Static Apnea Challenge

Back to the roots: static apnea

2006-01-22T08:57:00.000+02:00

I haven't been writing lately, because I've really had nothing useful to write about. I was on a monofin clinic with Peter Pedersen in December last year and it was very good and inspirational. Since then, I've been mostly consentrating on monofin techniqe. I haven't really been diving as such, I decided to take the approach where I concentrate on technique and general fitness first, and only when a competition is near, I will start training apnea again.

Well, it turns out that was a good strategy. A little over a week ago, I started dry statics again as preparation for the competition on 21.1.2006. I had done some odd statics here and there, while in full training (almost daily joggin, gym, swimming or cross country skiing) and managed a good 7 minutes quite well (on I side note, I really do mean getting in shape. I've lost over 15 kilos of fat since last july and almost 10kg of that after Renens). Since I had now stopped all that, I expected my results to rise. But I wasn't expecting such a jump! On the first session some time last week, I immediately got a 7:37. Sure, I've done more a couple of times, but this was after a long break and usually the best times come after...Well, I was right again. On sunday, a new pb in water: 7:34. Then Mon and Tue, 7:40 and 7:47 dry. Then I rested for a couple of days, like I always do, starting statics again on the previous day before a competition.

Then on friday, the real bomb shell. On my first FRC warmup, I did 4 minutes and on the second 5 minutes. I knew at least now, that I was having a really strong day. Then on the first packing warmup 7 minutes. In warmup! I then settled down for about 5 minutes and concentrated, inhaled, packed...I have no clue how long it was until the first contraction (I've stopped looking at the watch at that point). All I know is that I was feeling relaxed and in control for a very long time. After about 40 contractions I sat up and looked at the watch. Just passing 8 minutes! I decided to hold on until 8:15, such in nice round number. And I did and I was still completely in control. I was still feeling the effects of the hypercapnia several minutes later, but I was grinning like a maniac :)

So, on saturday, I was feeling the pressure like usual. My competition performances have usually been ruined by being too nervous. But not this time. I knew exactly what I had to do. How I had to eat, the warmup schedule by the minute, what kind of suit to wear...These are all things I've made mistakes in, but not now. Plus I had the confidence of knowing, that physically, I could do 7 minutes even if something went slightly wrong.

I packed a little too much and ended up swallowing some air. I had a short episode of "cardio vagal problem". At this point I was a bit nervous. How much air did I swallow? Is it ruined? But then as I'm pondering this and trying to relax everything, out of the blue the first signal: 4 minutes. Already? I was still feeling like I had just started. My first contraction came at an amazing 5:30. Usually a sign of heavy hyperventilation, but I had not hyperventilated. Much less than usual...A 6:00 I was feeling so strong, I now knew I would reach 7 minutes no problem. So I just let my self drop even deeper into my mind and relaxed completely. 7 minutes passed, but I was still ok, so I kept going...Onto 7:34, which is exactly the same time as my training pb! If you could only have seen my face at that point! I had conquered the big 7 in competition and not only that, I had smashed my old competiton pb my almost a minute.

Next was dynamic, but I was feeling so exstatic I didn't really have the motivation to concentrate fully. I did some hasty warmups and 118m. Originally my goal was 125m, but not today, not with that preparation. But this was also a competition pb and it was comforting to know that even on a hideously bad dive, I can beat my old pb. I have no doubt I can reach over 125 meters this season...The dive was really ugly. I lost all my hard worked tecnique and swam like a...hmm, well some animal that swims really bad. On virtually every turn, I had problems with buoyancy and all the turns were far from fluent. But none of that mattered. I had just made a world class static result in competition and left with the feeling I could've done more...

It still continues to amaze me though, how bad my sta/dyn ratio is. Maybe I should stop swimming all together and just drift with the current for 7 minutes or something. Would propably get further that way. Something happens to my apnea when I start moving. And that's what I have to work on next, if I ever want to improve in DYN/CW disciplines...

Pipe mask

2005-11-13T13:42:00.000+02:00

Today we had a luxurious 2 hours a the pool, so I did some static first. With the 1.5mm suit, which is not really optimum for static, I managed 6:45 which was ok. I then proceeded to dynamic hoping that the static would serve as good warmup. Well, not really. I did make a new pb of 2:33, beating the old one I guess by a whole second again, but it didn't feel any better than without a static first. In fact worse...

I then did a few dives with stereofins. 100m in something like 2:20, then 85m in 1:30 or something irrelevant.

I build a pipemask yesterday. I've been meaning to make one for ages, but just haven't had the time. It worked better than I expected. My biggest worry has always been that if the pipe slips out of my mouth, the mask will flood with water. But in fact, this one does not. The whole for the tube is located near my forehead, so if I dive down without even placing the tube in my mouth, as the mask squeezes against my head, it seals the hole! Pretty cool accidental design flaw :) So I can use it just like normal goggles in the pool. Don't even have to put the tube in my mouth. But if I want to equalize it, it's easy using the tube. Too bad I can't take it for real testing in deep water, because it's so damn cold...

Quickies

2005-11-12T12:33:00.000+02:00

2:17/110m
2:45/130m
3:07/150m

I was feeling very acidic today. Very early and heavy breathing relfex. Perhaps eating all those carbs last night? Or just training a lot...

Anyway, the last one was ok...

3:20

2005-11-11T17:04:00.000+02:00

Cool, so I was able to improve, to 3:20. Now 3:30 doesn't seem that far away at all...That's the way it goes.

Today was much more optimum than yesterday. Empty stomach, no exercise before etc.

I did some FRC statics prior to walking. 3:30 and 4:15

Then:
2:50/110m (going really slow)
3:20/143m (still really slow)

What can I say. It felt absolutely horrible, but no samba. I continued with the "low ventilation" approach, on the final walk taking 5 deep breaths before starting (which is clear hyperventilation, but much less than usual)

A whole second...

2005-11-10T21:13:00.000+02:00

Allright, apnea walks today:

2:33/130m
2:45/150m
3:10/144m

So beat my pb by a whole second. This was so close though, that I don't see how I could ever beat that. This was gym day etc, so maybe under optimum conditions I can squeeze in a second or two, but it's very hard to imagine ever passing 3:30

I was experimenting with hyperventilating less. It's something I always have to conciously come back to. I know my best results have always been made with very little ventilation, but I still catch my self taking those 5-10 deep breaths before a start, especially after having resuming training after a while.

Today I did just normal, neutral breathing (watching tv to keep me distracted from breathing). Then before the start 2 deep breaths on the first, 3 on the second and finally 5 on the last...Sure the urge to breathe came earlier, but it didn't really seem to have at least any negative effect on the final result.

Samba challenge

2005-11-09T21:55:00.000+02:00

I had a small cold/flu thingy and took some time off from all physical training. Today I was feeling ok again, so I tried to do the same old routine in the pool.

On the first attempt, I used my small crapfins. I dove something like 80-90 meters in 2:31 and had a small samba.

Not discouraged by that, I tried the another one with the monofin. Slightly faster this time. 100m in 2:02 and another samba.

I then wanted to do one "normal" dynamic. I dove 100m in normal speed, no idea about the time, and again samba.

Now then now then...I'm actually pretty pissed at my self. Not because I had a samba, that's to be expected when trying to find your max time. But that I pushed 3 sambas in one session. Not much of an example to others. Also, after recovering from a cold, perhaps a wiser way would have been starting slowly building up again, and not rushing for a pb right away.

Oh well...At least I was feeling physically ok and strong, so I can start excercise again (I haven't been writing about it, but I've been doing quite a bit of physical fitness trainig too).

New pb, 3:09

2005-11-03T18:30:00.000+02:00

I did my normal series of 3 walks again. After the last one, I for some reason decided to try a static. It was horrible and I could barely fight to 5 minutes.

I then remembered that on cw dives, a short static makes a huge difference for me in tolerating the breathing reflex, so I thought I'll try walking again. This time I walked as slowly and relaxed as possible. I reached a time of 3:09. It felt horrible, but there was no samba, so I expect that under right conditions, I can still do more.

2:28/150m (no packing)
2:45/156m
3:00/143m
3:09/137m

The distance of the last one is of course horrible, but that is not my goal currently...

Pool progress

2005-11-02T21:28:00.000+02:00

Made it to 2:28/100 today. Not huge leaps, but still clear progress. I did the first dive in 2:02/100. This was with very little packing and I had problems with my balance. For the next one I packed relatively full and managed to dive slowly all the way.

This was very close to samba though, it will be interesting to see if I can still increase...

Walking again

2005-10-31T17:05:00.000+02:00

After resting for the weekend, I started again.

2:33/156m (no packing)
2:47/182m
2:40/156m

Again I'm surprised how good the first one went. Maybe packing is really not that good for dynamic? The difference seems negliable, I think tomorrow I'll try all of them without packing...

On the second one, I walked noticeably faster, which resulted in the longest distance so far. It seems my normal strategy is definately too slow!

On the last one, I tried to go slow, maximize the time. But I had packed way too much and was very uncomfortable. Somehow packing makes the breathing reflex intolerable in dynamic.

After doing this, I logged to deeperblue and saw some very sad news. Two active members have died in a car accident. I didn't know either of them personally, but still, I'm at a loss for words. Just a few weeks ago I was chatting with Alison about something completely trivial. I think it was the "wolf fish" that I have as an avatar. But now, she is just gone...

Hasty walks

2005-10-27T22:23:00.000+03:00

I decided to do some quick walks. I didn't really have time to concentrate, but I figured it's still useful to do something, to keep it frequent and consistent.

I managed:
2:20/120m (no packing)
2:54/150m

So all in all ok, considering the preparation.

Small progress in the pool...

2005-10-26T21:25:00.000+03:00

I have to admit, I was slightly disappointed. I was hoping for at least 2:30, but the best I could do was about 2:20. Still, it's a bit better than last time.

There was a photographer today taking pictures of some of us for a story in the local newspaper. They were posing right in the middle of the lane, where I wanted to surface. I didn't want to come up one camera having a huge samba, so I took it a bit easy. Maybe I could've pushed to 2:30 on a normal day, I dunno...

Anyway, progress is progress. Can't wait for the next time

As to be expected...

2005-10-25T20:25:00.000+03:00

The progress is of course rapid in the beginning. Made 3 minutes today! Pretty cool. Now, if I can get to 3 minutes dynamic in the pool, I'll have truly achieved something...

So here's the series:
2:00/121m
2:37/143m
3:00/150m

As you can see, the speed I walk varies greatly. I'll have to try to find an optimum speed in the pool also.

I was again surprised how well the first one went. Two minutes without packing and no warmup. Hmm...

Apnea walks

2005-10-24T18:29:00.000+03:00

Ok, nothing much. Did the same thing as yesterday:
1:40/104m
2:28/156m
2:45/162m

Observations:
On the first try I did surprisingly good. This was virtually no breathup and I didn't pack. Usually the first one is barely a minute! I also ran lightly the last 2 "laps" (each 13m), which felt surprisingly effortless.

On the second, I kept a faster pace than yesterday, thus reaching a much longer distance in much less time.

On the last, I tried to go as slow and relaxed as I could, but I guess I was still going faster than yesterday, judging from the distance. I got to tell you, I was at my absolute co2 limit, if I had gone one more second, "things" would've started to happen...

Anyway, surprisingly good considering I just came back from the gym. I would've expected it to have had a more dramatic effect on performance. I'm pretty confident I'll reach 3 minutes soon. Have to remind my self, it's not (currently) about the distance, it's about the time...

