A swimming website for all
Its been a while since I gave an update on Jia's Rome Challenge, it was a very busy summer. Summer 2018 Things went a little off the rails in the beginning of the summer. I took a two week break from swimming after the Irish open and afterwards I insisted Jia take something similar... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
I mentioned in the previous article that I was wary of making the same mistake a I did for my first race in the Worlds. It’s something that niggled at me in the run up to the competition, I was determined to leave nothing to chance. I would get to the pool early to make... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
I'm doing a lot of anaerobic work at the moment, this session is something I've been toying with for a while. I did a test run with my sister Claire on it last week and plan to give it another shot this week or next. The idea behind this session is to prepare myself for... Continue Reading →
This is my go-to Anaerobic Threshold set. For anybody unfamiliar with this term: Anaerobic Threshold isn't actually using the anaerobic energy system, it's aerobic but just under where lactate is produced. So typically 85% effort and above, but under 90% effort. This kind of session will help increase your aerobic training speed and should help... Continue Reading →
As I mentioned in my powerbreather review, until recently the last time I wore a snorkel was as a child heading off for a day of exploring a local beach. Of course, back then we didn’t have ones made specifically for swimmers. I have seen more and more swimmers start to use them in the... Continue Reading →
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 →
There is sometimes a perception that a training session has to consist of sets of 100s of meters, I’m guilty of it myself sometimes. This session is all based around short distances, its goals are to help with pace, speed and should give a good overall workout. It also is one I use for days... Continue Reading →
Until three weeks ago the last time I had used a snorkel was when I was 12 and back then I was wearing one to boldly explore the majestic waters of Tralee bay, as long as those majestic waters were within my depth, or slightly out of them if I thought I could get away... Continue Reading →
We are now 9 months into the Rome challenge and as we are only competing in Munster galas, Jia’s competitive season is over, but her training continues. The Irish Masters Open The Irish Masters Open was Jia’s third competition and her first long course competition. We went up the day before to get used... Continue Reading →
This session started as an idea between myself and my sister. As teenagers we both had some “fun” butterfly sessions, but we are now masters swimmers and not quiet up to the same amount of punishment. So, a few years ago when we were only training a few times a week we came up with... Continue Reading →
I’ve read about people online liking these fins, but I knew nothing about them before I tried them. From looking at them I imagined they would be quite rigid like the TYR Crossblades. This changed as soon as I pushed off the wall and started to swim with them. They were surprisingly flexible and this,... Continue Reading →
