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My DYN training log

Friday 8/20/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:50 (1:11/lap) (500/250u)
4*50u @ 3:00 + 4*50u @ 2:30 (400u)
10*25uf DNF in 15:41 (1:34/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 2100m/1200u

pullups/pushups 2*12/25, 1*10/20
shoulders 2*20

Good day today, was able to get some more reps in the first CO2 exercise (12*25u), so next week I'll start to lower the breaths to 3. Added some 50us with lower rest, all very easy (3-4 contractions max). DNFs were tough, started with 4 strokes to get across, and had to do 5 after the first few reps. Ended with some upper body work as my left shoulder has gotten pretty weak over time due to rotor cuff injury. As I said previously, CO2 exercises seem to be doing their job and I don't need to do O2 stuff (50u+, it's dangerous and boring, and takes too long) but I do need to get some distance in with my long fins this weekend to strengthen my ankles. I plan to do this Sunday.
 
Saturday 8/21/2020

Warmup 400m
6*100 breathing 3/5/7/7/5/3 departing every 3:00 (1.33, 1.36, 1.37, 1.36, 1.36, 1.36)
2*150 departing every 5:00 (2.21 2.29)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1400m
 
Sunday 8/22/2021

Pool workout today (long plastic fins, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
10*25uf in 11:10 (1:07/lap) (500/250u)
2*50u @ 3:00 (100u)
10*50u/25f(5)/25u, rest 1:00 (each set took 2:05) (1000/750u)

Total - 2000/1100u

Today I used my new shallow-water spearfishing fins, the Cressi Gara Modular Impulse. These are light-weight plastic fins that have a narrower width than my old Mares Razor Pros and also tapered thickness to the blade. They are soft and flex in a similar fashion to carbon blades (versus Razors that are basically like having barn doors attached to your feet). Due to the softness of the blade, my ankles do not feel tired at all, so I won't need to use them as much as I previously planned. My only complaint on the Cressis so far is that the front half of the foot pocket on the sole is smooth plastic and a little slippery, while the aft portion where the heel goes is rubber. This makes the front of the foot slip when you fin and it feels as though I am losing power. The fins come with some type of plastic sole insert, I may try it next time.

Otherwise, the workout felt pretty OK and next time I can do the main sets on 3:00 intervals for a small increase in difficulty. In general, I will stick to my CO2 workouts with short rubber fins, they are far more effective and safe than doing 50s.
 
Wednesday 8/25/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:32 (1:09/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 15:02 (1:30/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

pullups/pushups 2*12/25, 1*10/20

Nice speed improvement in the DNFs (might be my fastest ever), even though they took around "4.5" strokes to get across the pool.
Edit-fastest 10*25uf DNF was done in 14:50, and on most sets I took 4 breaths at the wall, so this is still really good.
 
Friday 8/27/2021

Warmup 400m
5 * 100m sprints @ 4:00 (1.31, 1.30, 1.29, 1.30, 1.32)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1000m
 
Sunday 8/29/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:34 (1:09/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 14:53 (1:29/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

pullups/pushups 3*12/25
 
Thursday 9/2/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:26 (1:08/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 14:29 (1:27/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

This is by far my fastest DNF set and I was taking the maximum number of breaths that I am allowing myself at each end (5). I did feel it though, it was tough. If I reduce my breaths to 4 even at one end, I'm confident I can get under 14:00.
 
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Friday 9/3/2021

open water swimming exercises

Warmup 400m
5 * 100m fast / 100m slow (100m fast in mid 1:40s)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1500m

Odd sets with current, even sets against.
 
Monday 9/6/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:40 (1:10/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 14:37 (1:28/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

pullups/pushups 3*12/25

The CO2 buildup really hit me hard today, cramping my neck and upper back at the end of the first exercise. Still I did pretty good in the DNF workout, 2nd fastest time ever while trying to keep it slow.
 
Thursday 9/9/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:30 (1:09/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 14:50 (1:29/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

Felt strange today. Tired and dizzy, I wanted to give up on every exercise. Otherwise, CO2 tolerance was fine today (no cramps or pain).
 
Friday 9/10/2021

Warmup 400m
6*100 breathing 3/5/7/7/5/3 departing every 3:00 (all 1:38)
2*150 departing every 5:00 (2.22 2.26)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1400m

Tried to keep things slow today, I feel tired and like I still have a lot of free radicals in my bloodstream from yesterday's apnea work but I needed to do some cardio.
 
Saturday 9/11/2021

Warmup 400m
5 * 100m sprints @ 4:00 (all 1:30)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1000m

pullups/pushups 2*12/25, 1*10/20

Wanted to do apnea work today but I was tired and I did sprints instead. I already did 2x apnea workouts this week anyway. I'll shoot for Monday for the next one.
 
