Day zero

I finally dragged myself to see a doctor. There's been wrist related pain for, well, eight years. I think it's time to get it checked out. After straining it, it wakes me up in night for some throbbing pain. Not nice.

Same time I also ordered some bloodworks to get hemoglobin and cholesterol values. I also got spirometry to check my VC. First time for me. My FVC was 5,9l and with some packing I got 6,3l. Other specs looked okay also. Not massive lungs, but just average for my size. I do still have some flu left, so it might have been a factor to the results. I think it would be interesting to re-do it in few months and see if anything has changed.

Weight +-0kg

Yoga and diet

Last night I figured it out. I really have to start training. There is national comp in two and half months. Main thing I want to improve is my yoga training and diet. I've been hitting Breatheology pretty hard. I've done some yoga previously but with Stig's straightforward explanation things seem to come together.

My management coach (yes, I do have one for now) keeps telling me to plan my goals and things I want to improve. List the things that enforce strong positive emotions, reasons for your work towards your goal and benefits of achieving it. Improving diet and dropping some weight seems the most trivial exercise for it. While improving my technique, relaxation and apnea abilities is important part of training. Proper diet should support this all. Here goes:

My goal is to lose 4kg of body mass before the national competition. This can be divided to intermediate goals:

• 2kg's per month. 
• 0,5kg per week
• energy intake of -500kcal / day
• Adding more fruit and veg to the diet
• Increasing yoga to twice a week

Direct benefits of doing so will be:

• Improved dive time by
• Lowered blood pressure
• Lowered resting heart rate
• Lowered metabolism
• Improved VO2 max
• Increased energy levels
• Positive mental effect that I've reached my goal

Introduction of more fruit and vegetables to diet will bring also benefits:

• More antioxidants
• More alkaline diet
• Improved intake of nutrients and minerals
• Better digestion

 Increasing weekly yoga will benefit by:

• Increased flexibility
• Improved relaxation
• Improved concentration
• Improved dive

Tools to follow up the progress towards the goal:

• Following the weight development in my training diary
• Determining daily nutrient intake and adjusting it accordingly 
• Creating new yoga routine, which can be done in 45mins and includes pranayama exercises

Yes and you should reward yourself somehow for achieving the goal.  Something important and concrete. When I will reach my goal, I will acquire that boat trailer for my small fishing boat. This will enable me to do some fantastic off-shore spearfishing trips to any lake nearby. I am so waiting for the spearfishing season to start...

Benefits of freediving

It's been few weeks since my last post. Goran Colak's training weekend is over. I took some important stuff with me. Even though my progress has been quite fast, I recognized that this sport takes years to master. I don't feel discouraged by it, but feel sort of humbled. First day was mostly about importance of swimming technique and training which benefits your freediving technique in DYN and DNF. It's a completely different sport and I really felt lost during the drills. Swimming and proper technique is at the moment non-existing and I will work on them during summer when the waters open.

Yeah and week ago we did photography session under ice. It was nice experience but not so much hard diving. Place was a bit shallow but the overall experience was awesome (including sauna afterwards). It was -22c when we started and got a bit warmer (-15c) in the afternoon.

I compiled a presentation for next sunday for the rest of freedivers in our club. This was something we promised to do to share the knowledge and I was happy to do it. When you write down things related to training, metal preparation, nutrition and planning, it acts as a strong mental reinforcement. I think I have pretty good and solid package of information which is useful from beginner to more experienced freediver.

I received my Breatheology also at last. I've started to read it. There is lot's of information about health effects of Pranayama. Slowing down and deepening your breathing seems to have multitude of effects to your circulation, blood pressure, mental abilities and overall health. There is similarities to hypoxic training which is used in many other sports. Hypoxic training is traditionally done in high altitude or simulated high altitude, but it has some unwanted effects (like loss of muscle mass). There is also interval hypoxia training (IHT), which can be done with equipment. IHT is done by breathing air with less oxygen in intervals (5min on/off). SpO2 is monitored and maintained at target 85-90%. With hypoxic training your body functions with less oxygen, but more importantly with more co2 which seems to be trigger for the beneficial functions in the body

As a freediver I should be able to do this nearly similar without any equipment. I've done some simple exercises and can maintain breathing rate of 1 breath / min pretty easily. I get 5-10 contractions at the end of the hold and do single normal breath. I would need oxymeter to check how much my Sp02 drops (I don't think it drops much). More importantly the drill should create elevated co2 level, which creates the training effect. This was actually recommended by Goran as co2 training drill for 30-45min. You can also include any type of light physical activity to introduce lactic tolerance to to the drill. Anyway it's all very interesting and requires more looking in to.

Winter day

I woke up this morning and the sun is shining brightly. No clouds anywhere and it's perfectly still. You can tell by the smoke and vapor towers rising from the neighbours chimney. It's also -27c cold. It is bright and shimmering like someone threw some glitter into the air. Perfect mid winter day. Oh yeah and we are planning some diving under ice. Maybe not just today...

I've been slacking from the training. I haven't done any statics since last year. I think it's time to start those. I did one big dive two weeks ago and had a break last weekend. The distances have taken too much of concentration recently and I think I have to go back to basics. Co2 tables. I did today 6x25 with single breath and added 2x25 with three breaths. Not very fun, but it's a drill which has good training effect.

