Posts Tagged swimming
Training Ruminations: Base 2.3
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Training Ruminations on January 6, 2010
Walking the dog - frequent workout
I want to get back to my weekly ruminations post, and although I’m already into this next week, I wanted to provide a quick wrap up of my activity last week. It was one of the better weeks working out that I’ve had in a while, so I wanted to share the good and the bad. This was the peak of my base period, and I felt it was a good one (12 total hours, 145 miles).
It was my first full week blister free on the run. It felt so good to be on my forefoot without worrying about blisters developing (see pic below, if u want, of what I’ve been fighting). As a result, I was able to run fast at low heart rates. I haven’t pushed the distance past 8 miles in a while, but I got in 5 runs, 4 at about 7 miles and 1 1-miler after a long bike ride. Pace was about 7:15 overall, and my heart rate was at or under 140. I think I need to do some tempo runs maintaining higher heart rates for longer distances, and if I can accomplish this, I think I’ll feel comfortable pushing faster speeds in 10ks and half marathons with higher heart rates (i love that aerobic zone, not so much the anaerobic zone). I did one interval run last week on the track (3 x (4 x .25 miles) with one minute rest in between), and I swear, that stuff is making me so much faster.
I swam for only an hour. It was a good endurance swim (10 x 200 with long drill of warmup, 45 seconds rest in between, and a decent cooldown – learning this is way too much rest) focusing on drills and body rotation, but I wish I swam more. My goal is to do 2 hours in the pool every week. If I can do more, great, but I just don’t enjoy it as much as running or cycling. Investing in some underwater headphones may help, but we’ll see. I am noticing improvements in my stroke with these drills, and my times are coming down. I’m not as worried about endurance for my 70.3 in a few months as I was for my first tri as swimming for an hour isn’t a big deal anymore.
Cycling…oh cycling. If there will be one major area of improvement for my Ironman this year, it will be cycling. That is my focus for 2010 training. I did my longest ride ever last week. A 70.4 mile ride down PCH to the power plant past San Clemente and back. It was a great ride, averaging over 18 mph. I focused a lot on cadence, trying to keep it north of 90 most of the time, but also switching it up with higher gears. My neck and shoulders really started to hurt around mile 55, and I think I just need more time in the saddle on longer rides for that to heal itself! I was sore as hell on Sunday, which really impacted my weekly load since I could only squeeze in an hour run.
I also did some an interval ride on the trainer mid week, and I really attribute my pedaling improvements to these workouts. I sometimes focus on trying to achieve 80-90 cadence in high gears, and other times I try to keep it over 100 cadence in fairly high gears (big ring but lower gear). The other rides were casual recovery rides.
I also got back into pilates (one hour – other). YAY for pilates. It makes my body feel so much better. I’m trying to do the foam roller more frequently, but that thing HURTS!
This week is a recovery week, so no interval or tempo work. I hope to get in about 6-7 hours. I have a 12k trail race on Saturday with Cale that I’m excited about, but other than that, expect low intensity all week with a drop in mileage across the board. I’m also starting the 100 pushup challenge. Excited for that! The build period begins next week, and I’ll be back to intervals, tempo and endurance at that point.
Here is a pic of the blister(s) I’ve been fighting. That’s the good looking foot 
Week 3: Entering my base training
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 22, 2009
I’ve now entered the base period of training. I’ve divided my base period into three separate periods of four weeks in length (each). Each base period will ramp the hours through the four week period. For example, base 1 training looks like this:
Week 1: 12 hours
Week 2: 14.5 hours
Week 3: 16 hours
Week 4: 8.5 hours
The goal of the base period is to build on endurance and work on technique. The build period, which follows the base (who thought of “slappin the bass” from I Love You, Man there) is to start improving speed and endure more race simulation to prepare for your event.
So this week was the ramp up. As I mentioned last week, I haven’t done more than 9.5 hours of training ever. EVER! I did 7.5 and 8.5 the last two weeks when I was supposed to do 10. Just think about 10 hours – it’s a LOT! One hour everyday during the week and 2.5 hours each day on the weekend. I always thought I worked out that much, but when I actually tracked it, I quickly realized how little I do. So to get up to 12 hours took a toll on my body, but I did get nearly there. 11 hours, 48 minutes. Here’s a summary:
This is how I got there
Running: I finally hit the road to do some serious forefoot running. I’ve been doing a lot of barefoot runs in my vibrams, and this week, I started to add the mileage. My proprioceptive cues were: lean forward, imagine a wall 2 inches in front of my face that my knees can’t hit, and slam my foot into the pavement. I felt like I had a very successful week doing this, and I got in 29 miles in 3:43. Pretty good pacing. I do feel a lot of calf pain still, but it’s getting better.