Wednesday 9/15/2021

Warmup 400m
6*100 breathing 3/5/7/7/5/3 departing every 3:00 (1.40, 1.40, 1.38, 1.39, 1.38, 1.39)
2*150 departing every 5:00 (2.26, 2.26)
Cooldown 100m

Total - 1400m

Just getting some cardio in before my weekend apnea workouts. Skipped Monday because I was too tired. I will limit swimming workouts to 1x a week now, preferably 0x as I am almost into spearfishing season.
 
Friday 9/17/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:35 (1:09/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 14:52 (1:29/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall

Total - 1700m/800u

pullups 3*10

My dive skin has almost reached the end of its life. It has become severely stretched in just the last workout for some reason, and the pant legs and heel straps are parachuting, so the DNFs too at least 1 extra stroke to get across. Still ok for DYN as I can stuff the ends in the fins but I will need to just use speedo for the DNFs. Otherwise, a fine workout. No CO2 issues, just tired from lack of sleep.
 
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Thursday 9/23/2021

Pool workout today (short rubber fins, speedo, dive skin for sun protection)

Warmup 400m
12*25u with 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/4/4/4/4 breaths in between (300u)
10*25uf in 11:55 (1:11/lap) (500/250u)
10*25uf DNF in 15:48 (1:35/lap) (500/250u) -- 5 breaths at the wall and took dive skin off (5 strokes to get across)

Total - 1700m/800u

The dive skin is done, it's a parachute. My DNFs with just speedo are over a minute slower but they feel just as tough. CO2 tolerance is as good as it's going to get this season. Only a few workouts left until spearfishing season so on the next few I might swap some CO2 stuff for O2 stuff, we'll see.
 
Sunday 10/31/2021 Happy Halloween!!!

3.6 mile trail run in 31.44 (8.49/mile)
superset pullups/pushups/flutterkicks(4count) 3*10/20/10

First day of off-season training
 
Tuesday 11/2/2021

Hi everyone,

I got back from my spearfishing trip along the west coast of Greece. Similar to 2019, I spent most of my time hunting in shallow water of just a few meters in depth. I caught a personal record catch - a bluefish weighing 4.0 kg. I caught several other bluefish in the 1 - 1.5 kg range, a seabass 1.5kg, some gray mullets in the 0.8 to 1.0 kg range, and some seabreams around 0.5 kg each. Even the small bluefish were extremely powerful and can tangle you in your lines, leading to dangerous situation. I can't imagine how powerful a 10 kg fish is.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and I made the best of a bad situation because there was a tropical storm which lasted weeks and flooded many areas, sending dirt into the ocean. I had to miss a few days because visibility was 0 (roads were flooded anyway so couldn't travel), and on days when I was able to go fishing, visibility was maybe 10 meters max with much of the run-off accumulating at the surface of the water. In general this is good for shallow fishing because it hides you a little better prior to diving. This was a poor fishing season for reasons unknown, most likely the constant rain. There were far fewer fish this year than 2019. Max depth I got to this year was 15 meters, not for lack of skill/training, but because I did not go to any deep areas (furthermore, as mentioned above, viz was terrible and I spent most of my time in shallow areas anyway).

Equipment this year was same as last year except for fins. Mares instinct wetsuit (5.5mm jacket, 3.5mm pants), Cressi Gara Modular Impulse fins, 5 kg on my belt, 2 kg in my vest, and 0.5 kg per ankle. The fins were excellent, much better than Mares Razor Pros. My wetsuit has gotten quite old, and I was shivering within minutes of getting in the water, which did not lead to very long dives. Typical dive was maximum 1:15, but really for shallow water hunting you don't need to do aspetto much longer than that. Next year I will use my new 5.5mm jacket and 5.5mm pants, which will fit much better as they are not worn out. Water temp was typically 71 F every day.

I also had the Seac Driver dive computer which I used to record my dives, my depth, and water temperature. No analysis of data, as it is not important. I had upwards of 80 dives per day, and of course this lead to ear injuries very quickly (within a few days). Same injuries as last year (pain in the inner ear at bigger depths) but this year I also had something else going on - my ear canals swole up to the point where I couldn't fit a Q-tip in them, and if I did it was quite painful (almost like having a huge zit in your ear).

No solid training plan to outline for the next 12 months, other than to increase my running (more miles per week, but stop 2 months prior to fishing season) and to focus exclusively on DYN/DNF training in the last 2 months. Same workouts, no changes needed. Next year I plan to do some deeper spearfishing in the 20m - 30m range.
 
Tuesday 11/2/2021

3.4 mile trail run in 29.49 (8.40/mile)
superset pullups/pushups/flutterkicks(4count) 3*10/20/10
 
Tuesday 11/9/2021

3.6 mile trail run in 31.21 (8.42/mile) 1.2 mile splits in 10.35, 10.22, 10.24
superset pullups/pushups/flutterkicks(4count) 3*10/20/10
 
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