FlashBack Friday: Long term swim progress; Um, I have made SOME progress!

I had a killer swim tonight! I did a 9 x 200 descending 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 main set that I held on 3:30 going anywhere from 3:10 as the slowest to 2:58 as the fastest. So 1800 yards of pure beat down! I rounded out the night with 3000 yards.

What F-ing language am I speaking?

Because three years ago, I woulda looked at anyone speaking to me that way and said,

"ooooooookaaaaaayyyy? In English?!?!?"

Well! 3 years ago this is the swim workout that I did:
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Thursday, February 21, 2008

swam a mile tonight

what the subject said. and I swallowed a mouth full of water on the last lap, dang! haha

so yeah, 72 laps, which is 1.0227272727272727272727272727273 miles, sorry.

i felt like i could keep going, but i needed to stop to save energy for tomorrow night, which will be 40 -60 mins on teh bike (using correct heart rate zones!) and then a 25 min non stop run.

Its supposed to snow/sleet all day tomorrow (come on! get warm!) but sunday is supposed to be around 40 and sunny. Hopefully the roads will be all better by then so i can get in ~48 miles.
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Not too many details, but I swam my first mile swim since I was probably 12 years old that night. And I betcha it took me a full hour to swim that mile! Oh, and when I wrote "laps" I really meant "lengths." A few nights prior I wrote this:
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

swim and week 6.2 run

Didnt want to kill myself 2nite with the swim, as I am going to try for a mile on thursday. So I did 50 laps in 45 mins. Im getting there but I am noticing that my form is not really that great. Funny how the more you swim the more you concentrate on your form....duh!
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Wow! Again! When I wrote "laps," I meant "lengths." I wasn't up on the swimming jargon yet back then. So it took me 45 mins to swim 50 lengths, aka 1250 yards. That is an average pace of 3:36/100! Now! I didn't swim it straight. It was most likely well broken up, but still! That is sloooooooooow. In comparison, I dropped a 14:48 1000 yard TT in the pool three weeks ago.

So I guess the whole point of this post is it is ok and fun to look waaaaay back at your early days in this sport and laugh at yourself and know that progress can always be made! I am basically swimming 3X faster now than I was 3 years ago.

Where were you three years ago and how fast were you?

I was that fast listed above and about 30 pounds heavier.

SNORK!

Remember the Snorks? I really don't, but it would be kinda cool to breath underwater. Oh wait, they make snorkels to do just that! ;)

(source)

So I finally bought a snorkel for the pool, the Finis Center Mount Swimmer's Snorkel. I couldn't not buy it and not get pictures!

Gimme Cross-Eyed!

Gimme Creepy Smiley

Now gimme ANGRAAAAAAY!

I then proceeded to chase the cats around making Darth Vader breathing noises.

I got it because I have been working hard lately on getting symmetrical in the pool by breathing to both sides and getting my rotation even. I find it easy to rotate to my breathing side, but not my non-breathing side. By taking the breathing issue out of the equation, there is no side to favor, just both.

Do you ever do face down drills where you run out of breath so fast that when coming up to breath you lose your momentum or form and it takes a bit to get recomposed that by the time you reach the wall, you only got in 3-4 good cycles of the drill? Frustrating, right? This happens to me with skulling and catch drills. These drills are slow because you have little arm pull and you rely fully on kicking to propel you. Since kicking is so oxygen expensive you have to breath often.

With the snorkel, that is no longer an issue!

Here is a REALLY good catch drill that have helped me get a better "feel" for the water....also known as the "Ice Cream Scoop" drill:



I tried it out tonight and my first reaction is that a nose clip is a MUST HAVE. Water goes right up your nose! You don't haaaaave to use a nose clip, but I would highly recommend it. I got by without, but next time I am using one.

So I did some catch drills and they are MUCH easier to do CORRECTLY by not having to breath to the side. I HIGHLY recommend getting a snorkel for drills like this! After doing the drill, I swam normally and OH MY GOD I have a catch! haha! Getting that catch as early as possible is so critical in grabbing that water and getting more propulsion.

I did:
500 WU
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 100 on 1:45
500 yard mix of catch drills
5 x 200 on 3:30
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3000 yards

Finally, if you want a great read on some do's or don'ts for us mere mortal age group triathletes, my coach, aka THE MAN, wrote up a nice piece.

My favorite part:
"If going long in training, dial down the intensity. If going short, make it count. Duration usually doesn’t cripple us. Intensity doesn’t either. It's combining the two that gets us into trouble."

I wrote him an email tonight explaining "over the past 7 weeks of working with you, I feel sorta super human for this time of year!"

Records are meant to be broken

Tonight was the last night of my 10 week swim workshop over in Greenwich, CT. (tear*sniff*...aka no more AWESOME pool....)

But! I rounded it out in record form.

The first night we did a 500 for time (I went a 7:30 flat) and then the goal of the 10 week workshop was to improve that 500 time the last night.

Tonight was that last night. My time?

7:16!

14 seconds. Its an improvement! 1:27/100 pace vs 1:30/100 last time.

But!

