Well...what can I say about the altitude training camp in Spain?! Three weeks on top of a mountain, where we eat, sleep and train in the same building is pretty tough going, but I know it will be worth it in the long run. I much prefer warm weather camps where I can swim outside! What it has been though, is an experience I have never had before in swimming.
We spent the first two and a half days indoors because we were tired from travelling and just being at altitude has an effect on your body, the snow and fog outside didn't help either! On the third day, we decided it was time to get out of the building and walk down to the local town, Pradollamo. Our coach had walked it the day before and told us it was about 20 minutes and down a few steps...little did we know it was 20 minutes of walking down 407 steps!! Needless to say we were all a bit shakey walking down but we were in high spirits and throwing snow balls at each other the whole way down.
Pradollamo is a little ski town in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Spain. We are staying a little higher up the mountain, at the "Centro Alto Rendimiento", which is the Altitude Centre. The reason why training at altitude is beneficial is because there is lower air pressure up here, therefore less oxygen, this stimulates the body to get better at absorbing and transporting oxygen by increasing the number of red blood cells. When we get home on Thursday I'm off to the English Institute of Sport to measure the change in haemoglobin mass (red blood cells) to see if we have achieved what we came out to do.
As well as our time spent training, which is roughly 77.5 hours of swimming in 3 weeks - with an average of 70,000m per week - we went sledging which was so much fun! Watching Michael Rock do a face plant in the snow was the highlight and I have it on camera! We also went into Granada for the day and saw the Alhambra Castle and had a very nice lunch.
With only two days to go until we go home I will enjoy looking at the breath-taking scenery and watching the skiers on the ski runs looking like ants in the distance. What I am most looking forward to is getting home for Christmas and spending time with my family and my fiancé David Carry.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Busy, busy, busy!
I haven't stopped since getting back from Delhi!
I've done a couple of photoshoots. Myself, Liam Tancock and Becky Adlington did a shoot with Simon from GB Swimstars which was really good fun – I can’t wait to see what the shots look like. And the other shoot I did was with Liam Tancock at the Nottingham Virgin Active which is such a great gym – it’s in an old train station so the walls are all old red brick, stunning! The shoot was for Speedo’s Aquafit products, I even got involved in an Aqua Aerobics class when I was there...which was great fun and pretty hard too!!
I also had a lovely surprise awaiting me when I got back, for which I’d like to thank Links of London. They gave me a London 2012 friendship bracelet which is my new favourite piece of jewellery! They gave it to me as congratulations for my medal at The Commonwealth Games, so kind of them.
Now that’s all done and dusted, I am currently at the start of a three week training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain. It’s an altitude training camp at 2,300m above sea level, it should be an interesting experience as I have never been this high before!! We get back home on the 22nd December which is pretty close to Christmas so I’ve had to be really organised this year and have all my presents sorted before I went away. It’s also my birthday while I'm away so that should be a nice break in the camp.
I've been back in the water for only 5 weeks and so far it’s going well, it’s not been easy that’s for sure, but I’ve enjoyed getting some hard work done!
The weekend before we flew to Spain, I raced at the Stockport Open Meet which went brilliantly! On Friday night I swam the 1,500m and clocked a 16.29.4 long course which is only 15 seconds off the British record!! Not bad for 5 weeks of training! For Saturday and Sunday the meet went from long course to short course and I did the 400m Medley in a 4.41 and the 200m Freestyle in a time of 1.59.8. I was really pleased with my swims and looking forward to racing them at nationals next March.
I’ll let you know how I get on in Spain!
I've done a couple of photoshoots. Myself, Liam Tancock and Becky Adlington did a shoot with Simon from GB Swimstars which was really good fun – I can’t wait to see what the shots look like. And the other shoot I did was with Liam Tancock at the Nottingham Virgin Active which is such a great gym – it’s in an old train station so the walls are all old red brick, stunning! The shoot was for Speedo’s Aquafit products, I even got involved in an Aqua Aerobics class when I was there...which was great fun and pretty hard too!!
I also had a lovely surprise awaiting me when I got back, for which I’d like to thank Links of London. They gave me a London 2012 friendship bracelet which is my new favourite piece of jewellery! They gave it to me as congratulations for my medal at The Commonwealth Games, so kind of them.
Now that’s all done and dusted, I am currently at the start of a three week training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain. It’s an altitude training camp at 2,300m above sea level, it should be an interesting experience as I have never been this high before!! We get back home on the 22nd December which is pretty close to Christmas so I’ve had to be really organised this year and have all my presents sorted before I went away. It’s also my birthday while I'm away so that should be a nice break in the camp.
I've been back in the water for only 5 weeks and so far it’s going well, it’s not been easy that’s for sure, but I’ve enjoyed getting some hard work done!
The weekend before we flew to Spain, I raced at the Stockport Open Meet which went brilliantly! On Friday night I swam the 1,500m and clocked a 16.29.4 long course which is only 15 seconds off the British record!! Not bad for 5 weeks of training! For Saturday and Sunday the meet went from long course to short course and I did the 400m Medley in a 4.41 and the 200m Freestyle in a time of 1.59.8. I was really pleased with my swims and looking forward to racing them at nationals next March.
I’ll let you know how I get on in Spain!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)