Nightcrawler's Journey to European Masters Swimming Championships (Slovenia)

Today's second session:
03.11.2017 - 12:30-13:00 - 1500m (19m pool, assuming 3 laps as 50 meters, wearing short with pockets)
3x500m crawl 1fast-1easy-1fast (7:26 - 8:14 - 7:20)

04.11.2017 - 08:00-09:30 - SCM - 5000m (Wearing short with pockets)
1500m crawl with paddles (20:47, pace:1:23)
1500m crawl hand drag drill (23:12, pace:1:33)
1500m crawl with parachute(no time measurement).
*150m recovery among the laps

05.11.2017 - off

06.11.2017 - 07:00-07:45 - SCM - 2500m (Wearing short with pockets)
45minute non stop easy swim with short + parachute

Today's second (lunch time) session:

06.11.2017 - 12:30-13:00 - SCM - 2000m (Wearing short with pockets)
30minute non stop easy swim with short + parachute

Notes: i didnt like parachute, it's rope extension tangles to my legs.

07.11.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing slip trunk)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:04, pace:1:20)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:35, pace:1:30)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:03)
*150m recovery among the sets.

08.11.2017 - 06:30-07:00 - SCM - 2000m
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles, wearing short with pockets (06:46, pace:1:21)
Set2: 1500m crawl with paddles, wearing slip trunk (06:31, pace:1:18)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles, wearing speedo laser jammer race suit (06:19, pace:1:16)
*150m recovery among the sets.

Notes: Today I was reluctant. I cut off the distance and did some trials with various trunks. I am satisfied with the cadance, today I tried 80 strokes/minute by using tempo trainer. It was nice to see that I could sustain this cadance with paddles which was harder in comparison to without paddles. It was really hard for me to sustain 80 strokes per minute 6 months ago. When I swim with the cadance over 80 strokes per minute pace improves immediately, 80-85 strokes per minute is another dimension for me, hope to achieve it soon...

It sounds really good NC, I think you're on the right track. I already noticed a faster stroke rate in your latest videos and I believe 80SPM+ really suits your technique because:

- the straight arm recovery gets more effective at higher rates (the "ballistic" effect)
- you breathe every 3 strokes and not every 2, so fast rates are a must if you want plenty of oxygen (and to sustain those paces I guess you want a lot of O2)
- you usually prefer kicking as little as possible vs relying on a strong 6bk

As for the race suit, I'm amazed by how it can improve speed to that extent. What do you feel when swimming with race jammers vs the brief/slip trunk? According to what I read here and there about race suits, they improve speed because they compress the body (ie better shape) and keep the water outside (ie less drag). Now I can understand the difference on a full body suit, but here we're talking about jammers: they compress only thighs and butt (maybe they also improve posture, don't know...), do just leaner thighs make such a difference?

Salvo

09.11.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:31, pace:1:22)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:47, pace:1:31)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:18)
*150m recovery among the sets.

Notes: I could not sleep tight enough yesterday due to some obsessions in my mind, but still the results were impressive, at least more than as I had expected for today...
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s.sciame wrote:It sounds really good NC, I think you're on the right track. I already noticed a faster stroke rate in your latest videos and I believe 80SPM+ really suits your technique because:

- the straight arm recovery gets more effective at higher rates (the "ballistic" effect)
- you breathe every 3 strokes and not every 2, so fast rates are a must if you want plenty of oxygen (and to sustain those paces I guess you want a lot of O2)  
- you usually prefer kicking as little as possible vs relying on a strong 6bk

As for the race suit, I'm amazed by how it can improve speed to that extent. What do you feel when swimming with race jammers vs the brief/slip trunk? According to what I read here and there about race suits, they improve speed because they compress the body (ie better shape) and keep the water outside (ie less drag). Now I can understand the difference on a full body suit, but here we're talking about jammers: they compress only thighs and butt (maybe they also improve posture, don't know...), do just leaner thighs make such a difference?

Salvo  

Dear Salvo,

In 2017 FINA Masters Budapest World Champs almost all the competitors (except us, I and my friend Turgut) were wearing FINA approved(with barcode) full body race suit (including Samuele Pampana). Speedo jammer was almost the half price of the Speedo full body suit, that's what I could afford it at that time. Keep in mind that, jammer makes at least 2 secs imrovement in 100m pace in comparison to slip/brief trunk.

Some key points to become faster are:

- Improving the inner energy:  Wearing short with pockets is helpful to gain strength and power. Although it is claimed that short damages the technique, it has not been proven yet. On the other hand, we dont have such a delicate technqiue also noone has a perfect technique, the better/faster swimmers are the stronger swimmers not the elegant swimmers. A real life example: 3 weeks ago in Antalya Ironman Gloria Champioships at the hotel I met by chance with him and watched Chad Le Clos's freestyle technique, I can say that he has a weird freestyle technique but swimming 1:45 200m free, can you imagine? So there is nothing special to do than gaining strength, power and higher cadance. Indeed, apart from tall swimmers such as Thorpe or Popov other elite swimmers who have average 180cm arm span have more than 90 strokes per minute in order to catchup with the same pace.

