The last week has been quite eventful in my freediving life. Firstly, Phil managed to finally get me to suck in air with my tongue, so after years of sucking through straws trying to learn to pack I finally can - I keep practising to to check I can still do it... On Saturday I did a pb for dynamics with fins: 124m, no warm up. It was a horrid dive. My technique was terrible: 4/10, I had contractions from about 30m, everything hurt, but my head was really clear at the end, probably a 7/10 push. Looking forward to the new fin arriving (it's a soft one with a glide angle - hopefully much more enjoyable, and the reduced stiffness will hopefully help my technique). Didn't really pack for this dive as was still sorting out how to. This evening I did a 5:19s static, no warm up (other than stretching about 15mins before and I did a couple of full breaths just before leaving home, so about 45mins before) - no fancy exhales or breathing beforehand, just one big breath. I did 8 packs as I promised I wouldn't push it too much to begin with. First contraction was 2:38. Head was clear when I stood up, about 8/10 - plenty left. Did another shorter one later with about twice as many packs and didn't have a contraction until about 3 mins. I'll keep working on it and see what happens.
Training at the moment consists of very little fitness work. I've been working quite long hours so haven't been managing the lunchtime swims or yoga. I have to try to do at least one a week as my shoulders and back get too sore if I don't (and I'm putting on weight, and the christmas rush of high calorie delicacies hasn't even started yet!). I'm trying to take it a bit easier at the moment since I have nothing to work towards. I'm trying to do a long DYN, DNF & STA once a week each at the start of a session (even if I don't feel up to it - it's just a long one on a different scale), then working on technique after. I'm going to try to stretch my lungs out a bit with packing and stretching daily (ie about 5 or 6 full breths over about half an hour - no real holds).
I really want to hit my 6mins soon... I feel it's in me and not too far away. Time will tell. Thanks Phil for giving me the extra bit of air (pretty good of you since we're pretty close competition - different rankings list though eh!).
I'd really like any feedback you guys can give me re training and hints of things to try. Please feel free to comment!
