|
|
| |
"A journey of 140.6 miles begins with a single swim stroke."© Cliff Eggink
* * *
ON DVD: Swimming Upstream. Actors-Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis. Memorable Quotes-Paul: “You’re going to have to do better than that mate, I’ve been psyched out by experts.” This great film about the rise of Australian swimming champion Tony Fingleton features a great performance (as usual) by Geoffrey Rush. The story (an autobiographical account) details how Tony grew up in a struggling, working-class Australian home with an Alcoholic father. He only thinks that he can finally win his Dad’s attention by winning in the pool. I won’t ruin the ending, but managed to actually tell the story of life and swimming without making either of them lame (something many sports movies fail). Sent in by David.
______
When the earth floods from global warming, the swimmers will rule the world.
|
Anne Wilson, Camelback coaching
Proper technique pays big dividends in swimming – see Dara Torres How wonderful to see Dara Torres light up the Olympic Stage at 41 years young! Her silver medal in the 50-freestyle put an exclamation point on how important proper technique and drag reduction can be in swimming. Was she really that much stronger than the 16-year old swimmer who lined up next to her in the finals? Perhaps. However, with age comes wisdom and experience. Sprinters and all world-class swimmers are acutely aware of how important drag reduction is in their racing. Races are determined by hundredths of a second and swimmers cannot afford to be held back by improper positioning in the water. As we age group triathletes and masters swimmers seek to improve our times in swimming as we get older, we need to be smart about it. Fitness is a large part of our improvement, but technique can be even more so. Look at all the areas where drag is produced. Are your hips tracking well below the surface (are you swimming uphill)? Are your legs splaying out into a large scissor kick when you breathe? Are you crossing over or producing lateral movement in your stroke? Are you lifting your head more than necessary to breathe? Are your arms scooping up and extending upward following recovery? Even minor corrections in each of these areas can add up to big reductions in time. Be like Dara Torres. Be smart about your swimming. Be fast. More: www.camelbackcoaching.com
|
Freestyle and Beyond by Bethany Larsen, Swimotion, LLC Crawlstroke, often referenced as freestyle, is currently the fastest and most efficient form of aquatic locomotion known to mankind. Along one line of thought it makes sense that if you will be racing a particular stroke you should spend your time and energy training that one stroke and do your cross training in the form of running and or cycling. After all, what you do in practice you will do in a race and the principles of sport specific training are quite applicable to, and apparent in, the sport of triathlon. I would like to propose and additional line of thinking: learning another stroke, or strokes, can have a positive impact on your freestyle. When you swim a stroke other than freestyle, the way the water moves over your body changes and this change can often be felt. Learning what the water “feels like” can give you clues as to how the water works to help move you forward or hold you back. This type of information helps you become more efficient in all strokes. For example, it can be argued that butterfly has the same underwater pull as freestyle. Butterfly however affords a lot less room for error and requires more precise timing and pulling efficiency; and who wouldn’t want more of that in their freestyle? Learning another stroke, such as backstroke, gives you a ‘plan B.’ If say you are in the middle of 1500m race and you find that you are exhausted or you get a cramp, what do you do if freestyle is the only stroke you know? While waiting for the kayak, you could tread water or you could change your stroke to one that uses different muscles and breathing techniques. Knowing other strokes will also increase the variety in your workouts. So to help you get started I have outlined some of the basics for learning how to do backstroke. Backstroke uses the same kick, and requires that you roll your body to the same degree, if not more, as in freestyle. Head position: Keep your head in a neutral alignment with your body looking almost straight up if not slightly toward your feet. Hands/Arms: your hands should stay 180° apart throughout the duration of the stroke cycle. When a hand exits the water by your thigh, it will exit thumb up, when that hand is pointing to the sky twist you arm so that your hand can enter the water pinking first - at a point above your head and in front of your shoulder, much like raising your hand to ask a question in grade school. This will allow you to be properly positioned to start your underwater pull. Remember to keep your elbow straight as your arm travels through the air. Once your hand is back in the water, bend your elbow, and pull your upper arm down so that it is parallel to, and in line with, the side of your body. Then push your palm toward your feet, ending again with a straight arm and hand that is ready to exit the water near your thigh. Keep your wrist straight throughout the underwater pull. Body Position and timing: Think shish kabob, everything rolls together. When your right hand exits the water by your thigh, your right hip and right shoulder should also roll to exit the water. Since your are remembering to keep your arms 180° apart this means your right arm should be ready to begin its underwater pull when you left hand exist the water and you begin to roll you body the other direction. Have Fun! www.swimotion.com
