Time to wrap up

Today was last pool practice for this year. I was thinking a lot of doing max dyn dive for today, but there weren't any other divers (they came later) so I did just max preparation and just 25m dive. I've been doing this similar exercise for quite many times now. I come a bit early to the side of the pool. Suit up, stretch, relax and sit to the side of the pool when reserved time begins. I concentrate on breathing, put on mono, weights and goggles. Another 2 mins of relaxing and noseclip on. I do breath-up, lower myself to the pool and do just few packs to fill up the lungs. And then the dive...

Things felt really smooth today. Even I could not go for max, the 25m felt very enjoyable. I felt relaxation which I've only had glimpses of previously. I did some turning exercises after this and the turns seemed to hit the spot. No tension, just flow and I managed to do some very nice turns. It's been only a three months of training, but I've progressed very nicely. On a mental side I can trust my technique and concentrate on the feelings and emotions during the dive. I realized that I have to change my approach for max attempts. Instead going after certain distance target, I should aim to have enjoyable dive until it is time to get up. I am sure that using this I go much further. I've started to feel anxiety about the goals and especially during dry static training there is certain mental treshold to even start the exercise. I know that I am doing something discomfortable. I realize that changing my attitude is very important part of getting rid of the anxiety and moving to the next level. And to change your attitude, you need positive reinforcement...

Training so far has been very positive. I think I've set my goals low enough and reached them satisfyingly enough. I did short calculation that I've done around 800 of the 1000x25m which I set as a goal for. Now I can just relax and head to Dahab for some CWT fun :)

For next spring I don't have any specific targets yet. Training regiment needs just some fine tuning. I think the volume of pool training is enough for now and when the lakes defrost during spring I will be in quite good shape. I've been thinking of longer duration targets. I think I can reach 200m DYN within two years. After the new year I will also include DNF training, but mostly I think I will concentrate on the DYN. Depth training targets are more tricky. I think I will come back to that after the Dahab trip...