I received my first official donation to my TRI season today (THANK YOU Uncle Jim!!!); but, I realized I have yet to post about Tri Season Training. Well, a few weeks ago actually, I had my first official fall TRI season training with my new team, and my new (yet not really new) coach, Stan. (His nickname will come soon enough.)
This was a basics day. Coach Stan's main goal was to talk to all the newbies about swimming, get down to the basics and talk real fundamentals of swimming. Three keys to swimming in endurance events: Breathing, Body Position, and Efficiency of Stroke.
About two weeks ago, a few days before our first training, I posted a blog about breathing. This is a tough one for me with asthma: exercise induced asthma at that. Yes, I know, why do I do this if it causes me to have trouble breathing. The answer in is the main title of my blog: Because I Can. If ever the asthma should stand in my way, I will stop. Until then, even my doctor said it is OK. In fact, all this exercise in endurance events has helped my asthma. In other words, Endurance Does a Body Good!!
Coach Stan talked to us about breathing. Whether we are bilateral breathers or stuck to one side, as long as we are efficiently breathing we will finish our event and our times will not suffer. It is when inefficiencies step in that times take a turn for the worse. One key to breathing efficiency is core development. Let me explain... When breathing in freestyle swim you should be rolling your body to the side, not lifting your head to breath (lifting your head produces drag which is bad). It is easier to accomplish this roll with a strong core. In order to help me with my breathing, and I am talking about the actually physical movement to allow for an efficient breath, I need to build my core. (Build ab workouts into my injury prevention and core development workouts - CHECK)
Coach Stan also talked about body position. Most beginners hesitate to stick their head all the way down in the water. This is due to fear of drowning, fear of not being able to get a breath, fear of the water in general. There are many reasons why people are hesitant to get under water completely. However, the best body position is almost a slight inverted tilt: Head down looking directly at the bottom of the pool, chest down slightly, butt and legs up. This position will reduce drag and bring efficiency to your stroke. With your head or chest up in the front you are literally fighting the water to move. Getting your head down and in the right position will allow for the water to flow over your head reducing drag and making your swim almost effortless.
Lastly, Coach Stan talked about efficiency of stroke. I have had coaches tell me before to stretch my stroke out as far as possible almost as if I am reaching for something in the top of the cupboard. Um, I am not thinking they noticed my height when making that reference: I never stretch to reach any thing in any cupboard. I digress... Efficient swimmers take less strokes to cover the same distance as those who have not conquered this feat.
Imagine if I swim 25 yrds (or meters) and it takes me 22 strokes to get from start to finish; and, a master's swimmer takes 19 strokes to cover the same distance... well three strokes does not seem like a lot. However, multiply that by my distance in the Olympic swim course (1500 meters) and we are talking about 75 more strokes to cover the same distance (or 3+ more lengths of the pool). Why would I want to swim more? This leads me to think of a friend who I often quote saying "Work Smarter, Not Harder!" Yes, smarter is 19 strokes, not 22 to cover one length of a pool. Reserve the energy for the rest of the event!
So far this is the extent of our training (at least to the training I have attended) since I am still training for Tahoe (which is in 9 days). There will be more as time goes by. When I return from Tahoe I reenter TRI training with swims on Saturdays and Bricks on Sundays (Ha, Bricks - wait until I explain those workouts!).
This was a basics day. Coach Stan's main goal was to talk to all the newbies about swimming, get down to the basics and talk real fundamentals of swimming. Three keys to swimming in endurance events: Breathing, Body Position, and Efficiency of Stroke.
About two weeks ago, a few days before our first training, I posted a blog about breathing. This is a tough one for me with asthma: exercise induced asthma at that. Yes, I know, why do I do this if it causes me to have trouble breathing. The answer in is the main title of my blog: Because I Can. If ever the asthma should stand in my way, I will stop. Until then, even my doctor said it is OK. In fact, all this exercise in endurance events has helped my asthma. In other words, Endurance Does a Body Good!!
Coach Stan talked to us about breathing. Whether we are bilateral breathers or stuck to one side, as long as we are efficiently breathing we will finish our event and our times will not suffer. It is when inefficiencies step in that times take a turn for the worse. One key to breathing efficiency is core development. Let me explain... When breathing in freestyle swim you should be rolling your body to the side, not lifting your head to breath (lifting your head produces drag which is bad). It is easier to accomplish this roll with a strong core. In order to help me with my breathing, and I am talking about the actually physical movement to allow for an efficient breath, I need to build my core. (Build ab workouts into my injury prevention and core development workouts - CHECK)
Coach Stan also talked about body position. Most beginners hesitate to stick their head all the way down in the water. This is due to fear of drowning, fear of not being able to get a breath, fear of the water in general. There are many reasons why people are hesitant to get under water completely. However, the best body position is almost a slight inverted tilt: Head down looking directly at the bottom of the pool, chest down slightly, butt and legs up. This position will reduce drag and bring efficiency to your stroke. With your head or chest up in the front you are literally fighting the water to move. Getting your head down and in the right position will allow for the water to flow over your head reducing drag and making your swim almost effortless.
Lastly, Coach Stan talked about efficiency of stroke. I have had coaches tell me before to stretch my stroke out as far as possible almost as if I am reaching for something in the top of the cupboard. Um, I am not thinking they noticed my height when making that reference: I never stretch to reach any thing in any cupboard. I digress... Efficient swimmers take less strokes to cover the same distance as those who have not conquered this feat.
Imagine if I swim 25 yrds (or meters) and it takes me 22 strokes to get from start to finish; and, a master's swimmer takes 19 strokes to cover the same distance... well three strokes does not seem like a lot. However, multiply that by my distance in the Olympic swim course (1500 meters) and we are talking about 75 more strokes to cover the same distance (or 3+ more lengths of the pool). Why would I want to swim more? This leads me to think of a friend who I often quote saying "Work Smarter, Not Harder!" Yes, smarter is 19 strokes, not 22 to cover one length of a pool. Reserve the energy for the rest of the event!
So far this is the extent of our training (at least to the training I have attended) since I am still training for Tahoe (which is in 9 days). There will be more as time goes by. When I return from Tahoe I reenter TRI training with swims on Saturdays and Bricks on Sundays (Ha, Bricks - wait until I explain those workouts!).
Any training tips you would like to share???
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