Swimming: I did one long swim workout. That’s it. I had a lot of trouble talking myself into doing early morning swims because it’s so COLD! But I made the most of my one workout. I’m very focused on balance in the water and I’m doing a number of drills to improve my kick and prevent my hips from sinking, known as dragging in swimming lingo. My drills this week were: 200M open, 200M kick with kickboard, 2 x 200M kicking with belly button facing wall – each side, 200M turning in the water, 2 x 200M on side with catch up stroke – 3 count,2 x 200 with paddles (including one handed), underwater freestyle, cooldown 200M. PS Ignore the mileage up there. When the Garmin 310xt is underwater, it sucks. That watch really is the same as the 305 with a few minor modifications and a re-design
Cycling: I’m finally ramping up the cycling miles. I did three rides this week (with the ride to/from work counting as 2 above). I can feel my force increasing. I’ve been doing a lot of hills, and i’m focusing on pushing the pedal not down but forward and down (think 45 degree angle) going up the hills, as well as picking up my heels at the bottom of the stroke on straight aways. I’m finding that I’m generating more power (feeling, not measuring this). I’m still having some issues getting into aero position, and I’m going to spend some time on the trainer to do this.
Other: This week I started Pilates with Leah Stewart (that’s the other listed above). I’m really excited to do this work. My goal is to improve my flexibility, reduce hip movement and transfer more movement to my core, and improve my mediation ability. I plan on doing this once a week, and this week was a good intro to working on my movement. I also did a little bit of strength training, but I’m going to stop doing this and focus more on strength drills and flexibility. I’ll be posting more about the routines I plan to follow each week!
That’s it for Week 3. This week is going to have a lot of biking, a 5k turkey trot, hopefully a little bit more swimming, a pilates class, and a whole lotta turkey. YUMMM!
Here are my ruminations this week:
- I wonder if I use my toilet paper now that I’m a triathlete
- Why don’t bikers wear reflective gear at night. I think they’re trying to get hit. So stupid. Do they realize that people walking and bike riding can’t see them either
- Cars – so you know, when we’re biking on the road, we also have “car classification”. I can’t believe how many people get annoyed when we’re cornering the right side taking up 10% of a lane. I had two people go around and quickly swerve to the right this weekend as if to show me who’s boss. Hello idiots. If you hit me, I will get really injured. I don’t have a giant metal box protecting me.
- I stepped on a rock on Saturday and hurt my calf. I couldn’t help but think that a stupid rock could potentially knock off time in my training schedule. Damn you rock! I’ll find you. I will find you
- Imagine if training was a job. And helping others improve their training was part of it. How cool would that be? Too bad this sport is ridiculously expensive so income matters. Supplemental income?
- In the morning, its cold.
- We pay $500 to do 140.6 miles in 8-17 hours. Are we stupid? Why don’t we start a business asking people to do incredibly mental and physically challenging things, and then ask them to pay a lot to do it. Genius
- I have an idea for a website. Why not have a product review site for triathletes that compiles blog info of all the people doing product reviews as well as the comments to those reviews. But it product reviews would have to be standardized. Then you would have your preferences, so you can tell whether someone reviewing a product likes similar things. In addition, there is an option to sell used equipment on there, or potentially barter. I know i know, there’s craigs list, trifuel, etc.. But remember, it’s all about design!
- I want a dog. And I want him to run with me. If he’s fast enough, I want him to run by my bike too.
- Umm, pilates is hard.
- My hips make pilates hard
- My activities make my hips inflexible
- Hmmm – if I stop doing all activites, will pilates be easier?
- I hate Ladell Betts – he screwed in fantasy this week. I hope Clinton Portis comes back soon so I’m not tempted to start him when I forget about his pathetic performance today
Training: Week 2
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 15, 2009
My second week of training has passed, and although I’m only in Week 2, I’m moving out of my prep period into my first 4 week base period. I wasn’t able to get in my full 10 hours this week. I totaled a little less than 9 hours. I missed out on my long weekend.
