Very strange pb

Ok, back in action. We had a nice, relaxed dynamic competition yesterday. I did 94m DYN and 58m DNF, humble results, but still both personal bests so I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I went to the pool very relaxed and feeling good to do some easy statics. Warmup was kind of hard and I couldn't concentrate. My stomach problems are still continuing, so I even had to go "empty" in the middle of warmups, which totally messed up the routine. Anyway, I was reaching 4:30 with relative ease after heavy warmup, so I asked a buddy to time me. I ventilated about 6-7 deep breaths and packed 20 times. I noticed right away, that I've propably never been so relaxed...My whole body was moving with the waves, completely limp. But the contractions started already a little after 4 minutes and I thought that this was going to suck. Better yet, I heard a friends voice asking "does he have his key?" and immediately realized I had left my locker key in the shower. I got agitated and almost came up, but then decided to go on. From almost 5 minutes on, I wanted to quit, contractions were already very frequent. But then I just sort of let go. I opened my epiglottis so, that with each contraction, my cheecks would bulge. So in a sense I used my cheeks as a "breathing bag". I have no idea how many contractions there we're, but it was alot. But it just didn't feel that bad, so I kept going 15 secs at the time. At 6:30 I thought that enough is enough and came up very clean at 6:31.

I think I'm onto something here. Some observations:
-I was able to concentrate very well against all odds (bad warmup, stomach problems, the key thing, early contractions)
-I was able to relax better that ever
-I was able to fight contractions propably longer than ever and with less hyperventilation
-I didn't really as much fight contractions as "roll with them". Very strange feeling.
-My wet pb is finally catching up with the dry, which is very cool.

I'll try to write the routine as accurately as I can remember:
1:20 FRC
2:00 FRC
3:00 (pack stretching, with full packing)
4:00 (pack stretching)
2:00 FRC
Bathroom break :)
1:00 Empty
4:30 with full packing
6:31 (7x10:0:10, 1st contraction ~4:15)

Oh, almost forgot. The breathups were really slow, propably slower than 10:0:10, that's just an estimate. And I did alternate 3-5 sec holds on full and empty parts of the cycle. The last 2 breaths were quicker.

I followed with a 10 km jog. I've been off jogging for a couple of weeks because of being sick and preparing for the competition, but now it's on again. However, I will be shifting focus to gym training (which I've been neglecting for over 2 months now). It's just getting too damn cold to jog out there :)

On a quick note

Did 6:25 today, which is good (still in the 100% target range). The curious thing was, that it was extremely easy. I had some stomach problems and company, so concentration was extremely loose, but I just routinely did it. This is exactly what I've been aiming for, finding the time I can hit comfortably even on a bad day and slowly picking it up.

Just one note. Diahhrea and the relaxing effect of extreme apnea on the spinchter is not a good combo. No accidents, but I did had to "empty" after every hold :)

Data:
1:20 FRC
2:30 FRC
5:15 "blunter"
6:00 (10x5:0:5, 15 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 5:00)
1:00 Empty
6:25 (10x10:0:10, 18 packs, 25 contractions, 1st 5:25)

Another 6:50

I hit it again, with samba, but less so and with pretty much the same pattern. What I'm thinking now is, with such heavy warmup hold, I should be left somewhat hypoxic to begin with, so my potential should be over 7 minutes now, if only I could get rid of the overly hard warmup. Still, this or that way, I'm sure I will hit 7 minutes quite soon, if nothing disasterous happens. I promised myself that after reaching that important goal, I shall return to more experimenting and especially shortening the warmup. But just now, I'm just too damn close to let it slip away.

I tried some holds yesterday, but just could not get it off the ground. I did 3 holds to about 4:30, but each time I would get contractions in 2-3 minutes. Two factors come to mind that could've caused this (and earlier experience seems to concur). First, I had tons of candy on sunday. An unfortunate slip, but it's pretty hard to resist when watching a movie in good company and the other half is munching away. Kind of comforting though, that the effect seems to go away in a couple of days. I also had a banana almost right before the holds (maybe half an hour), which was definently too close. It seems that eating makes a huge difference.

Today was completely different. On my first warmup FRC I hit 2:00, which is very unusual for a first hold. Right after it a 2:40, I knew I was in control. I then did a 5:20 and 6:30. Thinking back, maybe I should've pushed that 5:20 a bit further and then made the max on the next hold.

