Note: Skip to my question at the bottom if you don't want to read my life story.
I am a masters' swimmer (age 51) new to DNF/DYN and free-diving. I started doing DNF as a winter training regime (as a breast-stroke sprinter) and apnea/DNF seemed like good technique and anaerobic training with the bonus of making beach holidays more interesting.
My efforts are pegged at: 75m DNF; 3min static; and 25m depth CNF after a month or two. These self-imposed limits are due to the fact that my dive buddy is half my size, I go solo often, and I'm not sure how far from disaster these numbers are. I have small kids and my life policies do not cover death-by-stupidity. I don't seem to get contractions of the kind described on these forums. My pulse drops below 40bpm (from 60 resting) in each instance. I experience a weird kind of euphoric calm afterwards without any ill effects like nausea or headaches (only the urge to urinate and the desire to listen to reggae). In contrast my dive buddy has hectic contractions after 30sec and suffered a seriously debilitating migraine after a 88m DYN PB attempt which I assume had something to do with vagus nerve stimulation. The only reason she stopped at 88m was because she felt fantastic and that scared her knowing she was close to 100m.
We do the CO2 and O2 static tables regularly and can do similar tables in the pool DNF/DYN with 25m & 50m repeats.
My question: I want to maintain a fat safety margin: In the absence of any clear warning signs currently, how do I figure out how far from trouble I am without risking blackout in the pool?
I am a masters' swimmer (age 51) new to DNF/DYN and free-diving. I started doing DNF as a winter training regime (as a breast-stroke sprinter) and apnea/DNF seemed like good technique and anaerobic training with the bonus of making beach holidays more interesting.
My efforts are pegged at: 75m DNF; 3min static; and 25m depth CNF after a month or two. These self-imposed limits are due to the fact that my dive buddy is half my size, I go solo often, and I'm not sure how far from disaster these numbers are. I have small kids and my life policies do not cover death-by-stupidity. I don't seem to get contractions of the kind described on these forums. My pulse drops below 40bpm (from 60 resting) in each instance. I experience a weird kind of euphoric calm afterwards without any ill effects like nausea or headaches (only the urge to urinate and the desire to listen to reggae). In contrast my dive buddy has hectic contractions after 30sec and suffered a seriously debilitating migraine after a 88m DYN PB attempt which I assume had something to do with vagus nerve stimulation. The only reason she stopped at 88m was because she felt fantastic and that scared her knowing she was close to 100m.
We do the CO2 and O2 static tables regularly and can do similar tables in the pool DNF/DYN with 25m & 50m repeats.
My question: I want to maintain a fat safety margin: In the absence of any clear warning signs currently, how do I figure out how far from trouble I am without risking blackout in the pool?