15th May 2009, Friday. My 6th YF Swim; Coach commented:- "You are my 4th swimmer in lane 3!"

Tonight was my 6th YF swim. Again I was grouped into my usual lane 2 and 3rd swimmer. Was a little late so skipped the swam up swim.

As usual we began with a hour of drill. I was getting used to all the drill now; I should be as this was my 6th training with him now.

Tonight, seemed to have few new swimmers in lane one who have a little problem keeping to their own lane and swam CCW, just like me when I started my lesson with them. Occasionally heard coach poking fun saying "Hey keep to your own lane, you wouldn't want to hit against Henry; right? see he is so big size". Hey coach you meant fat is it? hahaha! OK I took it as a compliment. During the drill, I was slowly shifted by coach to 1st swimmer, means what? I was getting faster. doubt

Undoubtedly a sure compliment from him tonight was during our 3 sets of 200m long swim, he commented after my 2nd set;" Hey, have you been swimming?" I told him that I have been working hard on my hand entry since the last time he corrected me and he continued:- "Hey, the speed you are going, you are my 4th swimmer in lane 3" and he put his thumb up to me and said smilingly; "good, just try to keep your head up a bit, speed up your recovery stroke will help. (apparently lane 3 are all for fast and seasoned swimmer with well polished stroke).

Yes I have improved and was fast, my 3 x200m timing was around 5 min - 5min 15sec. But really; fast was not in my mind, what I wanted was slow but swim efficiently with good glide. I noticed that I was also not panting so hard like before after each set of swim.

We also did; lost count; I think 6 to 7 set 50m sprint, I recorded only the last 2 laps that my timing was slightly over 1min, and the rest were between 55 - 58 sec. Well done, your effort and training paid off. The swim ended with threading water which most swimmers dislike, I supposed, but coach did explain the importance.
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12th May 2009, Tuesday. Labrador Hill Run - 7 loops of 1.2km

It has been quite some time since I last ran Labrador hill. Our deal was to run below 1 hr for 7 loops, and knowing that I was weak in hill run, my own deal was refrain from walking no matter what.

Started my 1st two loop too fast as tried pacing Mrs Teng-to-be. Felt my legs were too heavy on the up slope and insisted that I would not stop to walk, but I faded my run to walk a few steps on my 6th loop, and there goes the saying the will is strong but the flesh is weak, hehehe, ya for tonight. I think I have pushed very hard for tonight hill run, I felt a little cramp on both calf muscle on the way back to club, strangely this has never happened before. Anyway, it was a good run and training. Enjoyed it!

Timing:-
1st - 7.45m
2nd -8.06m
3rd-8.33m
4th-8.27m
5th-8.37m
6th & 7th-17.15m ( took a drink & pee break at 7th loop- 30sec)
Total time = 58m 43s (Total distance = 8.4km)

Club to Labrador - approx. 16min
Labrador to Club - approx. 15min
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11th May 2009, Monday. Great Improvement - 3 x 10 laps < 13m 20sec each set

Went for swimming at MF Safra. The pool was not so crowded at the beginning about 7.15pm but was quite packed after my 1st set of 10 laps. Tonight I trained hand-water-entry again with pull buoy, hopefully it would sink down into my sub-consciousness. Cool man!, there was improvement in the 3 sets of 10 laps; timing as follows:-

1st set - 12m 34s (rest 1-1/2min) (ave 1min 15.4sec per lap)
2nd set -12m 54s (rest 1-1/2 min) (ave 1 min 17.4sec per lap)
3rd set - 13m 18s (ave 1min 19.8sec per lap)

These timings mean 1lap < 1min 20 sec. Why concentrate < 1min 20sec per lap as a bench mark? It is the qualifying time to participate in Sing Biathlon which I have always thought I can never make it. 30 lap for 40 min, ave 1 lap 1min 20sec. Tonight timing proved I am close to achieving it, even though I was using a pull buoy for the training for the time being.

My next phase of concentration will be my rhythmical flutter kick, may be will start this training on my own after the next couple of week. Mean time will still concentrate on water entry and arm stretch for the couple of swim. Hopefully the near-perfect-stroke of catch, pull, push and recovery would be into the sub consciousness.

Tonight, deliberately not to watch out for on coming "human traffic", I mischievously swam continuously looking down into the pool and swam CCW in my lane, just to see how many collision would there be, or better still let other avoid collision with me. Sound like I own the pool hehe!! I collided head to head 2 to 3 time with swimmers whom could not swim CCW on their own lane. Hopefully these swimmers would learn to swim correctly soon, quite mean, right? haha! Hey I might be banned in the pool totally.

After my swim, I did what I like best, sit down to watch others swim, clocking others' lap timing, identify their mistake and learn from those who were swimming gracefully. Yes we do learn from others by observing.
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9th May 2009 Saturday. More Swim

Saturday is always our (Lucille and I) golfing day but due to mother's day (Lucille's mom) dinner celebration and late night on Friday we decided to skip golf. How ever just cannot resist not having golf, I went to SSC driving range in the early afternoon to practice my swing and brush up my chipping till to 3pm. Pick up Lucille and the boys to go to her mom place, and while waiting for dinner time at 7.30pm I went to MF Safra for a swim. I was planing to Toa Payoh Safra which was nearer to Lucille's mom place, but was informed that there was no 50m laps pool.

