Note to self

After doing some visualization exercises today I stumbled upon intresting thread on Deeperblue about OBE's and freediving.

One of most intresting post from Mikko about attitude and motivation. This just here as a note to self. Read it often.

Visualization

I've read and I've been told that with visualization of training you can compensate three thirds of the effect of the training. I don't know if it's exactly like that, but many freedivers do use visualization techniques. One of my favorite freediver blogger, Tanguy Crusson shows nice CWT visualization exercise which I've also tried couple of times. You take in all the preparation, warm-up dives, breath up, equalization, mouthfill and glide-phase. Combine that with static apnea and you're pretty deep mentally in the dive. As for now it's pretty difficult to get any CWT training done this would be the best preparation for Dahab.

I've now booked now four days in Freedive Dahab. They were really helpful instructing me over email. I am waiting very much for it. I've been trying to think about my goals. I tend to be goal oriented, but I don't want to set any depth target. What I do want, is to enjoy freediving, quality instruction and awesome environment the fullest I can. I want to take as much with me from it as possible.

I've been getting better since being ill for quite long time. It has been bad for my aerobic training but dynamic training has pretty much gone as planned. I am still much short of 1000x25m. I counted that I am somewhere around 600x25m now. Also I've reached my goal of 100m dynamic ahead of schedule. I do feel it is partly because of the gear upgrade, but I think I could achieve it easily without suit also. Last sunday I did longer runs with 3x75m. I could increase this to 5x75m. and set few more meters each week to the target. I also did some turning exercises. Total amount was 50x25m. Also I did the friday pool training where I tried to simulate CWT dives on long pool by pacing the 50m dynamic dive similarly I would do 25m of CWT.

It's not many weeks anymore until the trip to Dahab. I feel slowly increasing restlessness and would not want to wait any longer...

Two weeks of progress

Okay, it's been two weeks since last progress update. After as sick week I almost got back on track. Week a go sunday was pretty tight training. I managed to do decent turning practice, 20x35m, with each two turns and 10x50m. I totaled 60x25m which is pretty decent.

On sunday I actually got up and ordered my pool suit. I was pondering between Elios tailor made pool suit and Aqua Sphere Winter Skin. I decided to order the latter just based on the pricing.

Well after things looked up, I got sick again. Once again I've been sick for whole week. Bad luck. I had to work also whole week and it's not helped. Now Im stuck with nasty cough and lung problems. I hope it gets better. Today I decided to head for sunday pool even though I am not in total full health. My motivation was to test out the new suit which arrived just on friday. I also ordered swimming goggles so I could try dynamic with Trygons clip.

What can I say? The glide is awesome. The fit is quite good, but not perfect on the suit (I got XL as I am 6'3"). I did some regular light practice with mono and with Trygons on. It felt easy and I decided to try for 75m. Well it felt so easy that after 75m turn I continued for 100m. Came out clean and had much more to spare. Well, but my goal for dynamic pb is completed. I still aim to complete the 1000x25m, but I have been slowing down on the reps. Today was ~40x25m. 

Almost back in track

I did the sunday practice today. It kind a felt like a real practice and it's been a while. I didn't do any long dives but concentrated getting the technique back on track. I started by doing fast 10x25, slow 10x25 and then 10x50m and 20x25 with some co2 runs. Things felt good and I was pretty tired after.

I went for a dive yesterday in the nearby lake. It's +6c and I was pretty worried about getting cold. Not on the dive itself but getting back from the lake. It was quite smooth and it felt quite enjoyable. I haven't been diving in lake lately, but this was great. I think I am going to have fun next spring after ice melts and lakes open with clear waters...

Still I haven't ordered the pool suit and it's getting pretty tight with the schedule. I should probably do something about it.

Sick period

So I've been sick for last week. I did friday pool over a week ago and on the saturday I felt cold coming. After that I've had to drop all training all together until today. I did my regular sunday pool training. I still feel it in the lungs so I did easy 60mins with few 50m's just to try it out. I've come back technique wise pretty much and I keep hitting my knees at the bottom of the pool and the relaxation is pretty much gone. I do hope to get back on track soon as possible, but I already know that getting back too hard after being sick is not a good idea.

We had nice weekend just now doing some pretty intensive yardwork. We installed some drain pipes and started building yatsuhashi-style board walk at the backyard. We had some friends over to help with the work and we did some intensive cooking together. I've been studying the ramblings of David Chang and his Momofuku style. We tried some chicharron, pork belly buns, ribs slathered with honey sesame dressing, ginger-scallion noodles and some shabu-shabu. If this wasn't enough, we baked some sourdough bread at wood heated oven. I don't know which was more work: the heavy yardstuff or the cooking. I was dead tired after the day. Everybody had good time and that's what's most important.

Well, having flu is thing of autumn. You get sick two, three times a year and you just have to deal with it. I hope I can jump back to training track. It's getting pretty cold evenings, so I am thinking of including some weightlifting to the training regiment instead of running.

Cold waters

It's been while since updating the blog. I did normal training last weekend with the exception of sunday. First time in couple months I was out for night with friends on saturday. So on sunday I felt suprisingly weak and quezy. On sunday I tested my new Sommap Flow mask and it was pretty horrible on pool. I had very disthorted vision and it was difficult to do any dives. I ended up doing just 5x50m + some 25m's.

This week I had work trip to Germany for three days It was pretty exhausting. I arrived back home last night 2.30am. Today we headed for Kuorinka for pretty cold water diving. Weather was windy but we enjoyed nice sunset. My 3mm gloves are too thin (and broken) for this kinda of +8c waters. Otherwise everything was fine. There were no fish this time either...

Tomorrow I am heading again for friday pool practice.

I hurt myself today...

... to see if I still feel. This describes my running training today. First 10mins were nice and slow warmup, after this I saw some fellow runners behind me and decided to lose them. It's strange how you can motivate yourself to sprint when you think you're in competition, even if an imaginary one. Last 5mins of the run were pretty painful, but again I learned something new: you always have some adrenaline reserves and you can call upon them in the time of need. Some aggressive music from your favorite trash metal band helps :) I ended up with 30mins and 7 sec time for just over 6km length with avg hr of 167 and max hr 189. I felt I still had room to spare. Few years back I remember pushing with circuit training my max hr to 202 . That was tough exercise.

Yesterday I had yoga session, which was pretty good. At the end on the toughest part my legs were beaten to pulp or so I felt.

Tomorrow I will be waking up at 04:55 to catch a train to Helsinki. It's gonna be rough 14hr workday tomorrow. Oh, yeah, my Trygons nose clip arrived and some other gear. Sommap Flow mask looks pretty cool. I will test these this weekend. Now I am just too tired to try any max statics...