I was actually quite happy at 6:30, but it seemed so easy and I wanted to try if I could reproduce the result from the last 6:50. It seems I could, and it's a very nice feeling ;)

Ok, here's the data:
2:00 FRC
2:40 FRC
1:20 Empty
5:20 (10x5:0:5, 20 packs, 13 contractions, 1st 4:40)
Pack stretching, 23 packs
1:10 Empty
6:30 (10x5:0:10, 20 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 5:20)
6:50 (10x5:0:10, 15 packs, 22 contractions, 1st 5:40)

Notes: on the 6:30 I almost passed out after packing, I could feel my conciousness fading, but I kept telling my self (I'm still here, I'm in control) and so I was. Still, pretty scary and worth noting that almost the exact same thing happened the last time. Now is this due to the empty lung right before, hyperventilating or too much packing? Or all combined? I'm pretty sure now that my packing technique has gotten better. I can seem to put more than 20 packs in comfortably, no matter how much I stretch. The limit used to be over 30...

On the 6:50 packing was no problem and I seemed to be able to handle contractions very well. Note that in the 6:30 I had 30 contractions in 1:10 and on the latter 22 in 1:10. I just felt I could control them more on the 6:50 (slower frequency).

My contractions as a whole have gotten quite different from what they used to be. I do get sort of semi-contractions from about 4 minutes onwards, but I can suppress those mentally. I start counting from the first one I cannot control.

Also played with "image streaming" today, which is proving to be a very cool thing...

At the pool again

Good day today. Did a new pb, 6:20 and with a shorter warmup and less hyperventilation than usual. I don't have much to say, it was a pretty average session. The only difference was that I did this time on a hold that I started as warmup. Some way through it it just started to feel like I could proplably go further so I did. I felt I could've perhaps pushed even more, but stopped because I don't want to do "huge leaps" in the water. That will just lead to frustration because of not being able to reproduce the result. I'll just slowly build the time, few seconds at a time.

Again, from memory:
1:20 FRC
0:45 Empty
4:00 (max packing, 10 contractions)
1:40 Empty
5:00 (5*5:0:5,max packing, 10 contractions)
6:20 (10 slow, relaxed breaths, 80% packing, didn't count contractions after 30)

6:50 with samba

Wohoo! I know I shouldn't call it a pb, since I clearly had a samba. But mentally this is a huge step, since I've been able to push to 6:45 only once and that was a long long time ago. This was a pretty weird session. I've never been able to push myself further after one "max" attempt. But now I did a 6:30 (which already was pretty damn good). I was planning on doing an empty lung, but while breathing up I just felt so good I decided to go for another max. I clearly hyperventilated for the first, but not really all that much for the second. But still my first contraction was an incredible 5:36. I think it's a bit misleading to say I didn't get contractions before that. I guess "letting go" of contractions is more accurate. Meaning, that's the time when I can mentally suppress them anymore and start to just let them come.

I have a bit mixed feelings now. First of all, I should be performing much worse with the blood donation and all. Second, I want to try for a shorter warmup, but always slip to doing this old routine because I seem to make progress here too. But I guess what ever works, works, as they say...

One thing to note is, that I didn't really eat anything all day. One doughnut in the morning (I know I know, I said I quit eating sweets etc, but it was free damnit! You don't turn down a free doughnut!).

Data:
1:30 FRC
4:00 (15 packs, 10 contractions, 1st 3:25)
2:15 FRC
1:40 Empty
5:05 (10x5:0:5, 20 packs, 15 contractions, 1st 4:15)
6:30 (12X5:0:5, 20 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 5:05)
6:50 (2 minutes relaxed breathing, 2 purges, 23 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 5:36)<-samba

I should mention that on the 6:30, while packing, I got so dizzy that I actually lost control of my facial muscles for a second and blew out quite a lot of air. So I had nowhere near "20 packs" in me when starting. Pretty scary. On the 6:50 I packed absolutely full, bordering on pain. Strange though, that to reach that state before, I had to pack well over 30 times. Either my lungs have gotten smaller or my packing technique better...Dunno.

Recovering again

It's been over a week since my last training. First there was the blood donation and then I caught a cold and have been struggling with that for the past few days. Today I was finally feeling better and decided to go for it.

I set my sights on 5:00. A decent time, but not too hard, being well aware of my possible shape. To my surprise, I could reach 6:13, so it's not looking all bad! Pretty weird considering how much red cells and haemoglobin I must've lost, but I'm not complaining! Also got my first contraction at 5:20, which is a new pb. This is again in accordance with my past experiences with longish brakes. Contractions come later, but are harder to handle. I didn't even do a serious hyperventilation (which is very effective for delaying them).

