Braved the cold waters again for a pre-summer swim training session. Headed down to Hayama Isshiki beach (more like a bay) with a couple of other brave souls.
It was another early start to the weekend. Why do I find myself getting up earlier on weekends than I do on weekdays (work days). It’s almost as if I look forward to Mondays purely for the sleep in (the luxury of getting up between 7:30-8am).
After the Polar bear dip on New Year’s Day and nearly dying, I donned the wetsuit this time. A summer wetsuit (sleeveless and short legs) but a wetsuit nonetheless. Air temperature was 10 degrees. I’m guess water temperature between 13-15 degrees. Stung like ice and your chest constricts making it hard to breathe. Legs are numb and your arms feel like lead pushing through the water. It takes a good long while (about half an hour) to warm up and not feel numb. Makes breathing really difficult. We managed a loop around the bay and swam about 1.2km all up which is not bad for my first open water swim training session, considering it’s still only April.
Perfect conditions for it though. Flat as. Just the way I like it. Was a bit hard to get into a good stroke and breathing pattern and my sighting was terrible. There were quite a few people out there on SUP boards and in dragon boat boats.
Perfect conditions to SUP:
Am soo looking forward to SUPing again this summer.
It was a struggle getting down there early in the cold temperature, but it was totally worth it. Will be needing to get in a few more open water training sessions.
Last night, I did a really good solid training session in the pool. I’ll share my set with you – good for building endurance and speed and kills the boredom of a straight 5.5km swim:
1km warm up (1km). No rest
10 x 100m sprints (1km). 2min turnaround (ie 100m sprint + 10-15 second rest + start the next set all within 2min)
5 x 200m sprints (1km). 10-15 second rest between sets.
10 x 100m slow/easy (continuous 1km alternating between sprint down 50m, recover 50m swim back). No breaks.
1 x 500m sprint
1km cool down/recovery swim
Total Distance = 5.5km
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