Last week’s post described the proven principles of swimming faster, using a specific algorithm for speed– if you’re wondering what this looks like in practice, this entry from Terry Laughlin’s 2015 training log models that algorithm in a practice set. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

This article is an adaptation of an archived TI forum post from Terry Laughlin’s training log on Nov. 5, 2015.

On Tuesday (Nov 3.) I read “The New Yorker” magazine article, WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WHEN WE RUN. In part, it was of “Poverty Creek Journal,” a collection of 51 brief reflections on a year’s worth of runs. The article also included a summary of a study published earlier this year in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Sports psychologists gave clip-on microphones to 10 distance runners and asked them to narrate their thought process during a run.

What did these runners think about?
How hard it was to move at their desired speed: “Come on, keep the stride going, bro.”
How soon they could stop: “Come on, you have enough energy for a mile and a half.”
And, quite often, about how miserable they felt while running.

The researchers summarized: “Pain and discomfort were never far from their thoughts.”

It made me wonder why people carry on with such a masochistic exercise. If they knew how it feels to practice Kaizen Swimming, would they give up running? Or would they run differently–the way it’s taught in ChiRunning?

In any case, the contrast between the runners in this study and the practice I’d done just one day earlier could not be more stark.

Before I describe my practice, I’ll review several principles of TI Fast Forward training methodology:
1.) Always focus on improving your swimming.
2.) Create a feedback loop– either subjective (Focal Points) or objective (Strokes Per Length/SPL, Tempo, Time). If the latter, use two metrics. Tempo+SPL or Tempo+Time or SPL+Time.
3.) To swim faster, design problem-solving exercises that strengthen your ability to hold Stroke Length, while increasing Stroke Rate. We call this the “Algorithm of Swimming Success.”

 Mon 2 Nov Approx. 3500 meters at Hampton Lido, London

Sean Haywood (he was among 27 members of a TI-UK training group who went to Ironman Mallorca the previous month) invited me to swim with him at the Hampton Lido, an outdoor 36-meter pool. We swam from 6:45 to 8:00 AM. Having never swum in a 36m pool, I went in with no idea what my SPL or pace might be. But that’s never a problem. I can “create meaning” in any pool, just by counting strokes during my tune-up, which I swam in the “medium speed” lane.

Swimming with a feather-light catch and barely-there kick, I took 24 strokes the first length, then added one stroke on each of the next three laps–reaching 27 SPL on the 4th. (I later did a calculation and found that the “Green Zone” for my 6-foot height in a 36-meter pool should be between 24 and about 28 strokes.) Then the tune-up effect began to take hold, and I shaved a stroke, bringing me to 26 SPL. I swam continuously for another 10 to 12 minutes, holding 26SPL pretty steadily (except when I overtook another swimmer and sped up to pass).

Feeling ready for a challenge, I moved into the “fast” lane and turned on my Tempo Trainer. It was set to 1.17 sec/stroke. I figured that was as good a place as any to start. I swam 4 lengths (144m) continuously and averaged 27 SPL. Armed with that information, I decided to swim a Tempo Pyramid, slowing tempo by .02 each 100 until my SPL returned to 26–or 104 strokes for the 4-lap swim. I reached that at 1.23– taking 25 strokes on the 1st length, 26 strokes on the 2nd and 3rd, and 27 strokes on the 4th.

Next, I would test how long I could hold this stroke count, while increasing tempo by .01 sec after each 144m rep. With a brief exception, I held this stroke count for 11 reps–to a tempo of 1.13 sec/stroke.

I missed my intended count on only one length, taking 27 instead of 26 strokes on the 2nd lap at 1.15 tempo. Because I was a bit too slow on flip turn and pushoff, I had to rush a bit to synchronize the hand entry of my first stroke to the 4th beep. I knew in that instant that the cost of the momentary lapse would be an extra stroke. This happens commonly because while each stroke must be only .01 faster, each turn must be .05 faster (.01 x 5 beeps from final stroke on one length and first stroke on the next).