I know I could have done better. We did a whopping 250 yards of warmup (not enough) and I didn't pace it correctly. I could just tell that I wasn't going my fastest. Doh! Fortunately, I can do a freaking 500 for time ANYTIME I want! This number is going DOWN!

Later in the workout, we were doing some 100's. I decided to gun one of em and see how I would do:

1:20!

New 100 PR! by 2 seconds!

Now how to go a steady 1:20/100 pace.....yeah, will have to get back to you on that one....

Finally, this one is for you BDD:

My dad sent me this one as well

Drill and Build! This is a good swim workout!

I have been doing a LOT more drills this year than I have in the past two years and I think it does two things for me: Breaks up the monotony of descending swim sets, but it also is keeping my form sharp and I am noticing constant speed increases at the same effort levels.

I have always struggled with doing drills and speed sets all in one workout. Seems easy enough, but it usually wouldn't happen for me. I think I found a way the other night. Its pretty simple:
Drill 200
Swim 3 x 100 descend

So this beats a drill into you for 200 straight yards, then you hit the gas for a 3 x 100 descending set and feeling those improvements.

I also noticed something REALLY cool: Each 100 was getting faster and faster and faster while at the same effort. Either I was getting more and more warmed up or there was a snowball effect of the drills sharpening my form that I was more and more efficient. I am going with both. The first set of 100's were @ 1:30-1:31, to the last set of 100's @ 1:23-1:24. So a steady speed increase.

Here is the entire workout:
500 WU
200 Shark Drill*
3 x 100
200 one arm drill (alternate between left and right arms every 25)
3 x 100
200 finger drag / head tap (alternate every 25)
3 x 100
200 skate drill
3 x 100
200 underswitch skate drill
3 x 100 (you can use this as a cool down)
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3000 yards

Hope this workout brings out some speed in you and breaks up the monotony of the pool.

*Shark Drill: Helps for rotation and following through with the catch. Stick a kickboard between your thighs like a pull buoy and swim. Work the rotation so that you can reach back and touch the top of the board to finish your pull, aka following through with it. If you aren't tapping the board, you are CHEATING! This will lengthen your stroke. GREAT DRILL!

OR you can do Big Daddy Diesel's version of the shark drill: Drop a shark in the pool and swim for your life!!!!

How I Improved My Swim, Part 1: Balance & Rotation

A house is only as strong as its foundation, right? Is that too trite or colloquial? Whatever, I like the analogy.

Your balance in the water is your foundation to a good stroke. Without it, forget what your arms are doing and kiss speed goodbye.

I call good balance in the water good body position, or being as horizontal as possible and as high in the water as possible. It all comes down to hydrodynamics, the water version of aerodynamics. Like punching the smallest hole through the wind on the bike, you want to punch the smallest hole through the water with your body. Having your legs drag or your butt hang low is like adding a parachute to the end of your bike. Drag is your #1 enemy!!!

So to develop good body position in the water, here are some drills that I used and still use to find my place in the water. Now get ready to kick! But NO FINS! I like fins. They are good for certain applications, but when trying to find body position, it is cheating, and you are only cheating yourself by using them. The name of the game here is to float horizontally without using any aids (pull buoys, kickboards, fins).


If any of you have used TI (Total Immersion), then these will be very familiar. I guess these drills are so good that they are widely used by TI and by swim coaches. These were first shown to me by my old coach, and then I saw them again when I watched the TI DVD. Trust me, they work.

#1) Floating.
Lay onto your back in the water and try to float without sinking. Don't kick, just float. Try to get yourself as flat as possible, like laying on a flat board:

4 years of art school got me this drawing....

Now experiment with tucking your pelvis in (like you are doing a stomach crunch), and your chin to your chest:

Even with a strange contorted spine, you are still horiztonal.

Your legs will eventually drop (first @ the knees), but maintain this float for as long as possible. The pelvis tucking and chin tucking will be used for later drills, but it is what keeps your legs up and your chest up. This is the position you want. It feels like you are resting your center of gravity more on your pelvis and back, right? Anchor points in a way?

Experiment with arching your stomach up and see what happens:

No good, right?

How much faster did you sink with an arched back? Did your legs drop immediately?

Which position worked better for you?

#2) Kicking on your back, arms @ side. Pelvis pointing straight up.
This is the most basic kicking drill. Like you were floating still, you want to tuck your pelvis in, tuck your chin, and kick from your hips. DON'T bend those legs @ the knee!!! Keep your feet flexible. You should feel a good burn in your upper thighs and hips. Remember to keep that pelvis tucked!

#2A) Instead of arms @ side, have either one arm streamlined above your head, or have both arms streamlined above your head.

#3) Kicking on your back, arms @ side. Pelvis and body rotated 30-45 degrees. Head looking straight up.
This is just like drill #2, except your whole body is rotated 30-45 degrees. This will teach you to find a balancing point on the side of your hip and in the shoulder area. Remember to kick from the hips. Its a bit harder in this position and it is easier to break @ the knees. Don't try to lift your head! Keep it tucked to your shoulder. Lifting your head will make your hips drop.

#3A) Instead of arms @ side, have your below the water arm extended above your head. You will rest your head on this arm while keeping your chin tucked.

