Today was my first swim coaching session in Aussie. The local pool is glorious, even at the ungodly hour I frequented it at today. It is directly across the road from gym number three, so I can see myself doing a few brick sessions there when the weather doesn't want to cooperate. Sadly, uncooperative weather is fast becoming the norm here. I think Auckland's weather stowed away on my plane over from NZ. Last weekend was the first one without rain that I can remember since arriving here nearly four months ago.
My new swim coach, Ray, had to nitpick with my freestyle to find stuff I can work on. I don't need stroke correction, which is great, as it turns out the money I spent on swimming lessons back in NZ was well spent. What I do need is to beef up my freestyle kick, which is a bit lazy and weak. Time to break out the flippers, hamstring and glute exercises, and more pilates for the legs.
My coaching sessions will be very structured with Ray. We're going to work on my kick and my swim fitness/swim endurance. I will be doing a four lap kickboard warm up with flippers each week, then into blocks of 250 metres freestyle, working up to blocks of 500 and 750 metres freestyle, with a break into water polo stroke for half a length in the middle of each block. Cool down will be breaststroke and survival backstroke.
I'm off to Malaysia in just under two weeks, and my plan while there is laps in the pool, time on the bike and some weights. It is possible to maintain and even increase your fitness on a stationary bike while travelling, according to an article I read last night (not exactly rocket science, I know). So, that's my plan.
I think an hour of slog each morning will be fine, before it gets too hot and sticky during the day. The last thing I need is to work my butt off now (literally and figuratively speaking) and slack off because I'm in a tropical paradise for six days. I'll take runners, togs, goggles, swim cap, a couple of Ironman-related books and some common sense!
Slightly off topic, I splashed out on a new TV, with a built-in DVD player for my virtual rider windtrainer sessions at home, VGA input for my laptop, HD for watching foxtel and best of all, I can now watch the movies on my hard drive on a decent size screen. I also have the option of sitting on the couch in comfort while surfing the net, updating my blog, and typing stuff. Bliss! I love my wireless multimedia keyboard, I can couch potato all I like now (after training of course)!
Now that I have the blender, printer, new runners and TV, my next purchases will be a coffee machine, windtrainer, club tri suit, and a waterproof MP3 player for the pool. Eventually I'll need a wetsuit, but I'm leaving that until I am a little more physically aerodynamic - the same reason why I don't yet have aerobars. You can have the fastest bike around with all the aerodynamic gear available, but if you're not physically aerodynamic there's no point.
My plan for tomorrow is pretty simple. Sleep in, have a good breaky, hit the gym and then a quick trip to the supermarket for milk, bananas, strawberries, yogurt and frozen smoothie fruit. Then, I have washing and housework to do. Boring but necessary, so all good.
Catch you later.
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