Wednesday excesses

After publishing several posts that had been sitting in the drafts folder, and talking to a couple of people about their plans for large feats of strength in spring and summer ... and then doing some actual work ... I had a space in the day to go to the pool. Fuelled by a vast banana and half of a pain au chocolat, I headed to Freyberg.  

My initial place was for about 4.2km, done as soon as possible. However, once at the pool, and finishing the other half of the pastry, I felt inspired to do a little more if my ancient frame could stand it.

In the end, the set looked like this (bear in mind I was in a pool that's 33 1/3 metres long!)

                                                                                                  Running total
6 x 166 as 33 fr/33 bk [1-4 as swim, 5-6 pull, no paddles]       1,000
200 as 33 scull/33 swim                                                            1,200
6 x 100 kick [fins] @ 1.35                                                         1,800
200 as 33 scull/33 swim                                                             2,000

400 as 33 fly/33 bk [fins]                                                           2,400
200 as 33 scull/33 bk                                                                  2,600
400 as 33 fly kick on back/33 fr swim spint [fins]                     3,000

Two rounds of
4 x 100 @1.35  pull/pull buoy                                                      
200 relaxed swim (choice)                                                           4,200

6 x 100 @ 1.35 pull/pull buoy, desc. 1-3, 4-6. All DPS               4,800

200 easy/own choice to warm down                                            5,000

At one point I was 'negotiating' lane space with another swimmer of the MAMIL type. To get around him, without having to do a huge sprint overtake, I added another two laps to one of the 4 x 100.  I also did a bit more warm-down, so the total distance was 5,133.3km.  The occasional mad sprints around the MAMIL were, although exhausting, helpful, as they took some time off the 100s, and provided some little heartrate spikes.                                                                                             

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A beautiful day in the south — swimming to Rakiura

Image
Looking towards Rakiura with not far to go. It is now two weeks since I was lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful swim across Te Ara-a-Kiwa/Foveaux Strait to Rakiura/Stewart Island on Saturday 1 April 2023. For many reasons, this was a lucky swim, characterized by a series of beautiful coincidences and experiences that I wasn’t sure how to do justice to. With every swim they complete, our local swimmers write ever more perceptive and vivid blogs, so there is some pressure to match their originality and eloquence. Just this week I've read Adriana's evocative account of her Taup ō swim, and Gr á inne’s thoughtful response , written from the perspective of a support person during the swim (as well as her stories of swims here and abroad). Then there’s also Rebecca’s story of a record-breaking swim in Lake Wānaka , Mike’s day in Taupō , and John’s long-awaited crossing between our north and south islands. Their candid reflections make it harder and harder to find a perspective and t
Read more

Guest Blog: Swimming Foveaux, Te Ara a Kiwi

Image
Thursday 10 March 2022 was a big day for marathon swimming in New Zealand. On the same day, there were four swimmers in the water, two crossing Te Moana-o-Raukawa (Cook Strait) and two crossing Te Ara a Kiwi (Foveaux Strait). On this particular day, both stretches of water offered some challenges, but ultimately all four swimmers made successful crossings. One of these swimmers was Gráinne Moss, whose account of her 2021 Lake Taupō can be found here . I'm honoured to host the story of her most recent swim, with which Gráinne completed the 'Triple Crown' of NZ's ultra-marathon swims.  ******* Swimming Foveaux, Te Ara a Kiwi – 10th March 2022 The Playlist Blog Among our Wellington Swim Group, the “Spud Buds” there is an accepted tradition that you not only do your open-water swim challenge – you also write a blog about it. Welcome to my blog about swimming from Stewart Island to Bluff, one of ocean swimming's  Toughest 13 . I have structured this blog around a playlis
Read more

A day and a night in the deep

Image
Setting out from the marina at Mana On Thursday 25 March, Rebecca and I set out on an excursion from the north to the south island, across Te Moana-a-Raukawa / Cook Strait. The plan to do this swim was formulated in June 2020, when we were just out of lockdown, and we thought a tandem Strait crossing in the summer would be an exciting challenge. Our initial date for the swim was 7 February, but the weather didn't cooperate then, or for the tide windows since.   Because the Strait is extremely tidal, being a narrow channel between several large and dramatic seas/oceans (the Tasman Sea, and the Pacific and Southern Oceans) you can only attempt a crossing in quite limited tide windows during the slacker tides that correspond roughly with the first and third quarters of the moon. During this 2020-2021 season, the weather has also been very uncooperative, and after one swimmer made a successful, albeit very cold crossing at the end of November; after that, there had only been two  swim
Read more