Dynamic apnea challenge

2005-10-23T15:17:00.000+03:00

I've been experimenting with dynamic a bit. I've been more or less ignoring dynamic training for the past year, having concentrated on static.

My pb in dynamic is 115m. I've hit similar distances a few times, but also had sambas.

If you compare my dynamic and static results, you can see that they are really out of propotion. I should be swimming at least 125m, and pretty easily.

I also had one samba on 42m cw dive a few weeks ago. This simply won't do!

It seems that when ever I start to move, my apnea performance decreases very sharply and I want to improve that. Since the open water season is more or less over, that means improving dynamic performance.

So I'll start logging my progress here again, to keep track of it. I'm too lazy to keep a real training diary.

Soo...Starting off.

The first thing I'm trying to improve is time, not distance, as you might think. I want to be able to swim a longer time, no matter what the distance. Currently a max dynamic (100-115) takes me about 1:30 and a max cw dive about 2 minutes.

So at the pool my experiment today was: swim as long as you can. So I set off, told my buddy I have no idea how far I will go, I will just go really slow. I swam as slow and relaxed as I could, not really paying attention to technique...

I came up at 2:17 and 100m, and had a visible samba. Now as you can see, I won't be breaking world records anytime soon. For the "slow style", good divers will go 3-4 minutes and the "fast style", people will swim twice the distance I did for the same time. As I'm pretty convinced (from my static performance), that I would be best suited in the "slow style", my first goal is to up the swim time to about 3 minutes.

So back at home, I decided to do some apnea walks. I had previously done 2:30 once. Almost pissed my pants and passed out. No idea what the distance was, as this was outside.

I've got a fairly big apartment, so I decided to do it in the safety of my home. I measured that from wall to wall, I can get a route of exactly 13m.

-First try 1:30 (didn't count the distance)
-Second 2:00
-Third 2:30
-Fourth 2:45/130m

So I've now set a baseline. 2:45/130m. I was seconds away from samba, but it's a start. In fact I was surprised I could get such a good result on the first try.

So let's see what I can do to improve that...

My theory is that my body is simply not used to working in low oxygen, even if I can hold my breath really long in static. So it would make sense that I need to condition my self to do just that: hold my breath and do some kind of movement. Apnea walks should be a good tool for that...(of course, so are dynamics, but I can't access the pool enough to do any serious "adaptation" training)

Lung volumes

2005-10-04T08:56:00.000+03:00

Starting to recover from the post competition blues and finding motivation to train again. I made a crude device for measuring lung volumes. In essence, it is a bucket, to which I poured water in 0.5l at a time and marking a "scale" on the side of it. It is then filled with water in the pool and you use a hose to fill it with air. In theory, how high the bucket raises from water, is your rought lung volume. Of course it's not very accurate, but it should be within the right ballpark.

I measured about 6.5-7 litres without packing and 9-9.5l with packing. If you consider the weight of the bucket, you could perhaps add another 0.5-1l there, so let's say:
7-7,5l without packing
9.5-10l with packing

I was actually expecting more, but still, that's a pretty good sized lung. Of course we're not talking about TLC, since this does not take into account the residual volume.

It felt good to be in the water again, and I managed a 7:00 static, which is good considering how little I've been training lately...

Post competition pondering

2005-08-29T16:13:00.000+03:00

I'm not sure anyone even reads this tired old thing anymore. I promised my self that after the competition I would reveal what I had done to prepare for the competition, so here's some thoughts.

Firstly, for about 2 months I concentrated on physical fitness. Gym, Jogging, healty diet, weight loss...I topped this all of with a 6 day hike in Lapland 2 weeks before the competition. I dropped over 7 kilos of weight and was in the shape of my life. Basically no static training during this time. Constant weight was all the freediving I was interested in.

I had originally planned to start apnea training 2 weeks before the competition. I was on a trip in Norway and planned to do a week of dry statics "on the road" and then the last week pool training pretty much every day. After the hike, first day in Norway, I did my first dry static in ages and to my surprise I hit a very easy and clean 7 minutes. I was exstatic! I thought that all the physical training had really paid off...

But wouldn't you know it, my girl friend cought a cold and a day after, I too was sick. Damn! Why does it always have to happen? So that week was pretty much done. I recovered in a few days, but felt the best "edge" had been lost.

So back to Tampere and pool training. In the beginning of the week, I was training 2 times per day, trying to prepare for the odd change I'd get in the finals. So in the morning I did a dry static and in the evening in the pool. Some days vice versa.

I had decided that I would not pass 7 minutes in training, no matter how good I felt. The idea was that I will condition my mind on the idea that 7 minutes is easy, it's not even near my limit and I can do it every time. This way I will have some hunger left for the competition in stead of that "oh no, what if I can't hit my best edge today" feeling I'd be thinking "I can hit 7 anyday, so no problem". Nice theory and in dry statics I was hitting very strong 7 mintues, with air to spare and head as clear as crystal. But...For some reason, in the water, even 6:30 was tough, closer to 7 I'd actually have small sambas!

But during the week I progressed and gradually hauled wet static times to 7 minutes as well. I also noticed that I started to be able to do very strong statics with very minimal preparation. I would do 1 FRC static in the range of 3-4 minutes and then a max attempt to 7 minutes easily. I also found out why I had been having sambas. I had forgotten what it meant to do a good static. I was playing an mental game, where my mind remembered doing 7 minute statics, but since I had not trained for ages, I was not ready for it. So I compensated with slightly more agressive hyperventilation, without noticing it! I simply could not take the contractions. Somewhere halfway through the week I dropped the amount of deep inhales from the usual 10 to 5 and immediately noticed the difference. Contractions would start around 4 minutes, instead of 5 or even later. But I would be able to tolerate up to 70-80 of them, in stead of 30-35. And I would be clear headed and not samba anymore.

But the week came to an end much too quick. So lessons learned: you need more than 1 week of training after a long break to catch on again.

Ok, so fast forward to Renens. After the trip we were all pretty pooped. Having one day to rest helped, but the day before the competition I was simply so nervous I could not sleep very well. But in the morning I felt pretty rested and eager to get on with it. I decided not to eat anything in the morning. Just some water to balance the hydration. I had somehow messed up my stomach again. Propably nerves, apnea training and lactose combined. But I didn't care...I decided that I would make 6:30 even if that meant shitting in my pants. You can wash pants, but not your pride ;).

I was in the first heat in the morning, which was exactly what I had hoped for. I got ready and was just about to slip in for warmup when they announced that everything would be delayed by an hour. Not too bad, but slightly annoying.

What was proving to be difficult was hydration. I didn't want to drink too much, as that just amplifies the stomach problem. Then again, I definately wanted to drink enough, as a packing blackout would be the worst way to mess up your performance. But I had never competed in a outdoor pool before and the sun was shining. I had no idea how much to drink and eventually I felt a little "off".

Warming up went ok, as to be expected. I was delighted to see that I was in good apnea shape despite the new environment and stress. I was lucky to be in the early heats, it was not too hot yet. A few hours later, it would be blazing hot sun shinging on your black 5mm neoprene suit...Not much fun.

For the actual performance, I had learned during to week to pack much slower that I used to. I had learned that when being more nervous than usual, packing too much too fast causes a feeling that Eric Fattah described as "cardio vagal problem". It's horrible feeling of your heart almost stopping and pounding like it's trying to come through your chest. I was packing away, surprisingly relaxed and suddenly I noticed, my lips are leaking air! What was that? Never happened before, but it was almost top+10 so I thought what the hell, just turn over.

I felt my heart racing a bit more than usual, as to be expected with "competition nerves", but not too bad. But I didn't feel at all "full". Usually on a good static I have to really struggle to keep the air in. So I guess I had packed a little too less.

First contraction came around 4 minutes. A little early, but ok. But I wasn't feeling as strong as before, nerves perhaps? At 5 minutes I already felt like quitting, what's the point, this won't be a personal best or anything. But the I decided, god damnit I didn't come halfway through europe to quit early so I just stayed under.
Six minutes, six fifteen...Just 15 seconds more...Six thirty...Just a few more to make it a pb in competition. I came up at 6:35. I had a slight samba, but could control it and complete the protocol. From the pictures you can see I pretty blue, so it was definately time to come up.

At first, I felt dissapointed. But then, watching the others try, I started to realize, it's not that easy. A lot of 7+ guys came up around 6-6:30 and very few would go past 6:35. They'd get to 6:31 even 6:33, but I guess 6:30 is just some kind of mental milestone for most. In the end, guys got to the finals with 6:45! Even Stig Severinsen, Deron Verbeck and Ruyzo were around 6:45. In fact I think only 2 guys got past 7 minutes. I had improved my competition personal best and I had come 10 seconds short of the finals in my first international competition. I had beaten many good static guys and incidentally, I even beat Tom Sietas. Of course we all know what he's capable of...But a packing blackout is a packing blackout. It's a mistake I didn't do and he did. So in the end, I was pretty happy with my self.

I don't know if I'll find the motivation to start serious static training again. It just feels pointless right now. But if I do, I'll set my sights on 6:45 in competition, in stead of "oh on a good day I can do 7:30". I also came to realize, that trying to nail everything perfect in training is pretty useless. All you're doing is learning to do statics in perfect conditions. Competition conditions are rarely perfect. In stead you should simulate the worst conditions! Not enough rest, eating the wrong things, having pressure, noise, being in a hurry before the pool closes...Forgetting your goggles or wet suit...As much stress as you can conjure up. Don't even try to beat your record, in stead force your self to do a good, solid, 90% performance under any conditions. Then try create the perfect conditions in the competition. Do your pbs there...

Time to end

2005-06-27T18:01:00.000+03:00

I haven't been able to train as much as I hoped during the last week. Today I did manage to get some done and managed 6:30 without packing. Not bad! But I can tell I was close to my limit. I can't remember exactly how many contractions I had, so even though there was no physical samba, it was definately close.

My haemoglobin has gone down almost 20 points. At it's highest value it was at 174 and now it's hanging in the 150s. Still fairly high, but that's a big enough difference to make up for a few seconds definately. I'll now try to improve that with a combination of exercise and diet. I was doing a lot of apnea jogging when it was in the 170's, so I'll have to assume that helped.

I've also decided to stop writing here, it just doesn't seem to serve a purpose anymore. At least not every breath hold I do. Maybe I'll come back and update some significant milestones of findings, but not regularily.

Another reason for that is that I don't want to set my self up for too high expectations. At the last competition, I was already exited before even getting into the water because people knew about my 8:00 and I knew they knew. So I knew people were expecting a lot.

This time I want to go into the competition as just someone who's "in the 6:30s". If I can pleasantly surprise someone, then so be it :)

Slow progress...

2005-06-14T17:35:00.000+03:00

Ok, today I did the same thing as yesterday. It felt really tough, but I was able to inch a few seconds forward. It seems that without packing, contractions are much harder to resist.

5:35 (3:15/35)
5 min rest
6:10 (3:45/27)

Seems like low numbers, but I have to remind my self that this is with no packing. I think the highest I've ever done without packing was 6:30 and that was in the middle of a hard preparation for competition, meaning I was in shape.

Restarting again

2005-06-13T17:37:00.000+03:00

Ok, 3 weeks and no updates. I've been laying kind of low...I did do a few statics but nothing special and didn't feel like writing because it was not structured "training" per se. I've been concentrating on CW and just having a break.

