Record, and note how slow and efficient he is.

Bloody heck.

Oryx

griffin100 wrote: »

My kids' coach gets them to swim with a front facing snorkel to take away the breathing issues and allowing them to concentrate on their stroke.

The lack of breath seemed the key ingredient here. You had to make it last, so you had to become smoother and more relaxed.

Oryx

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Bloody heck.

I felt short of breath just watching it. Going How the f....?

griffin100

Oryx wrote: »

The lack of breath seemed the key ingredient here. You had to make it last, so you had to become smoother and more relaxed.

Did you exhale or hold your breath? Holding your breath can cause co2 poisoning. Coincidentally I was reading about hypoxic training on feelforthewater yesterday and they weren't big fans of it.

Dilbert75

Oryx wrote: »

I felt short of breath just watching it. Going How the f....?

Exactly. I couldn't do that sitting still, never mind swimming at the same time.

Oryx

griffin100 wrote: »

Did you exhale or hold your breath? Holding your breath can cause co2 poisoning. Coincidentally I was reading about hypoxic training on feelforthewater yesterday and they weren't big fans of it.

Exhaled from about halfway. Lungs insisted Your body automatically tries to do the right thing, I think. The hypoxic thing was not the reason just a tool, but as someone who breathes every two strokes it was quite something to see what you can actually do when pushed.

Kurt Godel

griffin100 wrote: »

Did you exhale or hold your breath? Holding your breath can cause co2 poisoning. Coincidentally I was reading about hypoxic training on feelforthewater yesterday and they weren't big fans of it.

It's an interesting subject, worthy of some conflicting opinions. A lot of what I've read about hypoxic suggests its of limited use for Triathletes, who by nature are not concerned with developing their anaeroebic capabilities. However, the real merit (as in what Oryx was doing last night) is to improve your stroke, by increasing efficiency. I've found huge benefits from our hypoxic sets, both in terms of stroke reach and pull efficiency, and additionally in terms of breathing (in that I don't find it so hard running low on oxygen when upping the work rate). A centre snorkle would aid the efficiency part, but not the breathing- I'm a big fan of some hypoxic work in a set.

Whether its dangerous in terms of co2 poisoning or blacking out, I don't really know, but I'd imagine those dangers are minimised in a 25m pool under the eye of an experienced coach.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

It's an interesting subject, worthy of some conflicting opinions. A lot of what I've read about hypoxic suggests its of limited use for Triathletes, who by nature are not concerned with developing their anaeroebic capabilities. However, the real merit (as in what Oryx was doing last night) is to improve your stroke, by increasing efficiency. I've found huge benefits from our hypoxic sets, both in terms of stroke reach and pull efficiency, and additionally in terms of breathing (in that I don't find it so hard running low on oxygen when upping the work rate). A centre snorkle would aid the efficiency part, but not the breathing- I'm a big fan of some hypoxic work in a set.

Whether its dangerous in terms of co2 poisoning or blacking out, I don't really know, but I'd imagine those dangers are minimised in a 25m pool under the eye of an experienced coach.

I don't know enough about this but I do find that the few hypoxic sets I've done when told to by a coach do allow me to practice controlled exhalation and slows down my stroke. I think it's also helpful from a technique perspective as you aren't breaking the stroke up by breathing. That said I hate these types of sets. I have a really bad habit of breath holding and that makes these much harder for me. Its not so much oxygen deprivation that makes these hard but more so the CO2 build up in the body caused by breath holding.

The CO2 thing is interesting. I had to read up on it when I came across a suspected case of shallow water blackout some time ago. There's a guy who trains in my pool regularly who hyperventilates before swimming the full 50m on the floor of the pool with fins. I suspect he's one of those free diving nut jobs, but this sort of training must do something for you, although whether its physiological and related to aerobic capacity or psychological and trains your mind to deal with the urge to breath I dont know

Kurt Godel

Absolutely agree on slowly exhaling, that certainly staves off the icy tightness of holding your breath.