My workout summary for the week is below (plus two hours of weights, which I don’t keep track of in my profile). I ran 4 times, three barefoot in my Vibrams and the last one in the hills of Oakland. As you can see, the elevation gain was crazy. That was just one run. I have video of this below. My calves still hurt, but they hurt less. I was able to get through over an hour of running in the hills without wincing in calf pain, so I figure that’s a good thing. I’m feeling better about my running, but changing my stride (from overstriding) is definitely two steps back to take three steps forward. I just hope its the right move.
I did one long bike ride, and I’m disappointed that’s the only ride I got in. I setup my trainer this evening though, so I hope I can do rides in the comfort of my balcony or living room in the evenings/mornings. Even if I ride for 45 minutes to an hour, I can work on settling into aero position for longer duration and on my pedaling/force skills.
For swimming, I didn’t get in as much pool time as I would of liked. About 1:10 minutes. This was entirely kicking drills, and I’m now at the point where I feel comfortable staying balanced on my sides, stomach and back. I just have to start actually swimming. I almost instantly sink on one side when I bring my arms up. This is definitely a work in process, but I’m making progress.
Here are my ruminations for the week – not as many as my mind wandered a lot less. Things have been getting busy at work
- How does flexibility in my shoulders impact my swim? Because I’m not flexible, and my shoulders hurt after I swim
- When you look at the views below for an entire run, it’s so easy to forget you’re actually working out
- I trained for about 8 hours each of the last two weeks. This is my PREP period, meaning easy. I checked my running logs for this year, and the most I worked out in a week was 9.5 hours, which was peak week for marathon. This season is going to be gnarly. The next three weeks go 12 hours, 14.5 hours, 16 hours. That is some serious training!!
- I finished Brain Training for Runners this week – awesome read. I recommend it to everyone. Learned quite a few things, including that sitting for 8 hours a day is resulting in tight hip flexors and that slows me down. I need to supplement my running with core strength, flexibility, running drills, and power exercises. Proprioceptive cues ROCK – everyone should use these. Running injuries will occur more frequently if I overstride
- Now I’m moving on to Born to Run. Finally more of a story!
- I’ve decided to focus on five things: family/friends, Adrienne, work, training, video games. If I try to do more, I’ll go crazy! All my crazy desires to learn more things have to be set aside if I want to really be serious about those 4 things, with video games being my distraction.
- Others are running marathons this weekend. I wish them luck, and I’m so happy I’m not!
- I can see why people need time off at the end of the season! Training wears you down
That’s it for this week. Hope you’re training is going well!
Here are my videos from the weekend
This was surprisingly only about 3/4 up the hill
This was at the peak of the hills I climbed
Training Ruminations: Week 1
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Training Ruminations on November 8, 2009
I have a lot of thoughts that go through my head while I’m training and while I’m at work thinking about training. I figured instead of blogging about each of these, I’ll gather them in a weekly ruminations post where I can summarize my thoughts, what worked, what didn’t, and what I did.
This was my first week of training for my half ironman in March. My focus for this training season is to improve the limiters, and I’ve listed those at the end of this post. In order to this, I plan on setting up my races so I can spend much more time biking than running, and my training this week was a good example of this. I broke out my training into the typical joe friel training programs – preparation, base, build, peak, race, transition. I didn’t get much transition time after this past marathon because I want to get some good weight lifting in the prep/base period. This week was prep week. Next week is also prep before I enter Base 1.
This week, my stats were:
This leaves out the two hours or so I spent working in the weight room and on my core. I’m finding it tough to balance my time with the class I’m auditing at UCI, a busier work schedule, and normal life. And this is just the prep period…
Overall, a pretty good week, although I want to spend more time in the pool. It was hard getting back into training this week. My legs were still tired from the marathon, biking was really difficult since I had three weeks off from it. Swimming was ok , but shoulders felt even more inflexible. Running was more of a technique week, hence the speed. I did a lot of walking/slow jogging to get used to barefoot running (but i cheat and wear Vibrams). But as the week wore on, I started to feel stronger, and I guess that’s why this is the prep period.
Here are my ruminations for the week:
- Amazed at how sport/form specific fitness is. I’m working on my form for running, trying to switch from a heel strike to a midfoot/forefoot strike, and my heart rate is higher, my body is sore, and it’s just harder to run. I ran a marathon two weeks ago and 8 miles felt like hell yesterday.