|
Half Ironman-distance Swim = 1900m Brain Work: 1900m swim as a steady, sustainable, non-stop effort. Your total time should go down as you get fitter; you might also find your time stays the same but you feel stronger at the end of the swim, an indicator of increased technique proficiency. Over time, add 100m to 300m to these swims until the full distance is covered. Race Simulation: 1900m swim with varied efforts to simulate the early, mid, and late portions of the race. The first 50 strokes at a moderate to high level, the mid-portion at a moderate, sustainable level, and the closing section at a moderate to moderately higher level (not as fast as the first 50 strokes). At the end of this swim, check your heart rate; check it again at 30, 60, and 90 seconds. As you get fitter, heart rate should go down faster and/or your total swim time will get faster. Technique Golf: Swim 10x 25m (or 50m) with: 15s-30s rest, count strokes for each length. Add stroke count and time n seconds. Aim to decrease total for each 25 (or 50) within a workout and over the weeks. Sustainable Pace: The 50-50 workout. Divide the race distance into two parts (2x 950m). Swim segment at an easy to moderate effort, an effort that results in a time slower than segment two. Rest for 60s and check your heart rate at 0s, 20s, and 40s. If it is not going down, continue resting and re-checking every 20s until it starts to go down, then wait an additional 20s. Swim segment two at a moderate effort that results in a time faster than segment one. The pace for segment one should be consistent throughout that segment; the pace for segment two should be consistent throughout that segment. As you gain fitness, attempt to make the time (and pace) for each segment equal without slowing down the time for the second segment, then attempt to decrease the rest between segments. Don't try to do both at the same time, focus on increasing the pace for segment one first. Once the speed for segment one is about the same as segment two, you should be able to decrease rest between segments. Remember to use the heart rate check every 20s. Hold a Pace: 10x 50m (or 10x 25m, 10x 75m, 10x 100m, 10x 150m, or 10x 200m; looking for a total time of about 20m), with 10s rest, at the fastest possible even pace. These should all be the same speed, with the goal of feeling like you might be able to do one or two more once you finish the set, but you could not do more. At the end of this swim, check your heart rate; check it again at 30s, 60s, and 90s. As you get fitter, heart rate should go down faster and/or your total swim time will get faster. Count-down: swim 1900m as a 550, 450, 350, 250, 150, 100, 50; rest 10s to 20s between each segment. Aim to go faster as the segments get shorter. Over time, aim to decrease total swim time. Hard-Easy-Hard: All of the repeats in this set should be the same distance. Swim 4x 25m at a fast, almost un-sustainable speed (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; looking for a total time of about 9-10 minutes for the 4 swims including rest), 2x 25m very easy focusing on technique (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; looking for a total time of about 6 minutes), and 4x 25m at a fast, almost un-sustainable speed (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; again looking for a total time of about 9-10 minutes) all on 20s-30s rest. At the end of this set, check your heart rate; check it again at 30s, 60s, and 90s. As you get fitter, your fast times should get faster, your speed fall-off between repeats will decrease, and your heart rate should go down faster. How often, and how fast, should you swim these workouts? Click here to read the the specifics on swimming speeds and the frequncy of doing these swim workout sets
Source: swmplan.com
This Half Ironman plan will be posted thru 2008. Refer to it as often as need. Ironman-distance Swim = 3800m Brain Work: 3800m swim as a steady, sustainable, non-stop effort. Your total time should go down as you get fitter; you might also find your time stays the same but you feel stronger at the end of the swim, an indicator of increased technique proficiency. Initially, non-stop efforts of shorter distances should be preformed. Over time, add 100m to 300m to these swims until the full distance is covered. Race Simulation: 3800m swim with varied efforts to simulate the early, mid, and late portions of the race. The first 50 strokes at a moderate to high level, the mid-portion at a moderate, sustainable level, and the closing section at a moderate to moderately higher level (not as fast as the first 50 strokes). At the end of this swim, check your heart rate; check it again at 30, 60, and 90 seconds. As you get fitter, heart rate should go down faster and/or your total swim time will get faster. Technique Golf: Swim 10x 25m (or 50m) with: 15-30s rest, count strokes each length. Add stroke count and time in seconds. Decrease total for each 25 (or 50) within a workout and over the weeks. Sustainable Pace: The 50-50 workout. Divide the race distance into two parts (2x 1900m). Swim part one at an easy to moderate effort, an effort that results in a time slower than part two. Rest for 60s and check your heart rate at 0s, 20s, and 40s. If it is not going down, continue