#4) Kicking on your stomach, arms @ side. Looking straight down. Press your chest.
Flip over and stick your face in the water. Keep your arms at your side and press your chest into the water. Over-exaggerate this position. You want to feel like you are swimming "downhill". Pressing your chest will pop your hips to the surface, which is good! Lift up your head to breath. Lifting your head will make you sink, so give yourself a few seconds to regain your balance and pressed chest position. Take some rest after this one as it makes you hold your breath longer. Remember to kick from the hips!!!!

Press that chest!!!

And now for rotation, the 2nd part to balance.

So the above four drills with variations are for locking in a stable balance. With swimming, you aren't just laying flat on your stomach and swinging your arms with some kicking. You are constantly rotating your body. You NEVER want to be in a flat position. You always want to be rocking your body side to side. Think of it this way. You sit down in a rowboat, but you have no oars. You need to move to get the boat moving forward. How would you do this? You rock the boat! Amazing how it suddenly starts to move forward? Same is true with your body in the water.

But what do you use to rotate your body? Well, the whole body is obvious, but there is one part of your body that has more say than other parts. Since you are anchoring yourself with your hips, you want to rotate that anchor. ALL of your rotation power should come from the hips. Your body will want to use the shoulders (because it is easiest), but that is inefficient. Why? Because that is like trying to spin a potted plant by its leaves. The best way to turn the potted plant is by its base, or its pot. Your hips are the pot and your shoulders are the leaves.

One final thing, think of a 10 foot pole going straight through your body. This pole is what you are rotating along. Keep your body rigid (but not tense) when you rotate. You don't want to fishtail or go limp while rotating.

Here are some rotation drills that build upon the static balance drills:

#5) Hip rotation, arms @ side, facing up.
This drill will involve drills #2 & #3 list above. Instead of staying in one position (either straight up, or angled to one side) you will rotate using your hips from your left side to the middle to the right side in one fluid motion, pausing for a few kicks on the side. Concentrate on using those hips. I would do three kicks on my left side, then rotate to the right side, do three kicks, then repeat. Try to gain that sensation of rotating from the hips. You could do a variation and quickly "snap" from one side to the next. This "snap" is something you will want to incorporate into your stroke.

#6) 90 Degree rotation
This is when the drills start getting hard. I even struggle with this one, but it helps. Trust me!

Start out by doing drill #3A listed above. Now rotate 90 degrees (using your hips to drive the rotation) until you are now 30-45 degrees facing the bottom of the wall of the pool (not completely face down). Now rotate back to starting position. The trick with this drill is to NOT lift your head! As soon as you lift your head your hips will sink and you will swallow a bunch of water or it will go up your nose. Did I mention this drill is a bit more difficult? To make sure you don't lift your head, make that rotate from facing down to facing up quick, especially by driving those hips! Stretching your body out and being as streamlined as possible helps. Remember there is a pole going straight through you and you are rotating along that pole.

#7) Face down rotation
This drill is the same as #5 listed above, except you are facing down. Remember, arms at your side! This is an uber hard drill, but if you can master this, you got yourself some incredible body position, balance, and rotation. I call this one the graduation drill. Rotate back to facing up every three rotations to breath.

#8) 90 Degree Rotation, arms @ side
This is an easier version of the #7 drill because it is the same drill as #6, except your arms are @ your side. This is also an uber hard drill. Remember to rotate from the hips!


Now if you are having a hard time discovering that "sensation" of what proper hip rotation feels like, I would suggest one drill and one pool toy if all else fails.

#9) Kicking with kickboard between the legs
Swim normally as if you are swimming with a pull buoy. Except swap out the pull buoy for a kickboard. Make sure the kickboard has more board in the water than above the water so it acts like a deeper rudder. Work those hips, rocking them side to side making sure you feel the kickboard's resistance against the water. Now take away the kickboard. Does it feel suddenly easier to rotate through the water? THAT is what proper hip rotation should feel like.

If this doesn't work, I would suggest the Finis Hydro Hip:

If this doesn't do the trick, then you must be over thinking it! haha!

HERE is my review for the Hydro Hip. I had a pretty good "eureka" moment this past fall after using it for 30 seconds. This sucker works! But read my review for proper use. Its a pain in the ass to use.

So now how do you incorporate these drills into a workout? I usually do 25 yard drill, 25 swim and think about the technique that I was practicing. For example if I just did 25 yard pressed chest drill, I would swim normally for 25 yards thinking about and incorporating the pressed chest. For drills that involve a left side and right side, do 25 drill left side, 25 swim, 25 drill right side, 25 swim. I usually do 4 of these 50's for each drill, or for each side. You can seriously do a long workout if you do everything listed above!

I hope this helps! Wow this turned into quite the loooooong post! haha! The above drills made me go from my first half mile open water swim of 20+ mins to 16 mins in my first season. Yes, just better balance and rotation shaved off that much time. Email me with any questions or leave a comment below.


Happy Swimming!

.....and rotate from those hips!

*Disclaimer* - I am NOT a swim coach. This is merely me verbally vomiting out my successes in the pool and how I was able to lop a HUGE amount of time off of my swimming pace. Take this with a boulder sized piece of salt!