I started again today. I decided to give "no-packing" statics a try again. I would like to rid my self of packing...If not all together, at least limit it, as I'm still fairly concerned about long term effects on the lung. And besides it's good training. If I can do, let's say, 6:30 reliably without packing, then I should be able to do it even more reliable with moderate packing at a competition. So I'll set my sights on that, 6:30.

I also don't want to repeat the fiasco of the last competition. I want to further simplify my warmup. For now I'm going to try this. A "90% effort" static as a warmup, then the max attempt after a short break. Along the way I may experiment with an FRC hold either in the beginning or in between. But that's aboslutely the maximum warmup.

Without packing, this comes to about 5:30 as warmup and then 6+ on the actual attempt.

So todays figures:
5:44(3:20/33)
6:03(3:40/30)

As you can see, very low count of contractions. I'm not really worried though...Given that I've been on such a long break, I'm sure even by tomorrow it will look quite different.

Not such a good day

2005-05-27T22:43:00.000+03:00

I tried to do static after work, but I could not get past 5 minutes. First, I packed too much and had to blow out all air at 4 minutes. I rested a bit and tried again, but I was at 5 and just didn't have the motivation to go on. I decided it was too close to my heavy lunch and that I had better settle down (instead of trying to do to many things at once). After a couple of hours, I tried again. This time I made a decent 6:30 (3:40/50). But it was relly tough.

This would be disapointting, but the fact is, when I tried no-warmup static training seriously the last time, I had trouble reaching 6 minutes, so it's in fact pretty good.

pb in no-warmup dry static

2005-05-23T17:53:00.000+03:00

I made a normal no-warmup static today. 5 min of subneutral breathing and go. I felt very strong throughout. I had contractions, but they just didn't seem to bother me.

Eventually I made it to 7:10 (3:40/68).

This is pretty strange considering that I previously have thought that:
a) you need to do statics several days in a row to do good
b) you need warmup to do well.

Seems that neither is true, all you need is practice ;)

Quick one

2005-05-20T18:32:00.000+03:00

A quick no-warmup static again today.

6:30 (3:30/65).

That's pretty good. If I can get my times reliably around 6:30 in no-warmup, I'll then start shortening the sub-neutral breathing phase (now 5 minutes)

no warmup

2005-05-17T17:05:00.000+03:00

I had some time today, so I did another no-warmup static. I was expecting an increase over yesterday, but not quite so much. I'll have to do a few more to know what my average level will settle at. Let's hope this is it ;)

7:00(3:30/70)

Back from Nice

2005-05-16T17:27:00.000+03:00

I had a really good time in Nice. A week of straight diving, every day. Broke my CW record, diving 42m on the last day. What was nice about it, was that it was really easy. I'm now confident I can break 50m this summer.

Anyway, static...When I started this blog, I had the intention of writing it until the Finnish championships, which are now behind us. I'll still keep updating, but the frequency and intensity of my trainig will be much less from now on. I will concentrate on CW for the summer, perhaps getting back to the subject of statics when another competition is nearing.

My plan is to do 2-3 "maintenance statics" every week. This time, no-warmup statics, no excuses. Just one hold, one attempt and that's it. This will of course save a lot of time.

For breathup I do about 5 minutes of "sub neutral breathing". I won't get into the subject of whether or not that is hyperventilation. But that's what I'll do. This way I'll need about 15 minutes to do my whole static training, so I can slip it into the day very easily.

So I started today. Just to set the "baseline", I took it fairly easily and hit 6:00 exact. The last time I seriously did the no-warmup method, I was struggling to reach 6:00, but this time I had room to spare, which is good. However, my goal is not to actively increase the time. I hope to bring it up to about 7:00, and then learn to hit that consistently.

So to mark the new beginning:
6:00 (2:40/56)

Competition

2005-05-11T00:34:00.000+03:00

I'm in Nice right now so I haven't updated for a while.

Almost the same thing happened to me during the competition. I was expecting my first contraction around 4:30, but it came at 4:00 and that disturbed my concentration. Little did I know, that it was actually 4:20, but my assistant was just late on the time. I had an announced performance of 6:00, so I pushed to what I thought was 6:00 with pure willpower and the came up and the time was 6:20. This was of course very dissapointing. But I guess you can never have too much experience, competition is just completely different...

I also almost crapped my pants in the end, which disturbed my concentration even more. In fact it became so bad, that I had to decide that either I let it go or I quit. I don't regret quitting in that sense :)

I think a some seconds were also lost because of the fact that warmup was in a different pool than the actual performace. So after getting all ready and relaxed, you had to walk over to the other pool. Personally I think that's not a very good idea and it really showed in the general performance. Also the competition pool was very warm and I made a last minute decision to use my 1.5mm suit. It just didn't work...

Small things and of course most of them just exuses, but they all add up and I ended up with a sub par performance. But hey, there'll be other competitions...

Back on track

2005-04-29T19:39:00.000+03:00

I did a hasty 7:00. Which is good, considering the amount of concentration and time I had to prepare.

For warmups I did 3:30 and 5:00, about 30 contraction each.

Then, 7:00 (5:00/50).

I clearly hyperventilated too much, since the first contraction was that late and I was very blue in the end (or so I'm told). But still, routine 7, must be happy...

Betrayed by own expectations pt 2

2005-04-28T07:59:00.000+03:00

I wrote a long post last night, but blogger ate it. It's been working surprisingly well for a while, so it was about time I hit some big bug.

Anyway, I have it saved on my other computer and I'll try to paste it later.

But in a nut shell, I went to the pool expecting to shatter my previous record, and came out with 6:31. Disapointing to say the least. There were a number of factors that contributed, but still, going down 1:30 in one day seems crazy. But I have to keep in mind that the 8-minute hold was a freakish lucky incident, my "real level", is hitting 7:00-7:20 on average and unfortunately, on a bad day, it seems 6:30.

Edit: here's what I wrote last night

Ok, I admit it. I went in the pool today expecting to do a new personal
best. Mistake number one. I also tried a new suit, 1.5mm compared to the old
5mm. Mistake number two. My warmup was too long, I was getting cold and had to wait over 5 minutes after I felt I was "in the zone" and breathup with ne new suit proved to be a bit hard (it doesn't float enough to keep me comfortably horizontal). And
last but not least, I packed too much (encouraged by last nights result).

So, first contraction at about 4:45, all good so far. But suddenly, after 6 minutes, I felt this sort of panicy feeling that I associate with packing too much. Coupled with that I realized that I'll not be hitting anywhere 8 minutes, so I just bailed at 6:31. Would've wanted to do one more, but time was running out and I still had to balance my new suit (first time in water) for dynamic. All in all, I had too much going on. I did get my balance in order and dived a hasty 120m with samba. It was a horrible dive. Every turn looked like I've never had a fin on before and the first 50m I was swimming with a horrible technique.

The bad thing is, this was the last pool session before the competition. The pool is closed next sunday and wednesday. It kind of sucks going into the competition with these "failures" as the last thing I've done.

Well, anyway, my goal is to beat my previous results, 6:32 and 115m. At least in static, I have no doubt I can do that. In dynamic...Well, that's a bit iffy.

After this competition, I don't want to see a pool before the competitions in autum, just CW for me please. Next season I really have to concentrate on dynamics more...

I...Umm...Whoa

2005-04-26T18:37:00.000+03:00

Ok, I'm exstatic right now, can barely type.

My D3 is reading 8:00.06 and there was no samba. I REALLY wasn't expecting that.
I'm wondering how this is possible, I've now almost doubled my pb in a year. I also realized that this must seem very suspicious to most. I mean when I first heard about the "doping scandal" of Tom, my first impression was "aha, I thought so, no one could pull progress in such a short time". But before you cast any stones, let me remind you of two things. First, I'm a very large fellow. I haven't measured my lungs, but my guess is that they're pretty big (at least after all this packing). Second, I dare anyone to try a training program so tedious as I've made since (and before) starting this and not make a huge leap in their pb.

As I was warming up, I felt like shit. I had trouble squeezing those 4-5 min statics out and was interrupted repeatedly (phone rings, etc).

I have to admit that I packed much more than usual and I felt very uncomfortable for the first 4 minutes or so. The first contraction came at 4:50, so I thought ok, I'm going for 7+ something. But the contractions that followed were really slow. Up until 10 or so, I'd say the frequency was around 10 sec per contraction, then slightly faster. At 30 it suddenly "picked up", but still they were kind of shallow. I surfed until 60 or so and peeked at the watch, which said 7:45. I just though "15 sec, it won't kill you" and kept pressing. Then stopped at 8:00.

I don't know what else to say :) I've realized my goal...I made my self a promise that if I ever reach 8, I'll stop actively trying to increase my time. That's already far in what I call "the grey zone". I'll continue to do statics, for sure, but not like this, not 4-5 times per week. But for now, I'll keep training untill the competition.

Here's the warmup:
FRC 3:00
4:00(3:00/15)
4:00(3:05/10)
5:00(3:15/40)
8:00(heh, my hands are shaking from typing that: 4:50/70 or so, lost count in the end).

Now, the trick is to repeat that...:)

Full steam

2005-04-26T15:01:00.000+03:00

Ok, I just got off the phone with the doc. I do have some anomalies in my heart, but those are quite common for a young man who is active in sports. Better yet, the same anomalies where present years ago, when I didn't even know what freediving was.

I posted a longer rant in deeper, check it out if interested fromhere.

So now hopefully I can get my head around for some serious training for the remaining few weeks.

Quickly

2005-04-25T22:07:00.000+03:00

Don't have much time, here's some quick data:

4:00 (2:35/35)
4:40 (3:20/20)
5:11 (3:30/20)
6:45 (4:45/40)

Explanations and excuses will follow tomorrow :)

Edit:

Ok, here's the blurb.

As you can see, I was trying a similar warmup. I allowed my self to go around 5 minutes, because that still is around or above 80% SaO2. Anyway, I usually do my dry statics right after work and plan my eating around that. But today I had so many things going, I only had time to do them in the evening and the only things I had eaten was 2 bars of chocolate and a hamburger...Not your ideal diet for statics. And also there was only 1 hour between eating and this. That alone would explain the "sub 7" performance. But I had to do something just to get my blood buffers up again. Looking forward to tonight and some proper statics.

We tried to go diving yesterday. We drove to this lake we usually dive in, but it was still partly frozen, so we changed plans. I had heard that this small lake near where I live has some 8-10m of water, so we decided to go there for some light recreational diving. Sheesh was I wrong. The most water I could find was 2.4m and the visibility was literally 20-30cm. This was easily the shittiest diving I've ever done.

I'm finding it hard to keep motivation up for training for a pool event, since the lakes are clearing up. I should be doing CW or something. But I got my new suit today, so hopefully that will give me the boost I need. I've never had a suit for dynamic before so it'll be exciting to see if it makes a difference. I just hope I have time to balance it properly before the competition.

Sorry to hear that the Coca Cola Open in Spetses is cancelled. That was really the only CW competition I was planning on going to this year. Since the Finnish nationals have also been cancelled (or moved to Sweden on a time I cannot attend), that leaves me with plenty of time to practice and not stress about competitions, which is kind of good in a way...

Back again

2005-04-25T10:55:00.000+03:00

I restarted training yesterday at the pool. I tried a new warmup, 3 statics of max 4:00 and then go. I was reading some old DB posts again and picked up the idea from (who else) Eric Fattah. The hypothesis is, that if you do warmups that are severly hypoxic, your "deep tissues" will become hypoxic. These tissues (ie. the water in your body) react much slower thatn blood etc, so if you then try a max static after that, your tissues will actually be still hypoxic and "robbing" oxygen from your blood. Makes sense, even though the supposed difference isn't much.

