Day 39 - Intensive period

Tomorrow starts my two weeks of vacation. I've made some plans to do more intensive training period. Now my routine has formed the following:

• Monday - 45min Yoga
• Tuesday - Stretch with packing + O2 Static
• Wednesday - 45min Yoga 
• Thursday - Stretch with packing + CO2 OR O2 Static
• Friday - Pool with depth + DNF
• Saturday - off
• Sunday - 2 hours pool with Dyn + DNF (sometimes max attempt)

I do feel the positive effects of training. Mainly I feel that my energy levels are up and dropping some weight and eating healthy has brought really positive mental uplift. The next two weeks of vacation I intend to do training twice a day. The morning starts with Yoga session, static or with pool training. On evening I intend to do gym, stretch or pool. After this there will be weekend's training camp, which consists of dynamic max attempt.

Another thing I should start doing is pool static. This can be done mostly on sundays, where I can get safety to watch me.

The target competition for Northern Apnea Games are getting closer. I feel excited but reassured due to all the training. I had a argument with my coach about if I should feel competitive and if I should have strong will to win the competition. This was when I declared my aim is to do my best solid performance.  I think all the top freedivers I have talked with don't think their performance as a competitive against other divers, if all, this is deemed counter productive. I still feel my approach is the best for me. I don't feel that my goal is to win anything or to be placed on any ranking position.

Weight -3kg.

Turns - day 25

Hard training pays off. I've been doing twice a week my yoga routine. There has been change in my state of mind. I could call this feeling transcendence. I do feel more relaxed, aware and less stressed. I've been working on my pranayama exercises and also meditation.

Today was sunday pool practice. Last week I got my new mono to test it out. It's hand made in Russia and I was convinced that it's better than Waterway Glide by someone who definitely knows his stuff. Oh and It is a beauty. Stifness is medium, so it's much more than my previous one. I tried to figure out the best way to turn. There seems to be two popular ways: Goran Colak style, where diver turns sideways and pushes from the poolside with no kick. Other one where diver turns sideways before turn and sweeps mono from below with a kick from poolside. With the new monofin, I do feel ready for the next long dyn dive. I should be able to surpass 2min dive time mark with ease. There is mini competition in three weeks so this will be my intermediate target.

Also I've been doing some walking statics to increase my dive times. Relaxation and mental preparations is important to emphasize. I read some older deeperblue posts by Eric Fattah where he describes techniques to block and prevent contractions. It would be nice to learn these because I do put lot's of effort to withstand the contractions (they start ~2mins in dry static).

Also more importantly, I did 84m pb for dnf today. For the first time I didn't have to think about technique, feet and hand positioning. I just concentrated on relaxation and it was easy dive. I was happy afterwards, because I've tried longer dnf twice on previous sunday practices and they've been failures (first time just gave up after 60m and next time mask filled of at 50m turn). 

Weight -1,6kg

Day 16 - Mindfulness

Okay, I started to worry too soon. Yoga has helped in multiple areas of health. I've sticked with yoga, pranayama and increased stretching. I have to say, I feel pretty good. I've been reading also some texts on meditation and mindfullness. I've also introduced them to my statics and walking apneas. I've prepared with with pranayama, listened some ambient sounds to relax and concentrated on passive observation of thoughts and environment during the apnea. During apnea there is different negative thoughts. You just try to observe them, accept them and let them pass as they come. This seems to do wonders for co2 tolerance and contractions.

Today I did 2:10 "dry" dynamic and 4:10 static just after it after few mins of rest.

I skipped pool for today and also I have to skip it for Sunday. I got stiches on my neck so can't go to pool due to risk of infection. Because of this, I will be going to dive under ice on Sunday instead. Sounds logical, eh?

Weight -1,5kg.

Day 12 - Failures

It's day 12 of my diet and yoga regiment. I've followed my routine and feel pretty good, with the exception that I've gained weight. Strange. I will continue with the same regiment for a week and make additional changes, if required. Last week I managed to implement my new yoga routine and it feels great. I did it twice last week with additional static training sessions. I also did regular pool practice twice.

I think I've figured out my dnf kick finally. It has taken quite a while. Now I have problem with hand placement when straightening the hands after pull and just before the kick. I tried to do longer dnf, but failed after the second turn when my mask moved out from my face. If it was competition I think I would had continued.

I've also ordered oximeter, which should make my static exercises more fun. I do hope to get it this week.

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.