Posts Tagged ‘Triathlon Training - Swim’

Although technically not part of freestyle, the push-off from the wall while swimming in a pool is important for all swim strokes. It could be especially beneficial to those of you that race in pool based triathlons/aquathons who can’t tumble turn. Every time you push off the wall , you have an opportunity to improve your streamlined position. A good push off allows you to start each length with a little speed and good body position.

Take a glide off the wall then, then take 6 to 10 kicks (keeping your arms together in a streamlined position) and start stroking. The key is to time it properly. Do not start swimming immediately upon your feet leaving the wall. You should take a glide off the wall and then have a good strong kick before you start to pull. If you start kicking and pulling too soon or too late, you will slow yourself down from the speed that a good streamlined push-off provides.

Is a streamlined push-off in a sense cheating though? Not at all, as there are no walls in open water to push off and if you’re trying to match those who do ‘tumble’ at the end of the pool, you’re going to need all the extra ‘push’ you can get.

It is, in fact, one of the best things you can do to get faster. To become faster you’ll need to feel and know what ‘faster’ is. Due to the propulsion of the legs pushing off the wall and the reduced drag of a streamlined form, it is virtually impossible to swim any faster than the speed of a good push off. Next time you’re in the pool give it a go and notice how much quicker your body feels as it cuts through the dense water.

Don’t think of push-off’s as being a waste of time because of ‘open water’ reasoning. Yes, there are no walls in open water swimming, however if you can’t ‘tumble turn’ and compete in pool based races, a push off will assist in developing a good streamlined body position and should make you swim faster overall.

Happy training!!

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If you were asked how hard and fast do you swim in training, what would you respond with? It is probably most productive to think about swimming in terms of easy, fast and various percentages of the ‘rate of perceived exertion’ (RPE).

In terms of effort levels and training zones in swimming, the vast majority of swimmers find that using a ‘rate of perceived exertion’ of an all out 100% effort seems to work best.

Using a device to monitor heart rate and power is not too difficult, but if you could do it, getting the information while swimming would be a massive challenge. For example, a heart rate monitor chest strap is a little difficult to keep in place; however the bigger obstacle is the fact that you can only read the values of it when you stop. This does not allow you to adjust your effort as you swim.

So considering this, it makes sense to work with your own feeling of what level of effort you are putting into the swim. Using this method will help you learn to get in touch with your body’s signals and not rely on other methods of feedback whist swimming.

The categories of your RPE could look like;
Easy (E): Anything under 65% RPE, used for warming up and recovering.
Easy aerobic (EA): 65-75% RPE
Fast Aerobic (FA): 75-85% RPE
Threshold (THR): 85-90% RPE
Anaerobic (AA): 90-100 RPE
Creatine Phosphagen, superspeed (CP): 100% + RPE

In theory there is no such thing as 100% plus RPE. The last level listed above is for very short durations, so sort that you’ll go beyond anaerobic level and activate the creatine phosphagen system and you’ll stimulate this by going flat out for very short duration of less than 10 seconds. This pace would be much faster than you could maintain for two lengths hence it could be termed as ‘100% plus’.

Most coaches will suggest that the bulk of your training should be in the aerobic zone (EA and FA) in order to achieve the most effective results.

Happy training!!

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If you ask most competitive mortals what they feel they should add to their weekly routine or what is missing from their weekly routine, I bet most of them will say flexibility/stretching training.

In general terms, living makes your body tight. Everything we do in the normal course of a day shortens muscles(sitting at a desk, driving, working out, stress, etc). Maybe this fact is one of the reasons that swimming is such a lifelong sport. It is one of the few sports that elongates the spine as opposed to shortening it.

Although swimming is a sport that in many ways promotes flexibility, improving flexibility in swimming is still important. Swimmers can get many advantages from having flexible shoulders and hips. Flexibility does for swimming as it does for most sports, it helps you perform better, reduces the risk of injury and aids in recovery.

Even though all of us know the benefits of stretching, we all at some point have found every excuse under the sun to avoid committing to add flexibility sessions into training schedules. The reason for this is really quite simple. The gains from flexibility training are subtle and are only seen when you are consistent. This fact can make it an easy part of your schedule to skip.