I hit 6:45, so I can't say it was a huge leap. However this was the first static after a week and also I had some other distractions (mainly training my girlfriend to be my assistant at the competition), so I consider it a promising start.

If all goes according to my plan, this week I will concentrate on trying to find the ultimate preparation for static. Then next week, rest the beginning of the week and then 2-3 days before the competition, start doing max statics again and "peak" on saturday. We'll see...

A slightly disturbing topic is the "is freediving dangerous" thread in deeperblue. I won't go into detail here, but a paper claims that heavy freedive training may cause pulmonary hypertension and changes in the right ventricle. I had an EKG taken by my girlfriend (who's a med student) and sure enough, there was very clear anomalies that would indicate right ventricular hypertrophy. I don't take that as scientific proof though, since she's also just practicing taking and EKG, so I had a proper one taken today. Will know the results tomorrow, so stay tuned. But also keep in mind 2 things: I've had some "athlete's heart" types of anomalies before and I may suffer (or have suffered when I was a bit chubbier) from sleep apnea. Both of which might explain these changes, so do not consider this as final proof. However, if you're someone who trains apnea very hard, I suggest you get that checked. It's not very much money to put your mind at rest...

Re-evaluation of things

2005-04-19T12:19:00.000+03:00

I've decided, that instead of breaking my balls with "no-warmup"-training this week I will take a complete break. The fact is, I'm not feeling up to it both physically and mentally at the moment, so I'll salvage what I can and rest. Better to rest now than notice a couple of days before the competition, that I need a weeks rest.

We went CW diving yesterday. We found a new spot that looked very promising on the map. About 200m swim from the shore and over 50m of water. Sure, but what the map doesn't tell is that the water is just slightly above mud in terms of visibility. I made one dive to -29m, but I don't think we'll be returning to that site any day soon. We've got a good one with 30m water and great visibility. I'd rather dive there and maybe pop at the 50m if I for some reason feel I need to break a pb. Just seems kind of pointless diving there, even if it is great training mentally :)

Wrapping up contractions training

2005-04-15T16:41:00.000+03:00

Phew, finally. I tell you, this training has got to be the toughest I've done, both mentally and physically. Tomorrow I rest, on sunday pool and then next week no-warmup statics. That's a hard one as well, but not a tough as this.

Today I shortened the routine a bit, just to make it, you know, tolerable. So here's what I did:
FRC 3:00
2:57/84 (beat previous count of contractions)
3:15/76 (beat previous time of contractions)

After that I was simply so pooped that there's no way I can do a third one.

Resuming...

2005-04-14T17:08:00.000+03:00

Ok, back on track today:
FRC 2:20
FRC 3:00
3:10/85
3:00/70

I deliberately didn't push the FRCs, better to save the strength for the actual attempts. I managed to push the time a few seconds, as well as the contraction count. Good...

Samba strikes

2005-04-13T22:05:00.000+03:00

I had a really bad samba today in dynamic. I don't recall ever having such a bad one except the time when I blacked out over a year a go. The strange thing is, that I only did maybe 105m, which should be pretty routine for me.

I think a few things contributed
-I was doing FRC dynamics before the attempt, about 1 min bottom static, followed by a 50m swim. I did 3 of these and actually had a slight samba on the last one.
-I was getting very cold
-I was not very relaxed. Too much commotion at the pool plus I was trying something new.

I wanted to see if "hard core" FRC diving would work as a warmup for dynamic. I guess it did not. In retrospect, I should've stopped diving after the first samba. I mean what was I thinking?!

Well, it's a good reminder of the risks involved. I just hope it doesn't eat my confidence too much. I still believe that under normal coditions, I should be doing 115m easily...

The 1.5mm elios suit that I ordered well over a month a go would help. Let's hope it finally gets here :)

Too much

2005-04-13T12:41:00.000+03:00

It seems that this hard core tolerance training is too much for my body. I haven't been able to sleep properly for 2 nights now. Therefore I will take a break from that today and only concentrate on dynamics at the pool.

We went diving yesterday. The lake was still frozen, but we found a hole left by scubadivers that had widened nicely. So we suited up, dropped a line and went diving. It was cold, visibility pretty much 0 and only 8m deep. At some point the thought occured to us, that we must really like diving, going through all that trouble just to drop into a zero vis water that is only a couple of meters deeper than the pool. But so what, all in good fun :)

Continuing contractions training

2005-04-12T17:11:00.000+03:00

Very quickly:
FRC 3:00
FRC 4:00
2:55/70
2:15/40

I think I strained my self too much on the FRC. I just felt good and kept going, but then could not find the will to do 3 of the "contraction surfing" statics.

Still, 2:55 is ok. Not good, but acceptable...

Now I'm going to see if we have big enough holes in the ice for some CW :)

Preparing for the competition

2005-04-11T17:11:00.000+03:00

Ok, my sights are now set on the competition on may 7th. This week I'll train only contractions. I start the time from the 1st contraction and try to hold as long as I can. I'll do 3 of these per day (I've noticed that if they're max effort, any more is useless) and try to increase the time over the week. The idea is, that I'll be able to determine an average "good" time that I can withstand contractions. I will then try to optimize my ventilation so that my target time (let's say 7:00) will be "time of 1st contraction"+"average fight time". Today I could hit 3:03, but only 2:30 and 2:40 on the other try's. So now it would look like this: 4:30+2:30 = 7:00. You get the idea. I'm also doing these without any packing for 2 reasons. First, I want to give my lungs a rest from packing, and second, it gives me a nice safety margin: what ever I hit now without packing, I should be able to hit with ease with packing.

Data:
FRC 2:18
FRC 2:48
(following are not total time, but time in contractions):
2:40/70
3:03/80
2:30/55

Clearly visible is what I noticed in the last time I did these experiments. All trials being max effort, the second one is always the best.

We had this training camp over the weekend in Paimio. It was pretty good. I got some good tips for dynamic and hopefully gave some static tips to others. We had a pulse oximeter there and it was fun to see what happens during a breath hold.
Some highlights:
-My pulse is about 55-60 during a max static. It drops clearly after contractions start. This was observed with other divers as well
-Without packing, sat02 was 90% at around 3:00. With packing, over a minute later
-On an FRC hold, my pulse dropped to 35! Propably would've gone even further, but I stopped at around 2 minutes.
-Timo Kinnunen (the undisputed static champion in Finland) had sat02 of 97% after 3 minutes. So it hadn't even begun falling. His pulse was surprisingly high though, around 80 bpm. He quit after 6:20 or something, saO2 at 65%, looking very very fresh. Sadly the pulse oximeter didn't really measure lower that that, but freaked out.

I made one 7:02 static, which was good considering that my warmup consisted of just playing around with the oximeter, preparation was non-existent and I had a crowd of strangers wathcing...It gives me confidence that I can pull at least 7 minutes in the competition...

7:30 dry

2005-04-07T17:29:00.000+03:00

Just a normal dry day today. I've decided that starting from next week I'll start this kind of a last month training cycle for the competition.

Next week I'll do no-warmup static, timing only contractions
Then just normal no-warmup statics on the following week.
The penultimate week I'll do mockup competitions and fine tune my preparation (ie. normal statics)
The last week, I'll rest the beginning of the week and then on wed, thu do some max static and on fri, some nice, cozy statics, not near the max. That should bring me to my peak both mentally and physiologically by saturday of that week (day of the competition).

Ok, so today's stuff. Pretty standard:
FRC 2:00
FRC 3:15
5:00 (3:00/50)
6:23 (4:00/55)
7:30 (5:05/70)

7:30 on the second day after a break. Not bad...

No-suit 6 min static and other tales

2005-04-07T17:20:00.000+03:00

Back from a break again. Yesterday I didn't even bring my wetsuit, as I had decided I won't do static, because I had a new mono and wanted to break it in. But in the end of the day, I just couldn't resist, so I asked a buddy to time me without a suit. I did about a 2 min static quickly to "warm up" (but in reality, it was more like a "cool-down" as I got really cold), the hastily breathed up and started. The weird thing is, I got relatively early contractions, before 4 minutes, but they just didn't feel bad at all. I guess that was due to the cold. As I started I thought 4 minutes would be a good time, but as I reached 6 minutes, I came up just because I was scared to go on. I have no idea how being so cold affects my performance, so I didn't want to black out or anything.

Well I then proceeded to do some empty lung dives practicing equalization. I was then asked to spot someone else, so I threw on my mono. I didn't feel like putting on the neck ballasts, so I swam to the other end of the pool on FRC. But at 25m I realized I have absolutely no need to breathe what so ever. So I turned and swam back. At 50m on FRC and still absolutely not any kind of feeling of having to breathe. Now that was just scary. What the hell happened? How close was I to bo? I don't know but I don't recommend that you try this without very careful watching for your partner...A good reminder even if you feel allright, you might still be close to your limit...

Preparing for a break again

2005-04-01T17:01:00.000+03:00

I'm taking a break for the weekend, but not totally dive free. I'm headed for a trainers "workshop" thingy, my first step in hopefully becoming a freedive trainer.

Did some basic dry's again. Very interesting day today. I felt very strong. In my warmup, I did 3:00 and 4:00 FRCs and after a 5:30 no packing warmup, 7:20. I was feeling very good and propably could've pushed much further. But just at 6:00 or so, my girlfriend came to my apartment and I was distracted. Somehow, I never can push to the limit when she's around. Somehow I become more conservative, propably because she doesn't think what I do is really healthy and I subconciously become aware of that.

Still, very good. This is actually a bit surprising, because I was expecting to be much more acidic after such a long streak of statics. On the last hold, my first contraction came at 5:20, ie very late.

Anyway:
Empty lung 1:00
FRC 3:00
FRC 4:00
5:30 (no packing, 3:40/45)
7:20 (5:20/48)

I have no doubt I'll reach 8 minutes some day. Propably within weeks or a few months. I've also made a pact with my self, that after I reach that, I will slow down considerably and start concentrating more on dynamic and constant...But let's wait and see...

Routine drys

2005-03-31T17:46:00.000+03:00

Nothing much, just standard session:
FRC 2:30
FRC 3:30
6:20 (3:45/70)
7:20 (4:45/80)

Obviously hightened tolerance to contractions, but pretty early 1st contraction. That's to be expected after doing several days in a row...

I was reading through my old posts today and a few things caught my eye.
-First signigicant boost in time was around when I quit eating excess sugar and after donating blood. I don't know which contributed most, or if either did, but that's just a fact.
-Another major boost in times was after I did the "timing only contractions" no-warmup training for a couple of weeks
-The third seems to be after the IHT experiments I did for a couple of weeks.

Now, it may be that this is just coinsidence, but I guess at least the old "juggling of variables"-argument holds.

I'm thinking of dropping back to the "contractions only" training for a couple of weeks to prepare for the competition. That should give me a couple of weeks to bounce back to my old level in "normal" training...We'll see if I can gather up the will...

Easiest 100m dynamic of my life

2005-03-30T21:17:00.000+03:00

Today's post is mostly about dynamic. I did do a 7:00 static. It was pretty standard, except I think I packed too much, because I felt pretty uncomfortable in the end. Not from CO2, but just in general uncomfortable.

