Ryan Mac’s HIM Focus Group - CLOSED (Page 19)

Good work Jen.   I can relate to the struggles of fitting in workouts with the young ones.  I use to workout early morning and at lunch.  It is now lunch and late night with kids.  It seems like one of them is always up in the middle of the night and no way I am getting up early after that.  So, the evenings just seemed to work better.  Fit it in when you can.

T-pace is generally considered your 1000 TT pace although their are other ways that people estimate.  I know another test is 3x300 best average with 30" rest interval and your average pace over the 300s is your T-pace.  I always just did the 1000 yard TT.  It is just a tool (pace) used to structure swim sets.  My coach actually never references T-pace and we just have send off times (which are usually really hard).  Most of the time I am swimming sets at or below that threshold pace.

When you are new to the sport you can make gains in the pool just swimming 2000 yards 3xweek.  As you progress and plateau as you have there needs to be a change in stimulus which for most is more yardage.  I had a big breakthrough this past year and was swimming 10K plus each week with weeks up to 15K and working pretty hard during those workouts.   It does take a time commitment to the pool to make a big dent.

I watched total immersion before I ever jumped in the pool and I think it helped tremendously to get a good body position and balance in the water.  Once I found that balance though, I tossed the video and focused on early vertical forearm and just fitness.

If you think you are struggling with balance in the water (like feet dropping) then TI can be a good tool.

Swimming.......I'm against it!  Just kidding....kind of.....not really. I swam as a kid at the beach, splashing in a pool etc.. but never tried to swim from one place to another until I started doing triathlons. It was a real eye opener. Despite my dislike/marginal tolerance for swim training I still do it. In early 2013 and 2014 I had some injuries that limited my running so I put a good bit of time into swimming. I think I may have hit 60,000 yards for the month in January 2014. Made some nice gains but did not transform into Michael Phelps. For 2013 and 2014 I was at 450,000 yards+ for the year. A little improvement each year but not a lot. The one thing I can attribute to all that time in the water is that my comfort level in races/OWS is much better. Even though I wasn't a lot faster in the pool I think the consistency of my swim training helped my comfort level and ultimately race performance.

Over the last couple of months I have felt "off" in the pool. My yardage has been lower than what I usually average and I have been working on a couple of modifications on my stroke. It is very hard after thousands of laps in the pool to change something that has been ingrained through constant repetition. Most weeks I swim 4 times a week and never less than 3 unless I'm sick or weather cancels a workout. I saw the most improvement when I was hitting the pool 5-6 times a week. 95% of all workouts are structured...I will occasionally get a 2000 yard "splash of choice" from my Coach as an active rest session. 

Here are videos from a lecture given by swim coach Gerry Rodriguez. The audio quality is really poor early on but the content is good. I added my takeaways from watching/listening to the videos. I did this a couple of years ago and need to go back and do a refresher.    

Tower-26 Swim Lecture, Swimming for Triathlon: A 90 minute talk given at Trilabs in Santa Monica, CA.  Recorded February 2012.

• Video 1: Gerry's Bio, 6 things to make you a better swimmer
• Video 2: 5 Coaches to Follow, Swimming Technique
• Video 3: Secrets to Triathlon Swimming; Tautness, Alignment
• Video 4: Strength Training and Swim Equipment
• Video 5: Technical Aspects: Stroke Rate, Stroke Length, Elbow Position.  Opinion on Paddles.
• Video 6: Swimming Drills for triathletes, Guidance for workout structure, benefits of short course pools 
• Video 7:  Keys to success, Triathlon season overview: i.e the percentage of time that should be dedicated to swimming
• Video 8: Swim mechanics, Front Quadrant Swimming, Breathing, Swimming Fast.
• Video 9: Foundational Swims, Summary.

I would encourage everyone to watch the entire seminar but the main points that I have incorporated into my swim workouts are listed below:

1. Body "taughtness"-engage your midsection and core. A tight, streamlined body will move through the water with less effort. Keeping your midsection taught also leads to better body rotation.