I made my approach to the wall a little stronger and somersault a little faster on the next two turns and regained my target stroke count on the final two lengths, then held it for one more rep, at 1.14. At 1.13 I exceeded my target count again and knew I’d reached my limit. I then dropped down to 3-length (98m) reps and held my 26 SPL average (25-26-27 strokes) until I reached 1.09.

At 1.08 my SPL rose again, so I cut another length from my repeats, carrying on with 2-length (72m) repeats, holding 26 SPL to 1.06. Then I cut another length and finished my practice by holding 26 strokes from 1.05 to 1.02 sec/stroke. My final length was 27 strokes at 1.01.

If a researcher had given me a waterproof mic and asked me to record my thoughts between repeats, I’d have said that I was having the time of my life. I spent over an hour focusing on every single stroke–the definition of mindfulness–and consequently remaining completely absorbed.

As I solved the challenge of holding SPL as Tempo increased, I swam almost exactly one second faster on each rep (104 strokes x .01 sec). But the experience of swimming faster was enormously pleasurable. As I progressed through the set, my movement through the water felt better and better–more integrated, more fluent. And the overall effect produced a highly satisfying Flow State. Does it get any better than that?

Take Your Swimming to the Next Level!

Learn the Habits of Mastery and develop expert-level skills with Total Immersion’s 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Complete Self-Coaching Course. Do you love learning, practicing, and swimming the TI Way? Are you excited about attaining personal mastery in the most efficient and exacting skills available in freestyle? Have you mastered the TI Foundations in prior videos or the Effortless Endurance (formerly Ultra Efficient Freestyle) Self-Coaching Course? If yes, the 2.0 Freestyle Mastery Course is for you.

The post Terry’s Practice Log: A Detailed Sample Set of Strategic Speedwork appeared first on Total Immersion.

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on December 14, 2012.

In a post on the TI Discussion Forum forum [from the 2012 archive], Steve asked:

“My practices are limited to 100-meter repeats because I get too winded to swim farther. Though I can swim as much as 2000 meters in a pool session, I still need to stop and rest every 100 meters. How can I swim farther without becoming winded?”

Craig Arnold, a TI enthusiast from the UK replied:

“When swimming a longer distance, why don’t you call it a warm up? That way, you give yourself permission to swim more slowly. Swim with a balance focus, concentrating on a weightless head, then marionette arms, with no splashing or bubbles. When I start out that way, before I know it I’ve swum 1000 meters.”

Craig gives good advice, but his phrase “permission to swim more slowly” is especially powerful. Though I began swimming 47 years ago, it took me over 40 years to give myself permission to swim more slowly.

My good friend Amby Burfoot, the 1968 Boston Marathon champion, long-time editor in chief of Runner’s World for 30 years–and a TI swimmer since turning 60–revealed to me that world-class Kenyan marathoner runners typically warm up for a race at a pace of about 9 minutes per mile—barely more than half their racing speed.

Compared to the Kenyans’ ability to run slowly, I was pretty poor at swimming slowly. At that time, my racing pace for the 1650-yard free was about 1:15 per 100 yards. I realized I never swam at anything remotely close to 2:30 per 100. All of my swimming was in a narrow window between 1:15 and 1:30 per 100. Immediately I decided that henceforth, I would start most practices with up to 10 minutes of swimming at the e-a-s-i-e-s-t pace possible.

The effect was instantaneous. I felt and swam much better in everything that followed. As it happens, my “superslow” pace turned out to be only a few seconds slower. I was amazed how little speed I sacrificed when I went much easier.

Striving to achieve a state of profound relaxation at the start of practice resulted in several surprising benefits:

1. I became hypersensitized to the interaction of my body and the water. I felt as if I was aware of the water at the molecular level.

2. My balance and stability were far better tuned — and I could feel the difference at every faster speed.

3. To swim faster after those initial laps of deep ease, I didn’t have to push the throttle. My pace seemed to pick up effortlessly as I continued.

Within a few months I had swum the 1650 in a pace of 1:12 per 100. Giving myself permission to swim slower made a clear difference in enabling me to swim faster.

