First Swim, Totally CMI

This is our 1 week of term break before the crazy schedule starts again next year, and I was savouring the relaxed, un-rushed mode. :) A tad chill-out, if I might add.

Went to Safra in the evening for a swim. Yes, a swim. That activity that takes place in chlorine-filled water. My last swim was in July 2011, almost a year ago, at the Port Dickson race. I since stopped swimming after that, until today.

I only had 30min and only managed 20 laps. Even then, my arms were aching and my head was giddy from the turning around. And there was water in my ear, as usual.

Totally CMI imho. Will think about whether I will be in shape by July to take part in a race or not. I think I will be very happy just driving up to Malaysia as a supporter too.

Back to Swim

Back to swim class. Every time I resume swim after a short break, I get giddy from the head turning and laps. Tonight was no different. After a couple of sets, I was 'floaty'.

8x 200m
break
10 x 100m

Done.

Cooling Swim

The pool was much cooler tonight, after the heavy downpour this morning. We had so many days of extremely hot weather, the rain was very refreshing.

5x 200 @5:30 - 4:59, 5:18, 5:08, 5:08, 5:08
1x 300 - 6:22

6x 100 @2:45 - 2:20, 2:24, 2:29, 2:31, 2:28, 2:34, 2:31 (first one was a trial)

5x 100 @3:00 -2:37, 2:38, 2:43, 2:35, 2:30

Heat-stricken Pool

5x 200: 4:56min 4:57, 4:54, (I missed two)
1x 300: 7:36

7x 100: 2:15, 2:20, 2:20, 2:21, 2:30, 2:25, 2:15

5x 100: 2:27, 2:26, 2:23, 2:29, 2:31


It was so so super hot in the pool, I felt like I might get a heatstroke in the water!

Sets of 200m

We did many 200m sets tonight. I was late and got into the pool in time to join them for the sets.

200m - 5:05min, 5:02.... missed timing two sets

4x 200m - 4:56min, 5:09, 5:15, 5.10

2x 50m slow - 1:15min, 1:21

5x 50m @ 1:30 - 1:11, 1:15, 1:12, 1:19, 1:15

5x 50m - 1:14, 1:16, 1:22, 1:17, 1:18

Done! :)

My 手忙脚乱 Swim

Back to the pool again after an 8-week hiatus. No kidding, it was that long. Coach thought I vanished. He took a look at me and commented, "Ya, I can see that you have been laying off...". What a great opening welcome line! Oh bummer....

We did some easy laps -
50m - 1:07min, 1:13, 1:16, 1:18

Then drills.

Then 100m @ 3:15min. He told us to "slow down" - 2:25min, 2:32, 2:39, 2:45, 4:24 (150m)

Then I got giddy. Must be all the head-turning and getting "tossed" in the water. Of course it just meant that I was not used to being in the water. So for the next sets, I tried to swim straight and not throw up, and skipped some laps. Coach said my swim was all floundering, hands legs everywhere. "PS, you very 手忙脚乱."

100m - 2:34, 2:42, 2:37, 2:42, 2:42, 2:46, 2:44, 4:02 (150m)

Done. Survived my first swim.

Wetsuit for a Cold Day

It took me ten minutes to tug on my wetsuit, and I was already late for class to begin with. But it was a good evening to try out my newly bought wetsuit, because it was so cold after the rain. It was my first time swimming in the wetsuit. It was an Orca Sonar (mid-level), a third-hand piece and already seasoned after a few races. Last IMWA, I rented an Orca Equip (entry-level) and it fitted me ok. So I decided to get the Sonar when the opportunity arose as I knew the owners before me.

I could feel the water enter my back when I got into the pool. Was it suppose to? Then some water crept in through my sleeves too, but not much. W had the same problem too apparently. Perhaps we were not bulky enough to fill up the wetsuit snugly.

8x 50 easy swim - 1:12, 1:13, 1:09, 1:09, 1:09, 1:11, 1:14, 1:07

8x 100 @ 2:45 - 2:19, 2:23, 2:27, 2:20, 2:23, 2:21, 2:25, 2:23, 2:26
(by which time I started to feel the heat in the wetsuit)

Supposedly 10x 50 @ 1:05 - kidding??
1:16, 1:13, 1:07, 1:14, 1:20, 1:21 (skipped last 2 sets)
(felt the drag and heaviness now)

Lane 0 To Myself

I had an entire Lane 0 all to myself today. I was so slow and there was an unused lane so I was demoted there. Which was fine by me, I could go slowly at my own pace. Getting back into the rhythm of things.

We did many many sets of 50m drills with pull-buoys. Then we swam 100ms throughout the night.

6x 100m @ 3min - 2:39, 2:++, 2:55, 2:51, 3:01, 2:56
Repeat - 2:48, 2:53, 2:56, 2:54, 2:58, 2:56
Then to draft the people in Lane 1 - 2:20, 2:15

Sputtering Swim & Run

Home finally! It was a long long time away, I was eager to resume my training routine..... if I still remembered how to swim, bike or run.