How I Improved My Swim, Part 0

You should have seen me exactly two years ago in the pool. I was taking my 2nd swim workshop and I swore I was getting slower. I actually WAS slower than 6 months prior! How the heck did that happen? I seriously (I am not joking here) could NOT swim 4 lengths of the pool without being completely oxygen deprived. I wasn't some beginner in the pool. I could swim 1 mile straight (not fast) 6 months prior!

So why had I gone backwards with my swimming?

I was improving.

Wait, what? Doesn't that kinda contradict itself? Well, sorta. But swimming itself is like the evil step child of triathlon. See with running and biking, you can just make your legs go faster and your body WILL go faster. Unfortunately with swimming, windmilling your arms faster can more than likely make you drop like a rock to the bottom of the pool.

That all boils down to efficiency, right? How can someone who is only taking 12 strokes per 25 yards be faster than someone who is taking 30 strokes per 25 yards? That 12 stroke person is more efficient than the 30 stroker.

So back to how I was improving but yet going slower. My form/technique was getting better, but my muscles were so used to swimming WRONG that it was a foreign dance for my muscles to be swimming the right way, hence why I would tire out faster.

Eventually it all balanced out and my body got used to the more correct technique and in the long term, I swim a LOT faster than I used to. Faster as in I used to swim @ a 2:00/100 pace, and am currently hovering @ a 1:30/100 pace.

Three things got me swimming faster:
1) Balance
2) Front Quadrant
3) Swimming Faster

I am going to go more in depth into each of the three in separate future posts. This is also a review for myself as I quickly forget the importance of #'s 1 and 2. But here is an overview.

1) Balance - This how your body is positioned in the water. From a side view, are you horizontal? Or are your legs dragging? How is your body rotation? Without good balance in the water, you can forget what your arms are doing and how fast you are going. You gotta be able to float!

2) Front Quadrant - What are your arms doing? How is this interacting with your balance and rotation? How is your catch? Pull? Follow Through? Recovery? Entry? Most of my propulsion comes from the Front Quadrant. Balance will keep you floating and reduce drag, but your Front Quadrant will make you move forward (I don't use kicking as propulsion. I like to save my legs).

3) Swimming Faster - You aren't going to swim faster without swimming faster. Unless there is something I am missing?

So I am going to do three separate posts including drills on the topics listed above. Stay posted!

*Disclaimer* - I am NOT a swim coach. This is merely me verbally vomiting out my successes in the pool and how I was able to lop a HUGE amount of time off of my swimming pace. Take this with a boulder sized piece of salt!

Finishing up 27 years with a BANG!

I will never forget the last day of my 27th year on this planet. My coach whooped my boo-tay this morning!!! haha! This morning was week #2 of his swim workshop. He really knows how to drop the hammer on us!

Swim:
100 WU
5 x 100 (25 right, 25 left, 50 @ 3 stroke drill)
100, count strokes per 25
5 x 100 (50 shark, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 paddle, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 fins, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (hard on 1:45, held 1:25's)
400 CD (50 paddles, 4 x 50 hard,  50 REALLY hard (35.5), 100 easy)
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3100 yards

My coach loves my stroke. I learned today that I am in the "fast" lane in the group of 16 folks (Sweet!) and that I have a very efficient stroke. We counted how many times we stroked with our right arm per 25, and my count came to be 8, as in I take 15-16 strokes per 25. The other two in my lane were @ 11 or around 22 strokes per 25. One guy is much faster than me, the other is slightly slower. So even though the one guy is faster, he uses up more energy to go faster. I feel good about this!

The big thing pointed out to me this week is that I need to work on my "catch." If I "catch" the water sooner, I will be pulling more water sooner, meaning propelling myself sooner and farther. One final thing that I am proud of is holding those 1:25's on 1:45 so late in the workout. There is one thing about hitting a 5 x 100 set in the beginning of a swim workout, but doing this at the end really skyrocketed my confidence in the pool, and its only December!!!

Sorry if I am gloating too much, but this was a REAL breakthrough swim for me!

Then we ran. 10.16 miles in 1:20:25 / 7:55 pace

Let me first mention that the group was small, only 6 of us. These guys include multiple Ironman finishers, first place podium finishers, a 9 time Kona qualifier (my coach), 17:xx 5K timers...........and me. You always hear that if you want to go faster, train with faster people. Yeah I totally signed up for the "fast" and "experienced" group. You don't get this kind of training experience by reading a book!

This run was humbling not only because of the pace, but also the freaking terrain!!! Look @ this course!

Multiple Slices of Humble Pie were eaten on those giant uphills.

And my resulting run splits:
Mile 1: 8:30
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 7:26
Mile 4: 8:36 (first big uphill)
Mile 5: 7:43
Mile 6: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 7: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 8: 9:26 (grumble grumble GIANT uphill!)
Mile 9: 7:48
Mile 10: 7:34

I needed this run. After last weekends 10K PR, this was a good eye awakening that last weekend was good, but its time (already) to step IT UP!


My poor right foot though, has taken a beating with the blisters lately. Time to bust out the moleskin and tape!

Sorry, its kinda gross....