But that's not the interesting part. I was doing some apnea walks yesterday and I realized that without any warm up, a 1 minute apnea walk is already pretty tough for me. But I've done walks in the 2:30 range numerous times. I also realized, that usually on a max dynamic, I feel like crap after about 1:00 of swimming, and 1:30 is pretty much the max in time I can do. So why the difference?

So I set out to find out how long a dynamic I could do in terms of time. For warmup, I did a 50m dive, as slow as I could without completely stopping at any moment. I quickly realized that bringing my hands down helps me relax much better and since speed didn't matter that's just what I did. I made two of these dives. The first was around 1:10 and the second 1:25. With the balance in order, it was suprisingly effortless to move through the water with just small kicks.

I then proceeded to breath up. I had no idea how long I could go with this method, so I called max 100m to my buddy. I swam only slightly faster than on the warmup, this time not conciosly trying to go as slow as possible, but as slow as was comfortable. After 50m, I still felt as fresh as the dive was just starting, but also got my first (very weak) contraction. At this point I switched to my "normal" swim. Hands in front and a much quicker speed. At 100m I came up, because I had said "max 100" and didn't want to freak anyone out. But the thing is, I felt good. Like I could've just keep going for another 100. Of course, who's to know how much I REALLY had in me. Perhaps I would've blacked out after the next 10m. But I think there's something here worth experimenting with...I think the optimum gear switch part would be a bit later, say at 75m. But I'll have to try and see...

Back in action again

2005-03-29T18:09:00.000+03:00

All that feasting and driving around over the holidays really has had an effect. I was feeling like crap today. I think I've eaten more sugar over the weekend than the year so far all together! I was not feeling particularly strong today. In fact, I bailed early on my first full lung static, at 4:50 just feeling totally uninterested to go on. I then squeezed a 6:25 and actually already quit and started my computer to start writing. Then, I gathered my will and did another. It's obviously a bad day, but since I'm not sick or anything, there's no excuse to go under my "100% target". This time I was able to go up to 7:10. It felt good. Not physically, I still feel like crap, but mentally, to know, that I've reached a state in which a 7-minute breathhold is something I can pull off even on a relatively bad day.

Nothing much else to write, looking forward to tomorrow and the pool...As snow starts to melt and the lakes with it, I find my self pining for some CW action. This is of course good, except that the pool competition is over a month away, and CW isn't exactly ideal training for that. Oh well, got to do what you enjoy...Oh and also, now that it's possible again, I'll start jogging. I've sort of been stuck in "competition mode" since last competition, meaning no jogging and gym. Now I've got to get back on track before I totally collapse in aerobic fitness. I've got about 3 weeks to do some aerobic work, the I got to switch off again for the comp.

FRC 2:30
FRC 3:00
4:50 (3:00/8)
6:25 (4:20/50)
7:10 (4:40/70)

First open water dives of the season

2005-03-26T08:09:00.000+02:00

Not really related to static, but I guess all diving in general is kind of...
We went this quarry yesterday to officially start our open water season. It was cold as hell, water being from between 0-4 celcius, but all in good fun. I wasn't expecting to do more than around 20m, but to my surprise, touching the bottom at 28m was quite effortless. I guess all that training does pay off (last season, my deepest dive was 34m, so I was expecting to gradually build up to 30 so in the first weeks of the new season).

I also had a pulse monitor on and experimented some. My pulse on the surface was pretty constantly around 70 (if I didn't move), but on normal cw dives, it fell under 50 at the bottom, even despite all the movement. I made one FRC dip into -10m and stayed there for a few seconds, and my pulse immediately fell under 40. Pretty cool to see that, even though I knew that would happen.

I'm now on my easter holiday, but I'll get back at statics on tuesday...

New wet pb and other updates

2005-03-24T12:17:00.000+02:00

I haven't had time to write, but that doesn't mean I've quit practicing. On tuesday I did as I expected, after a pretty quick warmup, I made 7:20. I don't have my notes right now, so I can't give the session in detail.

Yesterday at the pool I was in trouble concentrating. I don't think I've ever had such a long warmup, just when I thought I had it, I had to go for number 2 on the can and then start warmup all over again. But it eventually paid of and for my last warmup I made 6 quite easily, then proceeded to breathup and pack (about 20/30, 30 being my max) and go. My first contraction came somewhere after 5 minutes. The longest I think I've had in water. I was a bit worried I might have hyperventilated too much (and propably that was true), but decided to push to about 7 anyway. I was still feeling coherent at 7, so I pushed to 7:15 + "some seconds", which in total equaled to 7:24. Very nice result, but I really had to concentrate to keep it together, so I was definately at my limit. But with less hyperventilation, perhaps 7:30 is realistic...

A packed less than I usually would before a max static. I've had some weird experiences with packing and heard some disturbing things lately from others. I'll still pack, but not as much as I used to and not at all in warmup. Absolutely no "pack stretching", only packing what feels comfortable right away. For me that seems to be around 20 packs. I used to do around 30 on a max and even more on "stretching", around 35. But that just can't be healthy.

Back from a break

2005-03-21T17:43:00.000+02:00

After the last pool session I had a bit longer break again. I felt I could use the rest...I went scuba diving on sunday, first time in months. It was quite nice. We were diving under the ice on a quarry and the water was very clear, I'd say around 20m visibility, which for Finland is exceptional. In fact, I don't think I've ever dived in such clear water. Anywho...

Started with some dry statics again. I did no-packing warmups and then one max attempt with some packing and was able to reach 7:00. That's good, considering the long break. I did 5 deep ventilations instead of my usual 10. I'm trying to hyperventilate less and less, but damn my mind just isn't letting go and I keep thinking "but if I did 10 ventilations, I could propably hit x". If I know my body at all, I should be able to hit well over seven minutes tomorrow and on wednesday. We'll see...

Data:
FRC 2:00
FRC 2:30
5:00 (2:30/50) (no packing)
6:00 (3:45/50) (no packing)
6:06 (3:30/58) (no packing)
7:00 (4:20/70)

At the pool...

2005-03-16T21:09:00.000+02:00

Basic stuff again. Trying to still shorten the warmup and it seemed ok:
FRC 1:30
FRC 2:30
5:00 (3:00/45)
7:00 (4:40/50)

I also experimented with a new dynamic style, going much slower than normal. I did a couple of 100m dynamics at around 2:00. It felt...Different. No sign of samba, but somehow I felt less coherent when coming up. I don't know...Will have to experiment.

Then proceeded to do some DNF, mainly balancing and weighting, but also technique. I've now found such a balance, that if I stop all movement, I will just float still. If I kick of the wall, I can glide half way through a 25m pool without doing anything. Pretty cool. Even with my sucky technique I can cover 25m with 3 strokes this way...

Can't wait 'till I get my new suit. At least in theory, I should be able to glide even further...

Basic stuff

2005-03-15T17:09:00.000+02:00

Ok, after 1 day break, back in action. Nothing special today. I'm trying to shorten my warmup and at least today it worked ok. Oh yeah, forgot to write about it: I did 7:05 in the pool on sunday. It felt very easy and good, but that was after a warmup of almost 1 hour! There's just to many random variables in my warmup, so I'm trying to clean it up to a more compact routine. Even if I don't reach my best possible time with it, I want one that I can reach a good result CONSISTENTLY.

So here's the stuff:
FRC 2:15
FRC 3:15
5:30 (3:00/70, no packing)
7:00 (4:15/50)

Couldn't help myself :)

2005-03-11T17:58:00.000+02:00

So, I was doing the no-packing thing again. After hitting 6:00 2 times and feeling horrible on each, I said to my self "screw this, I'm packing". So I did one more with some moderate packing (20 times instead of the usual 30). My mind is so feeble :) To my surprise, I stopped to clock at 7:40! My recovery was pretty borderline. The mind was clear, but was a bit shaky. Still, I'm going to put this up as my new dry pb, but let it be known that this was very much on the edge and I'm not sure that would've been ok in a competition.

For some reason I was feeling very strong today. I hit 3:00 on my first warmup FRC and 3:30 on the second. But contractions came very early and were very frequent. This is in line with my past experiences of a week of daily statics...You feel stronger and can put up a better fight, but contractions start earlier. For the last hold, something just clicked together, and I got my first at 4:40, even though there wasn't any more hyperventilation than usual. The weird thing is, that I seem to require quite a hard warmup to perform well. All my best statics have been done after what I already considered a max. Maybe I should give the "no-warmup" method another spin, now that the next competition is still 2 months away...

Anyway, here's the stuff:
FRC 3:00
FRC 3:30
5:30(2:50/60)(without packing)
6:00(3:25/60)(without packing)
6:00(3:23/55) (without packing)
7:40 (4:40/66) (with packing)

No-packing dry statics

2005-03-10T17:43:00.000+02:00

I tried some no-packing dry statics again. Even though my lungs seem to be ok, I shall try this as a training tool like I wrote earlier. I feel that the only way I'll make progress is through increasing my "no-packing" max, which seems to have set at 6:30.

Today I did a series ending up at 6:00. I then decided I'll do one more and hyperventilate a bit more to delay contractions, which on the previous were a bit early. So I pushed 1st contraction to about 4:00, but at 5 I already felt like shit. I fought on until 20 some contractions, but simply had to quit, at 5:15. I almost decided to leave it at that, but then I got thinking, that I'll really have to get rid of this hyperventilation mind set. It is seriously holding me back. This proved it and I already knew it anyway...Yes, hyperventilation makes the beginning easy, but it really cuts in to the max performance. So I did another one, absolutely no ventilation, just relax and go. First contraction at 3:30, pushed until 6:30. Urge to breathe was huge, but I was still in control and clear headed. This is obviously the way to go.

Holds:
FRC 2:30
FRC 3:00
5:30 (3:00/60)
6:00 (3:40/53)
5:15 (4:00/20)
6:30 (3:30/70)

Back from the doc

2005-03-10T12:19:00.000+02:00

I had the doctors appointment today, and it turned out he was someone I knew form another diving related function. So we ended up having an interesting chat while he did the basic examination. Good to know that in general, I'm in good health :)

He convinced me that there was no point taking a traditional thorax x-ray. That's done for divers sometimes, but all it can really tell is if there are major anomalies that would prevent someone from diving all together. In his opinnion, a CT-scan would be much more interesting, but also much more expensive, since there's no clinical reason for me to get one (ie. I'd have to cover all expences my self). We talked about a small possibility of being able to be a "test subject" in some conference they're holding about freediving this spring, so we'll see. That would be cool, but I guess pretty unlikely.

He also was very sceptical about being able to seriously hurt one's self with packing. In his opinnion the epiglottis is not strong enough to keep that kind of pressures in the lungs voluntarily. Of course he didn't rule it totally impossible and promised to consult someone with expertise in the area. I'm of course worried that even thought that would be true for a normal person, an experienced freediver has trained his epiglottis also, so it's propably stronger that an average person's. Anyway, since the soreness in my chest is already subsiding, I'm not too worried, but it would be interesting to see if there are some kind of structural changes in the lung tissues.

We also talked about the possibility of measuring my blood gases durig a long static. That might also be interesting, but we'll se what happens. But at least I got my health slip, so I'm set for Nice in May. Very cool...

It was a pool day so I did some easy statics, eventually clocking 6:30 with very light packing. I dedicated the rest of the day to training DNF technique. It still looks horrid, but I managed to cover 25m in 3-4 strokes, which is pretty good I think. Since my frog kick sucks, I introduced a dolphin kick in addition, so now I do: Arm stroke, glide, frog kick, dolphin, arm stroke...I convered 50 so effortlessly, that I'm going to try if I can get a clean 75m next time...