It feels good not to have drop to a similar slump that last time. Although I was prepared for that...

Data quickly:
1:20 FRC
1:00 Empty
2:20 FRC
4:00 (10x5:0:5, 30 contractions, 1st 2:20)
5:00 (5x5:0:5, 15 contractions, 1st 3:55)
6:13 (10X5:0:5, 15 contractions, 1st 5:20)

Bloody thursday

I donated blood today, so I'll be taking it slow with the breath-holding for a few days at least. They of course measured my haemoglobin, which I've been curious about for some time but too lazy to get tested. I got 174, which is pretty good I guess. It should still be safe to get it up a bit, but I guess over 200 is considered too high, at least for an average person.

The donation (450ml), I was told, will cost some 10g of haemoglobin, but that's not too bad. I'll get it back soon enough...Anyway, it's a small price to pay for someone's life...

New wet pb

Heh, I knew I had it in me, just had to go an do it. I hit 6:14 in the pool today, and this time there was no talk of "borderline" and I felt fine. I ventilated much less than last time. I would still call it a slight hyperventilation, but much closer to "optimum" I think. I could propably do with some less still. I decided to give the elios "jump suit" a go again, having just weeks a go sworn by the short sleeve. I don't know if the suit has anything to do with it, but I was just in high spirits all day. The very first hold, an empty lung of 1:20, felt so good that I knew I could hit a good time. I did a pretty long warmup, took my time, but at no point did I get the usual "ok, last change, this has got to be IT"-feeling. I just sort of gradually build up to the maximum. Feels very good having reached a point, where I can confidently go in and know I can hit 6 minutes if I want to.

Didn't make any notes (as I usually don't in the pool), but here's the session from memory:
1:20 Empty lung
1:00 Empty lung
2:20 FRC
2:00 FRC
4:00 (no bu, no packing, 1st contraction around 2 minutes)
5:15 (~7 relaxed breaths, 3 packs, 1st contraction around 3)
0:40 Empty
5:00 same as above
0:40 Empty
30 packs, hold for 20 sec, slow exhale
6:14 (8*5:0:5, 25 packs, 1st contraction around 4:00)

I don't count contractions usually in the water, it's just distracting. For some reason, contractions in the water are much more frequent, but easier to handle. Go figure.

Experimenting

The hyperventilation experiments didn't really seem to pay off, so I decided to go for the opposite. I read the thread "beyond 6:30 in static apnea" in DeeperBlue once again and got some new ideas. I also received some really good and thought provoking tips from a member. The point of todays exercise was not to find the latest point for the first contraction, but to find how long could I mentally "suppress" the contractions and how long could I deal with them in total. I'm convinced that with the traditional hyperventilation method I could propably eventually reach 7 minutes, but I want to look beyond that, and you don't get into the 7+ category without experienceing some discomfort.

Anyway, I set about to do the series, did some emptys and FRCs like always. For the first long full inhale static I decided to do virtually no breathup at all. After the pervious empty lung, I took maybe 5 breaths, trying not to think about breathing at all, but just trying to relax as much as I could. I then took one deep breath, but not even really full inhale and started. I experimented with the "controlled exhale", as well as I can imagine the technique, and slowly pressed air against my noseclip, making sure the epiglottis was open. I was surprised to realize, that it was feeling really good, and that feeling just wouldn't go away! At 4:30 I became too tempted and took a peek at the watch, still feeling really good. Realizing the time I immediately became excited and my mind started racing all over the place. I finally quit at 5:00 just looking like a huge question mark...Usually at this stage of the routine, 4 minutes is a though hold. But now I was at 4:30 feeling almost euphoric and peeked at the time out of curiosity. And no noticable hyperventilation.

I then tried to reproduce the result, wanting of course to do more. But even though the following holds were ok, I didn't get "into the zone" quite as well. But the common thing for all of them was that even without big hyperventilation, I could go well beyond 4 minutes before contractions and usually push them to even 5. For the last hold I did a concious but very very subtle "breathing cycle", while holding my breath, moving a minute amount of air back and forth from the mouth to lungs very slowly. I don't know if it really helped or not, but it felt good. I managed to squeeze my self to 6:35, which is good, with 40 contractions. Good day overall and I really think I'm onto something here.