- Three weeks off from biking and it’s like I never rode a bike. Three rides later, it’s like I’ve been riding for a year. Fitness can leave you quickly, but it can come back just as quick
- Breathing from my left side swimming is easy. My form is pretty solid, and I can move pretty quick.
- Breathing from my right side is like I am 5 years old and was thrown in the pool and told to figure it out. Seriously? It’s the same body right?
- Balance on my bike is pretty pathetic. I can’t ride without hands. I even have trouble riding with my right hand on, left off (no problem with left on, right off). Yeah, how did that happen?
- Proprioceptive cues RULE! That’s the technical term for mental thoughts that you use to work on your technique. This week, I ran light – I didn’t want to hear my feet, and I pedaled trying to scrape mud off my foot and drive my foot down and forward. I even tried lifting my feet on the back stroke, and I plan to do more of these on the bike. If you read brain training for runners, you’ll find 12 cues that he trains his runners with. I’ll use 2 per week, alternating miles with each thought. I’ll blog about it as I go.
- I’m not flexible
- Foam rollers freakin HURT! I never knew a ball of foam could make me cry.
- I got a kinetic road machine – I set it up, now I just need to use it
- Debating getting an iBike power meter
- Rode without an iPod and ran without an iPod for a majority of my miles this week. Surprised at how peaceful it was to simply listen to my body!
This week, my training will be cut short by a weekend trip to San Francisco. I hope to get one long run in there and maybe some weights, but I’ll miss out on my long ride. I may try to do it on Wednesday early AM before work and just work later that evening. We’ll see what the week brings. I’m also starting a weekly pilates routine with Leah Stewart (friend of Adrienne’s) – private sessions with Adrienne. I’m really looking forward to this as she’s a great instructor and very knowledgeable.
If you have any comments/feedback, I’d love to hear from you. Happy training everyone! I hope the offseason is treating you well!
Goal recap (reminder so I remain focused – will post each week):
- Generate more force on the bike
- Maintain force for longer periods of time on the bike
- Improve balance in the water – “get more slippery”
- Run on the midfoot-forefoot so I can avoid leg pain in late miles of a marathon
Race Report: San Diego Olympic Triathlon 2009
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Race Reports on October 11, 2009
As sherry main put it in her tweet, I finally put the “tri” in “triadamlete”. Today I finished my first Olympic tri, the San Diego Olympic Tri in Point Loma. It was awesome!
My goal time was 2 hours, 45 minutes. My final time was 2 hours, 22 minutes, 11 seconds. I was stoked. The winning time was 1:51:02 (how would I ever pick up 30 minutes???). They haven’t posted splits yet, but I know I came in about 100th overall and 14th in my age group (30-34, out of 39 people). Out of my goals, I think I accomplished everything I wanted to. I overcame my open water fear and got comfortable with swimming in crowds. Despite my transition mistakes, I learned how to do it quickly. I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were. I learned to eat during the workout. I figured out how to bike in a race (e.g. passing, staying to the right, being vocal). Most importantly, I got hooked on the triathlon and how awesome the tri community is. I had fun!
My splits are below. I was pretty stoked with my numbers, but I do think the run was a little less than 10k distance. I actually didn’t think these times were possible heading into the race, but given my heart rate and how comfortable I was on the run, I think I could do much better. I could probably improve transitions a minute, and I know there is a lot more I can do on the bike.
Here’s a quick synopsis of my race and some of the things I’ve learned about triathlons:
- Pre-Race
- I was nervous: 5 bathroom trips before the race – beat my previous best of four before my second San Francisco marathon
- Transition was on grass, and I used a balloon to mark my place. I was the only one with a balloon. Several athletes around me thanked me for helping them locate their bike J very surprised with how few people do this. Business opportunity at expos?
- I need to drink more water before I race, especially with that many bathroom trips
- Swim (00:24:04)
- No pauses on the swim. Had a little trouble sighting, but I followed the bubbles (thanks Rod).
- Shoulders were very tired and I need to work on my endurance.