Teaching regularly in an Endless Pool, I’ve found it’s a rare student who knows how to swim well . . .  slowly. Students who would finish far behind me in a race cannot keep from crashing into the front of the pool when I set the current at moderate speeds. They find it eye-opening when I turn the current way down and swim in place with impeccable form and no interruption in rhythm.

I explain that there’s a wide spectrum of both power and tempo. The vast majority of swimmers constantly push the upper—or physical–end of the spectrum and ignore the lower—or artful—end. It’s at the lower end where you learn most about how to form a partnership with the water.

3 Specific Ways To Swim Slower

1) Observe your hand speed as you begin your stroke. Allow a moment-of-stillness after you reach full extension, then begin stroking at slowest possible speed and lightest possible pressure.

2) Explore how slowly you can bring your arm forward over the surface, without discontinuity in recovery or instability in balance.

3) If you swim with a Tempo Trainer, turn it down gradually. Can you maintain flow at a tempo of 1.80 strokes per second?

I promise you’ll discover these are exacting skills requiring great focus and great body control. And therefore invaluable to swimming any faster speed.

Find more tips like this in the Ultra-Efficient Freestyle Handbook, a richly-illustrated, easy-to-read 140 page guide to understanding freestyle technique in depth. It comes along with 15 downloadable videos and a learning and practice workbook in our Self-Coaching Toolkit.

The post Permission to Swim Slowly: 3 Ways to Artfully Cultivate Smart Speed appeared first on Total Immersion.

This post was originally published by Terry Laughlin on Mar. 23, 2011.

This practice is one of a series of sets inspired by the classes we gave at the Multisport World Expo at MIT on March 19. It segues from Tempo Trainer sets designed to help you expand your range of available stroke counts – and discover those best for both endurance and speed — to Stroke Calibration sets designed to hone your internal awareness.

Note: For all Tempo Trainer (TT) sets, allow 3 beeps for pushoff; synch 1st hand entry to 4th beep. Allow one extra beep for turns. Synch 1st hand entry after turn to 5th beep.

Tune-up Swim 50 + [6×25] + 50

• Swim 50. Count total strokes.
• Swim 6 x 25. Odd 25s with index-finger-only extended. Even 25s with “normal” hands.
• Compare SPL (Strokes Per Length) one finger to normal hand. Can you reduce the difference between them?
• Swim 50 as before. Count total strokes. Did count change?

“Discover” Personal Efficiency Range Swim 10 x 25

• Reset TT [Tempo Trainer] each 25: 1.3 – 1.4 – 1.5 – 1.6 – 1.55 – 1.50 – 1.45 – 1.40 – 1.35 – 1.30 sec/stroke
• Use this set to improve efficiency (reduce SPL). As tempo slows, you’ll notice extra time in the stroke. Use the extra tenth of a second time to extend a bit further and be more patient about beginning the stroke. When tempo reaches 1.6 sec/stroke, note how many strokes you saved.
• As tempo increases again, maintain the sense of length and leisure you gained as tempo slowed. Be stingy about giving back the strokes you saved. On final 25, note difference in SPL from lowest count and from start of set. For every stroke saved from beginning of set, your time for 25 is 1.3 second faster.

Sustain SPL for Distance Choose a comfortable tempo (from range above)
Swim [4 X 25 + 3 x 50 + 2 X 75 + 1 X 100]

• Strive to maintain SPL by relaxing as repeat distance increases
• Rest 10 beeps between all swims.
• An outstanding result would be to add no more than 1 stroke to your SPL on the 25s.
• Your most valuable outcome is realization that the most important change to make as distance increases is to deepen focus, not increase exertion. In fact, you need to find a way to relax more. The first 50 of your 100 must be easier than when you only swam 50 yds, in order to maintain SPL/Tempo combination for the full 100.

Faster Tempo
Swim 1 to 2 x 25 each @ 1.20, 1.10, 1.00, 0.90 sec/stroke

• What part of stroke feels hurried? Strive to keep catch leisurely as tempo increases.
• Can you stay smooth, relaxed and quiet as tempo increases?
• One benefit of this exercise is to find the tempo at which your nervous system isn’t adapted. (e.g. If you add one stroke each at 1.2, 1.1 and 1.0, but three strokes at .9, that tells you that tempo is outside your current range.)

