As 2019 comes to a close, Mike reflects on the season so far
Closing out 2019
Tips for the start of your season
Mike gives his tips to remember when starting a new season
Three Lessons on Rest
Three important lessons on rest for masters swimmers Mike learned
European Masters Diary – Final Race Day
I only had one event on my third and final race day, the 100m freestyle. This was my best event when I was a junior swimmer, although in hindsight if I had more opportunities to swim the 200m free then that might have been my best. This was the event that I put a lot... Continue Reading →
European Masters Diary – Second Race Day
I was lucky to have a day off after my first day of racing, an unusual thing for me in multi-day competitions. We took the opportunity to go to see lake Bled using one of the competitions shuttles. As soon as we saw the amazing water I started to regret not entering the open water... Continue Reading →
European Masters Diary – Before Race Day
Arrival The Worlds in Budapest were so much fun last year, we decided to take the kids to the Europeans in Slovenia this year. The only downside was that getting to Slovenia is a little tricky. Our journey started with an 11pm trip to Dublin for a 5 am flight to Amsterdam, and from there... Continue Reading →
Nearly There
After writing this I realize some of it is a bit grim, but I'm going to go with it anyway as it captures the grind that goes with training for a big competition. My last hard week of training is now done and it certainly was the toughest. Over the last two months there were... Continue Reading →
The Slog to Slovenia
The counter in the sidebar of this website shows how many days to go until the European Masters in Slovenia. While I am a little bit behind where I would like to be, I am still on track and I have started to increase my number of training sessions per week. This post will give... Continue Reading →
Mikes February Update
It’s been a while since I gave an update on my own personal training and swimming. I’m so busy between coaching, training, writing about other topics, and life in general, that it’s hard to get time to write about myself. This is a big year for me in terms of swimming, because of a goal... Continue Reading →
How I learned to deal with pressure in swimming
As far back as I can remember, swimming has been part of my life. From galas to swimming birthday parties, it has always been there. However, like every sport, it has had its ups and downs! In this article, I will be speaking about pressure in swimming from a swimmers point of view, but also... Continue Reading →
I made the Irish Masters Development Squad!!!
This year, for the first time since I became aware of it, I qualified for and joined the Irish Masters Development squad. I hadn’t been doing as much training in the pool when I first heard about it. I was still coaching and competing in Martial Arts, so I was training in that for roughly... Continue Reading →
IM Tune Up Session
This is a nice tune-up session for IM, it has a nice mix of aerobic work with some drills and sprints. The variety should help to keep it interesting. Warm up 200m Fc 200m IM order kick, 6x50m broken IM (50m Bf-Bc, 50m Bc-Brs, 50m Brs-Fc) focusing on change-over turns -set total 700m Main... Continue Reading →
Pace Under Pressure
Trying to pace yourself during a race is difficult, as the race progresses you feel more fatigued so that in say a 400m doing 32 seconds for the second 50m feels very different from doing 32 seconds for the 6th 50m. To try and simulate this feeling of going harder to hit the same time... Continue Reading →
The Switch-a-roo
The main set of this session switches between 200m IM and 100m Fc. This makes the session challenging, but not boring despite being 1800m long. The times I use are my own, I would roughly be getting 15 seconds rest on the FC and 20-25 on the IMs. I find the changing between the two... Continue Reading →
Me, my tech suit, and I
My junior club swimming was all done in the 90s, and in Ireland back in those days it was hard to come by decent swimwear (and forget about apparel from the top brands). Most swim hats were latex and the fanciest swim suits were lycra. This typically meant you would have your “good” suit for... Continue Reading →