- Heart rate of 175 by the time I got on my bike. Kinda crazy
- T1 (00:02:13)
- Wetsuit half off on the way to bike – slipped right off when I got there. Thanks Rod for the Pam suggestion (spray legs before putting on wetsuit)
- Quick drink of water, grabbed my bike, and I was gone
- Improvement: run faster to bike, don’t take time for water, improve flexibility J
- Bike (1:16:08)
- Slipped feet into clipped in shoes, buckled in during first mile
- Drank a lot on the first leg, especially during the first 2 miles to makeup for my lack of drinking during the swim
- Took a few miles to catch my breath, but I eventually lowered my heart rate and felt comfortable
- .75 miles at about 8% grade – BRUTAL, especially on the second loop
- BEAUTIFUL views through the naval base on top of the cliffs. Downtown San Diego on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right. Advantage of having no headphones: I definitely took in the views more. There was a military graveyard next to the road at the top of one cliff, and it was a bone chilling feeling to ride by that in the overcast weather.
- After the cliff, there were several miles downhill – going about 35 mph in aero. Fun but a little nerve racking
- Ate GU for the first time in a race. No stomach issues
- Making turn near dismount, pulled feet out of shoes to get ready for dismount. Then told that
wasn’t dismount area and had another 3 miles, so I had to put my feet back in. Definitely wasted some time here. I could really feel the loss of power without the clip-ins (riding on top of the shoes) - About 200 feet from dismount, pulled feed out and rode on top of my shoes
- T2 (00:01:06)
- Dismounted barefoot and ran bike to my position (easily discovered by balloon)
- Flipped on running shoes, took off
- Got out of transition and down the straight away and realized my helmet was still on
- Sprinted back and dropped off helmet. Probably lost 30 seconds here. I think this got lumped in with my run time though since I passed the T1 chip reader
- Took off running
- Run (00:38:40 – 5.55 miles, 6:58/mile)
- Average 6:14 miles for 10k – I believe the run was about .3 miles to short, but nice after the marathons I run that are 26.7 miles
- They miscalculated the distance – notified in a follow up email; race distance was 5.55 miles
- Legs felt heavy for first half mile, but great after that
- I’ve been working on my running cadence, taking shorter strides but more of them. It really helped in this race as my legs never really hurt after the first half-mile.
- Didn’t push it all during race except to keep a steady heart rate (155-163) and steady pace. Heart rate was much higher than I expected, but my heart rate on the bike was the highest it has ever been (150-170), so it was tough to bring it down on the run. Plus, I felt good and went with it
- Did not sprint finish to save legs for marathon in a few weeks
That is my first triathlon. I had awesome support from my girlfriend Adrienne and my parents, Mike and Mary (you can see them in my Flickr pictures). It was such a great feeling to complete this race, have fun, and feel good after the race. I’m happy with my level of fitness and training. I realized that the science of sport that I’ve been studying has a lot of value, and I’ll continue to research and work hard at it. Based on my
Me with the pit crew
performance and splits, here are the things I need to work on:
- Swimming endurance
- Bike force
- Bike muscular endurance
- Running cadence
- Expand my triathlon community – everyone I’ve met in this sport is awesome
If you have any tips or questions, please post a comment. I’ll get back to my regular posts this week, especially when it comes to putting together a training schedule and some more on workout impacts and workout variation (volume, intensity and frequency).
Some of my bloopers:
Out of my shoes too soon
Running out of transition with my helmet
Realized it fortunately here, not a mile into the run
Had to run back
Mid week brick, and then suit day
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Running, Swimming on September 23, 2009
Today was a good day. I never thought a mid week brick would be an easy workout for the week, particularly since Wednesdays are supposed to be a longer run. But after running 42 miles last week with 40-50 on the bike and a few hours in the pool, this week has been a bit of a step back. I’ve added weight lifting, so not too much of a step back, but definitely lower mileage. I should do about 80 on the bike, 30 on the road, and I hope to get 3-4 hours in the pool if I can stack a huge day onto Sunday. We’ll see.
I got up today at 6am, swam for 30 minutes, swallowed a ton of chlorinated water, felt ill, put on my sockless tri shoes, dropped off the towel and goggles in my condo, took off for a 5 mile run, and nearly got hit by cars driving through fog because I could see NOTHING. Do not wear glasses when it’s foggy. Yes, a DUH moment.
My goal was a zone 1 run, and I really wanted to do this in less than 8 minute miles. You can check out my splits here, and I crack up that I really ran 5.1 miles or so, but just forgot to turn my Garmin on for the first .2 training makes me INSANE!
