Chapter 1 Living on Planet Water

Subsequent chapters will be posted at the Discussion Forum, a new chapter every other day, until the entire book is posted.

At 5:30 on a cool June morning, with the sun still below the trees, my swim buddy Dave Barra and I wade into what is our "pool" from early June through late October, a mountaintop lake in upstate New York. Unlike most mountain lakes this one

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This was originally published in our e-zine Total Swim, but is not currently available for reading, so I'm republishing it as a blog.

The primary reason most of us stop progressing is because we believe we were born "ordinary" and stop striving to improve long before reaching our "overachiever potential."

In 1963 I tried out for my grammar school swim team and was the only one cut -- probably

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While appearing on the Triathlon Summit, I also described the difference between a "pool stroke" and an "open water stroke."  The stroke you're likely to develop while training in a 25-yard pool is distinctly different from the stroke that will bring the greatest success in open water.

The realization came from my own experience but was confirmed when I read an on-line article by Jonty Skinner,

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While appearing on the on-line Triathlon Summit this evening, I answered a question on what's the right stroke count. I explained that the "right" count was highly individual and promised to publish a blog that gave more explanation and included a formula to learn your own optimal count. 

There is no single SPL (Strokes Per Length or stroke count) that's "right" in all circumstances. A shorter

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My daughter Cari, lacking pool access, has been unable to swim since the summer, but resumed swimming this week. Yesterday, we went to the SUNY pool together. She asked my advice on a practice that would let her start to build some endurance, without compromising efficiency. As the TI definition of endurance is "the ability to maintain effective strokes for a duration of your choosing," I

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Another question and answer from the Discussion Forum

Hello,
I am an experienced swimmer with a past of an elite swimmer. I now compete on the french master's contests and am 37.
I have been practicing TI for 3 years now and find it very helpful at medium speed : I have consierably improved my freestyle. When I swim at reasonnable speed (let's say on on 1.10'' for 100 meters for example) I feel

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Dec 1 SUNY 2600 yds

In my last practice, I swam a 1500-yard main set composed of 3 rounds of 4 x 125. My added-up 500 times for the three rounds were 6:49, 6:42 and 6:38. Today I decided to closely replicate that practice, but with 100-yard repeats to learn how that would affect my pace if nothing else changed: Same SPL, same effort-regulators, and similar work-to-rest ratio. If you don't want to

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I received this message from Freddi Woodford requesting a dispensation to attend our Open Water Adventure Feb 1-6 at Eleuthera in the Bahamas and reprint it here to clarify that if you haven't completed a TI workshop yet have developed into a strong swimmer through your own efforts, we would be happy to consider you for participation.

I'd like to attend this camp, but haven't gone to a workshop.

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Nov 25 3000 yards at SUNY

The last two weeks, as I resumed regular pool training after 5 months of lake swimming, I limited myself to 2500 yards - about 45 minutes - per session, to avoid having fatigue compromise efficiency. Why might fatigue be a factor? Because adding turns and pushoffs requires an adjustment. You face oxygen deprivation for 4 to 5 seconds each lap, going into and out of each

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