That is all for me this weekend. Tonight I celebrate my brother turning 30 and me turning 28! Our birthdays are only 4 days apart. I am taking tomorrow OFF!

Swim, Swim, Swim your arms off

December is all about the swim! But it is so early, you ask? Not for refining swim technique its not!!

Last Saturday AM, @ 6:15 in the pitch black, I did my first of six swim workshops with my coach over in Monroe, CT. Yes, the 1 hour drive is worth it. I-95 @ 5AM is awesome to drive on since there is NO traffic!

16 of us signed up for this workshop, and it is awesome to know that most, if not all of us, are coached by this one guy. AND! I think we are mostly Ironman distance focused. It is a good group I can tell, and hopefully NO egos, since were required to leave them in the car.

Session #1:
400WU
One arm drill, 8 x 25, alternating between left and right arms
Shark Drill, 3 x 50 (will explain below)
Fists, 3x 50, 25 fist, 25 swim normal (will explain below)
10 x 25
5 x 100 (50 shark, 50 swim)
9 x 50 ((2 50's with paddles, one 50 without) x 3)
150 video

Shark drill: Helps for rotation and following through with the catch. Stick a kickboard between your thighs like a pull buoy and swim. Work the rotation so that you can reach back and touch the top of the board to finish your pull, aka following through with it. GREAT DRILL!

Fists: Obvious drill. Make your hands into a fist and swim. I have always done this drill, but sucked at it. Why? NO ROTATION!!! Add proper rotation, and your core is doing most of the work to propel you forward. This drill is great because when you open your hands back up, they feel like the size of tennis rackets pulling you through the water.

I am glad that I put in some swim volume this fall. It really paid off for this workout since what I wrote above isn't that bad speed related, but those are the kind of drills that will hammer you when you have no swimming base.

Coach did some above water video of us and of the many things wrong, the most glaring thing to fix is that I am opening my kick up (scissor kicking) when breathing. I am compensating for balance to breath. I have overall good balance in the water since I am not sinking, but my balance goes to crap when I breath. A good challenge to fix!

Coach also asked me if I have a "competitive" swim background. Haha! Nope! But it was a nice compliment and I am trying really hard not to let this go to my head ;) I am neither the fastest nor the slowest out of the group, which is fine. Speed doesn't matter in this workout anyways, at least not yet. ;)

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Now last night I started my 2nd workshop. This one lasts for 10 weeks. I would say that the workshop with my coach is for a much more advanced group, since most of his athletes are Ironman focused. This 2nd group with the local tri club is not as gung-ho, but is a really fun group. NO egos in this group and it is the kind of group which will work hard and have a ton of fun in the process.

The guy who leads the class is a really nice guy, but not a swim coach. That is ok though! The way he structures the workouts makes sense and the drills he had us do are right down to the fundamentals of swimming and are just what I need.

So last night the theme was GET LOOOOOOOOONG. Just look @ my AWESOME diagram for visual stimulation. What out Da Vinci!

This is what 4 years of art school gets ya! haha!

So if you look at the above masterpiece, which stick figure do you think is going to go faster? Well, that depends on the density of the wood of the sticks, right? (ok, lame joke)

But really, I had been swimming more like the stick man on the left, which creates a LOT of drag in the shoulder areas. These following drills had me swimming like the stick man on the right by the end of the night:

Thumb to thigh: Swim like normal, but brush your thumb along your thigh for a full pull, then bring your thumb along the side of your body on recovery. Teaches you to be more streamlined.
Catchup: Both hands touch before the pull.
Catchup with Board: Same as above, but use a kickboard
Catchup with pull buoy: Same as above, but use a pullbuoy.
One arm with board: Swim one armed at a time. DONT let your pulling arm tough the board. Let your arm extend past and under the board for proper rotation!

By the end of the night, I felt like a 50 foot sailboat: Loooooooong in the water with the MOST effortless glide I have ever felt.

Both classes have their strengths and weaknesses, but I have a feeling both with compensate for the other. I feel progress is ahead in my swim!

In fact, we had to do a 500 yard TT for a base time last night. I bested my previous time for a 7:30 flat @ 1:30 pace! Boo ya!!!

Running from November; Swimming to December

November was a great running month for me @ 104 miles, my highest ever run volume month and 2nd 100+ mile month ever.

This was also a huge confidence boosting month. After my foot injury at the end of August and all through September, my running confidence broke. I dreaded rebuilding my way back.

Well, I did it by following the 10% rule and stayed injury free. It took a solid 6 weeks, but it worked and I am ready to knock a 10K literally out of the park (Central Park) this weekend.

What helped was I am running 5 times a week and keeping the long runs down. My longest run since August 22nd was a 10 miler done only this past weekend. Frequency, I have found, has been paying bigger dividends than shear volume. I added a speed workout on the track once a week for some variety.

December will be a swimming month. I am taking two swim workshops that will go into January. One will be with my coach, the other with a tri club over in Greenwich, CT. The cool thing about the tri club workshop is that we will do a 500 yard TT the first week, then repeat it the last week to show if we progressed, and if so, by how much.

Today I did one for practice with my super swimming buddy, Bob, who back in the day once went 4:50 for the 500 @ a meet. He gave me a good strategy for the 500: Cruise the first 200, build the middle 100, then gun it for the last 200.