No packing

2005-03-08T17:56:00.000+02:00

I think I hurt my self in the competition with packing. My chest feels a bit sore especially on full inhale. If this doesn't pass in a day or two, I think I'll get a thorax x-ray or something. Might be a good idea anyway, to sort of see that everything is still in place. I'm sure it's nothing too serious. It doesn't hurt much, there's no fluid an I can breathe normally and am in normal aerobic shape (confirmed by sundays crosscountry skiing). If I had a severe pneumothorax, none of those things would hold. However, pneumothorax is not all together out of the equation, so I'll need to monitor it closely.

So yesterday I tried some statics without packing and somehow it reminded me of last summer. Very similar feelings and time. I didn't even remember how nasty contractions could feel. This got me thinking. Maybe the progress I've made lately is not so much about increased co2 tolerance and relaxation or whatever. Maybe it's been mostly about increasing my packing capacity. Also, maybe packing is counter productive in terms of dive reflex (it's pretty clear that FRC strengthens the response, so it's not far fetched that packing do the opposite) and that is why I keep having trouble to bring my wet apnea on par with dry. As practicing this "forced" apnea (pack&struggle) has heightened benefits in dry apnea versus (relax&dive response) in wet. Whether or not that is true, one thing is very clear. I will not increase my packing capacity any further. Even if I perhaps could, I'm convinced that it is not healthy. Therefore the only way I can progress is through improving the other areas of my breath hold.

Therefore I have decided I shall stop packing all together for a while now. First of all, to let the chest heal. At least if the soreness doesn't go away, I'll know that that's not because I keep packing, but because something is broken. Second, to better control that my progress is not in just increasing my air volume. And third, I just want to change things around again to keep things interesting. If everything is ok and nothing is broken, then I shall resume light packing after I can reach 7 minutes without it. I don't think I'll ever go back to packing absolutely full. It's just not natural. You don't see a seal packing do you?

So here's the results for the first day. I think I did surprisingly well, even though I could feel that the last hold was borderline samba:

FRC 2:35
FRC 3:12
5:30 (2:50/60)
6:30 (4:00/60)

Edit:
I decided not to be evasive about it as I realized my motives were inpure. Better to be safe than sorry, so I booked a time for a doctors appointment tomorrow. Since I've been thinking about doing the thorax image for a long time anyway, plus I got to renew my health certificate anyway, since CIPA (to which I'm headed in May) requires one that is not older than a year, I might as well...

Results

2005-03-06T10:13:00.000+02:00

The competition went ok, even though I had a samba in DNF, in still pretty content.
In static I did my last warmup a bit too late and only had about 2 minutes to recover before the start. Still, I managed 6:32 which to me is pretty good and the main thing is that I learned again what not to do, so in the next competition I'll do better.

Dynamic was ok, a standard performance and I equalled my pb of 115, so I'm happy.

For DNF I finally found a good balance, by adding and extra kg or so on my neck weight (which brings it to a whopping 6kg, and this is without a wetsuit!). I think I hyperventilated too much, because I was just feeling really good still at 75 and made a turn and 1 stroke. I came up, took a couple of breaths and the had 2 clear spasm in my abdomen...No arguing there, clearly samba. But still, I'm kind of happy because I never dreamed I would be able to do around 85 in DNF. With a bit of improvements in my technique, 100m doesn't seem all together impossible...

There was no decision yet as to who is selected for the national team. I don't think I made it, but propably came fairly close.

All in all a pleasant experience and it gives me confidence to train for the actual nationals in april/may.

There was one national record broken, Teppo Kallio did 153 in Dynamic with fins. I've never seen anyone swim so slow with a monofin. Perhaps I'll have to experiment with speed my self :)

For anyone interested

2005-03-04T11:38:00.000+02:00

The competition results will be available at
this page. We're testing a new system that allows the results to update in real time, so you can follow how it's going as the performances are made. The competition starts around 17:00 (GMT+2) tomorrow, so keep and eye on it. We are testing this for the first time, so it would be nice to see how the server handles the load, so log on!

Also, I posted some time ago about my DNF technique. If you want a good laugh, point your browser to a clip highlighting my flaws :)

Wraping up training

2005-03-02T21:27:00.000+02:00

Ok, last pool session before the competition. It didn't go quite as well as I had hoped. My regular training partner didn't come and we had some trouble getting our lane and ended up getting another one, right in the middle of the pool, so there was no wall to hang onto. So I did some hasty warmups and a static of 6:30. Not as much as I had hoped, but good considering the hassle.

I then proceeded to do some dynamic technique. I just could not find the right "feeling". It felt like I'd never been in the water. I also noticed that with full packing, is still float. With something like 5 kg around my neck. My lungs must have gotten bigger or something...That's just insane.

I tried to do a 100, but came up at somewhere around 85m. I felt really good until 75, but then just sort of "lost it" and swam up. Well let's hope all this is temporary. The stress from the past few days and not sleeping very well for a couple of nights could be factors...We'll see...

Wish me luck!

A sad day

2005-03-02T09:35:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I heard about a young man who had drowned in a pool in Finland. Well actually I heard about it last week, but yesterday it became clear that he had been holding his breath. I was feeling pissed, sad and worried all at the same time.

I tried to do some IHT training, but I simply could not muster the will to do it. It's such a tough excersice, especially mentally. I did 2 trials, and then decided to just do one max static. I was glad to see that despite all the grief, I eventually could concentrate and hit 7:10.

Today will be my final static before the competition. It's a bit of a risk, but I've decided to take the remaining days before it as complete rest. But even if I get all over alkaline, I know I'll be able to hit 6:00, and that would be fine. Still a very respectaple result in a competition.

The details about the competition are a bit open though. Yesterday the pool announced we would not be able to compete there, they're banning all freediving activity. So right now we're looking for a new location. It looks promising, let's hope we can have our little comp on time.

Here's the blurb:
FRC 2:30
FRC 3:00-5:30
FRC 3:00-6:15
7:10 (4:30/70)

Back

2005-02-28T17:26:00.000+02:00

Had a nice break over the weekend. The competition is next saturday and I would've liked to train over the weekend, but since the pool was closed we took a trip to visit the folks instead.

My plan is to keep training until wednesday (pool), then take thursday and friday to recover and hopefully be in shape by saturday. We'll see. I'm pretty confident that even if I mess just about everything up, I'll be able to pull 6 minutes, so I'll set that as my goal. Anything beyond that is just bonus. I won't be trying to make a new national record or anything, just a solid good static.

I didn't feel especially strong today. All through the weekend I've been eating pretty unhealthily, been tired etc...And even on the first few IHT holds it seemed that I could not really get my best edge. But in the end I managed two FRC-inhale thingys in excess of 7 minutes and a normal inhale static of 7:00, so pretty good overall! In the end I felt that I got uncomfortable very early, but could push in the end phase pretty much as long as I wanted. Just the way it should be :)

data:
FRC 2:30
FRC 2:00-5:30
FRC 2:30-6:30
FRC 3:00-7:00
FRC 3:00-7:15
7:00 (4:30/67)

Pool

2005-02-24T08:26:00.000+02:00

Regular pool day yesterday. We're always short on time on wednesdays so it's impossible to do a really good static with warmups etc without taking unreasonable amounts of some other divers time. I made a quick warmup of 2:30 FRC, and 5:00 static and then did 6:30. I wasn't feeling particularly well, so I decided not to push it further. 6:30 would be a very nice "every time" target for wet apnea as well.

The did a 104 DYN and some quick DNF technique training. Unfortunately, ran out of time before seriously getting into it. During the weekend the pool is closed and on the next weekend is the competition. So there's only one wednesday between now and the competition...Which is a shame, because even with just a few sessions of technique training, I would've propably made a big leap in my peformance. Oh well...Just have to make up for it in DYN and STA :)

Like I mentioned, the pool is closed so I'm going to visit my parents the coming weekend. So I'll be taking a short break...

You guessed it...IHT!

2005-02-22T17:25:00.000+02:00

Yep, same thing again. Today I was able to push a 3:00-7:45. Pretty cool. I know it's not the same as holding my breath for 7:45. But seeing those numbers while still having room to continue sure feels good and is a huge mental help.

FRC 3:00 (warming up)
FRC 2:30-5:00
FRC 2:30-7:00
FRC 3:00-7:30
FRC 3:00-7:45
6:50 (4:40/70)

Now that last FRC thing was 4:45 minutes in "hypoxic" state and I'm of course having contractions all that time. I think this training, besides the supposed other benefits, gives a really big mental boost to tolerating contractions.

I'll keep doing it for some time, let's see what happens.

Hitting 7:45 on a normal dry static would be nice ;)

More IHT

2005-02-21T16:57:00.000+02:00

Today I did the "extended FRC" in series, meaning a FRC static to a point and then slowly inhaling after that (packing every 10 seconds or so) untill maximum. The point is to get your saO2 low and then keep it low for an extended time.

I found that on an FRC hold, if I swallonw against my nose clip, thus creating under pressure in my ears and sinuses, I'm able to fall in to this almost "trance" state, where I'm not even aware of time before I start hitting contractions. Would be cool to get that in inhale statics as well, but it doesn't work because of all the extra air.

Anyway, here's what I did:
FRC 2:47 (warming up)
FRC 2:00-5:30 (meaning: started to inhale at 2:00, started to breathe at 5:30)
FRC 2:20-6:00
FRC 2:30-6:30
FRC 3:00-7:00
6:30(4:20/70)

Just a perfect day

2005-02-20T12:38:00.000+02:00

I didn't do any apnea for the past 2 days. Today was a pool day and I found that I was very alkaline. I hyperventilated much less than usual and still my first contraction came very late, almost somewhere at 4:45-5:00. At 6 minutes I was at 12 contractions, feeling very strong.

I went to 7:19 with around 45 contractions, a new record in the water obviously.

My warmup was FRC 2:30 and a 5:00 static.

Now I'm thinking I should maybe consider changing my preparation to the competition to having 1-2 completely off apnea prior to the competition. Will have to experiment some...

I also bought a new camera and didn't flood it this time. We got some nice videos of our technique. The video nicely confirmed what I already of course knew. My DNF technique is HORRIBLE...Luckily I now know what parts of it I can maybe improve...

FRC IHT again

2005-02-17T19:04:00.000+02:00

Continued with the FRC thing. On the last hold I held my breath until 3:30, but instead of starting to breathe again, I started packing very slowly. The idea was that after reaching a low o2 saturation, I would hold it at that for a bit longer, by introducing some oxygen. Too bad I don't have a oximeter, so I can't see if it worked or not. I continued doing this until 6:00. I think in the future I'll do all these IHT trainings in a similar way.

So:
FRC 3:00
FRC 2:30
FRC 3:00
FRC 3:15
FRC 3:30-6:00
6:40 (4:20/60)

Wet 7:00 :)

2005-02-16T21:07:00.000+02:00

Finally broke 7:00 wet today. It even felt kind of easy and I didn't really have to push it. Relatively late 1st contraction, around 4:30, and then 50 contractions.

For warmup I did one 1:15 FRC to just "calm down". Then FRC 2:15 and 5:00 static.
I think this warmup would work pretty well for the upcoming competition as well.

Then proceeded to do a 110 dynamic, so a good day all in all.

