OK....I admit it I love technology. I can try and deny it but I can't. I work for a technology company and I compete in a sport where everyone thinks techology will give them an edge. Lighter shoes, power meters, carbon fiber bikes, deep dish carbon wheels, aero drink bottles, high tech fabric race suits, speedsuits for swimming, HR monitors, GPS gizmos and the list goes on. I've bought most all of them.
Although lately I've tried to hold back on my technology purchases, aside from the fact I pretty much already own everything I've found that hard, smart training does more for you than any technology.
However I did breakdown recently and purchase some new training technology. A new watch...yep a watch...well a swim training watch. Now how is this watch different from the literally 6 other watches that I have, well let me tell you.
This watch was created just for swimming. It's really more of a swim computer than a watch (however it does tell time and I think it might have an alarm as well). So what does it do.
When you get ready to do a swim workout you simply hit start and swim, when you get done with your interval (lets say 100 yards, it will allow you to set either yds or meters) you hit the start button again and it reads this as a pause (or rest) in the workout (you also need to do this when doing kick with the paddle board or breast stroke) and when you're ready to start your next interval you just hit start again. Pretty cool huh? Ahhh, now for the cool part. The watch will capture how long your interval took (time split), number of lengths of the pool for the interval, yards or meters, your pace (pace/100), your average number of strokes per length and your efficiency (I haven't quite figured this one out yet). Here's the crazy part it really works.
It uses an acelerometer to measure the strokes and that's about as far as I've gotten in understanding the technology but the damn thing is accurate. I swam 4100 yds the other day, when I got done I went back to scroll through my intervals to log my workout and I found that it only logged 3800 yds. Great it doesn't work, then I remembered I had done 200 yds of kick drills and 100 of breast stroke with the watch on pause (it doesn't count that yardage of the workout but does count the time in as part of the total time working out). It really did work. What I really love is the stroke count feature. My average strokes per 25 yds is 9 strokes, no counting just swim.
I have only complaint is that it's very difficult to see the screen when swimming if you want to check splits in an interval (say your 100 split or 200 split in a 400), but I've found that most watches are difficult to see. The other complaint is that when you finish your interval when you hit start to begin your rest period it doesn't display for a moment your lap split so getting real time splits is difficult.
Otherwise it's totally cool.
So when I started in this whole triathlon thing I wasn't exactly a competitive swimmer (and for the record I'm still not). I grew up on a lake and spent summer days "swimming". Well if you count doing cannonballs and dives off the springboard on our dock as swimming. Not the kind of swimming that makes you fast or efficient.
My first year in this sport (3 years ago) I was swimming 1-2 days a week and mostly in the lake because I hated the pool, to be fair I wasn't comfortable in the pool (I couldn't do flip turns..still can't). In my second year I didn't improve much but neither did my volume or focus on my form.
Last year I got a coach and my swimming world changed. Not because he was standing on the deck criticizing my every interval because he is in Canada and I'm not, but because he focused me. He focused me, focused me on every workout. Now I don't swim more times per week or significantly more per workout but my focus is deep. I now don't do a workout without a focus, every set, every interval, every lap and yes every length of the pool.
It's been a very simple recipe really, just break down the stroke in the pieces and focus on the little things and repeat many, many times. This is probably one of my strengths; the ability focus on the routine without becoming bored. This has served me well in the pool and in the evolution of my swimming and it has evolved. I have the ability to repeat a drill lap after lap after lap. The real break through has really only occurred recently as I have begun to put all those little pieces together at one time in my stroke and shazam I'm swimming faster.
A year ago I did a set of six 200's (2 x (3 x 200yds)) and I was estatic with a fastest interval of 2:53 and towards the end I was gasping for air and could only manage a 3:01. Today I did 10 200's (2 x (5 x 200)) the first set was supposed to be for pacing and the second set was suppossed to be for speed. Now I still don't fully get the the pacing thing in the water (although I'm getting better) unlike on the run if someone tells me to run 7:00/min mile pace I can pretty much go out and hit that without even the slightest hint (probably the 35,000 miles I've run in my lifetime). Now back to today's swim I got out hot in the first set but my intervals looked something like this 2:47, 2:48, 2:46, 2:48, 2:51, 2:45, 2:47, 2:48, 2:50, 2:51. That is improvement and the best thing about it was that except for the last 3 intervals these felt pretty controlled and comfortable and that control and comfort came from better, more efficent form born from focusing on the little things.
So what have I learned about improving your swim. Be patient, be focused and be consistent and improvement will come. I really can't wait to see what this seasons swim performances look like.
It's been a good two weeks since IMCdA and I'm really starting to feel recovered.
I spent last weekend in Hood River, Oregon celebrating the holiday. I managed a couple of rides (probably a little more effort than I should have put in), a good solid recovery run with a little intensity and a couple of windsurfing and standup paddleboard sessions.
It was a good weekend but I was a little sore Monday and Tuesday. Not sure if it was from the riding or the windsurfing, I'm thinking it was the windsurfing as you use some muscles that I haven't been using.
I've been in the pool twice this week and I'm feeling great in the water. One of my best swim workouts ever (consistent and fast splits). I'm continuing to really get better with my form and it's amazing how little tweaks can really make me more efficient and thus faster through the water. It also makes me in awe of the Olympic swimmers never in my wildest dreams could I swim near 1 minute for 100 yards and yet I imagine many of these guys and gals train at that pace.
While it's going to be tough training this summer schedule wise I'm looking forward to getting back to some proper training and really building on an already great base of fitness.