2. Swimming with an ankle band-Gerry emphasizes that the band needs to be tight to keep the ankles together. Initially you may want to use the band during pull sets to get the feel for the band then try to do some 25's without the buoy. I had used a band off and on over the years so this wasn't totally new. Its tough but can really help with balance, body position and stroke turnover. In the month or so that I have been using the band during every workout I have gone from struggling to do 25's to 6X100scy on 2:00 coming in around 1:41-43. Don't do too much too fast as it does put added stress on your shoulders and lats.

3. Swim more, swim harder and minimize the drills-As with any increase in frequency and intensity you want to avoid injury so be smart.  Gerry recommends incorporating hard sets into every session. My workouts vary but will typically have a main set that includes hard 50's or 100's on short rest. They hurt like hell but I'm doing sets now that I would have thought impossible two months ago. I've dropped the drill work and substituted ankle band work. I even use the ankle band during sets with the pull buoy to reinforce the feeling of keeping my legs/feet in a streamlined position.

4. Don't worry about strokes per length-Yes its important to be an efficient swimmer but maximizing your glide is not really practical in open water swimming. I still have a bit of a catch up stroke and it is tough to change something I've been doing for 3 years but I'm working on it.

5. Ditch the paddles-unless you are a top notch swimmer...I think Gerry said that unless you are swimming a mile in under 20 minutes then its technique issues rather than a strength or power issues that need improvement . If you must use paddles they should be no bigger than your hand.

Good stuff Randy!

I actually watched all those videos a year or so ago - probably a good time to watch again.  I remember him going into a dialog about how triathletes don't swim enough and how lots of swimming can positively affect the whole race.

The other end of that is we all don't have unlimited hours to train .

x2 - thanks for sharing. Looks like some good stuff to think about there.

My swim coach has been having us do quite a bit of band work over the last few weeks. I used to be really panicky when doing it but i've been improving.  We did 400's pull with band just last night. 

Do you use a buoy with bands?

You may want to try it that way at first to get a feel for the band. But, the real difference maker is swimming with the ankle band and NO buoy. It is hard at first and can be frustrating but pays dividends in terms of better body position. Make sure the band is tight enough to keep you feet/ankles together....if the band is loose it allows you to kick a bit.....which you will try to do instinctively. I use an old piece of stretch tubing from an exercise stretch cord that broke. I hear of people making bands with old inner tubes. Doesn't have to be fancy...just something to keep your feet/ankles together.

Work into using the band. Maybe start with some 25s then work up to 50s and maybe a set of 100s down the road. For the 25s maybe do intervals of 25 w/band then 50 swim. Maybe 10 sec rest after the 25 and 50.  For 50s I will usually do 6X50 on 1:00 during warm up.....definitely gets the HR up a bit. Have fun but don't over do it.

I think I wold be pretty close to threshold pace to maybe threshold +2 seconds or so.  Being that I also seem to do intervals in the 400-800 yard range on short rest at HIM pace or slightly faster which I think were important workouts last year preparing for HIM swims.

ETA about bilateral breathing - I typically look at the same side of the pool going both directions so not necessarily bilateral but I am working both sides to ensure I am comfortable both ways.  The only time I typically bilateral breathe each stroke cycle is during short TT efforts as I do feel it is much faster but not maintainable over an Olympic or HIM distance swim.

Randy, great videos.  I know I need to turn over more.  I probably settle in the low to mid 50s if I had to guess.  I just realized you are in south AL.  I'm in Montgomery.  Are you doing GCT this year?  They are having a free camp that I'm going to in April.  I've done the race and IMFL.  Just an excuse to go down for the weekend.

My warmups are way faster than my Tpace!  HA!

Hey! What races do you usually do? We may have been at the same race at some point.  I have Gulf Coast on my schedule.....still tentative as everything is tentative at age 52. Only problem would be if I had an injury. My early season schedule includes: Red Hills sprint in Tallahassee; Traditions sprint in Biloxi; Galveston or Gulf Coast 70.3; Grandman sprint in Fairhope; Chattanooga Oly. That gets me through June.

