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Last week was different from usual because I participated in two swim meets- Myall Masters on Saturday and Western Metropolitan RSL on Sunday. As a result I did less swimming training.
Outfit
A black and white flat lay just for something different and because it looks cool.
Running
This week I completed my standard routine of three runs. It was hard fitting in the Thursday night run because I was already so tired from the week and had swimming training the next morning. I also had the busiest weekend ever so knew there would be no opportunity to catch up on sleep. It was a relatively slow 7km because the weather was still very hot. The usual Tuesday morning run went well because it's always more fun to train with friends.
I went to Tea Gardens on Saturday for swimming so I used the opportunity to visit another Parkrun. It was a 2 hour 45 minute drive each way so I stopped just past half way at Lake Macquarie Parkrun. Being a regular at Parkrun now, having done a total of 46 now and 42 of them being at my home Parkrun, I always find it interesting seeing other locations. Lake Macquarie was a big Parkrun with around 250 participants even on the morning of a heatwave. The course was almost identical to The Ponds which I tried out a couple of weeks ago. Coincidentally I was there for the 4th birthday celebration. If I didn't have to swim later in the day I would have enjoyed some free cake and champagne (turns out my swimming meet didn't go very well so I should have just had the cake and champagne). It was nice how Lake Macquarie Parkrun gave out so many awards and recognised loyal participants, which rarely happens with Parkruns in Sydney. I ran the course in 24 minutes and 54 seconds, with an overall ranking of 42/249 and a gender ranking of 5/115. It was 1 minute and 18 seconds outside my best time but I wasn't going to push it on a day of racing swimming.
No Tennis
For the second Sunday in a row I had to miss tennis due to a swimming commitment. I've really missed it but I'll be returning this weekend. I might even play on Saturday too.
Swimming
It was a massive week of swimming so I have a lot to write about. I missed two training sessions because I raced at swimming meets on both Saturday and Sunday (weekly kms way less than usual). In total I did three training sessions, two carnivals and usual Wednesday night swim club. Wednesday night was one of my best ever swim club nights with all personal bests. I'm happy with one personal best so all of them is very rare. 2:41.37 for 200m freestyle, 38.51 for 50m backstroke (second time under 39 seconds), 42.81 for 50m breaststroke and 14.64 for 25m freestyle (only third time under 15 seconds in endless attempts). I'm most happy with the breaststroke because I rarely have improvement in breaststroke, and there's a history to it which I'll write about later. Overall I've been pleased with my swim club times this year.
On Saturday I attended an out of Sydney Masters Meet at Tea Gardens. It was an almost three hour drive each way. I don't usually travel so much for swimming but it was a meet I particularly wanted to attend. It was an incredibly disappointing swim meet for me. One of my times was acceptable but the other three were terrible. In fact the 50m fly was the worst time I'd done in a number of months. I can make all the excuses I want- I didn't get much sleep, I drove three hours to get there, it was a heatwave day, struggling with anxiety, I'd done a 5km run earlier, I'd trained too hard the day before- and some of them may be valid. However, at the end of the day I still did terrible times and nothing takes that way. I simple don't accept this low standard of performance from myself. To be honest I had a bit of a meltdown after the last event. I was so incredibly upset. I've put everything into training for the last year, I couldn't have tried any more. It's disappointing beyond explanation to not see the results. I feel like such a failure still not being good enough. Also I'm really struggling with the anxiety of racing. I always feel so much pressure for a certain outcome or time in each race. It's only pressure I put on myself but the anxiety is unbearable. I have to address it somehow. My friend was incredibly supportive and I'm so thankful for how nice he was to me when I was really upset. I was in a really bad place and it took awhile to get me out of it. The best part of swimming has been the friends I've made.
