Ending the Bank Holiday Weekend with a splash

Its been a good weekend with a mix of activity, rest and relaxation. After meeting up with good friends on Saturday in Canterbury we spent Sunday and Monday shopping (for the house and for sports equipment). Today was a fairly lazy day for the most part.

After a late wake-up, a good vegetarian English breakfast - i.e. an English Breakfast with no bacon or sausage (i.e. mushrooms, baked beans, toast, cottage cheese and poached eggs) and an extended lie in we headed to Bluewater and Clare bought her new running shoes (to find out more check out www.accidentallykle.com ). On our return I graced my sofa for a further extended lie in and then mustered the energy to drag myself to the gym. I was aiming for a drill session of 72 lengths (1.8km). Well, the training session didn't go exactly as planned ... the drills got very boring very quickly, and actually tired me out more than the actual swim (I tried doing the 'Touch catch-up drill' - slow, boring and a tiny bit painful was the best assessment of that). So after 4 lengths worth of drills I just gave up the drills and continued with the normal swim. With the target at 72 lengths, I reached 70 and still felt fairly good. Sighting the clock I saw I was 10 minutes away from the full hour so since there were 'only' 10 lengths left to hit 80 (and the 2km) I went for it.

I really need to improve my technique though. The problems I've noticed (or at least the ones I reckon I've noticed) are the following:

(a) stroke rate - I counted the strokes, 38-40 strokes per length is quite heavy and I need to improve my stroke efficiency;

(b) breathing - I breathe once in every four strokes, so I always breathe on the same side. I feel like it may be giving me a crick in my neck so I need to get comfortable with one breath every three strokes ... which at present is very uncomfortable (breathing over my left shoulder comes naturally but breathing over my right shoulder really doesn't).

I'm sure there's plenty more that's wrong, but notwithstanding these issues, I'm very happy with the effort today.

Unless I start getting serious withdrawal symptoms throughout the day it'll be a rest day tomorrow. The fitness base is building well and as of Saturday I start with the actual structured 12 week programme leading up to race day. Bring it on!