If you are able to view flexibility training as vital as your base training, then you’d make more time for it. Why not commit to adding a few flexibility sessions into you next few weeks training plan and see if you feel that it was worth it!

Many effective methods of flexibility training are possible. Some combine strength work, others do not. Some of the more recognised methods include Yoga, Pilates, Active Isolate stretching, PNF stretching and static stretching. I would suggest you find a method of flexibility training that suits, you believe in and fits in with your schedule. Then stick with it.

Happy Training!!

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The open water swim Triathlons in the UK will soon be with us and if you haven’t yet ventured into the water, don’t worry, as the following information may give you some ‘pre-dip’ advice to think about before you take the plunge.

What would you say was the most important element of open water swimming? If you said navigation, then you’d be spot on.

In a pool you have the lane lines and painted lines on the bottom of the pool to keep you swimming straight. This could lull you into thinking that you swim straight in a pool. In fact no-one swims perfectly straight in a pool. When you are in a pool you do not even notice that you are constantly correcting. In open water, the wind, currents and lack of visibility make swimming without sighting impossible.

Next time you are a spectator at an open-water event take a look at some of the participants and make note of how many of them are sighting often enough. The end result of not sighting enough could mean swimming 1800M instead of a 1500M Olympic distance course and lowering your overall finish position and time.

The solution is to learn how to swim sight and simply to sight more often. The reason most swimmers do not sight is often because that they think it slows them down or disrupts their stroke. Fair comment, but what about incorporating efficient sighting into your breathing pattern?

Look at the top swimmers in any open water race and you’ll notice that most are sighting every two or four strokes, but why? They do this because they know that the more often they sight, the straighter they will swim and they’ve found a way to sight so it doesn’t slow them down.

What most swimmers do to sight is simply lift their head and shoulders and swim a few strokes of ‘water polo stroke’ (head-up swimming). While this style is quite effective for sighting, it makes your legs and lower body sink, shortens your stroke and increases you effort, effectively it slows you down.

Efficient Sighting Technique
Practice efficient sighting at each swim session in the pool and soon you’ll feel more comfortable sighting often, which will translate to straighter swimming and faster times.

While swimming normally, start to lift your head from the neck, just enough to get the goggles above water. As soon as you get sight of what’s in front of you, immediately continue to rotate and take a breath as you lay your head down on it’s side. This way you keep your body position level and keep your strokes long by rotating.

The challenge here is to time the lifting of your head at the point when you body passes through the point of your stroke when your belly is facing parallel to the pool or lake floor. Realize you’ll probably mess up this sighting technique the first couple of times, but most will get it after a few practices.

Practicing this sighting technique is best accomplished in a pool first. Until sighting is second nature add at least one 100 meter sequence of sighting practice to the drills section of your workout and before you know it you’ll be sighting like the pro’s!

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There are a whole host of factors that could determine whether you swim train with a group or swim solo. I prefer swimming solo for the simple fact that I can pick and choose where and when I want to swim my sessions, as well as being led by family commitments. The downside of this for me is that sometimes I tend to lack the ‘push’ that you’d get from a group session.

A self explanatory factor that distinguishes swim training from bike and run training is that swim venues are more limited than areas for you to cycle and run in. For this reason, triathletes tend to congregate and train in groups, more often than not with their respective clubs. No matter where you are in the world, training within a formal group is far more common in swimming than the other triathlon disciplines. Next time you attend one of your weekly swim session take a look around and see how many of the faces there attend one of the club run sessions. Significantly less I would guess.

The advantages of training with a club or team are however significant. Firstly you should get a knowledgeable coach who can design and lead sensibly constructed workouts and also scrutinize, monitor and correct your technique. Additionally you get the motivational boost that comes with structure, camaraderie and the mild inter-club competitiveness. In most cases you’ll get all this for very little money. Triathletes who train regularly within a structure group environment tend to train more consistently and harder than those of us who choose not.

The average club session can cover up to 3000 meters taking up to 1hr 30 minutes, which is a fairly meaty training session , so if you’re a comparatively weak swimmer you’ll want to spend some time developing a good base of swim fitness before being thrown in at the deep end.

If and when you feel ready to plunge into group sessions make sure you know basic workout structure, as well as how to read a pace clock, pool etiquette and how to perform the most common swim drills(some of which I have already discussed).