On Sunday I had another swimming carnival, Western Metropolitan RSL Carnival. It was my second year of winning the open 50m championship race. This time last year it was my first 50m freestyle in 12 years so I went into the race with zero expectations. I was lucky to win last year because there was hardly any competition and I was three seconds slower than currently. This year was much more competitive and the race was won by a small margin. Being the current title holder I felt a world of expectation and pressure going into the race and I'd been nervous about it for weeks now. I came away with the outcome I wanted of winning but it wasn't a great time and there were so many aspects of the race I wanted to improve. I need to improve my sprints. My times aren't where I want them to be and I'm better at longer distances. I feel disadvantaged with the open races always being 50m freestyle. I'll work on improving. Here's the trophy.
Improvements
-After the pain in my upper back a few weeks ago I've returned to the full program of weights. We've worked out the reason for my injury, turns out I was doing one of the weights incorrectly. I've been doing better this week.
-I'd like to add in a program of 5 push-ups and 20 crunches three times a week (in addition to the weights and the usual bootcamp).
-At bootcamp we did 6 x 100m sprints with a 300m walk recovering in between. The sprints are such good training so it feels good having fitted that in.
- I still need to improve my diet.
- I'd like to focus on improving my sprint times in swimming. I'll have to work out the best way to do it.
Weekly Photo
100m sprints. I really like bootcamp lately. It's so nice to be outside in the warm weather, I can chat to my friends more than during swimming training and with increased strength in the last couple of months, the program is no longer incredibly painful for me.
What did you achieve this week?
This week was a normal week training wise; I'll be busy for most weekends in February for I appreciated the standard week. For further details on what my usual week involves, see my post here.
Outfit
Here is the outfit I wore to bootcamp on Monday...getting some use out of my City 2 Surf shirt.
Running
This week I completed three runs. It was easier this week because Thursday was a public holiday so I didn't have the difficulty of fitting in the third run on a Thursday night before early swimming training on Friday morning. Because of the extra time I decided to run a 12km instead of the usual 7-8km. It had been ages since I'd completed a long run. I hadn't exceeded 10km since last September's half marathon. There hasn't been the need to and I've been focusing on shorter, faster runs since. It was great to see the improvement in my fitness since last September. 5 minutes and 30 seconds per kilometre for 12kms now feels very comfortable and I could have continued for longer.
I attended a new Parkrun location this week with my friends. It was such a different experience because it was so huge- 550 runners in total- compared to 150-200 runners at my usual location. It seemed unmanageable for the course and it was so difficult to get a free run. It was like a large running event where you can't actually run for the first couple of minutes because there are too many people in the way. Given the circumstances I was happy with my time of 24 minutes and 38 seconds. It's a minute out from my best time but I was expecting it to be slower and I can never be disappointed with a time under 25 minutes. I was surprised to rank 66/546 overall and 9/252 gender ranking. Overall it was a positive experience and a course I"d like to run again.
Swimming
This week I completed five training sessions and attended usual Wednesday night swim club racing. The total distance covered was 15.7km which is more than usual because of the Bold and Beautiful ocean swim. I felt a potential injury coming on as I've felt pain in my upper back on the right hand side for around a week now. I've experienced this two times before last year and it went away eventually but this time is worse. I've put time into rehab exercises and hot and cold treatment which has helped. I haven't missed any training sessions but took it easier on some days. It's interesting because on Wednesday night I was worried about racing, especially the 400m freestyle, with the injury. As a result I adjusted my expectations and didn't worry about time or pacing. I felt relaxed during the race and focused on a longer stroke. It was the most comfortable 400m freestyle I've ever done. I usually get so nervous before a swimming race so taking the pressure off made the world of difference. I surprised myself with a personal best of 5:50.16. On a similar note I swam a personal best of 38:69 for the 50m backstroke. I've been wanting sub 39 seconds for awhile now so that was a surprise.It was a combination of improved underwater and the no pressure. My back hurt a little during breaststroke but overall it felt better in the pool than out.
In addition I completed an ocean swim with the Bold and Beautiful squad at Manly this week. See my post about it here.
Tennis
Tennis was standard this week and I played four sets at tennis club. I'm going to have to miss the next two weeks of tennis because I have an ocean swim event and a swimming carnival. I am so sad about that! Hopefully I can find some other time to play during those two weeks.