I did just that today and wound up with a 7:38 for a just-under 1:32 pace. Considering I went a 8:47 18 months ago, I am going to take this as a HUGE improvement considering I am not in the best swimming shape right now.

Looking forward to the swim workshops ahead and hopefully I can get my long distance pace down.

I Learned the Backstroke! Why (I think) it is important for Freestyle

I learned the Backstroke tonight! It really wasn't that hard, you just had to break it down to its core elements and then build it up.

Kicking on your back is all about balance and propulsion. Balance is keeping yourself perfectly horizontal in the water and propulsion is kicking from your hips to MOVE.

Here were my steps to learning the backstroke:

• #1 Kicking on your back with fins
• #2 Kicking on your back with fins, one armed backstroke
• #3 Putting the two arms together and doing the backstroke with fins
• #4 Kicking on your back, NO fins
• #5 Kicking on your back with NO fins, one armed backstroke
• #6 Putting the two arms together and doing the backstroke with NO fins

So basically I started off with the fins for confidence, propulsion, and flotation aids, especially when introducing the arm elements. The flotation aid and confidence thing go hand and hand, since worrying about sinking and getting water in your face and up your nose distracts you from your shoulder rotation and arm swings. Take that out of the equation, and you can concentrate on what your shoulders and arms ARE doing.

The added propulsion you get with using the fins also aids your balance. The faster you go, usually the more balanced you go. Its kind of like riding a bike. You know how if you go REALLY slow that your balance is more unstable? And once you get moving pretty quickly its really easy to balance the bike? Same thing in the water.

So once I graduated to doing the one armed backstroke, I concentrated on leading and following action: aka you use your shoulder rotation to garner the movement to get that arm out of the water. You aren't simply swinging your arm straight up and out of the water, its a WHOLE body movement. You are using your core to drive your body's rotation to get your arm out of the water. The more shoulder rotation, the easier the arm is going to come out of the water.

After 4 x 25 of one armed, I put the two together. It was a bit of a coordination effort, but once I figured out the timing, it became quite smooth and I was on autopilot from there.

Then I took the fins off.

And it was frustratingly slow. Fins make you go FAST.

So I started all over (step #4 listed above) and built my way back up. Other than going slower, my balance was still good and I got it figured out.

Done and done!!! (I have now accomplished 2 out of my 3 swimming goals this off season)

Things to note:

• DONT lift your head. You will immediately sink and water will go over your face and up your nose. When this started happening to me, I looked up and the problem went away.
• Once you cross the flags, you have about 3 strokes and then its time to flip over, else head meets wall and OUCH!
• When you are lifting your arm out of the water, imagine a line that is going directly over the middle of your body. You want your hand to go through that line. Correct body rotation will allow this.

AND now for why (I think) backstroke is important for freestyle:

ROTATION

I will admit that my freestyle rotation sucks. I get lazy with it. After a 100 yards of backstroke, flip over for some freestyle and you will be AMAZED at the ease of rotation you will suddenly have. Remember, rotating that core is added propulsion!

I am a new follower of Laura @ Authentic Living and she has a GREAT post on freestyle rotation. Its a great read and has given me a lot of great swimming tips and ideas. Thank you Laura!

Beat down in the pool

James @ Daily Trainings posted a really good speedy swim workout the other day on his blog. I thought I would give it a try. I modifed it slightly and it came out to be this:

400 warm up

2 x 100 @ 2:00
4 x 50 @ 1:00
8 x 25 @ :30

2 x 300 Recover

3 x 100 @ 2:00
6 x 50 @ 1:00
12 x 25 @ :30

200 cooldown

Lots of short distances with some rest, but because of the short distances and rest, it basically said one thing: GO FAST! I was breathing pretty hard towards the end of each set, but I felt REALLY good and FAST! It was a good 2700 yarder to call it a week in the pool.

I was averaging anywhere from 1:37 to 1:34 on the 100's, ~45 seconds for the 50's, and I'm not sure for the 25's since I only had one clock on each side and had to guess how much to rest on the odd lengths. This was a nice beating in the pool.

FTP test and a pyramid swim

I train with power on the bike. In fact, I use a PowerTap as the rear hub on my rear wheel. It can be a really nifty (and expensive!) bike computer, or it can be used correctly to give you improvements on the bike.

Since training with power is based upon watts, you need a base. That base is your FTP, or functional threshold power. In human terms, its a wattage # that you can hold for 60 mins. To improve that threshold, you need to not only ride a lot, but also ride above that # to increase your threshold.

I did my first FTP test of the season today, and my magic number came out to be 200 even. Sweet! Even number!

Not so sweet that it is 20 watts lower than this time last year :(

No problem, its something to work towards to improve. So this number will determine what watts I need to ride to recover, go smooth, or go hard without burning a match. Last season, I found that I used it to limit myself during races, to save the legs for runs. I can take that number and use it to base what my wattage should be for the half ironman races I am competing in this year.

Here is the test via graph:
and specific 20 min test:
So the test consists of a 20 min warmup, 5 min @ an intense level to "open" the legs up, 10 mins EZ, then the 20 min test at a level you think you can sustain. Then a cool down.