At your first workout introduce yourself to the coach, describe your ability and goals and ask him/her to appoint an appropriate lane. Swim the session to the best of your ability and seek stroke advice from the coach in the event that none is volunteered. If for any reason you cannot complete the entire session, just climb out of the pool and prepare yourself for your next attempt of a full session.

One thing to avoid with group workouts is allowing them to become your entire source of swim training. As a triathlete you’ll need to deviate from your team sessions in certain ways in order to stick to your own. For example, most club sessions never do long steady paced endurance sessions, as you should do once a week.

When you do attend group sessions, be prepared to do what the group does and don’t try to modify the session for your own benefit. However you can customize your workout to some degree by choosing a slower or faster lane than usual. Failing all of this there’s nothing to stop you following set swim session programmes on your own. Simple purchase a ready made plan, or create one yourself, then off you go.

Group swim training versus solo will always raise for’s and against from an individuals perspective and regardless of what’s been written above there’s nothing to stop you training on your own and still become an age group champion!!
 

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Ever wondered what your swim workout structure should really look like? The basic template below should help plan those sessions a little better by breaking down the workout into four distinct categories.

Warm-up
Generally 300-500m with focus on breathing efficiency. Swim any stroke if you wish.

Drills
300-1000m focusing on technique. Check out some of the drills already posted here.

Main Set
Varies greatly depending on goals and ability level, focus on your effort.

Cool Down
Generally 300-500m with focus on breathing and technique.

Do three types of main sets per week. A short interval or speed day (25’s, 50’s and/or 100’s), longer intervals (100’s, 200’s and 300’s) and even longer intervals (500 to 1000). If you feel your technique slipping during a main set, don’t be afraid to throw in a ‘drill’ in the middle of the set to tune your technique. Main sets can be adjusted up and down in distance, with repeat times changed and distances altered and even mixed up. Be creative with your swim workout, use the categories as a frame to create your own personalized training program.

Remember to always do focused and specific technique work. It is more important than training hard!

Defining your effort when swimming can be done in many ways, however the most convenient and effective method of gauging your effort is buy your rate of perceived effort (RPE). ‘Race pace’ is usually
thought to be about 85 to 90% RPE and refers to a race pace for a distance swim of 500-3000m. An all out sprint of a short distance (100m or less) would be 100%.

The categories of your RPE could look like;
Easy: Anything under 65% RPE, used for warming up and recovering.
Easy aerobic: 65-75% RPE
Fast Aerobic: 75-85% RPE
Threshold: 85-90% RPE
Anaerobic: 90-100 RPE

For reference, drills should be in the ‘easy’ to ‘easy aerobic’ zones.

A sample main set (working on aerobic endurance) could look something like;
6 x 200’s. Negative splitting is a great way to do a set of 200’s. The negative splits could be any combination of efforts, i.e. first 100 at ‘easy aerobic’ pace and the second 100 at ‘fast aerobic’.

Unlike in running and cycling, the risks of swimming too hard are less crucial, for several reasons;

The cooling effect of the water allows for harder efforts as well as a lower heart rate since the heart does not need to pump blood for cooling the body.

The horizontal position of the body allows the heart to work a little easier because it is not pumping against gravity.

Damages to muscles is minimal, especially as compared with running, in which the pounding takes a toll on muscles, joints and tendons.

Elite-level or pure swimmers (where swimming is the main sport they do) swimmers typically swim two sessions a day and one is generally very hard. Imagine running twice a day with one workout a day on the track, your body would be a complete wreck after a few days! The bottom line is, go ahead and train hard in the pool, your body is more than capable of handling it.

Happy training!!

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Almost every swimmer knows the importance of working on swimming technique. Many have an idea of how to perform effective drills properly. A few actually practice them, very few however practice them accurately and consistently. These are the swimmers who make dramatic improvements in their swimming when executing drills correctly. Will you be one of them?

Doing drills for the first time will most likely feel awkward. This awkwardness is a sign that you are doing something different. Different does not always mean better, however seeing yourself on video tape or using a coach to observe are the best verifications of positive change.

With these drills use fins as they are essential in providing extra propulsion to keep a good body position through the drills. In addition the fins help with making you more aware of your feet and legs which helps them keep in the streamline of your body. Short blade fins are the best as they provide a little propulsion, rather than a big splash.