IMPROVEMENTS
- I didn't address my areas of improvement this week but I won't be too harsh on myself because of the pain in my upper back. I knew many of the improvements I wanted to make would have made it worse. I wasn't able to do any weights or pushups this week (I'd introduced 5 pushups per day three times a week very recently). I'm wondering if this was the cause of the pain, in addition to general overuse. I'm not sure it would have been from swimming because I don't usually get injuries from swimming and it's a part of training I'm very used to. The strength training is much newer. I'll see how I feel next week as to whether I can address some intended areas of improvement.
- I want to get back into 100m sprints around the athletics track. I haven't done this for ages despite intending to. I should be doing more intense bursts of training and I find sprinting in running less painful than sprinting in the pool. Just five lots of 100m sprints is an efficient use of time.
Weekly Photo
This is from the Bold and Beautiful ocean swim I did on Thursday. Unfortunately it was cold and overcast but I still got some good pictures. See my post here.
What did you achieve this week?
I'd intended to post again during the week but I was too busy to post anything between the weekly updates. I'll do better this week.
In addition to my standard routine, I had a swimming meet on Saturday.
Outfit
Here is a flatlay of the outfit I wore to tennis this week. I'd never thought to pair the leggings and top together even though they now seem made for each other. I like the way the other colours stand out.
Running
Once again I completed three runs. It was easier this week because I had a working from home day so I didn't have the struggle of fitting in the third run on a Thursday night right before early morning Friday swimming training. I was reasonably happy with my 8km run at an average pace of 5 minutes 24 per kilometre because it was a training run and had a couple of hills each lap of the track.
I was very happy with my Parkrun time this week of 23 minutes and 49 seconds. It's my third time under 24 minutes and two times in a row. I wasn't planning to go out too hard because I had a swimming meet later in the day but once I got started in the race it just happened. I'm so shocked I'm able to run 23 minute three times now and it's becoming more consistent rather than just a one off. I think because my background is not in running that any success in running shocks me. I'm looking forward to seeing what can become of this. Also this week a few more of my friends came to Parkrun for the first time. It made the event much better and I look forward to more weeks like this.
Swimming
This week I completed five training sessions and Wednesday night swim club, in addition to a Masters Swim Meet. I missed my usual Saturday training because of Campbelltown Masters but added another session on Thursday. I reached a total of 14km. I completed three of the long distance swims for the Masters Swimming Australia Endurance Program. It's a year long program which involves 62 long distance swims. This week I finished the 400m backstroke, 400m breaststroke and 400m individual medley. I usually don't like to do so many on the one day because it hurts but I pushed myself. I wanted to make a good start this year because last year I didn't start the Endurance Program until April and it was hard to fit them all in. I was pleased with my time for the 400m individual medley but disappointed with the others; luckily it doesn't matter for the purposes of the program. In addition, I was happy with most of my times for Wednesday night swim club especially the 200m backstroke and 100m breaststroke. For the first time ever I got under three minutes for the 200m backstroke after being extremely close and just missing it the previous time. For the 100m breaststroke I swam a personal best time. That meant a lot because I've had almost no improvement in breaststroke for almost 6 months and for a period there it seemed to get worse. I've been very frustrated and disappointed for so long; this time really means a lot.
Saturday this week was different because I raced the first Masters Meet for the year in swimming. I was not looking forward to it. I majorly struggle with the anxiety of racing especially at Masters level and I cannot find any way to feel better about it. It's ridiculous because adult swimming isn't supposed to be like this but I'm always so nervous because of the expectations I place on myself. I learned to race swimming when I was nine years old but it's never become easier anxiety wise. I know if I do a bad time I will be incredibly disappointed and angry at myself for a long time. I had reason to be worried because the meet wasn't particularly successful. I had one good time, one average time and two terrible times. The event I'm happy with was the 50m backstroke where I swam 39.91 seconds. I'd had a goal for ages to swim under 40 seconds long course (I've done it plenty of times short course but always miss long course) so at least I achieved this. The 200m freestyle was about what I expected with 2 minutes and 45.34 seconds. If it was a short course pool I would have been disappointed but for a long course time it's acceptable. I think the conversion would be about three seconds faster so it would be my second best time ever for the event. The last two events were terrible. I had three events too close together and don't ever want to be in that situation again. I know that's a convenient excuse but when I was on the blocks for the races, I was still out of breathe and my arms were burning from the previous race. I want to be easier on myself but I can't get past the disappointment right now. It's hard swimming in a long course pool because all my training and most of my racing has always been short course; I can't believe how much of a difference it makes. Fortunately I won't have to swim long course again until April.