First test, swim. 20 laps at Safra. My arms started to feel heavy after only 10 laps. Oops.

Second test, run. Alber and I did a short run around Canterbury and we did the inner loop twice. It was a jog at conversational pace. Survived.

Swim Drop Swim Drop

Tonight was a night of 100ms. We had a new routine of having a short drink break between every sets, and everyone scrambled out of the pool and jumped back in.

8x 100m, 8x 100m, 8x 100m, 6x 100m.

Did not bother with timing the sets. My legs refused to kick, I was getting dropped at every 100m and had to merge. I probably could count the number of times I touched both walls end-to-end!

Brrrrr......

We went for dinner after class, probably the last time I would see everyone before we all go off for our overseas races, and my climb. There was a slight tinge of sadness in me.

Anyhow, I went to collect my wetsuit on the way home. I bought Winnie's 2nd-hand Orca Sonar wetsuit that she had initially sold to J who used it recently at Clearwaters 70.3. So it is considered 3rd-hand, but still ok. I had thought of buying the Blue Seventy Helix that was on clearance sale now, but the neckline was too high. The last time I tried it on, I could not breathe, the neck was choking. :( So no go with that. The Sonar is a mid-range wetsuit, decent, seasoned (after multiple swims by the girls) and fitted me well. Next would be to try it out in the pool.

Poor Water Feel

For whatever reason, I was extremely tired in the first hour of swim class tonight. Maybe it was the milo that I drank just 15min before class. I felt like my heart rate was going up and my breathing was not smooth. So I was swimming with a lot of exertion, but not moving very much. In other words, inefficient swimming.

So I stopped and commented to Coach. He said "Your feel of water is very poor.". Uh... ok, I guess different people have different 'feel and sense'. Like how some people can never take to a bicycle or find their footing in a trail. My nemesis is the water. He told me to do more sculling drills in the water. Then he observed me and commented that my pulling was clumsy. So I tried to focus on that, and the last few sets felt slightly better.

8x 50m @ 1:30min - 1:04, 1:09, 1:06, 1:09, 1:08, 1:13, 1:11, 1:11

8x 200m @ 5:30min - 4:55, 4:59, 5:11, 5:12, 5:07, .... (skipped 1 set, merged 1 set, and the last one was 150m)

Leisure 2x 100m - 2:33, 2:38

8x 50m @ 1:30min - 1:12, 1:12, 1:12, 1:12, 1:14, 1:11, 1:15, 1:10 (where I focused on my pulls. At least I was consistent.)

Swim Swam Swum

Swam and swam and swam tonight. Lost count of the laps. I was extremely late for class, stuck in the office til 7pm. When I got to the pool, they had already completed 7x 100m. Oops. So I jumped in and joined the 7x 200m. Alas, the swim bottom that I had was too loose and would not last the class. I could barely kick my legs! No choice, dashed out of the pool for a change. Luckily I usually had two sets of gear with me.

Back to the 200m 'sprints'. The guy that was leading our lane was going so fast. It was suppose to be 5:30min, but we did an average of 4:45ish min per set! Blooober.

7x 200m @ 5:30 - 4:47, skipped, 4:40, 4:43, 4:49, 4:50, 4:58,

7x 100m @ 2:45 - 2:22, 2:24, 2:33, 2:25, 2:30, 2:35, 2:32

Leisure 50m - 1:22, 1:17

Sprint 4x 50m - 1:11, 1:17, 1:10, 1:13
Hardly sprints.

Arms were dying. I noticed that my pulls were all awry once I tried to swim faster to catch up with the front swimmer. That made my pulls very inefficient, when I could glide much better at a slower pace. Hmmm, would have to pay attention to that.

Swimming Longer Laps

I think Coach is increasing the laps and mileage and cutting down on the drills. But the speed for the sets has decreased too.

6x 100 -
2:13, 2:24, 2:22, 2:19, 2:22, 2:27

4x 200 -
4:48, 4:50, 4:52, 4:57

6x 50-
1:03, 1:07, 1:06, 1:07, 1:04, 1:06

5x 100 -
2:23, 2:26, 2:24, 2:24, 2:28

2x 200 -
5:07, 5:18

Total mileage: 2.6 km

Laps and Laps

Swim class:

200m: 5:07min, 4:53

6x 100m @ 2:30min - 2:13, 2:23, 2:33, 2:26, 2:26, 2:21 - basically it meant non-stop

6x 50m - 59s, 1:09, 1:05, 1:07, 1:04, 1:08

4x 200 @ 5:30min - 5:08, 5:08, 5:09, 5:08

8x 50m - 1:04, 1:15, 1:11, 1:15, 1:15, 1:14, 1:14, 1:03

Jabbed Arms Bad for Swim

Silly me decided to take a couple of travel vaccines in the afternoon. 3 to be exact - 2 on one arm, 1 on the other. Needless to say, my biceps were like rock-tired by the evening and pulling through laps in the pool was far from the best solution.