Holds:
2:00 (cold, bunch of contractions)
2:30 FRC (with tons of contractions)
1:30 FRC (no breathup, really hard)
1:40 Empty lung
4:30 (no packing, 7 contractions, 1st ~4:30)
1:47 Empty lung
5:47 (3 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 5:00)
5:00 (10 deep slow breaths, 10 packs, no contractions)
6:35 (some packing, 40 contractions, 1st 4:47)

"some packing" meaning I did pack, quite a lot, but it's not comparable to the traditional amount of packs, because I started it well before having fully inhaled (wanted to experiment on this, since usually I make quite an effort to fully inhale before starting packing).

Dietary changes

I was pondering about eating today. I came to the conclusion that I'm getting way too much fast carbohydrates. Almost daily I'll have some candy, pastry or just sugar with my tea. This has got to go. Keeping the body on "high octane" fuel, cannot be beneficial for breath holding. And since I seem to have more or less found my current physiological limit (can hit samba now very regularly) I need to shift focus again (mental state and eating).

I did manage a nice 6:30 today, so it's not that I have some crisis, but you got to keep guessing to make progress...

Today's holds:
2:00 (just a cold hold on full lungs)
1:00 Empty lung
2:00 FRC
1:30 Empty lung
2:00 FRC
4:30 (5*5:0:5, 20 packs, 16 contractions, 1st 3:30)
5:50 (10*5:0:5, 20 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 4:30)
6:30 (12*5:0:5, 20 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 5:00)

I actually felt much better on the 5:50. The breathing reflex was stronger, but I felt strong my self and confident I could fight it. But I had already made up my mind that this was a warmup hold and therefore didn't want to over excert my self. Bad call, you should always listen to your body. If it feels good, go for it, if not, don't. I think that hitting 5:50 on a warmup is far too much. I also feel that my optimum breathup would cause the first contraction at around 4:30, much like on that hold. 5:00 is too late, too much hyperventilation...

borderline wet 6:11

At the pool again. I almost managed to beat my wet pb, setting it at 6:11, but the recovery was so borderline that I will not accept it. The safety diver said my hands were shaking from 5:45 onwards. I didn't notice my self and of course it could have been from the cold etc, but it's not my call in a competition, so it's not my call in practise sessions either. And after coming up, I did feel my stomach convulse, so even if it would have passed a judge, it was very very close.

I did much heavier hyperventilation than normal for this try, some 15 quick, deep breaths (about 3-5 sec in, 5 out). I was doing this to test where my "optimum ventilation" is and I did alert the safety diver I was going to try this. Even though I got to my pb in time, I don't think that was a good dive. I definently hyperventilated too much. I could feel it already in the start of the dive, I was feeling much too euphoric. I was playing around with an idea, that if you have done a long and hard warmup, basically your body is already very acidic. So even if you hyperventilate and bring the blood to alkaline, the "deep tissues" would be very acidic and would in the course of the dive re-acidify the body. Just an idea...Seems it didn't quite work. I don't pretend to be an m.d, but it's fun to keep playing with ideas like this, keeps the whole thing more interesting...

Nothing much else to report. The warmup (form memory) was:
0:45 Empty lung
1:00 Empty lung
3:00 (30 packs, 10 contractions)
1:20 Empty lung
5:00 (5*5:0:5, 20 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 3:30)
1:40 Empty lung
5 minute rest
6:11 (15*3:0:5, 24 packs, lost count, 1st 4:15)

Encouraging results

Ok, back to dry statics. Comparing the feeling today to yesterday, it's kind of questionable if this is the same body I was using at the pool. Today, everything felt great. I played around with the "exhale method" again, but didn't really hit it. There's a special sort of feeling when you know you got it just right. Today, that didn't happen and at most I could postpone contractions to 4:30. However, I managed to hold on until 6:40 and this is only the second time I've passed that mark.
This gives me confidense to move my "sure" target to 6:25. Feels nice to be closer to 7 than 6 again ;) Can't wait to start another session tomorrow. Which is good, for a while there I was afraid I'd lost my ethusiasim. I know I propably won't hit that time any time soon again, but still, it feels good to have that spirit back. I hyperventilated much more today than usual, encouraged by Bill Grahams post on DeeperBlue. But even with such heavy hyperventilation, I didn't get the usual light headedness. Strange...

