10 mins faster than last year

[hibrian]

Did an olympic distance tri today and last year, and my swim today was around 10 mins and 40 seconds faster than last year on the same course, same wetsuit, same conditions.

Which is great I really attribute it to working lately the timing of the spearing arm and the two-beat kick. It's hard for me. And I find when I'm concentrating on the timing, I'm holding my breath and thus not exhaling underwater. Putting the different pieces together is a challenge.

Also biked 3 mins faster, which tells me I'm not coming out of the water any more exhausted than last year, and maybe less so.

But I'll sure take the 10 minute (and 40 seconds) speed up, and look forward to dropping another 10 mins next year.

[dprevish]

Wow! That's dramatic; big gains!

[tamtam140.6]

Congratulations! Soak up the glory, friend

[peterthomas58]

Great work. Try hard to break your own records.

[hibrian]

Thanks much everyone. If my times weren't so slow to begin with, the 10mins would be more impressive. I'm at around 32 mins now for an open water olympic distance swim, and my T1 time has dropped to about 1:30 (from 2:30 or more), and my bike time has dropped a bit, so I know I'm not coming out of the water super tired anymore.

It's the breathing that I'm working on, or more exactly, the exhaling under water. The more I concentrate on the spear, 2 beat kick, and tempo, the more I want to hold my breath. And of course that means a pretty violent exhale and gasp for air on the surface. Bad habit. At the pool today I did easy laps and just worked on breathing. But going slow doesn't trigger my "hold breath" impulse. I think what I need to practice is race-pace swimming (such as it is) with exhaling, a length at a time.

Anyway — fun journey

Edit: Just found this nice video showing the two beat kick. I'm not the only one who isn't exhaling during the swim!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPpiC0629I

[wildnrg001]

This is a good news! Keep it up.. more progress to come =)

[Tom Pamperin]

Originally Posted by hibrian

It's the breathing that I'm working on, or more exactly, the exhaling under water. The more I concentrate on the spear, 2 beat kick, and tempo, the more I want to hold my breath. And of course that means a pretty violent exhale and gasp for air on the surface. Bad habit. At the pool today I did easy laps and just worked on breathing. But going slow doesn't trigger my "hold breath" impulse. I think what I need to practice is race-pace swimming (such as it is) with exhaling, a length at a time.

Congrats on cutting 10 minutes off your swim! That's great.

You might want to check out a thread in the Freestyle section--it's called "Rest Intervals and Heart Rate." Starting at post #38, another triathlete talks about how he was able to train himself to breathe out continuously while swimming, and the good results it brought him.

Enjoy!

[wildnrg001]

That's good news! Keep it up and who knows where you might be landing!