- When the subject "higher cadance" involved, shoulder/joint health occurs/or should occur in our mind. To have healthy joints especially shoulders I can offer doggy paddle/hand drag drill, it helps to rehabiltate and soften the shoulder, also teaches the proper rotation, at the same time improves strenght. Also especially the masters(old swimmers) should eat at leat once a week gelatine-rich food or soup for the joint health.

- Another important factor is the motivation. Having better motivation helps to reach higher seratonin/adrenalin hormonal levels that makes us to become delirious/enhusiastic/effervescence during the activities. In order to FLY/be more motivated we must get rid of the weight of life. We must get rid of the things around us which slacken us (believe that it wont be sacrifice and this is worth for happiness - once upon a time our neural network teacher at the university had told us that people get selfish when they get old, may be this is the truth for the happiness and the rule of life itself    ).

Sincerely, have a nice week.

10.11.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:23, pace:1:22)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:57, pace:1:32)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:17)
*150m recovery among the sets.

Notes: Today I performed the average paces, not more not less.

11.11.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:17, pace:1:21)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (23:02, pace:1:32)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:20)
*150m recovery among the sets.

12.11.2017 - off

13.11.2017 - 07:30-07:40 - 19M pool (Wearing short with pockets)
40 minutes non-stop freestyle with parachute.
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14.11.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing brief trunk)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (19:49, pace:1:19)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:34, pace:1:30)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:06)
*150m recovery among the sets.

Notes: Due to high chlorine dosage, I ran out of breath during the sets.

15-16.11.2017

The pool will be closed due to races. I went to my alternative pool near my office which opens 7:00 oclock in the morning, I have to leave the pool at 7:45 for reaching the office on time.

40+40 minutes non stop swim by wearing short with pockests and using parachutes in 19m hotel pool. With short and parachutes my strokes per lap is 17, with brief trunk and without parachutes it is 11 strokes.
http://www.wowhotelsistanbul.com/d/istanbul/media/Health_Club/WOW-ISTANBUL-HOTEL-HEALTH-CLUB-1.jpg

17-18-19-20.11.2017 (total: 16km)
I did 4000m for each day non stop swimming in 18.5m pool with peddals + short with pockets. 3 laps assumed as 50m.
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21.11.2017 - Morning Session - LCM 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (21:26, pace:1:26)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (24:08, pace:1:36)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:38)
*150m recovery among the sets.
Notes: The pool was turned to 50m today, it was harder to swim in 50m pool with short having pockets.

22.11.2017 - Morning Session - SCM 4500m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:41, pace:1:23)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (23:20, pace:1:33)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:19)
*Total 1000m recovery among the sets.

Some phootages
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbyNQwbhY9A/?taken-by=maratonyuzme

23.11.2017 - Morning Session - SCM 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:47, pace:1:23)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (23:23, pace:1:33)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:21)
*Total 500m recovery among the sets.

Notes: I arrived at the pool 10 minutes late, so that tried to be as quick as possible during the recoveries and transitions among the sets and finished the workout on time. 1:23 pace by wearing short having pockets and with paddles has become stable for a few weeks with 75 SPM. I can break this barreer only if I can swim with >80 SPM, and in the days to come I am planning to train with higher SPMs. By the way, since the Aqumasters tournament which was in the first week of October I took 4 kilos, this is also a big handicap to reach the desired pace, I again should follow my diet. All these things that I mentioned above are related with good pshychology and motivation, but nowadays there is economoical and social depression in our country, especially the city I am living(Istanbul) has become very crowded with the people lack of respect and coutesy. Anyway, I am trying to keep myself far from these facts and focus on just swimming by keeping my mind fresh and motivated.

For Slovenia masters world champs my race song is Ratt-Body Talk

https://youtu.be/Rqz2KFJJiaw

Last 8 days workout:

DATE DISTANCE(m) AVG.PACE/100m
20.11.2017 4200 00:01:23
21.11.2017 4000 00:01:23
22.11.2017 6000 00:01:23
23.11.2017 4000 00:01:22
24.11.2017 4400 00:01:22
25.11.2017 1000 00:01:19
26.11.2017 3000 00:01:22
27.11.2017 4000 00:01:22

03.12.2017 - 08:30-09:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing slip trunk)

Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:07, pace:1:20)

Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:31, pace:1:30)

Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:04)

*150m recovery among the sets.

08.12.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m (Wearing short with pockets)
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:28, pace:1:21.9)
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (22:58, pace:1:31.9)
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:16)
*150m recovery among the sets.

Notes: Nowadays I am dealing with a project and have no time to login to the forum (business trips, analysis meetings, etc). But in ay case I am still trying to keep my form and maintain my workouts. Swimming with shorts having pockets is really a torture, I am doing my best but cannot feel the same glide in comparison to ordinary trunk, so that I need to kick more and increase the SPM. As a result at the moment I can maintain the 80 SPM all along the 1500m freestyle, and higher SPM is working very well with my vertical straight arm technique

Last weeks's daily training sessions' total meters:
04.12.2017 2000
05.12.2017 4000
06.12.2017 5000
07.12.2017 4000
08.12.2017 7000
09.12.2017 4500
10.12.2017 3500
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Total: 30km.