I captured video of the pre-swim, beginning of the run, and the end. I finally figured out how to get this upright, but it’s still a portrait picture that doesn’t take up the window. I think third time truly is the charm when it comes to video.
And did I mention it was a suit day after. Yup, life of the fully employed triathlete. From tight spandex in a pool and sockless shoes to a suit at a security trade show. That’s how I roll!
Happy training everyone! Good night!
Weight training – good or bad?
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Weight Training on September 22, 2009
I began weight training yesterday. I have a triathlon in three weeks and a marathon in five weeks. Timing isn’t great, but I don’t view these races as end games but means to the end, so I’d rather not put off weight training any longer. I am focused purely on strength maintenance during this period of training. Since I haven’t weight trained other than push ups, pull ups and sit ups for a few years, I guess it’s not really maintenance. However, I’m focusing on training that will strengthen/lengthen those small muscles without causing too much fatigue or soreness.
The question I ponder is whether this is good training for the fully employed triathlete. Although I didn’t want to spend too much time in the weight room, 3 sets of 20 of 6-7 exercises takes at least 30 minutes, with 1 minute of stretching between sets and you’re looking at 45 minutes. Not a lot of time, but a lot of time when you work 45 hours a week and need to train for three sports. So I’ve resorted to combining this workout like a brick, after a run, a swim, or a ride.
I feel good doing this, but also more fatigued. It definitely slowed my run a bit today. I lifted/stretched for 45 minutes yesterday morning (with an evening swim) and 30 minutes today after a 5 mile run. Here’s what I’m doing:
- Leg press – low weight, high reps – feet narrow and pointing forward to simulate a bike
- Standing lat pulldown – stand up, take the bar, elbows / knees slightly bent, pull down – low weight, high reps
- Squats – very low weight with dumbbells – feet narrow and pointing forward to simulate a bike
- Push ups – 3 sets of 20, slow to be exact with plyometrics offsetting sets (clap push ups)
- Sit ups – twists with a medicine ball (offset with overhead catch and throws)
- To add into the mix: standing row, step up, knee extension
- Stretches: triangle, quad pull, shoulder extension, shoulder pull, sitting knees, specific hip / IT band stretches
I’m doing some other drills geared to helping my running form, but the exercises above (non core) are almost exclusively for swimming and biking, which of course will improve running based on entering the third sport with more energy. I think incorporating 15 minutes or so of yoga 3-4 nights per week is also helpful! As you can see, spare time is vanishing!
Do you do any weight training for triathlons / running? Please share any exercises you find helpful!
Breathing challenges while swimming
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Swimming on September 20, 2009
I’ve been working on my swimming stroke the last few weeks. Mostly drills, but when I resort back to regular swimming, I’m having a lot of trouble breathing. I’m short of breath after just 50 meters. Part of the problem is that I’m thinking so much about my stroke that I’m not concentrated on the most important piece – breathing.
I decided to do some research on breathing and decided to share that here in case any of you are having some of the same issues. I found this post on active. It’s by Terry Laughlin, who came up with immersion swimming referenced several times in this blog. My main takeaway from this was to breathe out through my nose with very small bubbles (I’ve been making huge bubbles out of my nose). It’s also okay to breathe out of both the mouth and nose. The other takeaway was to start inhaling the moment your mouth comes out of the water. Sounds straightforward, but I don’t believe I do this. The drills in the post are awesome and can be done at home.
Here’s another post by Terry Laughlin on active. Here are some takeaways from this article:
- Inhale through your mouth; exhale through your mouth 70 percent and nose 30 percent. Are these figures exact? No, just keep enough air pressure coming from your nose to keep the water out.
- Never hold your breath—even if you’ll swim three to five strokes between breaths. Begin exhaling as soon as you finish inhaling—just exhale in a more controlled way if you’ll take more strokes before your next breath.
- Exhale the final 20 percent of air more forcefully than the first 80 percent. This should make the inhale almost effortless by creating a vacuum in your lungs. It also helps clear the water away from your mouth for the next breath. Also, the force of your exhale should be proportionate to your effort. The next time you swim a descending set, experiment with consciously adding some force to your exhale as you go faster.
