WINTER TRANING

My winter training is looking somewhat different than last year, mainly due to the addition of 2 new elements: cycling and swimming.

This time last year, I was unable to swim front crawl for toffee, seriously!! I had NEVER mastered the breathing technique needed to successfully get myself from one end of the pool to another without a) taking in way too much pool water than is healthy b) breathing like I am taking my last breath.

Needless to say if I was to master this freestyle swimming malarkey I needed some help.
This help came in the form of my lovely niece who I hasten to add is an amazingly competent swimmer, swimming in county championships but most importantly a patient and very thorough teacher. She went through the basic techniques with me, breathing, position of body, arm stroke, etc over a period of 2 sessions. Before long I felt much more confident and was able to manage around 50m without stopping before a short break. Phew, I was getting there!! Thanks Amber x
As if by magic, around the same time as my first achievements in the pool, my local running and triathlon club, www.buderats.co.uk were sorting out their winter swimming training sessions again. BONUS! I put myself down as being interested in taking an 11 week course of swimming sessions through the club, starting in September this would give another discipline to work towards over the winter months.
All I can say is that I AM LOVING IT. We are certainly not being given an easy ride, we are ramping up to 2000m a session at the moment, but I feel I am getting stronger and ever so slightly faster as I go through the weeks
.
Last nights session looked a little something like this:
Warm up: 400m F/C ( 16 lengths)
Main session: 6 x 100m F/C with 20 secs rest between reps
200m kicking
7 x 50m F/C all done within a minute
Warm down: 200m pull and 200m drill
I come away feeling shattered - in a very good way!

This fits into my week perfectly:
Monday: Swim for 1 hour with RATS
Tuesday: Run for an hour with RATS
Wednesday: Turbo train on bike for an hour or an hour in the pool
Thursday: Technical / speedwork session with RATS (1 hour)
Friday: Early morning swim then Pilates (1 hour)
Saturday/Sunday: Long run or bike ride outside

Am loving the variety this gives me and am feeling stronger for it, winter training never looked so good.