FRC IHT training

2005-02-15T17:12:00.000+02:00

Continuing with the IHT thingy. I did 2 max inhale holds today after the FRC series and got to 7:13. Very cool. It seems I can now hit 7 with relative ease. This is a huge mental help after having struggled to reach 7:00 for the first time for so long.

FRC 2:45
FRC 2:45
FRC 3:00
FRC 3:15
FRC 3:30

6:30(4:00/60)
5 min break
7:13(4:30/80)

Pretty late contractions and high contraction rate on the last one. Usually a sign of being too alkaline. We'll see what happens tomorrow at the pool...

I forgot to write about it, but I soaked my camera last saturday. I had been waiting for months to finally afford that underwater case...And what do I do with it? Jump in without checking it for leaks empty first and destroy my 500€ camera. Man was I pissed. Oh well, just got to put things into perspective...It's just money, I'll make and spend plenty more during my life time...

Wet pb

2005-02-13T12:29:00.000+02:00

Today was a good pool day. Relatively quiet, so I was able to concentrate. I made 6:48, my warmup was 4:00 static + 3:00 FRC static.

Also made a new pb in DNF, 70m. It's pretty good considering my swimming "technique", which I'm told looks a bit funky...

Trying something new again

2005-02-11T17:13:00.000+02:00

After reading the article about IHT and Sebastien Murat's reply to that, I decided to give the poor man's IHT a go. In short, doing repeated exhale statics with short recoverys. Supposedly it will do wonders for my blood as well as low oxygen tolerance in general. I set my goal at doing 5 times 2:00-2:30 FRC statics and resting 2-3 minutes in between. For my next session, I will set the time at 2:30-3 minutes, since that seems to be real easy for me to reach. But the point is to do a series you are actually capable of, not to poop your self out on the first one.

Just to keep things interesting, I'll do one max inhale static as well after the session. At the pool, I'll keep on doing normal stuff, this is just for dry apnea.

Todays set:
FRC 2:30
FRC 2:00 (don't know what happened)
FRC 3:00
FRC 3:00
FRC 4:00 (wohoo, pb!)
6:47(4:10/67) (obviously full inhale)

All right!

2005-02-10T16:48:00.000+02:00

Felt very good from the start today. I got the "pleasure wave" again on the longest hold, which weird, but I like it. Oh, and a new dry pb ;) I must be doing something right. I guess that training really hard (eg. daily) and then giving the body some time to adapt (break) is the way to go, at least for now. So I'll keep doing this for now (week of training at least 3 days off) for now. I haven't done any physical excersice since tuesday last week, so that might be contributing as well. I expect my times to go down a bit once I get into that again.

But for now:
5:45(2:40/70) no warmup. I could've/should've pushed more. Just couldn't get my head to it
FRC 3:10, now I knew this was going to be a good day
7:20(4:00/80) Fairly early contractions - good
7:07(4:40/57) Decided to give it one more go, but as you can see didn't quite make it, despite the much delayed contractions...But still very good!

Dynamic pb

2005-02-09T20:13:00.000+02:00

Against all odds, I smashed my dynamic record to day by 15m, bringing it up to 115. We were on a very limited time schedule, since there was a swimming competition starting at the pool that no one bothered to let us know about before hand. So we did 1 max static both and 1 max dynamic. No time for warmups or anything, that's for amateurs :) Well ok, I did one empty lung 1:30 warmup for static and one 50m for dynamic.

The static was ok. I hit 6:28 with relative ease and felt good all the way. I'm pretty sure I could've done more on the second, but no point arguing that, since there was no time.

Now for dynamic, I was for the first time trying this huge neck weight I made. I noticed a couple of weeks back, that even with 3 or so kilos around my neck, I float like a cork with full packing. So I now had what I would estimate 5-6 kilos and it felt just right. My main goal was just to test that configuration, I didn't think I was going to do even 100.

But this was the first time I've been able to pack fully and still feel comfortable in water. The swimming was very relaxed and at 100m I just simply felt I could do more. So I turned once more and kept going untill it kind of felt like "ok, that's enough for one day...125 can wait".

I'd say apart form the new weight, I was much more alkaline now that I've been in months, since I've had over a weeks break. That was propably the other major contributor.

Now I feel even more sure, that the preparation I suggested on my last post for the upcoming competition is on the right track...

Off to a good start

2005-02-08T17:13:00.000+02:00

Ok, my break stretched a little longer than I intended. I had a minor cold on sat/sun and I didn't want to push it and rested until today. My intention was to take it real easy. No hard core no-warmup training. Just holding my breath for as long as it feld ok to do so. I did eventually reach 7:02, which is very encouraging, after such a long break and recovering from the cold.

It seems that a cycle of about 1 week of heavy training is pretty much the maximum I can do. After that I simply have to have at least a couple of days off to let the body (and mind) recover.

One strange thing. On my last hold, after some 3 minutes, I suddenly got this warm sensation on my stomach. I was expecting an acidic "burn" I sometimes get, but insted it grew in to this warm and pleasurable feeling and it kept growing until for maybe the last 30 seconds it was replaced by the uncomfort of contractions. Wonder what the hell that was...

I think that after doing this very heavy training now for over half a year, my "buffering effect" seems to kick in quicker. A couple of months back, I would need 3-4 days of successive statics to get to my best edge. Now it seems that 1 day is enough.

The try outs for the Finnish national team are in the beginning of march. I shall try this approach on that competition: 1 week before stop all physical and apnea exercise. Let the body recover, lose acid and wind down (regular exercise in my mind should keep metabolic rate up, which I don't want). Then on the night before the competition, do a max static session. If that doesn't work out, I still have time to change it for the Nationals on may.

Data:
3:30 (2:20/15)
FRC 3:00
6:30 (3:43/70)
7:02 (4:15/62)

I originally intended to leave it at the 6:30, but after that I just felt I had more in me.

Oh and one more thing, I packed less than usual on purpose. I'm trying to see if I can improve my times without actually improving the amount of air I pack. So I packed about 10 instead of the usual 25-30 I do on a max hold...

Acidic

2005-02-01T17:07:00.000+02:00

For some reason I felt very acidic today, proably not unaffected by the heavy interval jogging I did yesterday. Very early contractions on all 3 holds. That's another good indication that I should take a break again, and so I will, starting from tomorrow.

Anyway:
5:09(2:00/80) - kind of short but this was no-warmup/no-breathup with very short relaxation, so I'm satisfied.
5:34 (3:15/60) - tried again with no-breathup. This was very tough, got a slight head ache from it
5 min rest
6:37 (3:30/70) - Very good time considering the start of contractions. Very early contractions dispite the 10*5:0:5 hyperventilation.

I think I can safely move my 100% dry target to 6:30 now...

Routine dry 7:00 :)

2005-01-31T17:19:00.000+02:00

Heh, I wish I could say I hit "routinely" 7 minutes...But it seems that lately it has not been such an impossible number. I guess the biggest obstacle was my head. Now that I've shown my self it can be done, it's not a big deal anymore, and I can hit it more often.

But it's kind of silly. What separates 6:59 and 7:00 from each other is one lousy second. If you were to thing about it as 419 vs 420 it wouldn't seem such a big deal. But for some reason, that limit was really hard to break.

Anywho, here's what I did:
6:06 (3:14/70) no warmup
2:40 FRC
5:05 (3:45/20) (WTF?)
7:00 (4:20/60)

Obviously the last one was done with some hyperventilation, evidenced by the late contractions. My next goal is to find a breathup, where I'll get 1st contraction around 3:45-4:00 and be able to hold until 7.

Looking at the numbers, it seems my contraction rate is getting slower. I rarely break 100 anymore, but spend similar times under contractions. Wonder why that is...

I won't be at the pool on wednesday (I'm taking an ice-diving scuba course :) and on sunday it is closed. Looks like long break ahead. But since I'm getting a bit worn out again, I think I'll use that time to have a total break from apnea from wednesday for the rest of the week (with the possible exception of dynamics on sat morning, if I have time)

Wet 6:58 with samba

2005-01-30T13:49:00.000+02:00

Pool day again. In our training "program" (very loose term there), sunday is for max static with warmup (on wed, no warmup).

My warmup was
3:00 static
2:30 FRC

The 2:30 was so easy that I knew this was a good day.
On my first max attempt I hit 6:58. But I must've hyperventilated too much. Contractions came very late (4:30-4:45) and I only took 50 of them. As a result I had a slight samba.

But still, this is very encouraging, now I know for sure I'll get 7:00 some day wet too.

I then did another one of around 6:15, but obviously I was drained from the first one...

Redeemed

2005-01-27T17:01:00.000+02:00

Ok, I consider my self redeemed from yesterdays fiasco. I could only barely hit 6:00 on the first, but it's still pretty good for no warmup. But on the third I made 7:15, very cool.

So:
6:05(2:50/100)
6:33(4:15/80)
7:15(4:15/85)

So on my best hold I'll have about 3 minutes of contractions. I still hyperventilate a little, but not as much as I used to. Even though I'm not reaching my pb's on no-warmup style, I believe that is the key factor in my training that has enabled these improvements. It has enabled me to ventilate less and tolerate more contractions. I imagine at somepoint I will revert totally to no-warmup, but right now the success is just too sweet :)

Bah...

2005-01-27T09:33:00.000+02:00

Last night at the pool sucked. I did 2 statics: 5:45 and 6:00 and a dynamic of about 85m.

The only good thing from it is, that I've got a pretty good idea what went wrong.

The most important factor was eating. I ate way too late. I was planning on eating a banana about 2 hours prior, but that turned out to be 45 mins because I forgot it :) Also I drank way too much tea during the day. This (and I know this from before) gets me into a state, where I'll have this acidic slightly burning sensation in my throat when diving. I could feel it even before I hit contractions, but it made contractions very hard to bear. I think I reached about 50 on the last hold, which is 50 short of what I can usually do. Hypoxia-vise I was feeling all right, but just couldn 't handle the co2. I'm sure I'll reach decent times today...

For dynamic I was feeling better already. The reason that sucked was that I packed more air than usual and swam closer to the surface (usually I'll swim at about 3 metres). This caused be to float up constantly and especially at the turns I would rise up. After the 75 turn I felt my back hit the surface, so I just sort of quit because it felt pointless.

Well, you can't nail it every time, but that's why we practise :)

Whoa

2005-01-25T17:08:00.000+02:00

I was expecting improvement over yesterday, but not quite this much. I wonder what's going on with my body, I'm especially worried about not being able to reproduce this. Today I just felt...Fresh. That's the best way I can describe it. Even at the end I didn't as much feel uncomfortable as just "now it's time to stop". I had very late and infrequent contractions even though I didn't hyperventilate much.

So here:
6:38(3:15/100) no-warmup (new now warmup pb)
7:10(4:15/80) new dry pb.

Very very cool. Of course this puts high expectations on tomorrow. We'll see...

Starting again

2005-01-24T17:33:00.000+02:00

Ok, back to dry statics. Having a break was a good decision, now I feel motivated again.
Considering I've just come back from a break, I did pretty good today:
6:06 (3:00/80) (no warmup)
5 min break
6:30(4:15/67)

Looking forward to improving that within the next few days :)

Break

2005-01-19T09:10:00.000+02:00

Today I did 2 statics at the pool 6:15 and 6:21. I was using my shortsleeved suit, but I stayed in the water without the suit pretty long before starting (spotting one diver in dynamic), and I was actually pretty cold. On the second static I felt good and propably could've pushed hypercapnia-vise longer, but I was starting to notice some sambaish symptoms so I came up. I guess being too cold also affects oxygen consumption plus cold blood releases oxygen less (but I doubt my blood was actually "colder")

Now I'll take a break for the rest of the week on statics. On saturday we'll go do some dynamics and sunday's time has been cancelled...So next wet static will be in a week.