Shift Focus
Choose comfortable tempo. Swim 2 to 4 sets of [3×25]. Synch beep to:

• Hand Spear for 25
• Hip Nudge for 25
• Toe-Flick for 25
• Repeat.

How does moving synchronization point from front to rear of body change your awareness of the stroke?

Swim Without Tempo Trainer
The following sets test your internal sense for seamlessly adjusting length and rate to accomplish the tasks described.

Stroke Calibration Swim 2 or more rounds of x [6X25].

• Choose starting SPL from the range of counts you had between 1.2 and 1.5 tempo. Call this “N.” Each round of [6×25] is: “N”, + 1, + 2, + 1, “N”, – 1
• On your first round, you’ll probably have some difficulty estimating length and rate accurately enough to strike the wall in rhythm and at your intended count.
• Your goal for succeeding rounds is to:
  (1) Calibrate better;
  (2) Swim with more awareness;
  (3) Feel slightly faster at each SPL.

Speed Variation Swim 2 or more rounds of [2×25]

• In each round, #1 is Cruise; #2 is Fast.
• Choose any SPL from range in Stroke Calibration set. Your task is to:

1) Swim all 25s at this count.
2) In subsequent rounds increase speed difference without changing SPL.
3) Can you swim both easier/slower AND stronger/faster at same SPL?

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN THE T.I. STORE:

The Tempo Trainer Pro from Finis “cracks the code” on speed.

The Tempo Trainer lets you choose your speed with mathematical precision. First it gives you the physical ability to choose and improve your speed or pace– and that leads to the psychological sense that you do control that, which is priceless to confidence and motivation.

The post PRACTICE SETS: What’s Your Best Stroke Count? Find Your Ideal Stroke Count Range With This Practice appeared first on Total Immersion.

    (A free 40 page sample from the Ultra-Efficient Freestyle e-book)

Just a heads-up for our readers, in case any of you were unaware that the website has a number of complimentary products– a reader recently pointed out that he searched and searched for the “Sneaky Speed” e-book that he saw in one of our advertisements, but he couldn’t find it for sale on the website. The good news is, it’s not for sale– it’s actually FREE! You can download that guide, as well as a load of other T.I. freebies, by heading to this LINK. There is, in fact, a tab labeled “FREE STUFF” on the site, but since it’s not in flashing lights and neon font, you may have overlooked it while browsing the products. Below is a brief overview of some our popular free downloads– there are more free products than can be listed here succinctly, so check out the full library of swag when you head over there.

For future reference, you can find our free products by:

1) First clicking on the “STORE” tab on the main page of the website

2) Once you’ve navigated to the store page, click on the “FREE STUFF” tab (the last tab on the far right, next to the “GEAR AND TOOLS” tab)

We’re delighted to offer free supplemental info to T.I. enthusiasts, as well as those of you new to our method and looking to sample what we teach. Enjoy… and Happy Laps!

POPULAR FREE DOWNLOADS YOU CAN CHECK OUT HERE:

Product Description: 
More Effort or Smarter Choices?

You can’t get around it; the idea of swimming faster is undeniably sexy.

And triathletes– most of them new to swimming– are constantly confronted by blogs, articles, and exhortations expressing urgency about swimming faster. For many people, the primary effect is to increase existing insecurity about swimming and how to train for it.

While you probably have little familiarity with swimming for speed or time, those urging you to swim faster seem to be in the know. And, often, your efforts to follow their advice don’t seem very encouraging.

You try to swim faster, but it seems awfully hard work just to gain a few ticks on the clock. You wonder if you simply lack swimming talent or as one triathlete wrote me– if you’ve hit a personal speed limit. Will this limit your potential in triathlon?

In fact, what you’re experiencing is perfectly normal– practically universal, actually. Humans are terrestrial mammals. Swimming is an aquatic skill. Our land-adapted bodies (heavier than water, many moving parts) and innate discomfort in water mean we become energy-wasting machines when we enter the water– a tendency only made worse when someone urges, “Work harder; swim faster!”