The data:
FRC 1:00
Empty 1:00
Empty 1:20
FRC 2:30
Empty 1:30
4:33 (5*5:0:5, 23 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 3:40)
5:20 (5'5:0:5, 30 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 4:20)
1:05 Empty (did some diaphragm stretching and didn't even begin to feel uncomfortable)
longish break (~5min)
6:40 (15*3:05, 25 packs, 40 contractions, 1st 4:30)
5:17 (15*3:0:5, 25 packs, 3 contractions, 1st 5:00) (just had to try again. I was feeling fine, but stopped at a bit after 5...Just no motivation anymore...)

Ok, and now to follow by some 15km jogging...

Oh, there was a poll in DeeperBlue about jogging warmups. It was an annoying one, as usual, since my choise was not on the list. I don't warm up, but do jog quite a bit. Ok, in about 1 out of 10 I'll gather my self enough to do a short stretching session.

About eating right before statics

I already knew it and everybody else knows it too. But I still had to try it. Well, actually, I was just so damned hungry and that pie was so good.

Anyway, went to the pool, did some warmups, but just couldn't get it right. Eventually did 2 statics of over 4 minutes. The last one I ended at 4:37. I could've pushed for 5 but it just felt so damn uncomfortable that I let it go. This was not the day...

But not all in waste, I did a 90m dynamic, which is my best at the moment and some nice mouthfill exercices and just sitting at the bottom looking at the "fish". Fun...

Contractions Schmontractions

Very weird day today. I did a pretty normal warmup, but just wasn't feeling right. On what I thought was the final warmup hold, I got contractions at 3:45 thinking I'm just not going to make it today. Then, out of the blue contractions at 4:45 and finally on the last try 5:15. What happened? I watched a video of Tom Sietas doing 8:56 and noticed that even a couple of minutes before the end, he starts to exhale slightly. So I started thinking, maybe there's a reason. Perhaps offloading co2 when the partial pressure is getting high in the lungs allows more of it to be offloaded from the blood and blowing out air at a late phase wouldn't matter, because most of the o2 that can be used from the air is already in the blood. Or something, I'm not a scientist so don't take this as a solid theory, but it sure feels better. Anyway, just when I started to feel the 1st contraction approaching, I exhaled a bit, very little, only a mouthfull or so. I kept doing this until finally I just couldn't block it anymore. But to my surprise, on the second try, I was well past 5 minutes. I don't know if the exhale is actually needed or if, like Eric F suggests, just "exhaling" with mouth closed, not actually letting any air escape, is enough. But I'll definently need to play around with this.

The thing is, I could only stand 20 contractions after that, so in total the time is about the same. But it sure makes the whole thing more comfortable and it must also have an effect on the absolute time, since the diaphragm must be consuming lots of energy with aggressive contractions. Anyway, reached 6:20 again, which gives me great confidence. And it was relatively easy too.

Empty lung 0:40
Empty lung 1:00
Empty lung 1:20
FRC 2:20
FRC 2:30
4:30 (5*5:0:5, 15 packs, 25 contractions, 1st 3:15)
4:00 (5*5:0:5, 15 packs, 28 contractions, 1st 2:50)
5:00 (10*5:0:5, 20 packs, 30 contractions, 1st 3:45)
5:40 (10*5:0:5, 25 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 4:45)
6:20 (12*5:0:5, 20 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 5:15)

Back at 6:20

Very basic training today. The warmup was longer than I would've liked, but I did squeeze in a 6:20. Didn't feel so bad, but I in the end I was bordering on samba. Perhaps I hyperventilated too much? Anyway, not anything interesting to report about this, it was pretty straight forward.

0:50 empty lung
1:20 empty lung
2:20 FRC
2:55 FRC
4:00 (5*5:0:5, 20 packs, 10 contractions, 1st 3:15)
5:00 (5*5:0:5, 20 packs, 28 contractions, 1st 3:15)
5:40 (12*5:0:5, 20 packs, 40 contractions, 1st 3:50)
6:20 (15*5:0:5, 25 packs, lost count, 1st at 4:55)

The amount of ventilation definently seems to have a strong effect in delaying contractions. But it's not all good. As we can see, on the penultimate hold I fought contractions for 1:50 and on the last only 1:35 but almost had a samba. There's a delicate balance between hyperventilating and ventilating enough. From experience I'd say that 15 breaths in my breathup is clearly too much, the optimum seems to be 10-12. Propably my optimum at this shape would be something like 1st contraction at 4:00-4:15 and fighting period 2:00-2:30. It's just feels so much harder that way :)