The on-going smashing of PBs...

I've had another happy week!

On Thursday evening after working too much and feeling a bit tired I did 121m no fins dynamic at Freyberg Pool (33m and very annoyingly shallow at one end). It felt pretty good and was a new PB. I did one very bad turn and was getting a bit bouyant (feet coming up on the glide) and I think I was a little off balance as my feet were swinging around a little on the glide (not sure if this is from my weighting or the general flow of water from swimmers/pool water circulation).

This morning I made it to 134m at Porirua pool (I love this pool, it's 25m and about 1.3m minimum so shallow enough to stand in at the shallow end but deep enough to not really upset you with the pressure changes, and goes down to about 2.3m). I still felt quite conservative as Braedon was my buddy and was on the side a lane over. Had to come up on lane ropes and B threw some flutter boards at me: the wave they created mostly ended up in my mouth, but I was absolutely fine, so there should be a bit more yet... I added another .5kg to my belt and did about 30 packs. Did four full packing breaths in the hour or so beforehand, the last one was about two minutes before my dive. I'm currently gliding to the count of 5 from the wall, 4 from a pull and 3 from a kick, so I've sped up a bit. Had a lot of ugly contractions from about 20m and all through the second length, but they subsided a little after about 65m. I managed to keep a good consistent pace and didn't ease up on my technique (sometimes I get sloppy near the end). Only had a little bit of lactic build up in arms and legs.

Come on 150! :)

Static excitment

I did 6 minutes!!! I'm now bouncing off the walls! I'm trying to record all the pre-dive variables, so here goes:
Yesterday I worked until I could no longer think then took the dog for a walk before dinner until I really had no energy left. Last night I ate a big steak and had a glass of red wine, and didn't train. Today I worked at my desk for 10 hours, got a bit late for training so was rushing around. Did one stretching packing breath just before leaving work around 6:45pm. Walked home from work and drove to the pool. Arrived at pool at 7:15. Did 5 mins of stretching trying to relax a bit. Got dressed. Got in. Did one more packing breath. Two minute countdown. Took a breath and held it for 6! Yay. It took 30s to inhale and I did about 25 packs. Stood up and jumped around. Felt a little light headed after jumping around for 30s immediately after the dive, but not too bad. I think there might be more in me... :) I have now officially achieved my statics goal for the year, will have to set a new one: I reckon 6:30 is a good next step.

training, or lack of...

This week's been quite good. Did a 5:23s no-warm up static followed by CO2 training of 8 x 1:30s with one breath in between. I also pulled off a 139m dynamic, and it feels like there's still a lot of room for improvement. I'm pleased to be finally making some advancements in this area. My fancy new fin is going to arrive in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to hit the end of the pool (150m) by then so I can see if it's the fin that really makes a difference or not. Haven't done much fitness work at all and have been drinking wine pretty regularly, which really won't change before the end of the year as work is hectic and the social calendar has been blown out of all proportion. Very excited that Will Trubridge is going to come and run a course or two over here for us. We feel a bit isolated over here in NZ sometimes.

a new era!!!

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!

comp photos

Here are a couple of photos of me from our recent freediving competition:

Photos: Colin Gans (c) 2007

For more photos from the comp got to: http://www.underwaterdisplay.net/Apnea/Wellington0709/

Colin has also taken a lot of really beautiful underwater shots: www.gans.co.nz

training log

Trying a few new things at the moment. Doing a lot of no warm up dives just to create a lot of strain. I'm teaming up with Chris as we have similar results, so we're going to push each other up to the 6 minute mark. I've been doing between 4 and 4:30 (only 3:23 for the first one tonight, then 4:32 after about a 10-15 min break) with absolutely no warm up or time to chill out beforehand. The second one may be better due to lung stretching - might have to try a few deep breaths prior to starting. I'm trying to do more in-water statics as I was getting to the point where I was doing better dry and feeling pretty uncomfortable in the water. Would like to get it up to 5 straight up. I'm currently having a little trouble fitting in my lunchtime swims so have to re-organise a little to swim on the weekend (with summer coming this might be replaced with real diving!) and have a rest day or two during the week. Have done yoga since we left and my back and shoulders are really suffering, so need to factor that back in. I have also been wearing my monofin. We did some filming on the weekend and my arms are way too high (kind of undulating from what should be the mid point upwards) and moving up and down a lot. Have to keep working on it. I've ordered a new soft fin with blade angle, so hopefully that will help. Any comments re training ideas/techniques are most welcome/encouraged!

PHOTOS!!!

I have finally uploaded trip photos! I gave up on blogger as it took too long, and have put up some albums on facebook. Just follow the link below, click on the picture to see the album, then there's a link at the top called "back to Kathryn's photos" which will take you to the rest of them...

Enjoy (sorry there are so many - these are truely just the highlights)!

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=603676027&k=4YE6P2V5QYTBXAGHVA42

busy weeks

Emma finally left for London last week (although it feels like she only just came back from Japan). She was meant to be there when we were over there and was missed in Paris when Patti, Jeremy and Anna were there with us. She's leaving Shin behind to cycle around NZ. We went along to her leaving dinner/Shin's birthday last week. Here they are:

Minnow is just sooo cute that she needs to be shown off:

This weekend was pretty chaotic. There was a freediving comp here in Wellington, which I hadn't done enough training for (not quite sure why I bothered), considering we've only been home for three weeks. Everyone else did particularly well. Dave broke the Dynamics world record twice (I unfortunately didn't manage to see either). Kerian pulled out a 201m, which is pretty huge. Phil did 131m without fins. Guys did over 7 mins in statics. Ant got to 223, but shook a but much and unfortuneatly just lost it at the end. I did a 93m no fins and 111m with. I'm vaguely happy with the later as it was pretty easy, and I've only worn my fin about 4 times this year. For me it can only get better from here on in... The competition was held over three days, but after ten weeks away I decided not to bother asking for additional time off. I had a go at DNF on Friday night (never a good time for me) and DYN on Saturday morning. Kerian, Guy and Phil modelled their sexy suits for the camera.

