Session # 50:

Unfortunately I was ill this morning and was not able to attend the session, however, this iw what the crew did:

W/up: 5 x 200m with 10s rest as 1) swim, 2) pull, 3) fins kick, 4) pull, 5) swim

Main: 2 x (4 or 6 x 150m with 15s rest between each and 45s after the first set)

Set 1 = fins as 50 drill + 50 swim + 50 drill

Set 2 = simply swim smooth!

C/D: 200 easy

Enjoy!

Session # 49

Hope you all had a crackin' Easter - a nice little session today to ease you back into the swing of things!

 

Enjoy!

 

Paul

Session 48 - Happy Easter!

 

Session # 47

How high can you "fly" on the Swim Smooth "Index of Smoothness" ;-)

 

A steady session focussing on form today.

 

Enjoy!

Session # 46 - a promotion!

It was a day for promotions this morning, with Mr Andrew Holmes taking a step up for the first time into lane # 2 and Sue-Ann Anderson taking the crown of most consistent swimmer in this "blue-riband" set of 15 x 100 aiming to hold best possible pace.

 

Its a tough set, but a great sense of satisfaction for having completed it!

 

The two coaches (Paul Newsome and Adam Young) are seen here sharing a ride on Paul's scooter whilst Adam's scooter is in for repair - happy days!

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Session # 45

 

Session # 44:

Another day, another time-trial! Repeating this session every 4 to 6 weeks is great for monitoring progress and re-evaluating your training levels / target paces for the next few weeks. You shouldn't view time-trials as something to fear, after all as Andy Coggan, (sports physiologist) says:

"Training is testing and testing is training!"


What was great to see was that after yesterday's cycle time-trial where 100% of those who had repeated the session from 6 weeks ago did a P.B, it was a similar story in the pool today with ~80% "repeater" posting P.B times - a really great result!

What we had chance to do with the second squad session at 10am this morning (see bottom photo) was get everyone's split-time through the first 100m and compare this with their finishing time. In an ideal world where the 400m would have been either even-split or potentially even negative-split (i.e. last 200m faster than first 200m), we then said, "OK, if they have done their first 100m in 1:40, then they should be hitting close to 6:40 for the 400m assuming optimal pacing". What we found was (in some cases) very different, and this is not at all unusual. Click on the bottom photograph for a clearer view and see that the figures in a small red circle next to their finishing time is the difference in seconds between what time they did finish in and what time they "should" have finished in, with the lower the number, the better. Ideally we'd like to see values here of 5 to 15s as opposed to some which were as high as 60-seconds. Rather than this be a "name & shame" thing though (we've all done it, trust me!), we need to learn from that, and at this point I'd like to draw your attention to this excellent article on Perceived Exertion and Pacing:


http://freewebs.com/velodynamics2/PEpace.pdf


The article by Charles Howe look at how many of the world records in track running in the last 30 years have been set with a slightly negatively-split time. Makes for very interesting reading, especially before our 5km run time-trial this evening!


Enjoy!


Paul

Session # 43:

Today's session was simply a 2.2km swim / 2.5km swim or a 3.0km swim. This was done continuously and at a steady aerobic intensity. Swimmers in the squad benefitted not only from the positive physiological and confidence-boosting effects of this session, but of the individual stroke correction they each received after their swim as well.

Try it for yourself - very simple, but great all the same!

Paul