Two workouts today, so let's start with the first one. (Seems like a logical place.) As per usual, there was the afternoon session in the weight room.
Upper body - horizontal: medium
Bear 2x4/75 lbs
Row 3x8/110 lbs
Pushup 3x8/30 lbs + 80 lbs tubing
I dropped the weight a little for the rows to make sure my form was tight. I've found myself chucking the weight a bit more than I should, so I'll stay here for a while until I'm sure I can move up.
Later in the evening, it was off for another session in the pool. My intention was to do some normal swimming, then work on some of my Total Immersion drills. I started OK, felt better in the water than last week. Once I began the first drill, which involves learning balance in the pool, I felt like I was at a dead stop in the water. You just kick with your arms at your side. I could feel my balance coming together, but after breathing, and forward momentum was gone. I'd start swimming just to keep from drowning. It's been recommended to me that for drills like this, I should be wearing fins or Zoomers (also mentioned in the book) to help with the kick. I'll look into that next time I'm at Endurosport (Friday, Oct. 19). In its stead, I just did lengths, practicing breathing on both sides, and a few attempts at lengths using bi-lateral breathing. My kick has calmed down this week, and on a few laps, I felt less "flailing monkey", and more "porpoise". (I'm sure that's just in my head.)
All told, I did either 900, 1000, or 1100m. I kind of lost count somewhere in the middle. I only did a clock-check on a few laps, and did a non-all-out 50m in just under 60 seconds. So, now I just need to string together 38 of those, and I'll accomplish my goal of a sub-40 swim at Muskoka. Luckily, I have lots of time to work.
Good times!
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely add the folks recommending getting some flippers. It takes a long time before you can get serious propulsion with just your legs. Even though I swam competitively for years, I still look pretty sad in the water when I do legs-only drills.
Breathing is the killer for everyone. It breaks up the rhythm and balance of your stroke; it throws everything off. That said, learning to breath and quickly as possible and recover as efficiently as possible is one of the most important things you can do. Especially for distance swimming. Even in a 1500m pool event, poor breathing technique can cost you ungodly amounts of time.
~1k is a good, solid, swim workout. Even moreso considering you've just started. Once it gets too miserable outside to ride, I'm going to consider spending one day a week cross-training in the pool rather than on the indoor trainer. (Yeah, I know Friel and Coggan say that nothing beats training on the bike, and I'm sure they're right, but I'm not riding the ProTour next year, so I think I'll live.) I won't do more that 2k for a lunch swim though.
Good man getting on top of the bilateral breathing. So many people are only comfortable breathing out of one side and it's a show-stopping bad habit. Getting that out of the way immediately is a great idea. It's hard at first but I swear it will just "click" one day and seem incredibly natural forever after.
Keep at it and aim for that 1:30/100m pace. It's much easier in a pool than it is in open water, but it still takes a LOT of training and technique to get there.
I also think it's awesome that you already know the next time you'll be at Endurosport ;)
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I feel like I've made serious improvements, and then I realize that I've swam less so far than I will in my first week with the coaches. So I should continue to see lots of gains.
ReplyDeleteSo here's the question then: flippers or Zoomers? Laughlin suggest flippers, but I've seen others recommend short fins so that your kick isn't changed as much.
My main goals when at the pool are to work on speed and fitness, but more than anything, don't ingrain any bad habits. That's why I'm working on things like bilateral breathing, so that I don't have to break a habit later on.
You should enjoy getting back in the pool. Especially in the off-season, any form of cross-training is good. There are some mighty fast-cycling triathletes, and they swim, so I don't think it's that much of a hindrance.
1:30/100? Is that a good target speed? Is that an "all-out" effort, or repeatable? I'm not sure how much more difficult open-water could be than the Douglas Snow Aquatic Centre open-swim. 40 odd people create a fair bit of chop.
Well, I know my next appearance at Endurosport because ... let's just say I'm adding a new arrow to the quiver (or horse to the stable, if you prefer the analogy). Even though it doesn't come home for a while, we need to make sure the horse and I fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. There will be a proper unveiling once it's in my possession, so right now vagueness and mystery are the order of the day.
re: Flippers vs. Zoomers... I'd go with whichever makes you happy. I don't think you can go wrong with either one, so it's just personal taste. Personally, I hate them both ;)
ReplyDeleteI just pulled out the 1:30/100m because that was sort of a standard for whether or not it was worth trying to swim competitively. If you could hit that, it was worth starting to train seriously. That's definitely meant to be your sustained endurance pace. Be forewarned though, it takes a lot of training to reach that magic number. If you can do it in a few months, you're a definite natural. It would be like picking up the bike and having an FTP of 300W a few months later.
A flat-out 100m freestyle should be well under 1 minute for a good sprinter and getting close to 0:45 for an Olympic contender.
Looking forward to more details on your new bike!
I've promised myself that I'll get a TT bike if I get tenure... so I'm still waiting on that one. I really hope I get tenure, because I want a shiny new TT bike ;)