We left the comp after my swim on Saturday morning and drove up to Palmerston North to see Elizabeth Quinn get married to Gareth Gibson, boyfriend of 8 years. Elizabeth and I attended all the same schools in PN so have known each other since we were 5. She's the one that the teachers used to get me mixed up with... It was great to catch up. I got home without as amny photos as usual. But I'm sure they'll put some of the good ones up on their wedding website soon. It was great to catch up with some other old friends from high school too (top photo is Elizabeth, Gareth and Dennis and Bev Quinn, lower one is bridesmaid Nadine Fletcher, from high school).

We went back to Wellington to catch the final Sunday afternoon session of the competition and the prizegiving. I didn't compete due to lack of training and a good evening out the night before. Jude made some beautiful medals for us (Thanks Jude!). Guy lost his clothes (stolen) so spent the rest of the evening in his rubber suit, drinking champagne. Is Dave really tall or is Kerian just really short - perhaps a little of both... What do you think of my blonde look? I'm just waiting for summer to catch up...

week ending 10 Sept

Yes, I'm running a little late. I don't really remember what I did last week. It's all been down hill since my first fabulous training session. At least I proved that I've still got it, just have to subtract the stress loads and I'd be great! I think my first swim once I got back in the water was a nice easy 85m no fins, which I'm not complaining about. I've even had my mono out for some sessions! I was just testing that I really don't like it in the pool and justifying my decision to spend heaps of money on a new one (it's working). Just have to figure out how floaty I want it (being a very floaty person I won't need it to be anywhere near as floaty as the boys' ones - would end up with my feet over my head all the time).

I had quite bad jet lag last week. Every second night I couldn't sleep. I assume it was every second as the next night I was shattered and had to go to bed early. Work is manic and I managed a whole day of overtime this week. I'm really tired already and have to try to get lots of sleep prior to next weekend's competition. I'm hoping the tiredness is just a carry over from the jet lag, but might be part of having to use my brain again after having such a good break.

I really don't want to fall over again. I think I need to reconsider some of my breathe up, etc, as I'm getting huge head rushes lately, even if I come up fairly early I generally feel a bit wobbly. It's a bit concerning. We'll see I suppose. The comp is too early for me really - I need about 3 more weeks to get back into shape. :( If I'm still feeling like this next week I might not compete... :(

People on our travels

I just wanted to mention a bit about the people who we caught up with on our travels. This is Mariko who lives in Shanghai and very kindly showed us around. Can't explain the big golden pig: We caught up with Sandra and Sven in Vienna for dinner and a bit of sightseeing the next morning:
Patti (my old flatmate) came to join my support team for the World Champs - Go NZ! This was an excursion organised by the WC organisers, to Lake Bled. Eva (Denmark), Penny (Oz), someone else on the boat, wierd over-enthusiastic tour guide guy, Maria (Denmark) and Barbara (Germany).
We put some faces to names at the World Champs. This is Ben(ny Boy) Noble from the land of Oz (living in London). This is after the WC but before the after party, taken in our fab high school hostel room.
The pre-party drinks grew... From left to right we have Penny (Ben's wife) from Australia, Eva from Denmark (the Danes brought some very strong liquor which help them to forget the entire evening from about the prizegiving onwards), Liv from London, Ben & Braedon:
The Danish liquor went around the room. Martin from Germany, Maria from Denmark, and Patti from NZ:

I can't remeber this guy's name so if someone could prompt me that'd be great. THe shocked girl is Elizabeth from Norway, with Britt from Denmark behind and you can just see a bit of Rhys' forehead (Ozzy living in London).

Not sure who these two guys are (think they're Americans), but this is Junko from Japan (she trains in Hawaii) and Annabelle from Hawaii:In London we caught up with Debbie and Anna from NZ.

... and Penny, Jeremy (my old flatmate) and Ben (again after WC):In London we slept on the floor of Mike and Jane's little row house flat. They're Kiwis too.Amber and Todd came and stayed with us in Paris while charging around the world. They're Kiwis too...Patti stayed with us in Paris for about a week. Jeremy and Anna came over from London for a weekend. This photo was in one of the many queues at the Eiffle tower...In Aix-en-Provence Heidi and Shaun gave us a bed and were wonderful hosts showing us the local sights.

This is their daughter Maia. She's got such a great place to grow up among the vines in the sunny South of France - and they have a pool!

In Rostock, Germany, we stayed with Andrea and Emilliano. I met Andrea in NZ when she was here on a student exchange in 1997! She was heavily pregnant (due about now), but they managed to show us around the town pretty well.In Berlin we stayed in Sandra's apartment while she stayed with her boyfriend Sven (remember we met up with them in Vienna earlier), not too far away. We met Sandra in 2003 when she was in NZ doing her masters and we were her Kiwi Connections VUW alumni hosts.We caught up with Braedon's cousin Amber and met her German hubby Heiko in Berlin, and they showed us some local sights:We also caught up with my old Wellington scuba diving buddy Stefan and his partner Miriam in Berlin. They cooked us a very nice meal. We also got to meet their daughter Helena. Unfortunately she had gone to bed when I took this photo, but never fear...

Stefan took us to the airport the next day and brought Helena along:In Singapore we stayed with Tom and Chris, who were fantastic hosts - they looked after us very well.

So, thanks to everyone who gave us a bed to sleep in during our travels. And it was great to catch up with some friends we haven't seen for a while and put some faces to names in the freediving world.