Friday, Aug 3: Railay Beach

Woke up around 11:00. We went to another beach today, which was possibly even better than the one from the day before. The beach was a great success as I have finally managed to break my record! I held my breath for 3min and 22 sec! As I've noticed before, holding the breath for a long time involves certain strategy. First, I can never get to even 2 min right away. It requires a few attempts and basically working my way up slowly. I'm thinking that it takes the boy time to acclimate and maybe it takes time to reduce the heart beat which I presume happens as well. Other than that as far as strategy is concerned it is important to reduce anything that's energy consuming. So no movement, eyes closed, and all muscles need to be as relaxed as possible. Then, there's releasing small bits of air at the right times, and swallowing (swallowing nothing really, but just having the motion in the throat). All these prolong one's ability to stay under water. Also, there's a breathing reflex that makes a drowning person drink water, when that kicks in, you need to have a "make believe breath", namely, breath in but keep the mouth closed (sounds strange but it can be done). This buys a few more seconds. After I open my eyes (that happens at the point where holding my breath becomes difficult) I have about 30 - 40 seconds left in me. (The time before eyes are opened is the most fun part, as it is the time where one can reach a high level of relaxation.) This time, I opened my eyes after 2 min and 20 or 22 sec. I thought I would not be able to break the record, yet I did want to go beyond 3 min. Once I did the record seemed to be within reach and so I held for a while longer until it was broken. Then I wanted to get to 3:20, and ultimately, figured a round number wasn't cool so I managed to get to 3:22...