Speaking of turnover...that is one thing I think swimming with a band emphasizes.   If you glide too long your legs sink...helps remove any deadspots in you stroke.

I would say similar to Ryan - swimming our sets i am often doing T pace +2/3 seconds but then depending on how hard she's worked us will indicate how slow my cool down will be ... ha! But then we use T-pace from 400m TT's we do periodically.  And i tend to under perform (I think) on my TT's ... when i relax more I do better. 

So, last night was a bust training-wise - we had snow and freezing rain yesterday into the evening and our power went out right at our little one's bed time.  It was only out for a half hour but she was kind of restless after that the power flickered a few more times so i didn't want to end up in the basement in the pitch dark on my trainer - that's the good thing about the Fink plan - it has friday as a 'slide' day specifically where you can move workouts you missed in the week. 

I took a whole year off (from racing) after IMFL 2013.  I did GCT that year too.  GCT and Augusta are on the books for this year.  I don't really like sprints.  I liked to be cooked long and slow.  My fast twitch muscles don't like to twitch.  I probably should sign up for one and suck it up.

Hopefully your snow will melt soon enough for you. It's high 70s down here. It won't last long though.

I will try the band this weekend.  If you don't hear back from me, it's because I didn't do it very well.

Ideally, increasing frequency is the best but is the hardest for most people.  So, instead of swimming 3x week and increasing yardage each swim you just keep the same yardage but add another swim.  Both increase overall swim volume but being in the water one more time each week has value.

Again, not the easiest because swimming seems to carry the most admin time for most (drive to pool, dressed, swim, shower, dressed, drive home) so its tough to increase frequency.  But, if you can that is best.

I am in a recovery week with the only major workout being an FTP test on Saturday.  I would anticipate a very small increase in FTP, if any, since it really has not been a focus.  The plan is to build mileage for another month until the weather starts cooperating and we can start building my bike volume back up.

I think I might have bruised a rib or something from hockey a few weeks ago.  It is a minor pain but hurts when I sneeze or cough, and seems to get worse with a hard run workout which makes me think something is going on there.  Hopefully with this easy week it heals.

Happy Friday everyone! 

Not feeling the greatest but not so bad that I can't work out - i'll just take it easier. 

On Wednesday we did a main set where we had to focus on stroke count for the first 100 and I seem to actually have taken 2 or so strokes off per length.  I was beating myself up about flip turns and was happy to see that i have made some progress somewhere! 

I know i should count more often but I forget with everything else that I need to think about with swimming - so it was a nice check in.  

Planning to use my commute time to run home tonight and make up the run I didn't do on Wednesday. I have 45-minutes and my route home is about 10k so i'll pick up the subway at one on the earlier stops and go transit the rest of the way. 

Looks like spring weather may be in sight.  We had one of the coldest February's on record and it pretty much terrible for morale.  If we got a reading in the 20s it was a surprise.  But, supposed to get up in the 50s by middle of next week and looks pretty good for the next 2 weeks.  Shorts weather .

Here too!! So looking forward to it! And i really wouldn't be surprised if i did see people out in sandals ... because even the 0C feels 'warm' right now ... 

Still felt like winter here today....granted, it's a lot warmer than the winters you guys are dealing with!  Unfortunately for me, I don't really have appropriate riding gear for temps below about 60F, so I froze my butt off (well, really my fingers and toes!) this morning.  Legs were feeling heavy from the get-go, so I decided I'd just sit in and get the draft benefit.  Power meter and heart rate show the ride to be quite easy....legs felt differently!  

Finished up the ride and got in an easy 30 minute run.  It's a little disheartening to realize how much fitness I've lost since last season.  My running is ahead of where I was at this point last year, but my biking is terrible, which makes the brick runs feel kinda awful.  Only seven weeks out from Galveston 70.3 and I'm starting to get worried.  Hopefully things will come around in the next few weeks.