Tennis
This week I played tennis for a couple of hours at tennis club. Not much to say this week but it was a lot of fun and I think I played better than the last couple of weeks.
Improvements
- I didn't make much progress on my goals from last week yet again. My diet was a little better but not as improved as I'd hoped. I'll try again this week.
- I need to improve at breaststroke. I've been saying that for about six months now ever since I realised it wasn't up to the standard of my other strokes. I had some improvement in the 100m on Wednesday night which was significant but with the terrible time in the 50m at Campbelltown Masters it feels like a number of steps back. Not really sure what can be done here.
Weekly Photo
This picture is from the Campbelltown Masters Carnival on Saturday. It was such a warm day, I even got surburnt! It was a stressful day for me so I'm glad it's over.
What did you achieve this week?
This was another normal week training wise; I'll be busy for the next few weekends so I appreciated the standard routine. For further details on what my usual week involves, see my post here.
Outfit
Here is a flatlay of the outfit I wore to Parkrun on Saturday. The Nike Free Run Flyknit are miracle shoes. I've seen mixed reviews but I love them. More on that later.
Running
This week I completed three runs. Again it was hard to find the motivation for the Thursday night run because I was tired from my other training and I knew I had to be at the pool at 5.30am the next morning. However, if I didn't do it I knew I'd feel worse and see it as a wasted opportunity. I was satisfied with the run in the end. It was 7km and my average pace was 5 minutes and 17 seconds per kilometre. That's faster than I usually do for a training run. It's good to get some 7km practice in because I'll be running that distance at the Sun Run on the 4th of February.
After last week's struggle at the Parkrun, I did much better this week back at my home Parkrun location. Despite substantial improvements in my 5km runs over the past couple of months, my self confidence took a knock after last week's experience. It was incredibly hot and humid for the Parkrun, already reaching 32 degrees by 8am. I also ran without any device telling me my pace, which is rare (I wanted to enjoy the run rather than stress about times for once), so I had no idea how fast I was going. Therefore, I didn't expect too much from today's run. It was such a shock when I found out my 5km time was 23 minutes and 38 seconds. I never expected to be under 24 minutes because it's only the second time I've achieved a time like that. My personal best is actually 23 minutes and 36 seconds so if I knew I was only two seconds off my personal best time I would have tried to run a little faster at the end. Regardless, I am very happy.
Tennis
In addition to tennis club I played tennis on Saturday this week. The husband and I hired a court so we could hit together. We played a couple of sets of singles and practiced serving. It was really fun and made me realise how much I miss singles. At tennis club, because it's more social tennis, we only play doubles. My game is definitely more suited to singles. I can't fit anything more into my standard week but now I want to incorporate tennis singles somehow, maybe a competition here and there.
Swimming
This week I completed five training sessions and went to usual Wednesday night swim club racing. The total kilometres was slightly less than last week with 13.625km. I also completed one of the long distance swims for the Masters Swimming Australia Endurance Program. It's a year long program which involves 62 long distance swims. This week I finished the 30 minute breaststroke. I was pleased with my race times for Wednesday night swim club especially the 200m freestyle. 2:41.71 is a significant personal best for me.
Improvements/Progress on Last Week
-Improve my diet. I said that last week (and for many weeks before I was doing these weekly updates). I'll leave it on the list and hope for some progress.
-Leg strength. My calves and hamstrings didn't hurt as much during my faster runs this week. I am very grateful for that. However, it's still an ongoing problem so I still hope to find some exercises to improve leg strength.