I did 3 x 10 laps FC with pull buoy, 13.15min, 14.00min and 14.40min. After that, did 2 x 200m (below 5.30min) swim without pull buoy and 2 x 50m ( 1.07min) sprint. The pool was also crowded and had to maneuver my swim not to crash with other swimmers. Again, encountered another "irritating butterfly". I stopped my swim closed to 7pm.

I was nearly locked out at the pool, outside the gym because it closed at 7pm as it was not only Sat but a public holiday. Normal Saturday closed much later than 7pm.

We celebrated the dinner at Sakura , a buffet dinner. Wow to much food, over ate........!! A long long ride + brick was a must on Sunday, I thought..!!
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8th May 2009 Friday. My 5th YF Pool Swim-King Henry You Go First.

Tonight was my 5th YF pool swim. It appeared that my effort paid off after training on my own to correct my mistake that was "hand entering water during recovery stroke". With correct hand entry it reduced drag, and thus tonight I was gliding fast with slow stroke. Having said that I was also attempting to be conscious on the pull and push. During our long slow swim, I was initially 5th swimmer but after 1st lap coach shifted me to 4th swimmer, and after the end of the 1st set of 200m, coach called out to me" King Henry, you go first as 1st swimmer", a compliment I believe. He must have noticed that I closed up the front swimmer too soon that I have to stop several time. He commented that I could soon go to lane three (a lane for faster swimmer), but may be not so soon, I still need to brush up my stroke.

I enjoyed tonight drill. We did longer lap drill which was something that I like. I felt I was getting use to all the drill being introduced. I particularly like side kick although it was very tiring, and something I like to improve on. Perhaps this week during my own training I focus on this. Hopefully, all my focus in each particular motion will be in my sub-consciousness.

The long slow swim was 3x 200m, 1x100m, 2 x (25m sprint follow by relax front crawl). Before the swim end we did threading water, it seemed that most swimmers dislike this part of the training.

After the swim, I rushed off to my niece Pauljean 21st birthday at One Degree 15 Sentosa Cove.
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7th May 2009 Thursday, Slow Recovery Run, Reserve Energry for Friday Swim

I have decided to go for a very slow recovery run. Quite a disappointment to have missed Tuesday easy run in MF due to work and dinner with customers. I also try not to strain my leg too much because of tomorrow YF training.

I did a 6km (thru Morse road to MF hill, then down to Kampong Bahru back to MF) + 5 km loop(thru harbour front and back to MF). Total time 65min, it was a slow and easy run without pushing myself too much. Nevertheless felt the legs were so heavy due to the 32km Sunday Pandan Reservoir run.

During this run, many thoughts gone thru my mind; calculating how many weeks before the Desaru HIM, planning time and day for my training for this key event, recalling what are the upcoming events that I have signed up. Wow! it will be a busy months - May passion run and Sundown Marathon; June Phuket Marathon but not sure if still possible to run in Phuket, July Port Dickson tri, wow really a busy busy months for multi sport. I was also thinking how to incorporate these events into my training. More importantly is to plan for more time in swimming, an area that I need a lot of improvement and to improve fast; need to plan other days or other part of the day to swim instead of Wednesday evening whereby the pool is so crowded that always bump onto other swimmers, without able to swim peacefully. It was good to put some thought and get organised as work is also getting stressful, with limited time to train to be ready for Desaru HIM on 1st Aug. The thought of "What should I do for training this Sat (no golfing) and Sun........." also came to this training-organisation-mode!!

I finished my run at the same time with MF runners who did 6 loops of MF hill, and already looking forward to tomorrow YF swim. Happy training!!!
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6th May 2009 Wednesday. Time to get back swimming and work on hand entering water on recovery stroke.

Should I go for a recovery run or swimming? Still could not decide even at the end of the day. But as it has been 10 days since I last swim on 24th April's YF swim, and recalling the mistake in my stroke as noted by my YF coach that I decided to swim, to work on the mistake which was hand entering water during recovery stroke.

I began swimming with pull buoy, 10 laps, slow and easy swim; fully focused on my hand entering water avoiding side entering. I noticed in order to do correctly and effortlessly, side turning was important as I could lift my whole hand higher, above water. After the 1st 10 laps, took couple of minute of breather, I did another 10 laps, followed by a few laps of swim without pull buoy.

Tonight, the pool was again very crowded. Swimmers crossing lanes and I was wondering when would they know how to swim CCW around the black line marker in an orderly manner. And again there was one swimmer swimming butterfly splashing water noisily all over the pool. Worst still the spot light at one end of the pool (near to the gym) was not working; may be it was not malfunction, it could be shut off for the scuba diving training. Anyway it made swimming very difficult.

Hmm, I must plan to swim on other day or other part of the day. Perhaps, swim during my lunch time and definitely it will be a near-to-empty pool. Ok will try one of these days.
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