Back from the pool again

Very good day today. I did only one static. No warmups, just relaxing for about 10 minutes, pack stretching about 5 minutes before starting. I did 5 deep breaths before going in, so I can't call this a "no breathup" static, but most definetly "no warmup". I hit 6:00 with 80 contractions, starting from around 3:30. Very cool. If I can hit 6 minutes without warmup with just a bit over a week of trying out this new method, it definetly has potential. Some little kids came to see me do my static and we're asking all these stupid questions from my safety. One of them was convinced I was a woman, and I almost burst out loughing, but held it in :) For anyone who's seen me live, it should be obvious that a woman of my size would be monstrous...The kids were really eager to try them selves and asked us to time them and I felt really bad about having to tell them that they couldn't and shouldn't. I don't think for a second they believed me, I bet they're home trying right now...We pointed them to a local dive club that organizes all kinds of activities for kids, such as snorkeling and simple freediving classes. Hope they took the advice.

Anyway, that's not all. You see, I proceeded to do dynamic and felt really good from the start. Perhaps, because I didn't depleat my self with tons of static warmups. I did a couple of 50s and they were so easy, I called a 75-100 for the buddy. And for the first time in my life, I actually reached that 100, with air to spare. Very cool indeed...

Dry no-warmups

I hit the gym after work and then after a bit of resting tried some statics. Obviously I was feeling very tired and acidic after the workout, but I still managed some ok times.

I was going to do only one max hold initially, but after it I just felt like I want to do another. No FRC warmup this time though...

first one was 2:20 with 110 contractions, the second 2:15 with 90 contractions. Comparing to the times a couple days back, the frequency was very high. Just a couple of days back I did 3:10 with similar amount of contractions...

Jogging and IHT

Last night I did a 10 km jog. First 15 minutes just warming up. Then the next 15 min IHT and the rest just normal jogging.

During that 15 minutes, I did:
5 x full inhale apnea, in cycles of 15 steps rest, 15 steps jogging.
10 x FRC apnea, same cycle
3 x Max attempt. Resting as long as I felt "right", then 30, 40 and 50 steps in 3 following trials.

I've been off jogging as well for weeks now, because I didn't want to irritate the cough. But it really seems to be turning for the better now (got some antibiotics. In principle, I don't like the idea of taking antibiotics for every illness, but over a month of slimy coughing is not normal, damnit).

Today gym, and in the evening 1 no warmup max dry static. Tomorrow, pool again :)

A quick one

Just quickly:
2:20 FRC (on the first hold, which is very good)
2:40 (100 contractions)
2:00 (60 contractions)

On the second one I just felt pooped and not very motivated in a house full of people...
But still, 2:40/100 is pretty good for the "first" hold (ok, not first, since I had that FRC, but I'm finding it hard to let go of one empty/FRC in warmup, since it so totally changes the way I feel and get's me to "breath-holding mode so quickly")

Holiday training

I've been doing christmas stuff, visiting relatives, driving around and most important of all, eating, so I haven't had a chance of doing breath-holds in the past couple of days. This morning I had some time, so I went with a couple of dry statics.

Nothing special here, I did the same thing I've been doing for this week. With one difference: I did one FRC warmup first. On the FRC I hit 2:00 on the first try, with about a zillion contractions. That was good, since usually I need at least one warmup to get there.

I proceeded to do 2:30 (80) (timed from 1st contraction) and a new pb of 3:10 (110). Cool.
Like I've seen in previous holds, I seem to peak on the second max hold. I think for dry training I'll keep on doing 2-3 max, but in water, I should seriously try to get to the point where I can hit max without warmup.

Ok, that just shortly...Now back to eating and stuff...

Pool trials

I went to the pool very confident today, but it just wasn't meant to be. First off, for 15 minutes it seemed that no one else would turn up and I was beginning to worry I couldn't do any statics. I did an easy 2:30 static while waiting, so the experiment was kind of already ruined.

I then proceeded to do 6 minutes of relaxing kneeling by the pool side, sub neutral, slow breathing, packed and went. Right away I started to feel like I have to cough, far from relaxed I ended up swalloning tons of my air. Anyway, I reached a nice 5:30, with contractions starting from around 3:30 and some 70 contractions. Not bad considering that there was no breathup.

On the second trial I managed a 5:58. 60 contractions from around 4:15. This time I had to cough even worse and I actually did a couple of times, again losing tons of air.

