Finally I’m going to prepare for the last phase of project 13. Last Friday the test was there for me to show some of the progress goals. During the week I still did my fitness- and pool sessions to finalize the transitional week.

Fitness- and Pool sessions
During the last 2 weeks I continued with the fitness schedule, combining it with specific cardio exercises. These exercises exist of breath-holds during the cycle-cardio, so cycling at a certain tempo and then holding breath for 30 seconds and then recovering for 30s and so on. In the end the breath hold time could be increase by 5s or 10s, which made it a great workout.

The pool-sessions where focusing on a shorter distance with a higher intensity, but still specific breath-hold parts with every meter I swim. And last day of this week was the test night for the progress goals to be tested.

Test night
Friday Jorg had planned the Tongelreep pool for me to test the progress of the schedule. As Jorg likes to prepare me for the mental part he always adds a little pressure to the whole event, knowing this is what I need to get over… As I always have something going on in my head. Unlike many freedivers, who try and clear-out the mind and close their eyes whilst freediving, I’m always there with my thoughts and eyes open thinking and seeing every step of the performance.

I had to do 2 runs; DNF 105m and DYN 120m as we set out a while ago. Thursday we also planned a static session which I had to do 6:20 and reached the set goal. Now only remaining were the DNF and DYN performances. So when I was preparing for the performance, Jorg was lifting the 5m deep pool to a depth of 1,4m.

First up was DNF 105m and as I was standing there preparing all things felt good and up for it. But during the DNF run it felt a bit too quiet and slow, never the less I continued to the 100m mark and went for the turn, but as I felt I was loosing the control of that turn I immediately surfaced and had a bit of a hard time recovering. Of course Jorg was there to tell me what to do, although it was a small LMC we are always very cautious when it happens. After the run we discussed what could have been the problem, why it happened… Conclusion would be that I’ve done my run in about 2:00 minutes which I normally do in 1:40 or so. My speed wasn’t sufficient and some misjudgments in the turn points also proved that swapping a 50m pool for a 25m pool was a bit too much.

Next up was the DYN 120m, but to go for a solid performance where I am totally in control I decided to do a 100m DYN. I performed that with ease and could have done one lap more, but we both believed that certainty is more important.

Concluding
I’m actually glad this has happened to me now, as I know now that I can swim further and still feel the point where I really do a MAX performance. Not by distance but more in my mental part to go as far as my body tells me to go.