This week I want to reach 32km, upto now:
11.12.2017 4000
12.12.2017 4200
13.12.2017 5300
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13.5km (4 more sessions to do)

Fixing the average weekly total volume to 30km is my strategy this year. This makes total 1200km until Masters Eueopean Championships/Slovenia. My pace with short and paddles is around 1:20 at the moment in short course, and I guess it is gonna be 1:18 in 50m with race suit and without paddles. In 25m pool swimming with shorts makes +4 secs pace difference when compared with race suit(speedo Fina approved fastskin jammer) and paddles makes -2 seconds in comparison to without using any equipment. All in all I am happy with my pace at the moment, 1:18 pace is not bad for a master swimmer in a 3k marathon swim event and hope -1 or -2 seconds I can improve it within 38 weeks.

12.12.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 4000m ( Wearing short with pockets )
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles ( 20:38, pace:1:22.6 )
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill ( 23:03, pace:1:32.2 )
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace ( recoveries included total time: 7:19 )
*Total 700m recovery among the sets.

13.12.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 5300m ( Wearing short with pockets )
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles ( 20:28, pace:1:21.9 )
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill ( 22:59, pace:1:32 )
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace ( recoveries included total time: 7:16 )
*Total 1300m recovery among the sets.

14.12.2017 - 06:30-07:30 - SCM - 6500m ( Wearing short with pockets )
Set1: 1500m crawl with paddles (20:41, pace:1:22.8 )
Set2: 1500m crawl hand drag drill (23:03, pace:1:32.2 )
Set3: 10x50m crawl R:5" - 400 race pace (recoveries included total time: 7:14 )
*Total 2500m recovery among the sets.

Some of my photages from my swim clinic today, i by myself demonstrated some drills to my students:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwW_y2h-Nf/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwW8FFh6uF/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwWuL9hnU8/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwWiqXhHsj/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwWZGhBAtU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwWOaBhA1V/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwV5bfhRcv/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwVgzjh-pA/

Nightcrawler,

I enjoyed studying these drills which were beautifully presented.

A general comment is that you used a straight arm entry for everything which is skilful and new to me. Especially the Tarzan.

Clip 3, one arm, two each side is my Dunco drill which I patented some ago. Thanks for publicising it for me.

Broken Arrow was superb!

Keep up the good work, you,ll get there in the end!

Hi Cotty,
Thanks for your kind comments.

I m doing my best to swimming better while working in a full time job.

I wish you join 2018 European Masters Championships Slovenia(Bled Lake) with your UK passport(if you have), it will be nice to meet you there and swim together, talk more about swimming, drink wine, eat fish, etc. I and my wife are planning to be there on the 7-8-9th of September 2018.

Happy Xmas and a new year. You also keep working, hope to reach your goals soon in 2018

Hi everyone,

Last week on 19 th of December 2017(Tuesday) I sold my car to an auto gallery in order to restructure my mortgage. I have been travelling by public transport since for a week, I feel relieved, no taxes, no gasoline fee, no insurance and maintenance, no traffic, etc... I am waking up 15 minutes earlier than usual to catch the metrobus, but I got used to it, everything seems fine at the moment.

While dealing with sales issues last week I could only swim 16km in total, not bad but this has led to decrease in my form, my pace per 100m in 1500m is around 1:22 at the moment. This week I will pull something together and try to get into form again.

On the other hand, at the weekend I watched the Turkish National Championhips, the boys were swimming the 200m free around 1:45 and 1500m free around 15 minıtes, these may be not so good for EU standards but still incredible for me  
 After watching the guys I thought that I am bathing instead of swimming


Here are the results and this is all about Turkish Swimming:

Results of the freestyle events:
50m free (Women): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/index.html
100m free (Women): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_6F.pdf
200m free (Women): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_28F.pdf
400m free (Women): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_37F.pdf
800m free (Women): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_1.pdf
50m free (Men): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_44F.pdf
100m free (Men): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_5F.pdf
200m free (Men): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_27F.pdf
400m free (Men): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_38F.pdf
1500m free (Men): http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/ResultList_2.pdf

Results of all events:
http://canli.tyf.gov.tr/2017turkcellgencacikkk/index.html#

Today is Christmas Day here and it seems most people were on the beach. It was a nice 32 deg. And water about 21.

We have done some super sea swimming and both getting stronger daily. 50m in lumpy choppy water is equivalent to 10 x 50m laps in a pool. Since Paul Newsome is in the Northern hemisphere atm, we are working hard in the sea and relaxing in the river.

Bled Lake would not be possible as we will be in the middle of the Atlantic then.

Merry Xtmas Cotty and have a nice swim in the new year.