NE31 Tri Club

A really tough swim at the NE31 Tri club last week - it was a 400m warm up, and then 2 x 800, with the first set on hand paddles. I’m obviously not doing things right with these - I ended up with a really bad stitch in my left side about half way...
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My training’s reached the point where I’ve started to get those weird food cravings. This time, I WON’T be giving in to the temptation to have kippers in porridge, but it did get a little strange tonight. I didn’t have time to finish my supper before heading off to the pool, so I tucked...
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I missed the NE31 club’s swim session last night, so to make up for it, I went to Tynemouth pool this morning for a longer swim. I set my watch’s countdown timer to 1′13″ to give me a nice easy pace for each 50m (two lengths), and set off aiming for consistency. It kinda worked...
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So for Monday’s swim session,  the NE31 coach, Peter, told us that we were in for an easy session. Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good at all. Peter has a strange sense of what counts as “easy”, and our worst fears were confirmed when he said we wouldn’t need any training aids. This is usually a...
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I’ve just got back from a really disappointing pool session. And I’m not at all happy. Not happy at all. Grrrrrr! It’s the last Monday of the month, so that means a 400m time trial at the NE31’s swim session. After last Friday’s performance in the pool (2:30 / 100m pace over 1,000m), which was...
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With my parents arriving last night, I missed the NE31 club’s swim session. So I headed off to Tynemouth pool this morning for a short-ish swim. Unlike the club swims though, I did this as a more or less continuous effort. None of that hanging around at the end of the pool chatting &...
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After the freezing cold easterly wind of the last week, the weather changed last night, and it became almost warm. I’d noticed the difference in temperature as soon as we came out of the pool, so this morning’s run was sure to be pleasant. The sun was shining, there was no wind to speak of,...
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Remember the kid at school who spent ages putting together the perfect exam revision timetable? The one that was colour coded, with each subject highlighted, and every hour of spare time between now and the exams planned out in meticulous detail? That was me. Of course, the knack is to schedule the time to plan out...
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I’m starting to get almost comfortable with my front crawl, and mostly keep up with the other guys in my lane at the NE31 Tri club.  But when it comes to kicking lengths, I really suck. Big time. I mean almost going backwards kind of suck. Actually, if I get it slightly wrong, I...
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An unusual swim session tonight, involving lots of backstroke - ’standard’ and double-arm. We did: Warm-up - 100m crawl, 100m backstroke, 50m kick 1st Set: 400m, alternating level 8 front crawl, and catch-up for each 50m 2nd Set: 400m, alternating level 8 front crawl, and breast stroke for each 50m 3rd Set: 400m, alternating front crawl, and double-armed...
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