Jim Kelley's (Birkierunner) General and Long Course Group (OPEN) (Page 9)

Originally posted by StevenC  Pushed it a bit harder than my plan called for so I hope my coach doesn't get too mad

Oh, don't worry...in the next couple of months you will be begging me for an easy workout  

The relative value of drill work really is dependent on the proficiency of the swimmer.  In general, someone in the 1:40+/100 yd range could probably benefit from technique work to pick the low hanging fruit that will result in faster swim times.  Drill work that engrains the proper body position and rotation in the water will be very valuable in the offseason.  In my case, I'm the "Arnie Type" swimmer described in the SwimSmooth analyses.  That means my hips and legs sink, I tend to scissor-kick, and from above you can see a serpentine motion in my spine.  I never really knew this until I finally got a GoPro camera and had my wife take some video of me this winter.  It was an eye-opener.  So, the past several weeks I have been focusing on drills that will focus on getting my hips and legs closer to the water surface, activating my core to keep my body motions in a tighter cyclinder, and constantly working on being aware of where my head is during the entire stroke....I tend to lift my head ever so slightly when I rotate to breathe which automatically causes your legs to sink.

I start the beginning of all swim workouts with a warmup and then a set of drills before the main set.  Sometimes the main set will still incorporate elements of drills by focusing on the essentials of the drill for the first 25 yds and then swim the return 25 trying to maintain that while swimming "normally".  It is definitely something that will not happen overnight but repetition will engrain the movements in your stroke so hopefully you don't have to think about it during a race. 

Mike, you posted a video a while back and although I'm not a swim stroke analysis expert it looks like your hips and legs aren't in too bad of a position.  One thing that I noticed is that you seem to drop your arm a bit and could benefit from having a higher elbow.  Maybe it was my imagination but at the very end of the video it looked like you had a slight scissor-kick and that could be something to work on as well....it definitely isn't as severe as the scissor kick I had.  

Originally posted by Snaaijer Neelia welcome. I see you're planning to do a HIM 6 weeks out from a full distance (the full being the A race). I have a half planned 7 weeks out from my full race. I'm wondering if you've given any thought as to how you will work this into your plan? Will you taper for your half, and how much recovery are you allotting? I would expect these 7 weeks (or 6 in your case) are prime real estate for hitting up some last big mile weeks, but you also need to recover a bit from a HIM right? Maybe you have someone who writes your plans for you, then you just follow that I am not really following a plan so I am hoping someone can give me some general insight. I'm not necessarily looking for a day by day itinerary but some general advice might go a long way, this is truly uncharted territory for me.

Thomas, you are right in that the 2 months prior to an Ironman are key preparation weeks especially considering that you will begin a taper for the A race a couple of weeks out (it will vary for the swim, bike and run portions of plans I develop).  So, backing up from there you will have some very important weeks of long rides and race simulations.  That could run into the recovery period of a half ironman if the HIM is too close.  Whether or not you taper for the half is totally dependent on the athlete's experience, current fitness, and goals for the race.  If the half is a B or C race I would tend to not spend too many valuable days tapering for the race.  Required recovery is also dependent on the athlete's experience, fitness, and how hard you raced; but you will have to build in some type of recovery and easy back into training the following 7-10 days.  The HIM will at least provide an opportunity to practice race nutrition strategies despite the shorter distance.

Hi again!  I hadn't heard of the Utah pool master's before but that would be perfect for me- it's on my way to work so easier to fit in.  I'm not sure my swimming fitness is up to Master's yet though .  It would be fun to get together but I am very slow...

Thanks, Jim. I do my swim workouts similarly... some drill and form focused work in and right after the warmup, then some faster stuff, sometimes with alternating 25s or 50s drill-swim or pull-swim to break up longer main sets. I really appreciate the comments on the video. My analysis was similar... I've been working on high elbows and good catch since then, also good rotation and keeping the legs up and head down, which I find especially hard on breathing strokes. More video soon; it's super useful.

Sarah -- nice work yesterday! That's awful that you paced it exactly as you wanted and then had a surprise extra bit, especially with the BQ on the line. Anyway, congrats on a great race.

Neelia -- welcome! I used a modified version of the competitive plan in Be Iron Fit for my first full and loved it. I think it's a nearly perfect guide for one's first IM.

Thomas -- Per the Be Iron Fit plan, which puts a half eight weeks before the full, I tapered for the week prior to my half, with significant volume reductions for really only the last couple days before the race. I did a lot better than I expected, and was able to jump back into full volume training (at low intensity) right away. Of course, there are lots of variables and your mileage may vary. If you want to see the details, it's in my training log around the beginning of June 2011.

Steve is on the right track here.  As I've noted in replies to other posts about training intensities...the time-limited athlete cannot afford to ignore spending some time at intensities close to their critical power (bike) and critical velocity (run).  A 21:40 5k race result would correspond with training paces of about 7:57/mi Marathon pace and 7:25 Threshold/CV pace of 7:25.   If you lowered that 5k race result to 20:00 your M pace would be 7:17 and T pace about 6:51.  That just gives you a rough idea of the paces you need to eventually spend some time at during training to get faster.  I'm not saying to jump in and start doing intervals at those T paces.  You can start out gradually.  First introduce some strides into workouts such as doing 5 x 20" where you pick up the pace and then have 40" easy running as recovery in between.  Fartlek work can allow you to get the miles in while still introducing some faster running.  You can start off with something like running 7' @ Easy pace and 3' at M pace, alternating for the duration of your intended workout.  Build that up to 5' E and 5' M pace and then move up to something like 8' E pace and 2' T pace for the duration of the workout.  If you don't spend some time at or near your CV/threshold it will be much harder to improve. The key is to start gradually and build over a period of weeks.

This calculator has been super useful for me in determining training paces (though I prefer HR for all but the shortest intervals).

http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

I truly believe every runner should own Daniels'  book and read every word of it.  I see he has a 3rd edition which I haven't seen yet. And yes, base your VDOT on a recent race and use the corresponding training paces...not what your goal VDOT is.

I think the 1/3 would be preferable to a HIM because of the lower demand of recovery (relatively) and less of a need to taper prior.  Although I love racing B and C races as IM prep, I think your most important prep is in the non-race training, race simulation workouts, practicing nutrition on long bikes and runs, etc.

Great post!  Keep on rambling!