The fact that I'm already feeling recovered really has me believeing that there is time on the table for the taking in Kona. I know the second half of the marathon in CdA wasn't that fast so I think my legs have recovered faster than expected.
Getting ready to start ramping it up again.
Yeah I'm in the Motherland of triathlon..... Kona. I'm loving it. I'm splurging and staying at the Mauna Lani Hotel and Resort which is hosting the IM 70.3 Hawaii race next Saturday. It's great.
The race isn't really the focus it's getting the final big training days in before my taper to IM Coeur d'Alene. I love this place. Running is tough but the swimming and riding are phenomenal. I've been swimming every morning in the ocean at Mauna Lani Bay Beach Club it's like high speed snorkeling. Today besides a crazy assortment of fish over the coral reef, I saw a bunch of rays, a big school of rather large something or others which I was swimming through and one little shark cruising about 30 feet below on the bottom.
Today my coach scheduled a 25 minute "race" effort. I took my GPS watch and put it in a zip lock and placed it in my swim cap to see just how much I've improved over the past year in the swim department. When I downloaded the data I was shocked. 25 minutes = 1 miles. That would put me just under 30 minutes for a half IM swim. My fastest ever was a 34:30 which I think was a short course every other swim of that distance has been consistently 36:30. If I can take 6 minutes off my swim time it would be crazy and today wasn't really race pace as I wasn't racing I was swimming solo.
Riding here is also fantastic. I'm sure over time it would get a little boring as it is an island but so far the roads I've been on all have great shoulders not a lot of debris and the drivers have been pretty cool. The part I like best is I seem to be riding really fast here, part of it no doubt is the fact that I've got my race wheels on (Zipp 808 front and 1080 rear which has been a mixed blessing with the wind), or the aero helmet but I think it's just the terrain and I actually am enjoying the heat. It's been really windy, there is no direction that I haven't been hammered either by head winds or side winds.
I rode on Sunday the day after a long trip and hit 84 miles at just under a 20 mph average. Today I rode 73 miles at just under a21 mph average. Crazy as neither of these were crazy race efforts so I figure I'm good for about another 2-3 mph average in the race Saturday and it's giving me big confidence going into IMCDA in a few weeks.
Running is tough, it's hot and humid. I did manage an 8+ mile negative tempo run in the heat of the day yesterday with my negative split at sub 7:00 pace. Needless to say it's going to be a long hot run.
My coach has changed the race plan. Put in a hard solid swim effort to see how the winter swimming has paid off and then ride like a man possessed. The run is now just get through it as close to 1:40 as possible. I was quick to inform him that a 1:40 would be a half IM run 2 minute PR for me.
I'm feeling great with the final hard training and feel like I would really love to be back here in October for the big dance. Now just to put it all together on race day. I'll post how things went.
Well I'm in my final few weeks leading up to IM Coeur d'Alene and just 14 days from IM 70.3 Hawaii and I'm just trying not to do anyting stupid.
Well so much for not doing anything stupid. I had two workouts scheduled for yesterday a run and a swim. I did the run in the late afternoon a solid netative tempo. 10 min warmup followed by 30 minutes at a moderate tempo which was just over 7:00 per mile pace. The negative tempo is run over the same distance I had run in the first 30 minutes but you want to go faster. I had a good day doing the second tempo at 6:34 per mile pace. Overall a good solid 11+ mile run. It was the first warm day we've had here in Seattle this year with temps during my run in the mid 70's and a bit humid.
Now here's where the stupidity comes into play (although innocently enough). After my run I headed home to refuel the body and hydrate which I did a good job. Then about 2.5 hours after my run I hit the pool for my swim workout. The swim workout went fine and I was in my last set whcih was a number of 25 yard all out sprint efforts. On my second 25 about 2 yards from the wall suddenly my whole thigh (inside of leg) cramped, well pretty much siezed. After about 5 minutes I was able to move it enough to get out of the pool (yeah no more 25's or cool down). Basically swim before I run or bike or leave half a day between workouts to prevent cramping issues swimming.
Where it had cramped was sore, crampy and swollen last night and still is today although not nearly as painful. I don't think I did anything serious (tear, strain, etc...) but I also couldn't run or bike on the leg today if I wanted to. Thankfully today is my rest day. I'm hoping that it's loosened up by tomorrow as I've got a long run in the morning and a follow up run in the afternoon scheduled with a visit to the Walk for Aidan in between.
Needless to say I need to be much more thoughtful of when I'm doing the my training here in the last few weeks leading up to the races and with the increasing tempeatures to ensure that I minimize stress on the body.
Besides this incident training has gone well of late and the body is feeling good. I raced last weekend in a half marathon and it went well with a 10th place finish overall in 1:25:27 on a hilly tough course.
There have always been those run workouts which I could point to and say that was a break through workout. Well I had one of those today in my swimming. Now I'm improved a bunch in my swimming since last fall mostly because I was swimming more and focusing on form.
Well after my trip to Tucson I picked up a few additional tips from the coaches and I've been working on fixing those things. The biggest was my stroke was coming across my body a bit so I've been working on keeping my stroke in line with my shoulder which has been tough.
Today I a set of 3 x 100 descending time by a few seconds, then 2 x 400 at steady state and finally 10 x 100 at a comfortable pace. This last set was fantastic and I really felt my break through. I did all of the 100's between 1:23 and 1:25 but most importantly these were all pretty comfortable. These are by far the fastest and most consistent 100's I've ever swam. I could really feel the extra power I was getting with my stroke keeping in line with my shoulders.
I needed this workout because I think the long run and ride this weekend are not going to be so positive as the winter weather is back and things are going to be cold, wet, and windy or more specifically miserable.
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