Not bad overall. I wasn't expecting to do 7 minutes right away, but I have to admint I was kind of hoping I'd go past 6:30. Now that I think about it, this is very good considering virtually no warmup (at least compared to previous) and no breathup.

But I'll have to keep at it for a long time to see actual results...

Immediate progress

This was of course to be expected with increased buffering, since I've done statics 3 days in a row now. But it's always a nice feeling. I'll try wet again tomorrow, then the pool closes for christmas, so the next time will be I guess next week.

I smashed my records in "amount of contractions" and "time of riding contractions" (I'll call it riding from now on, since "fighting" induces a negative mind set :). It feels very strage, but it seems I've found a mental switch that allows me to actually relax at the point where I would usually bail. Let's hope I can keep flipping this switch in the future ;)

I also employed "sub-neutral breathing" today. Meaning that as part of recovery from each trial, I would breath so that the maximum inhale was "neutral" position of my lungs. Just something else I picked up from DeeperBlue. For the first time I also didn't try to inhale to max capacity. Instead I inhaled where I comfortably could, and then packed the rest of the way. Feels very nice, I think I'll be using this in the future (something I picked up from Tom's static video. Or at least I think that's what he's doing).

Here they are:
2:30(100)
2:45(90)
2:26(80)

Broke 100! Wohoo! This also comfirms my previous findings, that I seem to "peak" on the second hold in terms of "time of contractions". But I don't think I've ever done so much on the first hold. I'm not sure if 2:45 is a pb, but it's got to be close.

Can't wait for tomorrow ;)

P.S I forgot to mention this earlier. Accoring to my girlfriend I actually packed in my sleep last night! Now that's pretty scary (not to mention funny ;). I remember dreaming about being in a competition and starting to pack as I was late from my official start. She was struggling not to burst laughing, because she didn't want to wake me ;)

It begins

Ok, first trial for the new training. I did 3 holds, no breathups, short rest in between. Each time I pushed contractions to the max and sort of tried to play in my mind so I could find a way to like it. Surprisingly, I could do 80 contractions on the second hold and it felt sort of easy. There was a point at around 40 where I wanted to stop, but I just sort of sunk deeper into my mind and relaxed. Even at 80 I felt I could've hold on, but I started to get scared as I heard a clear shift in my hearing, so I let go.

But this is a good starting point for the training to come. I feel that more than 3 of these excersices is too taxing. On the third I was already kind of drained.

So here's how I did: (time from first contraction ( amount of contractions))
2:10 (70)
2:10 (80)
2:00 (60)

Weird how the time is almost the same, even though the difference in contractions is 20...

Shift of focus

I read this DeeperBlue thread and it gave a huge motivation boost. I'm going to try something I've been putting off for a while because I've been hunting 7 minutes. Read especially the long posts by laminar, they're pure gold.

Anyway, I'm going to start training to enjoy the contractions part of static. First of all, I'm going to stop timing dry statics all together as a whole. I'll start the timer from first contraction and try to maximize the amount of contractions and the time with contractions. This is of course with no breathup at all. I'll be able to do this almost daily, since the sessions will be a lot shorter than untill now, the aim is to shorten warmups and eventually require none.

I experimented with this today at the pool and got a 6:20 in the end, which is much more that I was expecting since I've been taking a break for weeks now. But it was very nice. I got contractions from 4 minutes, and took something like 60 contractions, but I was able to just sort of let go and enjoy them up untill the very last seconds.

For warmup I timed only contractions. I managed 1:30 (34), 2:00(45), 2:20 (60) and 2:10. (60). The warmup was longer than I intend to do in the future, but I was just experimenting. For the last hold, I did slight hyperventilation, but much less than usual (6*10:0:10 instead of the normal 10*5:0:5) and absolutely no breathups in warmup.

I'll do 1-2 timed statics per week (usually sunday) from now on, other than that, just concentrating on this new experiment. I have to do it for a pretty long time to be able to tell if it makes a difference or not...

But the main thing is, I feel really motivated again, after a longish slump.

Quick pool statics

I arrived late at the pool today and didn't have time to really concentrate. But I managed some easy statics today. I didn't expect much since I've been off regular statics for weeks now and I still have to interrupt because of the cough sometimes. So I did 5:38. But all in all good.