And most importantly, what I’ve learned from the immersion swimming drills, don’t turn your head to breathe, roll your entire body. This is usually the biggest change that you have to get used to. I’ve done several hours of drills and it’s just starting to feel normal, and that’s when I’m rested. At the end of a long set, it’s easy to cheat.
A tip I found to be pretty useful too with swimming, less with breathing is this:
- Drive the top hip down. After breathing, focus on driving that hip (i.e. the right hip after a right side breath and vice versa) down strongly. That will help you get all the power out of the extra rotation that occurs when you roll to breathe. If you do all of the above right, you can make each breath an asset to your stroke, not an interruption.
Do you have any swim tips? Post them below!
Getting used to the struggle
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Ironman Training, Swimming, Training Tips on September 14, 2009
Today was one of those days where I realized how much more I need to train to get better. It was a cross train day, and since I spent most of the weekend biking and running, I decided to spend 45 minute in the pool doing my total immersion drills.
I’m still doing lesson one and lesson two drills, so I know I have a long way to go! I get frustrated though when it’s so apparent how much work I have left.
Total immersion is a complete redesign of the swim stroke! I think the best analogy, particularly for me since I played competitive golf for eight years, is that rebuilding your swim stroke is like rebuilding a golf swing. It’s not about building endurance through hard laps “following the black line”. It’s about perfecting (if there is such a thing) your swim stroke to achieve the right length so you can swim faster with less effort (that is, less effort then if you used an inefficient stroke).
The book says that speed = stroke rate * stroke length, with 70% of your speed dependent on the length and 30% on the rate. However, we usually spend 100% of our time working solely on rate. So the drills are meant to get your stroke focused on the length. It feels so different than my regular stroke!
I’ve been doing the drills for about 2.5 hours of swimming now (about a week), and today was the first day that I could really feel how bad my old stroke was and how different the new one felt. This is a good thing since I can finally feel the difference. But this is also a bad thing because I can’t just swim feeling positive about swimming.I feel like I’m caught in limbo between the new stroke and the old one, and all I can do is drills to drive home the feeling of the new one.
I remember this feeling when I played golf where I’d do drills working on lengthening my left arm or impact drills for keeping my left arm flexed for impact. It always felt good with the drills, but the moment I went back to the regular swing, the old habits crept up. It was always so frustrating to be in those interim weeks of improvement.
The nice thing about golf though was I played in high school and college, so I had time to work on it through the day. I also could go home at night and work on it with a weighted club. With swimming, I get my 30 minutes to an hour in the pool, and that’s it, so the learning curve is that much longer. There is this thing called work that seems to get in the way
Today was a struggle. I came across this quote that helps me get through days like this:
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Don’t forget to dry your feet
Posted by Adam Ainbinder in Running, Swimming, Time Constraint, Training Tips on September 10, 2009
I did a 30 minute swim followed by a 5 mile run today. Total exercise time of about 66 minutes (good pace of about 7:12 for the run with two mile tempo laps in there of 6:45 each). It was the first time running in tri shorts, wet tri shorts at that. It wasn’t too bad. I thought it would be a lot worse. No chafing, no pain.
The one thing I learned quickly though is take the time to dry your feet and put on your socks right. I jumped out of the pool, dried off quickly, put on my socks, shoes, shirt, heart rate monitor, switched the garmin to running, and took off.
About 4 miles into the run, my right toes HURT! I didn’t think much of it and kept going. When I got home, I examined and noticed a decent sized blister on my second toe on my right foot. I assume this had to do with my feet being wet and not completely drying them before running. Lesson learned: take the extra 15 seconds to dry your feet completely AND 30 seconds to straighten out your socks. This could be bad if the blister doesn’t go away by my Saturday long run!
I also started my total immersion swimming drills today, which is why you don’t see me listing a distance. I was amazed at how hard they were to do. It was quickly apparent how poor my swimming form is despite feeling like I was a good swimmer.
Unfortunately this means I need several hours in the pool to fix my form. I spent 30 minutes on lesson 1 today, and I feel like he’s dead on in saying you need 3-4 weeks per lesson, 3-4 days a week of an hour in the pool. I just wish I had the time. I guess I have to think beyond my October 10th race to next year’s Half Ironman.
I do look forward to fixing my form though. It felt good with more work in my hips rather than shoulders. Plus, it just felt easier. 30 minutes in the pool was nothing. That’s a great feeling!
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