-I didn't have much time for additional bootcamp style activities (but I did regular bootcamp on Monday) but I did some. I completed five pushups before work some mornings in the week. It's about creating the habit. I can't believe I'm capable of doing five "real" pushups now. I've never been great with body strength so it's huge progress. I think I'll be able to do ten soon. I'd like to create a similar habit with daily crunches.
Weekly Photo
This week's random photo is from my Thursday night run along the river. On another note I love the Nike Free Run Flyknits. My best runs have been in these shoes. I'll make another post on that.
What did you achieve this week?
This was a standard week of sport(ie. no swimming meets or running events to compete in) and these are my favourite weeks. It's a routine I've followed for close to a year now and has very much become a lifestyle. It isn't always easy (especially the days of waking up at 4.45am to go to the pool) but it's familiar and I enjoy it.
My weekly routine
Monday: swimming am, bootcamp pm
Tuesday: running am, swimming pm
Wednesday: swim club pm
Thursday: running pm
Friday: swimming am
Saturday: Parkrun am, swimming pm
Sunday: swimming am, tennis am
Outfit
Here is a flat lay of the outfit I wore for tennis today. It's probably my favourite at the moment. I have a large wardrobe of workout wear these days. For shoes and leggings I go with Nike and for tops I usually prefer Puma. I'll write a separate review on my favourite products later.
Tennis
This morning I played tennis for a couple of hours at tennis club. I love tennis and I wish I had the opportunity to play more frequently. It is always a highlight of my week. Unfortunately I didn't feel I played my best today which was disappointing and I'm not entirely sure why. But it's a social competition and there's always next week.
Running
This week I completed three runs. It's often hard to find the motivation for the Thursday night run because by that time of the week I've done lots of sport, I'm really tired and I know I have a 4.45am wakeup on Friday. Ideally I'd move this run to another day but there isn't much other time. I also don't like to go a day without sport and I don't like to move it to the morning because Wednesday is a late night.
On Saturday I attended the Parkrun but at a different location to usual. I prefer my home Parkrun overall because it's familiar and I know exactly what I need to do there to run a good time. But at the same time I enjoyed the change and am definitely up for trying others in the coming weeks. The best news was my friend from swimming came to Parkrun this week for the first time! Training with friends is always better. However, on a more negative note, I struggled with the run more than ever before. After the run I felt like I was going to faint for at least half an hour. I couldn't stand up, my head was spinning and I couldn't see straight. It made no sense because I was over two minutes outside my best 5km time and over a minute slower than what I'd consider good for the distance. I have not ever had a response like that to a race before (not in swimming or running). I've run countless 5kms faster and multiple long races including a half marathon. I'm at a loss as to what went wrong and that's frustrating. I'm disappointed and angry at myself and doubting aspects I shouldn't be such as my fitness level. I know objectively I shouldn't be but I'm extremely harsh on myself and I always overthink setbacks.
Swimming
This week I completed five training sessions and went to the usual Wednesday night swim club racing. I'm happy with a total of 14.35km for the week. I also completed two of the long distance swims for the Masters Swimming Australia Endurance Program. It's a year long program which involves 62 long distance swims. This week I finished the 30 minute freestyle and 30 minute backstroke. I was pleased with all my race times for Wednesday night swim club especially the 100m freestyle (1:12.88) and the 100m individual medley (1:23.72) which was a personal best.
Improvements
- Improve my diet. I've said that for so many weeks (or even months now) but it just doesn't happen. I'm putting lots of effort into training so I feel I'm letting myself down diet wise.
_ Leg strength. Whenever I run at a pace of under 5 minutes per kilometre, my legs hurt so much in the hamstrings but mainly the calves. It appears my carido level is such better than body strength. The frustrating part is I've been trying to address this for many months through weights and strengthening exercises. It may have improved a little but not substantially. I'm not entirely sure what can be done. Maybe different exercises or more of them. I'll try and research it.
- I'd like to fit more bootcamp style activities in my standard week. I don't have time for another session but maybe an extra set of pushups here and there or a set of crunches on additional days.
Weekly Photo
This week's random photo is of an empty pool. It's not often you see a pool which is completely free but it's ideal when it does happen.
What did you achieve this week?