6-7x 200m:
4:31 (merged?), 4:44, 4:44, 4:44, 4:45, 4:48, 6:09 (250m)

8x 100m:
2:23, 2:27, 2:31, 2:31, 2:29, 2:33, 2:28, 2:19 (merged)

100m:
2:34, 2:37, 2:38, 2:41, .... suppose to do 7 sets but bailed out early.

Jelly arms were falling off my shoulders. Totally unable to pull properly.

Why am I swimming?

Post-desaru and we were back at swim class on Monday. Coach was lenient, gave chance tonight. I was late, because the crappy Tiger Airways sent me an email at 630pm that my flight was cancelled, and I had to spend some time sorting that out. For the record, that would be the last time I would fly with Tiger.

5x 200m @ 5:30min -
but why were the front swimmers pulling so fast??! all the laps were sub-5!
4:48min, 4:48, 4:46, 4:49, 4:47

Repeat 5x 200m @ 5:30min -
4:50, 5:06, 5:06, 5:05, 5:01

6x 100m @ 2:30min - oh boy, it was a mad crawl and messy splash. Merged and merged, forget about the timings...

Goodnight. Ahhh sweet words to the ears.

I was already wondering why I was there swimming more than the desaru race distance, so soon after the race.

Struggle Swim

Legs felt like rock, like they would cramp any time. I did not dare kick too hard. The lane was fast today, by the last few sets, I had to merge a couple of times. Crap, I hated to merge laps. Why do I need to merge just because others are fast? Haha... that was my Ah-Q thinking.

7x 100m @ 2:45min -
2:27, 2:24, 2:21, 2:22, 2:23, 2:22, 2:24

7x 100m @ 3min -
2:26, 2:28, 2:27, 2:25, 2:26, 2:26, 2:31

5x 200m @ 5:15min - this one really got dropped, big time.... until I was simply swimming by myself most of the time. :(
5:13, 4:47, 5:21, 5:43, 4:14 (merged)

I think we ended with about 4-5 x 50m sprints. But it was so messy and I simply could not catch up, I gave up timing.

Sigh.... splish, splash, struggle....

Baked Swim & Run

We had a sea swim this morning, the distances were 1, 1.5, 2, and 3km. I chose the 2km while Alber went for the 3km. The sea was surprisingly friendly, without the usual seabug pricks or bloated carcasses, jellyfish and weird objects. Some swimmers blatantly cut the buoy markings and short-cut the distance, not just once, but every single buoy. I was miffed, why did they bother swimming the distance if they had no integrity to follow the route? For 2km, we did 5x 400m loops. I finished my swim in 52min, relaxed pace.

Then we attempted a run in the hot wilting weather. The aim was 1h or 10km, but we did not survive the run. We ran from F2 to NSRCC to the Eastern PCN and the start of Coastal Road. The sun was relentless, stuffy, hot, humid. We walked and jogged the return. Jogging was hardly the appropriate description though. I tried to move my legs and maintained my posture (which was extremely hard to do when one was tired), and trotted 3-4min. Stopped. Walked. Repeat.

We finally made it back to the car, did not bother with the timing. I was hungry. Alvin's boy, Adriel, had a pack of koko-krunch and a mouth smeared with chocolate. I was tempted to grab a handful too!

Showered, and had lunch at Royal Cafe, for its superb mee siam. Next stop, KPI tri-sale.

Swim Terror Resumed

End of the break. Swim class terror resumed tonight. The first 30min was a culture shock to my system, which had laid off heavy cardio for the past weeks. We did some drills and started swimming.

Coach, in all his wisdom, made us swim 100s the entire night, to re-accustomed us to the rigour of swimming.

Lane 1- 6x 100m @ 3:00 + 50m - 2:21, 2:21, 2:20, 2:16, 2:18, 2:21, 1:12

I felt like my heart was going to fly out of my mouth, and that class should end then.... :(

Then Coach: The next set would be faster.
(You mean it was not fast just now?)

7x 100m @ 2:45 - 2:10 (die, too fast), 2:17, 2:18, 2:21, 2:23, 2:26, 2:24, 2:29

Another 6x 100m @ 3:00 + 50m - 2:31, 2:31, 2:32, 2:33, 2:34, 1:18

Chill 2 laps - 1:08, 1:17

Killer - 8x 50m sprints - 1:01, 1:05, 1:03, 1:09, 1:07, 1:10, 1:12, 1:04


I could not recall the last time my HRM went up so much in the pool - it had been a while. Off for a herbal chicken dinner. Hard-earned!

Another Swim Drag

A long weekend, feeling rather lazy. Slept in til late, ran some errands and decided to make amends by going for a swim at Safra. It was probably more demoralizing than uplifting, but oh well, better than nothing.

Swam 30 laps - and took 42min!!! *gasps* *horrors*

That was it. Down the path of degeneration.