Incidentally, today I tried "Popeye" breathing for the first time. It means you don't lift your head so high, and I found I got a cleaner breath, less of a gasp.

courageoussteve

More likely a non diver, freedivers are trained not to hyperventilate. It does little/nothing to improve dive time because it raises one's heart rate and blood pressure.
Frequent apnea training does increase one's RBC and has shown some small improvement for sub-elite cyclist. However apnea training is Hard so I wonder if the gain is worth the pain. If you would like to try something I would suggest apnea walks. Hold your breath for 60-120 sec while walking at a normal pace and enjoy the burn!

Oryx

Turbo yesterday. Swim this morning. Run tonight. With some mobility and core thrown in. I guess I'm back in action. Hamster back on the hamster wheel

Ps. Thank you, anonymous boardsie benefactor for the sponsorship

Oryx

Another run this morning. Progressive, with clear structure - an increase in pace every five minutes. Started easy, thinking I just don't have speed these days, this will be interesting! It was fine until the last 15 minutes when it started to take concentration to hold pace. The second last segment was hard, the last one hurt like hell. But a good confidence builder, hitting my old 10k pace or faster in the last stages. No niggles from my legs which was the best bit. 46 mins total. 8.8k

Oryx

Steady bike today. Cold creature me had to layer up to survive the first hour of chilly fog, then try not to overcook for the second hour. I don't know how 'steady' this ended up being, but I kept the cadence up and just got on with it. I felt too bundled up and hated the full gloves but better suck it up, this is it from now till March. 49k 2hrs.

Oryx

Biked yesterday too. Not as cold, but still layers and long sleeves. Bit of sunshine was nice. (1hr 16 rather than the 1hr 30 I was supposed to do,but I ran out of time today, and also, for the last few days I've been stupidly sleepy. Even on the bike, I wanted to lay down and sleep. Time to get blood tests. ) 10 min run off the bike to finish, so got most of it done.

Dory Dory

Iron??!!!

Shell to Run

Dory Dory wrote: »

Iron??!!!

?????

Dory Dory

Oryx wrote: »

Biked yesterday too. Not as cold, but still layers and long sleeves. Bit of sunshine was nice. (1hr 16 rather than the 1hr 30 I was supposed to do,but I ran out of time today, and also, for the last few days I've been stupidly sleepy. Even on the bike, I wanted to lay down and sleep. Time to get blood tests. ) 10 min run off the bike to finish, so got most of it done.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Iron??!!!

Shell to Run wrote: »

?????

Wondering if she is low on iron.

Oryx

Shell to Run wrote: »

?????

Shes telling me to check my iron levels

Club swim tonight. Purgatory. Already tired, fly drills to start were not fun. I almost quit in frustration at not being able to do them. But the rest of the set was ok, I tolerated the fly in the IM bits and suffered through the 50 and 25 sprints. It was all harder than it should have been, 3 weeks of a scrappy diet are taking a toll.

BennyMul

wow, lesson here don't leave it reading your log for too long,
Congrats great race your some woman for one woman.

Oryx

Thanks Benny. Feels like a long time ago now.

Rested Wednesday. Turbo yesterday, first time back in the wee small shed for the winter group sessions, which are always great craic. Technical high cad stuff, which is all I have been doing for ages anyway. Ill have to change it up for this crowd though, don't want them complaining its too easy.

Up early for my swim, I had access to the pool a bit earlier than the last few weeks, which meant I could get the full set done (its disheartening when you know you don't have enough time). 2.5k of strength work using paddles and pull mainly.

I am also beginning a real food plan to try and combat this fatigue. Real food, made from scratch, packets are banned; I had become kinda lazy and was eating far too much junk. Confectionery is also banned. The only sugar kick I am allowed is stuff I make at home, which at the moment is honey and apple flapjacks.

Solobally8

Norseman is on your bucket list isn't it Kate? One of the girls on our Ras squad did it this summer. I didnt get a chance to quiz her on it this weekend but she seemed very humble about it all. I must get more info next time I see her.