I've been reading and discussing the "buffer effect" and found a reasonable explanation to it, at least it sounds feasible. But I know that it's quite normal to go back when you have a break and I know that I'll get back in shape in 1-2 weeks of active training. So I'll keep on taking it slow at least until the cough goes away and then perhaps train for a pb again. After new year, I will start serious preparation for the competition. I plan on starting to polish my preparation routine. I'll have to change it from "starting the last static when feeling right" to "ok, I've go 45 minutes of warm up time, how do I maximize the benefit". So I'll try to simulate the actual competition situation and perhaps have a "coach" tell me the times. I'll also have a few months to try on different preparations for the competition weekend. Right now I'm thinking that I'll get in good shape in the next 3-4 months. Lot's of jogging and gym and whatever, then quit all of it 2 weeks before and start "buffering" and try to peak at the competition. But the thing that I have to find is what amount of buffering (I have no better term, sorry), is the most effective.

Data:
1:15 FRC
1:45 FRC
1:00 Empty
4:00 (10 packs, 20 contractions)
4:00 (15 packs, I coughed out air 2 times, which was pretty annoying)
5:38 (15 packs, 1st contraction around 4:00)
5:15 (20 packs, 1st contraction around 4:15, it was getting late and I had no will to fight...)

Starting dry statics again

I did my first dry static in a long time today. Man did it feel weird, it was like I had never held my breath before. I set my target at a modest "over 5 minutes" and managed 5:30 eventually. The cough is still bothering me and I couldn't do a really good breathup, since every deep breath would be interrupted by coughing, the same with serious packing. I didn't want to push it since I'm obviously not in full health. Hopefully this will pass soon so I can get back to "serious" statics :)

Like with earlier long breaks I noticed today, that while I can push 1st contraction relatively far, the contractions after that come with very high frequency and are much harder to handle. On my last hold I had 24 contractions in 50 seconds. Usually that would be less then 10. Also at 24 I was already feeling like crap. I guess for a pb I need to do a week or so of almost daily statics, but it's still good to have a rest every now and then.

Data:
FRC 1:00
FRC 2:15
FRC 3:00 (much longer than I was expecting to last)
4:40 (10x5:0:5, 10 packs, 6 contractions, 1st 4:15, felt like crap!)
5:20 (10x5:0:5, 10 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 4:25)
Empty 0:45
5:30 (10x10:0:10, 15 packs (had to exhale a bit after), 24 contractions, 1st 4:40)

Relaxed 6s

I have no idea if the title is even grammatically correct. Anyway...

I actually did a 6 minute wet static on sunday, but forgot to write about it, since I didn't think that much of it. Today I did it again. It was a pretty good feeling, since I had already decided I will do max 6 minutes, so I had no pressure to push it. I've stopped dry statics all together for a week or so. I'll get back to that, but not to the extent I was doing before. I will take it kind of slow for a while and maybe "peak" again nearing the competition in 4-5 months. I've been plagued by a very persisten cough, which is another reason I'm not pushing it. Propably remains of the flu, but I wish it would stop already. Kind of hard breathing up when with every deep breath you start to cough :)

On sunday, I had eaten just before, so I had to do a very hard warmup and I think a personal record in emptying the bladder (had to leave the pool 3 times before max attempt!). I won't even try to remember it.

Today I did something like this:
0:50 empty
1:45 FRC
1:50 FRC
4:00 (pack stretching, 1st contraction around 3)
FRC 2:20
5:40 (10x10:0:10, 18 packs, 1st contraction around 4:00)
6:00 (10x10:0:10, 20 packs, 1st contraction around 4:20)

I'm not even trying to count contractions or record precisely when contractions start in the water. On dry land it's easy enough, but in the water, it's a bit of a hassle.

Break

I've decided to have a break from all apnea activities at least for the rest of the week. With the competition and all, I've done breathholds pretty much every day for a couple of weeks now, and after doing a very stupid experiment on tuesday (of which I will give no details so no one else tries it) I've been feeling a bit "not right". I need to re-concider the amount of apnea training I do in the future. 1 wet static + 1-2 dry per week should be very well enough.

I also had a bad experience at the pool yesterday. I had already decided I wont do any hard apnea, but I ended up diving anyway. I guess my eye got sucked by the low pressure in the goggles, but it got all bloody red and swollen. I was already pissed off so I just left. With this, the stomach problems, some kind of flu hitting me and other stuff, I figure I better give the body some time to recover. After all, I've only got one of 'em...No spare :) It's supposed to be fun after all. No point in forcing it...