This is a post by Jorg Jansen.
In the last months I’ve been doing some regular (mostly dry) statics again. Once a week, sometimes even 2 times a week. End result normally was that I did my third or fourth attempt the best time, being around 2:40-3:00 minutes. Pretty mediocre and not really special.
The thing is, I don’t like contractions at all. As soon as I feel one coming in the pool during static or dynamic, it’s over for me. Since I did quite a few 3 minute holds in the last weeks, without contractions and sometimes even on very stupid moments of the day (right after dinner, or after fitness), I decided to make everything perfect for one time.
So this afternoon the kids were away, my last meal was 3 hours before, it was time. I felt pretty relaxed and decided that because the year is almost over, I had at least have to endure 3 contractions during my best static.
First was a warmup that I ended after 1:45. 2nd attempt was 2:30 which felt pretty easy. After this one I decided to do my final attempt of the day and mentally prepared for the pain called ‘contractions’.
The first minute in the hold the only thing I could think about was the pain that would come, but somehow I managed to forget it and enjoy it. Suddenly I was not relaxed anymore, because I felt a contraction coming. I promised myself I wouldn’t look on the watch, no matter what.
I tried to imagine them as waves. Contraction comes, smashes on the beach, and washes away. The pain for me was intense, but with this mind trick pretty doable. After the third contraction I decided it was enough and wait until the next contraction would set in, which would be the end of the breath hold. Around 10 seconds after the last one, I felt it coming and decided to stop. Quick breath, hold, breath and okay. No real problem
The wonderful thing was that when I looked on the stopwatch the time was on 4:03 minutes. Not bad considering my personal best is 4:35 and I did that almost 7 years ago. Pretty happy with this time. But to be honest, I’m not sure if I’m ever going to like contractions like these again.