After the 20 min test, you take the average watts (of only those specific 20 mins) then subtract 5%, because that is the estimate of what you would have done over a 60 min period. 211 watts - 5% = ~200 watts.

Ok, nerd stuff DONE! haha!

Earlier I did a pyramid swim today. Did everything on a 2 min base.
500 WU
100 EZ
200 EZ
300 EZ
400 (harder)
400 (try to beat the last 400)
300 (go hard if you can)
200 (go hard if you can)
100(fast!)
50 to get back and forth
------------
2550 total in 50 mins

So the intensity basically built throughout the entire swim where you were going your hardest (and possibly) the fastest by the end of the swim. The swim hurt like heck, but I could feel myself getting stronger as the swim went. This time last year a 1000 yard swim took 30 mins and was a long swim for me. I feel like a completely different swimmer!

Chock full O' workouts

Its go time! Monday marked the official start of "Base" training. Good bye prep period!

No more, "Oh well, I missed a workout because [fill in the blank]." No more missed workouts from here on out (if a miracle happens ;) )!

The next 12 weeks will define how big I go this season. Big meaning results. As long as I follow the plan and stay uber consistent, I should see the results that I am wanting. It's as simple as that! And the great thing about the base period is that it is all fairly low intensity; you just go and grind it out and gradually increase volume over time.

So after Saturday's 5 mile race, I took it easy for the rest of the day and slept. It felt gooood!

Sunday, I was on the trainer for 1:45:00. Used the TT bike and alternated between 5 mins sitting up, 5 mins in the aero position, and standing every 10 mins for a butt break. The legs were smooth and was in the Endurace zone (zone 2) for the entire time.


Monday was back into the pool @ lunch. Both Bob and I were NOT feeling 100%, so we did our best to get this much done:
500 WU
4 x 100
2 x 50
500
200 EZ
300 EZ
50 to get back and forth to clock side of pool
-------------------------
2050 yards total

And since I could NOT get up Monday morning, I moved my trainer session to last night. I did another 1:13:xx.


After finishing around 10-ish, then stretching and showering, it was off to bed around 11-ish, only to get up @ 5:45 for 5 mile run up @ the Kensico Dam. (Yeah, tell me about it! sleep, workout, eat, stretch, shower, sleep, workout, eat, stretch, sleep.......and shower!)

We held 10 min miles......haha! Boy was that a change from 8:05's only a few days ago!

Got home for more stretching. I am finding that I have been spending a LOT of time stretching/foam roller/icing after every workout. Yes, it takes up a lot of time, but my knee is starting to feel more "normal" finally. The foam roller is a miracle device!

I go in for "THE ELBOW" tonight! Wish me luck!

REALLY good recipe, squeaky wheel and a swim

I combined two recipes together into a burrito that tastes just oh-so good! The first part is that spicy quinoa recipe mixed with a sweet potato veggie medley. Somehow quinoa and sweet potato go perfectly together and it mellows out the spice.

So make these two recipes first:

Vegetarian Grain and Bean Mix
(im going to chop this recipe in half next time I make it, it makes a LOT)
Grain Mix:
1/2 c Israeli couscous
1/4 c Orzo (green or red)
1/2 c Quinoa

Spice Mix:
2 tsp. Chipotle chili powder
2 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. Granulated Garlic
1 tsp. Minced Onion
1 tsp. Kosher Salt

Bean Mix:
1 can black beans
1 4oz can chopped green chili

Use a 2:1 ratio for the liquid:grains. 2.5 cups in this case Add water (or vegetable stock for more flavor), spice mix, and grains to a pot and cook till all the water is absorbed or cooked off. Add the beans and green chili and stir. Viola!!!

Sweet potato veggie medley:
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed into 1" cubes
1 small red bell pepper, diced large
1 small red bell pepper, diced large
1 med zuccini, diced large
1 small onion, sliced
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried thyme powder
salt and pepper

combine veggies in a bowl and season with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. bake @ 375 for 45 mins or until sweet potato is soft

to combine the entire recipe together, i take 1/3 cup of quina mix and 1/3 cup of veggies, place in a large burrito shell, then cover with 1 oz shredded cheddar and 2 Tbsp of salsa. Wrap and nuke for 20 seconds. So yummy and it filled me for practically 5 hours.

Then for today's workouts:
Meant to do 60+ mins on the trainer this morning, but after the first 10 I couldn't take the squeaking of the wheel. I had on noise canceling headphones and I could still hear the squeak. I apologize to my neighbors if I woke you!

Turns out the rear tire's tread was completely flat and worn out, resulting in a near 90 degree ridge on either side of the tire. So I swapped out the front and rear tires and problem solved. *Note to self* replace front tire before going outside. After the time spent changing tires, I was able to get in another 20 mins before I was out of time.

Then I did a lunch time swim. No speed, just volume. Nothing too special.
1000 WU
3 x 500
50 CD
2550 total.

