Race Week Rehearsal

By Lou Tharp

Lou planned this practice for the West Point Triathlon Club, for which he is a volunteer assistant coach for swimming. Before each practice Lou prepares a memo for team members describing objectives for that practice and their benefits. This practice was intended to prepare club members for the season’s first race – the 2006 Havasu Triathlon Western States Collegiate Invitational, Lake Havasu City, Arizona on March 25. Because 12 of the 19 club members will be racing triathlon for the first time, mindful rehearsal for an unfamiliar experience is essential. Even if you’re a seasoned racer, this practice – and the focal points Lou suggests – should be helpful.

West Point Triathlon Club
Tuesday, 21 March 2006 Practice

Practice total: 90 minutes, 4,200 yards.

Dryland discussion (5 minutes) We won’t introduce any new stroke thoughts tonight as we want you to become more comfortable with those you’ve already worked on. We're can’t improve aerobic capacity before the race so slogging through 4,000 purposeless yards doesn’t cut it. We can, however, reinforce what you’ve been learning, help you capture the psychological high ground for the race, and give a few practical tips on sighting, swimming together, drafting, etc.

The primary goal of tonight’s practice is to prepare you to hold a pace for 1500 meters in this weekend’s triathlon. We'll rehearse that by holding a pace for three broken 500s (50+100+150+200), giving you a chance to pause between swims and plan how you will modify your stroke length and rate, and what focal point you will choose, to hold the pace without working harder as the distance increases. If you succeed tonight you’ll have a better chance of jogging into T1 - the first transition - this weekend with a low heart rate. The base pacing lane is at 40 seconds per 50-yard segment. Each adjacent lane is +5 seconds per 50. How do you know where you fit? The pace you choose should be one you can hold at “cruising speed” for 1500 meters – that's 66 lengths of this pool. You’ll use warm-up to find it.

It’s also important to swim together tonight. We've had the luxury of working on stroke mechanics in small groups but tonight we want to get comfortable swimming close together – the way you will be swimming in races. So at least four to a lane. Leave the wall five seconds apart. While we don’t normally draft in practice, tonight you are encouraged to draft as you would in a race. Change the order every 500 yards so everyone gets a chance to lead and follow. Does everyone understand drafting and why it's important? Think Tour de France or NASCAR, depending on what part of the country you're from.

Warm-up: Focus on relaxation and find your “cruising pace.” (10 minutes, 500 yards)

Pacing Segment:

3 rounds of: 50+100+150+200. Swim the 1st 50 at your cruising pace then maintain it as the repeat distance increases. Check your time after each segment. Rest for 10 to 15 seconds within each round and for a minute between rounds. If you over- or underestimate your abilities on the 1st round, move to a different lane so you can adjust your pace as you begin the 2nd round. (30 minutes, 1,500 yards)

2 rounds of:
5x100 at your pace (five breaths’ rest between 100s) plus 1x500 at your pace. (40 minutes 2,000 yards)

Cool down: 10 minutes

Post-Practice/Race discussion: Topics below:

Race-Day Mental Preparation:

Strategy: Warm-up
Why: If you swim without warm-up, you will go into an anaerobic state immediately. Oxygen has to get to your muscles before you start to swim for aerobic state swimming. Get your heart rate to 130 for five minutes minimum through jogging, other aerobics, then rehearse focal points and practice sighting for another five to 10 minutes in the water.

Strategy: Swim the first 100 meters at a pace 50 percent slower than you think you should be swimming.

Why: You're excited. Slow down. How do you know when you've swum 100 meters? Count your strokes.
20 strokes per 25 yards is about 100 strokes for 100 meters.

Strategy: Sight no more often than every 20 strokes.
Why: Sighting requires energy and it isn't swimming. You lift your head, and your hips drop which increases resistance. You have to re-balance and this takes time and more energy. Also, don't look for buoys every time you sight. See where the pack is going. Stay with the pack. Look for buoys when you are nearly on top of them.

Strategy: Think about focal points while swimming.
Why: Keeps you aware of your efficiency. A menu of possible focal points:

• Head in line with spine
• Use your hand to lengthen your bodyline.
• Patient catch – Take time to firmly anchor hand before each stroke.
• Relaxed kicking. Your kick should be passive and almost unconscious.
• Silent swimming. Be the “quiet center” of whatever pack you’re in.
• Zen swimming – Never chase the swimmers ahead of you. Instead allow them to come back to you as the race progresses. Absorb the energy of the group.

Strategy: Existential swimming. (making rational decisions despite irrational stimulus.) Or, pacing while most are going out fast. Finishing in the middle of the pack while some are trying to finish first.
Why: Because if you finish first, with a high heart rate and a body full of lactic acid, the person who finished in the middle of the pack with a low heart rate and no lactic acid will catch you on a bike in about 90 seconds – and keep on going.

Strategy: Relax.
Why: Gennadi Tourtesky, Alexander Popov's coach said "Relaxation at high speeds is the most important factor in winning workouts, races and Olympic gold medals." Popov won four golds and a silver – one of which – a gold – he gave to his coach – in case you're wondering what to give Major Van Atta before you graduate. But for now, give yourself a 130 heart rate when you get out of the water. It'll be worth gold during the bike and run.

As an overweight, unhealthy novice swimmer in 1996, Lou Tharp, attended his first TI course, and soon after began swimming regularly, competing, and trained as a TI coach. Lou is training for USMS Nationals, Gay Games and Out Games in distance freestyle events. Lou is also a social entrepreneur as co-founder of both CreakyJoints, an international service organization for people with arthritis and TGI Healthworks, which helps people with a broad range of chronic diseases improve their quality of life through diet, exercise – including swimming – and a productive physician/patient relationship. Lou and his husband, Jim Bumgardner live in Upper Nyack, NY. A video of an ABC news clip interviewing Lou about swimming and the Gay Games is at http://www.tgihealthworks.org/gaygames.

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