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.