Practice Drill 1
Kick On Side
This is one of the best drills for working on body position. The side position is one of the most streamlined forms a human can take. The objective here is to get comfortable with the head lying on the shoulder and having one goggle in and out of the water. This is the ideal position for your head when you breathe.

Lie on your side with your bottom are stretched out and ear pressing onto the shoulder. This arm should be just under the surface of the water with the hand parallel to the bottom of the pool. The top are should be on your side. Do a flutter kick and try to maintain one goggle in and one goggle out of the water. The natural tendency is to start lifting the head to get the mouth out the water to breathe. This actually makes you sink and work harder. If breathing while keeping a good head position is difficult, simply roll your head and look up, which will bring your mouth and nose out of the water to enable you to breathe. Do one whole length on one side and another length on the other.

Practice Drill 2
Catch Up
This drill is great for working on making the exchange of one arm for the other in front of the head, this movement ensures that there is always an arm in front of the head to glide out on, which makes the body longer. In general, a longer body moves faster through water. In addition, the hands meting in front of the head is a reminder to pull and rotate. If you breathe on both sides, this drill can balance out your rotation.

When both arms are fully extended in front of your head, you then pull with the opposing arm. When first doing this drill it is helpful to keep both arms in front of your head and kick a little while before switching your arms. This gives you time to visualise a good pull and good rotation during the power phase.

As with all drills, take your time, as the more slowly and accurately you do these drills, the more you will retain when you swim fast. Try to do 2 x 50 meters of each drill and 1-5 minutes of the vertical kick drill each session. More drills to follow.

Happy training!!

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Have you ever heard any of your club members ever say, ‘I don’t really kick much during the swim leg of a triathlon, I like to save my legs for the bike and run’?

Very few people actually understand the importance of the kick in freestyle swimming, which is why so many swimmers are such poor kickers. Their kick probably creates more drag than propulsion, or they may not even kick at all.

What many triathletes (and swimmers) incorrectly assume is that kicking is a waste of energy. The fact is that an efficient, easy kick, is the foundation of a good body position. If the kick is used properly, it helps get the body in an optimum streamlined position to take full advantage of every pull. We’re not talking here of a powerful kick, but an efficient kick that helps keep the legs up (reducing drag) and helps rotate the body in alignment.

When a swimmer drags the lower body from side to side (fishtailing), it is creating unnecessary drag. Driving the rotation from the kick and core helps keep the body aligned and long. Therefore, the key is in a small kick that stays in the slipstream and is co-ordinated with the pull and rotation.

The kick in freestyle is called a flutter kick because the legs alternate in position ‘fluttering’ whilst keeping the ‘legs long’, meaning that the feet are pointed and the knees bend only slightly at the end of each movement. The most common mistake with this kick is bending the knees too much. This creates too much drag since it comes out of your slipstream. Think of your slipstream as a hole in the water that your body has to pass through, or a narrow band of area that your whole body has to move through with minimal exposure.

Another important factor in the efficiency of the kick is the ankle range of motion. The better a swimmer can point the toes, the more potential there is due to less drag. Flexibility in the ankle joint (for pointing the toes)can be enhanced by stretching the muscles in front of the shinbone(anterior tibialis).

Practice: Kicking Drill

The purpose of this drill is to make the kick efficient. From a vertical position with your arms at your sides, use a flutter kick to keep your head above the water (provided your pool is deep enough of course). Look down at your legs and make sure that you are not bending the knees too much or bending forward at the waist. Utilise the upper muscles of the leg and make small, fast movements. At first this may be too hard to maintain for even 30 seconds, persist and work your way up to one minute.

If your pool is not deep enough to perform the vertical kicking drill you can always revert to the more traditional drill with a paddle out in front of you with extended arms either on your front or back. Remember to keep the flutter kick between the imaginary band of area, i.e. in your slipstream. Try to complete 2 x 50m as part of you drill set.

A set of (zoomer) fins may also be advantageous when executing (most) drills as they help make you more aware of your feet and legs, which helps keep them in the slipstream of your body. The fins should have a short blade so to offer a little propulsion but not too much to push you way out of your slipstream.

Happy training !!

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