I was actually sore before the swim due to supporting myself while using the foam roller this past weekend. Who knew that its a pain machine AND an upper body workout all in one! ;)p

learning the backstroke

Not only did the PT tell me that I was "rounded" meaning that my shoulders slump in due to the fact that I work on a computer 8 hours a day but that I should learn the backstroke to open my chest up and develop some back muscles. Thats fine; I can do that. I started today in the pool with my super swimmer coworker, Bob.

Little did I know that learning the backstroke IMMEDIATELY improved my freestyle. I was shocked! Basically with the backstroke you are rotating your body and using your core to drive power and to whip your arms out of the water. I guess I was not rotating my body enough with the freestyle because I took that same concept and applied it and my freestyle rotation was soooooooooo much easier and better! I'll take it! So I am thinking of adding a little bit of backstroke to my warmups almost as a drill to improve rotation.

Then this morning at 'oh dark o'clock, I was on the trainer for 60 mins:


I watched Righteous Kill. Eh, ok movie; it kept me distracted.

a beat down in the pool and an indoor spin

I got 8.5 hours of sleep last night and I still couldn't get out of bed. Well after 20 mins of hitting sleep I did get out and hopped onto the trainer for 60 mins. Now I'm up! I just spun for spinning sake going off of RPE. I experimented with using my big ring vs the small ring at the same intensity. I guess I pushed some more watts? Regardless, I need to put more time in the saddle........which hurts SO BAD when the bike isn't flowing freely like out on the road. Again, I need more time in the saddle. These #'s are SUPER WAY low. haha!



Then for lunch, we went to the pool. No snapped goggles this time cuz I bought a brand new pair. This swim, for the type of shape that I am currently in, was a man-maker. I did 2500 yards and it HURT!

600 WU
6 x 300, fast on #'s 3 and 6
50 CD
50 mixed in there.

For the 300's, I went 5:19, 5:19, 5:14, 5:26, 5:26, 5:11. I saved the best for last and my arms simply felt stupid during the short cool down. Bob and I again reminisced about the 3000 yarders we would consistently put up in 60 mins late last spring. We WILL get back to that level! And Im looking forward to getting my 100 yard pace back down into the 1:3X's. Its great to have benchmarks this season!

back in the pool (again) and a run

I feel like I sound like a broken record. "Hey everyone, I'm back in the pool AGAIN!" Wait, didn't this guy just announce the same thing every 2 weeks for the past 2 months? Well, yes, I have.

After last week's disasters, Bob and I went to the pool yesterday; I was litterly putting my toes in the water and putting my goggles on when the goggle STRAP SNAPPED!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Panic ensued...

Fortunately Bob has been swimming since he was 5 days old and has probably fixed a 100 pairs of snapped goggle straps, so within 30 seconds I was half down the pool.

I was able to get in 1800 yards; he got in 2600 before we were cooked and called it a day.

Then this morning I put in 4 miles in some rather tropical 34 degree weather :)

"Caddieshack" and some hills

After a broken car on Monday, sickness on Wednesday, my super swimmer co-worker, Bob, and I finally made it to the pool on Friday @ lunch. We were all suited up, about to get our passes stamped and jump into water, wheeeeeeeeeeen Bob suddenly points into the water and yells at the lifeguard to look. I will now reference the movie "Caddieshack" and let you figure out the rest. Swim didn't happen (thankfully!).

--------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday I hopped onto the trainer for 30 mins before I lost interest and my legs could go no longer. Yeah....30 mins.....I haven't been on the bike in 2 weeks and my legs were not working. Oh well.
--------------------------------------------------------
Then this morning my super runner buddy, Belden, and I went out for a cold run. He led; I followed; we did hills!

My legs were MUCH better than yesterday's failed trainer ride. I went into machine mode and held a solid pace despite the elevation. This was a good run and Belden introduced me to some nice new terrain with zero car traffic. We ended up with 8.39 miles.

run, swim, and MOVED

Did a 36 min/4 mile dreadmill run yesterday afternoon. Yeah, a 9 min/mile pace on the dreadmill is a lot freaking harder than a 9 min/mile pace on the road, even going uphill. I sustained a 3 min 9 min/mile interval but realized at the end of it it was more like an 8:30 pace on the road.

Then today I did a half mile swim in about 25 mins. My swimming endurance is completely shot. I was doing mostly 50's and had to stop and take a short betwen between. I'll get it back, and this time with MUCH better form.

And I am excited to say that my company has moved right smack in the middle of my training ground over in northern Greenwich, CT/Armonk, NY. Now I don't have to drive up there everyday after work, i'll just go FROM work. And to top things off, I will still be able to go the pool during lunch. Its gonna be great and our new facility is just gorgeous.

the meaning of fatigue

Wow tonight was just nothing but pure torture and pain. I couldn't swim a single 50 yard straight without finishing completely out of breath. I even managed to get in 3 100's, and I thought I was gonna drown by the end of em.

I'm gonna contribute this to 2 things. #1 is that I am finally swimming a bit more correctly so that I am now using a fuller extent of my muscles, which are not as toned up because I am using them correctly, so I am using more energy to enable them. Or rather #2 (which this is more likely the case) I got my ass wooped so bad from this past monday's swim class that I am not recovered from it yet. So I am gonna go with 1/3 of #1, and 2/3's of #2.