Tired...

After a massive few days of 6km, 15km, 15km and 9km it was time for a rest and a relaxing Pilates class today. With a speed set on tomorrow it's definitely early to bed tonight!

Big weekend

The weekend saw three sets completed. The first was a 5 hour strength set at the beautiful pool at the Australian Institute of Sport. Ben and I got through the set with relative ease, although I had a few demons creep in about the 3 hour mark.

Sunday was a relaxing pre squad swim set followed up by the squad set of 4km of strength work, lots of ankle band swimming...it's not my favourite drill!!

Tomorrow is gym day...hard work but so rewarding. 

Happy Bday

Today is my annual day off work, i have renamed 2 July to 'Kane Day' where my present is to do whatever i want to do.

I had a split set to do today. The first set was a 3 hour endurance set. This was proceeded by a 2 hour rest before returning to do a gruelling 5km speed set in the afternoon.

This will be followed up on Saturday by a 5 hour consolidation swim. 

Big weekend

The biggest swim weekend for a while is done and dusted. 4 x 5km sets done and done with surprisingly very little effort after such a up and down last 5 weeks.

Thx to Tara and Pauline for both coming along for a few kms.

The week ahead is a 35km week as I ramp up the preparations for Samoa.

First swim in a while

Yesterday was my first swim in a while. I think after about 5 weeks I have finally given the flu the boot...!

The set was a calm 5 km of just one paced swimming with some kicking thrown in the break it up. On the weekend I am going to do that exact set four times. This should start to rebuild the fitness I have lost. 

Finally...

Monday, Tuesday I was back in the gym and today it was Pilates and finally tomorrow I am ready to get back into the pool for a light session.

Sick again...

Unfortunately, i have picked up another bug that has kept me out of the pool all week. This time i have to stay out of the pool until i am 100% as the risk of getting pneumonia is now a lot higher.

This is being ill is rather annoying and is now affecting my Samoa preparation. 

The only positive i can think of is; i am building up all this immunity against these bugs. Hopefully next year i don't get them, or not as bad anyways. 

Over the 1000km mark

I just ticked over a 1000km of swimming in the last 365 days...

With three major swims to prepare for between the end of Samoa and the English Channel this figure will quickly turn into about 1500km.

This should give me about 2500-2700km for the 24 months preparation leading into my swim.

A lot of swimmers do far less than this to prepare for EC swim. It all comes down to what type of swimmer you are.  Because I am not a speed swimmer (nor do i enjoy the high intensity swimming) i need to get the high level of fitness required by just doing the miles. We will all get to the same fitness point at the end, we just do it in different ways.  

Back into it...

Today it is exactly 2 months until my next swim across the Apolima Straits in Samoa.

I am also back into the training after a bad dose of the flu and a chest infection. This is week two of a recovery period that should have me back to 100% fitness within three weeks. These sets are a mixture of slow freestyle, technique work and lots of strength work with paddles. All these sets are designed to minimise the loss of fitness whilst progressively getting back the fitness i have lost.

The training over the coming months will shift back into cold water at least once a week and warm water (same as Samoa) the rest of the time.  

Finally a swim

This flu is dying a slow death and is still driving me crazy. I did get a sneaky swim in yesterday although the 6km covered was about as quick as a Greyhound Bus trip.

Today I felt good enough to complete my gym session too. Things are looking up.