FRC pb

2005-01-18T17:06:00.000+02:00

Well, I did 6:00(3:15/100) on my first hold (no warmup), which was ok.
I tried another, but it sucked, I quit around 5:40 feeling very much "why bother"-ish, that was some 35 contractions in.

Obviously I wasn't going to hit 7, my head just wasn't together, so I tried something I haven't done in a while: a max FRC hold. I pushed to 3:30 realatively easy, but was obviously quite close to samba, as I had trouble remembering the numbers when I was trying to write them down right after the hold. But still, that's a new pb.

As I'm getting tired both mentally and physically as well as very acidic as a whole, I'll take a break after tomorrows pool static again, until sunday.

2 Dry PBs

2005-01-17T17:15:00.000+02:00

Ok cool. I got my "no-warmup" pb to 6:20 and I was happy for the day already. But I decided to do 2 more and what do you know, I hit 7:01 on the last one.

So:
6:20(3:30/110) no warmup
5 minute rest
5:10 (3:30/30) (packed too much and just had to bail...Felt horrible)
5 minute rest
7:01 (3:50(80)

On the last hold I packed just on the comfort level, feeling very slightly uncomfortable (I usually pack up to very uncomfortable on a max). Contractions were very smooth in the beginning. I almost enjoyed the first 30 or so, and not very frequent. I did hyperventilate quite much for the last one, so that was to be expected. But I guess I must have been quite acidic to begin with, since even with agressive hyperventilation contractions started at 3:50. I have been training quite a bit in the last week, so perhaps a week or so is needed to "peak" in the buffering effect...

New training schedule

2005-01-16T13:52:00.000+02:00

Me and a buddy decided we'll start training "seriously" for the next competition in april. We found a time, saturday at 08:00-10:00 which we can also use, since the whole pool is free for scuba training. At normal hours the staff at the pool don't like it too much if you just jump in with a mono...So now we have 3 days a week. Wed, Sat and Sun for training. We made a crude program to follow, but the best thing about the deal is that we supervise each other 50% of the time, so the other can dedicate himself totally to the training for that period. Then, we switch after some time. At the start, the program looks like this.

Wed:
No warmup max static me
No warmup max static buddy
Max dynamic (with preparation) me
Max dynamic (with preparation) me

Sat:
5*80% dynamic buddy
5*80% dynamic me
other fun stuff if time

Sun:
Max static me (with or without warmup, divers choise)
Max static buddy (with or without warmup, divers choise)
Dynamic technique training, n* 25-50m
Max dynamic me
Max dynamic buddy
Once every month we'll do a "simulated competition" on sunday, where both will do max static and dynamic with a countdown and "official start".

Looks good if we can keep it up...

So yesterday we did 5*80%, which for me is 80m. It was a good session despite having to slalom around some scuba divers :)

Today:
1:30 FRC static
3:30 static (30 contractions)
5:00 static (3:00/50)
6:25 static (4:15/70).
So I tried a normal warmup style. I have to say even though I firmly believe no-warmup is better training, this is so much more fun...

And followed by 100m dynamic+some tech training...

I think this arrangement works really well. I can just concentrate on making full effort and not worry about who's going to spot me or is someone going to ask me to spot them soon or anything...

Basic drys

2005-01-14T17:06:00.000+02:00

Nothing special, did pretty much the same thing as yesterday, but with more humble results. Couldn't really get my head together. Still, these are ok times...
5:46(3:21/100)
6:10(4:10/65)
6:29(4:00/85)

About 5 minutes rest between each.

I think that a break of 1-2 days would be in order. At least tomorrow I'll be doing no statics, perhaps on sunday a wet one...

The hunt begins!

2005-01-13T17:50:00.000+02:00

Whoa, hmm...Where to start. First of all, 7-mintute static number 1! Wohoo!

Ok, here's how:
5:56(2:55/130) (by 2:55/130 I mean 1st contraction at 2:55 and 130 contractions)
10 minutes rest
6:06(3:57/80)
5 minutes rest
7:00 (4:15/100).

Of course I'm extatic about reaching 7. Now the hunt for 8 seems so much more realistic, and as I've said, that's my ultimate goal. But it's kind of a bummer that just when I though I'm closing the gap between warmup and no-warmup performance, my warmup performance jumps 10 sec.

But I'm quite happy with the first static too. 3 minutes of contractions and almost 6 minutes total, and I didn't even really pack for that one. Cool...

I've seen this now a bunch of times: I seem to hit pb's after unusually heavy training and doing even 2 max attempts previous to that. This seems to contradict everything I "know" about statics. Very weird. In any case, it would make sense that I would be able to perform even better, if I just could hit that with the first or second hold and with less of a warmup.

Right now this feels good though, so I'll keep doing this training: absolute max attempt on the first and focus on that. Then do 1-2 following if it feels good. But my aim is to improve the first, not the third...

Anyway, wohoo!

Betrayed by own expectations

2005-01-13T09:51:00.000+02:00

Ok, let's get it out of the way: last nights pool session sucked. I barely squeezed 5:45 that was after some serious struggling.

The thing is, I went it expecting to do 6:30+, encouraged by tuesdays result. I was loaded all day, just waiting to get in to the pool. I messed up on eating, fasting too long, not wanting to ruin it. At the pool I just dove right in, did a quick, agitated warm up and was far too excited to calm down properly. I packed too much and in the end when I realized that I was not going to make seven minutes or whatever, I came up at 5:15. After spotting another diver, I calmed down and did the 5:45, but I really should be hitting 6+ now every session if I intend to progress at all...

Well, still, it's a learning experience. First I thought that the right way to go is to never shoot for a pb, just "let them happen". Then again, this is the closest I've gotten to "competition stress" in training, so this type of thing might actually be good for preparing for a competition. Even when excited, you should be able to gather your self and perform a solid 90%+.

Oh well, that was that, now I'm back to no-warmup training. I'll be doing something tonight, let's see how that goes...

New dry pb

2005-01-11T17:10:00.000+02:00

Ok, following yesterdays pattern I did:
5:51(2:53/100) no warmup
10 minutes rest
5:48(3:37/70)
5 minutes rest
6:50(4:20/100)

I've reached 6:50 a couple times before, but I always thought it was kind of bordering on samba. No symptoms this time though. For the last hold I stretched my diaphragm as it was feeling quite pooped for about 20 secods, which is essentially an empty lung static. It felt better and I was able to put up with more contractions. Hard to say if it was because of that or just some other effect.

I was going to do only 2 holds, but I was so dissapointed with the second one, I decided to do one more. Obviously the last one cannot be considered "no-warmup". In fact that's a pretty damn hard warmup, doing 2 holds to the absolute max before. I think that was far from optimum, so tomorrow at the pool I'm going to try something like this: 4-5 min no warmup static (say 20 contractions), 2 min FRC, rest 4-5 minutes and then max attempt. So definately warmup, but a lot shorter than I used to do.

Drys

2005-01-10T17:41:00.000+02:00

I'm starting to get bored with the "one breathold per day" method and don't feel like it's enough of a workout. To keep my motivation up, I've decided that I'll try a max time on wednesday at the pool, so today and tomorrow I'm doing statics in series again to get my buffers up.

So today I did:
5:51 (3:16/100) no warmup
6:23 (3:57/80)
6:05 (4:04/80)

For the trial on wednesday I plan to to one FRC as a warmup+pack stretching. We'll see what happens. I know this is slipping from the "no-warmup" religion, but currently I perform best with warmup, so I'll allow my self this one. Let's hope I don't lose motivation in the no-warmup training though (which I have to say, is mentally really tough).

Pool statics

2005-01-09T13:33:00.000+02:00

I did 5:45(~3:00/100) if felt that that wasn't enough training, so I rested about 10 minutes and did a 6:20(4:00/60), with a bit more ventilation. That doesn't count as a no-warmup static though.

It was obvious that I was more clear headed on the first hold, on the second I kept losing count of contractions after 30.

It's also clear that I still perform better with a warmup. But I'll keep training in the no-warmup style and hopefully that will change over time. If I was at a competition right now though, I'd definately do a short warmup, perhaps one FRC static or something.

One thing I've noticed happens with warmup is that I start to lose sense of time. Without warmup, it seems like the first 3 minutes take for ever. With warmup I'll often be surprised when I get the first mark at 4 minutes, expecting it to be 2 minutes or so.

Some progress

2005-01-08T11:42:00.000+02:00

Feeling much better after some long nice sleep. It's easy to see it now, but yesterday all in all was not a very good day.

This morning I did 5:33(2:33/120), reaching almost my peak again. Cool...

I've been trying to apply this "no-warmup" approach to other areas in life, but the girlfriend wasn't too happy ;)

Today's training

2005-01-07T19:00:00.000+02:00

I did 5:00(2:20/60). That's ok I guess, but I don't seem to be making much progress. I can manage 2:30-3:00 minutes of contractions, but that's just it. Then again, this week has been pretty broken and what not.

Anyway, the curious thing is that I almost halved my contraction rate. I usually hold my epiglottis open during contractions and thus use my cheecks as a sort of "mini breathing bag". I didin't do that this time and it slowed contractions down considerably. I wonder what's going on there...
Didn't seem to affect the total time though, so I don't know...I also tried exhaling a bit at the tought end of contractions and it does seem to bring some relief. But the effect is not very long (perhaps 10 seconds at most).

Shifting gears again

2005-01-05T13:20:00.000+02:00

The "no-warmup static" discussion at deeperblue is evolving yet again. It was pointed out that in fact any kind of preparation or relaxing for static is a "warmup". Especially pack stretching, or "under breathing", since both would in theory create similar reflexes as a breath hold.

So I kicked it up a notch, starting the "extremely no-warmup" training. Meaning I don't lay down to relax for some time like I'm used to. I just sit and do normal things, like type on the computer and when I decide to go, it's laying down, close eyes, one inhale, pack, go. I do this to (hopefully) stimulate a maximum training response. I will continue to relax at the pool, but I'll propably drop the pack stretching at least for now. If it seems I make no progress, I may reintroduce it...

First hold today using this method was:
4:35(1:45/110)

I timed total time again, since I've eliminated peeking at the watch during the hold, so it doesn't matter anymore. Might as well.

As was pointed out at DeeperBlue, I too have the urge to sit up after some contractions. I used to get this urge very early, but I've managed to delay it with training. Hopefully I can eliminate it totally...

Inching forward

2005-01-02T13:44:00.000+02:00

I did 6:09 no-warmup today, which is a nice 9s leap from the previous no-warmup pb. Contractions started from 3:30 and I had 110 of them. In some ways it was propably one of the toughest statics I've done, but it's also a nice feeling to know at 4 minutes that even though you're feeling a very strong breathing reflex, you can willingly push it beyond 6 minutes.

Also did 100m dynamic again, which was much easier this time now that I know it's possible.
Pretty good day all in all :)

Back from the pool again

2004-12-29T21:16:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-28T17:34:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-28T10:30:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-26T13:18:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-25T09:54:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-22T21:01:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-21T18:30:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-20T16:45:00.000+02:00

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

2004-12-19T13:55:00.000+02:00

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.