I've been also practicing dnf which seems to take quite a long to build up solid kicks. I did easy 58m, which took 1m 20sec (not so good). I have to build speed and relaxation much more. But you got to start somewhere. I tried also some gliding and struggled but finished 25m with just a single arm pull and kick.

Next weekend is Goran Colak's course. There is two days of classroom, gym training and finally pool at sunday. I have very high expectations.  

Training day

Much has happened since change of the year. I made quick fix for my D3 interface (which I broke at Dahab) and got my profiles from the deep dives. It's funny how you can vividly re-live your dive through simple pixel graph through screen.

I got message that I was selected for the national team training ring. I originally did not intend to apply, but I was persuaded by my teammate who had also participated in it few years back. They selected twenty members to the ring and from it, the national team will be selected. I really had to consider my options. On the other hand the possibility to train with the best is tempting to say at least. Pressure and expectations to train hard weights in the other end of the scale. Pressure is not set by the team but by comparing myself to my peers at the training ring. My journey to freediving has been short but intense. I think my first training session at the pool was around 6-7 months ago.

I also set myself training targets for this spring. I've set monthly goals so, that I am targeting the national comp this spring. Most important goal is to get successful dives from it. Another challenge is DNF, which I haven't done at all yet. I've just started to practice it and getting my kicks and relaxation in order is going to need lot's of repetitions. At the first weekend of February I will be participating to first training course lead by Goran Colak. As much as I expect to learn from him, I expect as much to talk and meet people in the national team and to learn from them.

Last friday I did flow exercise (Kars' frog flow from youtube / deeperblue) at the 4m pool and managed to do easy 1m 54s dive, which is the longest non-static dive for me. 

Today was another training day. I had previously decided that it would be time to do first long dive of the year with mono. I prepared, stretched and relaxed. I had already started to feel pressure when I started packing my stuff at home. I had set monthly target for dynamic for January and I don't have any other free weekends to do it. I did not set it to this dive, but I did set a dive time target for 1m45s. I fixed my D3 to alarm it. Setting target for new distance in dynamic is difficult. You're pushing for unknown territory and the first dive to new distance is usually the hardest. Your mind starts making excuses why you should not do the dive. Maybe you could do a easy 75m instead. Maybe no safeties will show up. Well, a safety showed up and I had no excuses. I get strong confidence from the training which cancels the doubts. This is why I have trained. I relax by the pool, breath-up, descent the the end of the pool, fill the lungs and go. Soon as I am in the water the doubts disappear.  Instead of concentrating on the distance, I concentrate on the kicks. I keep counting the kicks for each 25m, relaxed turns and I avoid tensing up. Lactics kick in between 50m and 75m. There's no urgency I just wait for the alarm and keep diving. After 100m the lactics get really strong but it does not bother me. I come up at 130m after the turn. I concentrate on the breathing and protocol. I feel fine. I felt that there was still lot's left in the tank, but I wanted to leave something for the next month too...

Almost all of my dives have been successful in depth and dynamic. Only discipline where I haven't been able to exceed and improve constantly has been static. In dynamic and cwt there will be failure eventually. I am not being negative about it, just thinking realistically. I think it would be possible to prepare a recovery plan which you can review when it might happen. This would include something in the lines of positive reinforcement, taking a break and lowering the expectations and while giving the body more time to adapt.



 

In the year 2012...

So Dahab is now thing in the past. I did my last dives in the morning just before the flight back to home. I had difficulty to sleep on the previous night knowing it is the last dive session. Guys at the FDD picked me up from the hotel on the way to the blue hole. Stefan and Luc were diving with me again today. My dives were getting deeper, so we talked that I should do just two deep dives. I was also pressed for time. We set the rope to 45m and after two warm-ups I was ready to go. It was calm morning and the blue hole was quiet. Visibility was the best on the whole trip. It is strange feeling, when in water you start feeling dizzy like on the top of tall building.

I was ready to go and snapped in the lanyard to the rope. Ten slow breaths. Three deep breaths with slowly exhaling. Duck dive and go. Ten kicks until 17m depth alarm. Three more kicks and I close my eyes and start to freefall. Feeling of urgency overwhelms me: I think I am not freefalling fast enough. Few more kicks. I can see the plate. 45sec dive alarm goes of. I touch the plate and turn. Five strong kicks and I straighten my hands above my head and start moving fast towards the surface. I am happy to meet my safety around 20m. Things start to lighten up and I relax and grab the float. Three breaths at the surface and I am perfectly fine. I am unhappy about the freefall, but happy about the new PB.

I decide to do another dive. Everything goes similar like the first dive on the way down. With the exception on the turn. I look directly towards the mesmerizing void. It is the arch. This image burns permanently to my brain. On the way up I feel staggered but feel uncontrollable urge to smile. If there was something set as a goal for this trip, I feel this was it. On the way up from the water I grin like a maniac. I still do when I think about it...


I want to thank Freedive Dahab, Linda, Lotta, Stefan, Luc and Sergio who dove with me. I do hope Dahab will stay as beautiful in future.

Dahab part 5

No words required.