resting and re-checking every 20s until it starts to go down, then wait an additional 20s. Swim part two at a moderate effort that results in a time faster than part one. The pace for part one should be consistent throughout that part; the pace for part two should be consistent throughout that segment. As you gain fitness, attempt to make the time (and pace) for each part equal without slowing down the time for the second segment, then attempt to decrease the rest between segments. Don't try to do both at the same time, focus on increasing the pace for segment one first. Once the speed for segment one is about the same as segment two, you should be able to decrease rest between segments. Remember to use the heart rate check every 20s. Hold a Pace: 10x 50m (or 10x 25m, 10x 75m, 10x 100m, 10x 150m, or 10x 200m; looking for a total time of about 20m), with 10s rest, at the fastest possible even pace. These should all be the same speed, with the goal of feeling like you might be able to do one or two more once you finish the set, but you could not do more. At the end of this swim, check your heart rate; check it again at 30s, 60s, and 90s. As you get fitter, heart rate should go down faster and/or your total swim time will get faster. Count-down: swim a 900, 800, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100; rest 10s to 20s between each segment. Aim to go faster as the segments get shorter. Over time, aim to decrease total swim time. Hard-Easy-Hard: All of the repeats in this set should be the same distance. Swim 4x 25m at a fast, almost un-sustainable speed (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; looking for a total time of about 9-10 minutes for the 4 swims including rest), 2x 25m very easy focusing on technique (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; looking for a total time of about 6 minutes), and 4x 25m at a fast, almost un-sustainable speed (or 4x 50, 4x 75, 4x 100, 4x 125, or 4x 150; again looking for a total time of about 9-10 minutes) all on 20s-30s rest. At the end of this set, check your heart rate; check it again at 30s, 60s, and 90s. As you get fitter, your fast times should get faster, your speed fall-off between repeats will decrease, and your heart rate should go down faster. Source: swimplan.com
This plan will be posted here thru 2008, refer to it as often as you wish.
|
Triathlon Key Swim Workouts
Your Guide to Swimming. How Often and How Fast. Brain Work:
Speed= race pace or slower, but always the same speed through the entire swim.
Frequency= every 2-3 weeks - remember to start with less distance and build-up. Race Simulation:
Speed= race pace.
Frequency= every 3-6 weeks - remember to start with less distance and build-up. Technique Golf:
Speed= varied speed from slower to faster than race pace to experiment with stroke rate, stroke distances, etc. As experience is gained moves to a narrower range, and moves towards race pace or slightly slower early in the set to race pace or faster later within the set.
Frequency= every week. Sustainable Pace:
Speed= overall race pace, with variation between segments narrowing with experience.
Frequency= every 1-2 weeks. Hold a Pace:
Speed= Fastest speed that can be sustained for all repeats.
Frequency= every 1-2 weeks. Count-down:
Speed= average race pace, starting below race pace and ending faster than race pace, with the variance narrowing with experience.
Frequency= every 3-6 weeks - remember to start with less distance and build-up Hard-Easy-Hard:
Speed= As fast as can be done for four swims in a row. It might be so fast you cannot hold that speed for every repeat; speed could decrease 5s-10s from first to fourth swim and from 5th to 8th swim, but if the slow-down is greater, then the initial speed was too great!
Frequency= every 1-2 weeks.
I also have a few random thoughts to add... Swim is not the place to try and win unless it is a drafting race, then still better not to win but draft off the leader in the swim! Balance of effort and speed - much more to come in the race after the swim is over. Swimmers will often say that the swim leg of a triathlon is too short, and non-swimmers will say the opposite - this probably relates to the level of technical proficiency of the swimmer, not necessarily their fitness. Not taking into account the benefits of a wetsuit, you will not swim faster in a race than you swim in practice (and still be able to bike and run well afterwards). You must do some swimming in practice at efforts below, at, and above race pace. Short races require a bit more emphasis on swimming at or faster than race pace, and longer races slide down to an emphasis on race pace and below. Works the same way as training for a run of 1 mile or 26.2 miles - training for the longer race tends to have less running at race pace!
Source: Matt Luebbers. About Us
This key workout plan will be posted here thru 2008, refer to it as often as needed.
|
FREESTYLE WORKOUT: Freestyle workout | 3000 yards | 2100 yards | Warm-up
Swim Free
descend 5 sec per swim | 4x300 | 4x200 | Free
Pull easy
Swim
Pull easy
Swim
Pull easy
Swim
Pull easy
Swim |
100
4x25 on :15
100
4x25 on :15
100
4x25 on :15
100
100 all out
|
100
4x25 on :25
100
4x25 on :30
100
4x25 on :35
100
100 all out
| IM
Drills
Kick
Swim |
200
200
4x100 continuous (no rest)
|
100
100
2x100 continuous (no rest
| Swim-down
Free hesitate before recovery | 200 | 100 |
Source: RuthKazez.com
This workout will be posted here thru 2009, refer to it as often as you wish. *************
|
|
|