In this book, we’ll show that the too-narrow question of swimming faster or slower obscures a more fundamental question: whether your swimming should focus on greater effort or smarter choices.

Product Description: 

What is the Green Zone? 

The most efficient range of stroke counts for a swimmer of any height. These are derived from data on the Stroke Length of elite freestylers, and modified to give “average” swimmers a realistic-but-challenging efficiency target. When you keep your count in this range, you make every stroke count. (We’ve made this chart available in both meters and yards.)

Product Description: 

This complimentary e-book has been made freely available to allow you to sample the content and format of the full Effortless Endurance Freestyle book. This excerpted version includes 40 pages of the 130-page full version. Included are these 7 sections:

·      Introduction: There is a better way! Describes the core elements of the ultra-efficient technique for freestyle; how and why it evolved; and for whom it’s intended.

·      History of Freestyle A succinct history of 6000 years of evolution in swimming techniques, with a focus on the 150-year evolution of ‘front crawl’ or freestyle, and why TI’s ultra-efficient technique is the first significant “evolutionary leap” in almost 100 years!

·      About Total Immersion How and why TI differs from traditional approaches; the three requirements that must be satisfied for any technique to become part of our method; and the four fundamental changes we seek to effect in every TI student (How to Think is #1.)

·      Swim 25% Faster at 90-plus? Dr. Paul Lurie took his first TI lesson at age 94, and is still improving in form—and speed—at 97! (Paul, now 98, swims 20 lengths every morning.)

·      Why Haven’t You Swum Better?  We all experience some degree of frustration or outright failure with traditional teaching or training, yet tend to blame ourselves when we fail. Learn why there’s nothing wrong with you that can’t be fixed by a change in approach. Features Tim Ferriss.  

·      The ‘Universal Human Swimming Problem’ (UHSP) Describes 6 inherent causes of energy waste that are innate to being “a terrestrial mammal in an aquatic environment” and how each undermines your efforts; the shockingly low rate (3%) at which the average human swimmer converts energy into forward motion; and why traditional approaches fail to solve them.

·      How to Swim Efficiently Learn the counter-intuitive solutions to the UHSP; the foolproof 3-step Pyramid of Skills leading to ultra-efficiency; and the two little-known keys to success that allow you to bypass “error points” and build confidence while learning.

AND MORE FREE PRODUCTS… Click HERE to view full bonus library!

The post FREE STUFF: Sneaky Speed e-book, Tempo Trainer basics, and more T.I. bonus material appeared first on Total Immersion.

Which—other than the last week of March at our Open Water Experience in Kona–will be the longest I’ve swum since January.

Since 2007, from November through April, I’ve experienced chronic achiness and fatigue, which is exacerbated by even mild exertion. My doctor diagnosed it as an autoimmune condition. But now I suspect it’s actually a reaction to chlorine. Or at least the ‘chloramine fog’ blanketing the surface of the 50-year old, poorly-ventilated college pool in New Paltz.

What do you do when your pool becomes toxic? I’m fortunate to have an Endless Pool, which is well-ventilated and has a sanitation system that needs only a trace of chlorine. I usually swim for just 30 minutes, mostly in a quite gentle current. Not the kind of preparation traditionalists say you need to reach your potential in open water distance races.

With my first race, the 2 Bridges 5K in the Hudson River just three weeks away and a planned crossing of Gibraltar Strait in October with three friends, should I feel concern about being under-prepared for long open water swims? Well, I’m not, and I believe I have good reason for my sanguine attitude.  Three good reasons in fact.

On three occasions, I went into an event or open-water season woefully-undertrained by conventional standards. Once by plan, and twice because of circumstances beyond my control. Each time, I was pleasantly surprised—even stunned–with how well things turned out.

June 2002 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim

In Dec, 2001 I decided to enter the 2002 MIMS, in part to celebrate having reached life’s half-century mark a year earlier. I’d swum only perfunctorily since the previous summer, and one day after I registered the college pool began a 3-week holiday closure.  With travel for work in late January, I finally began swimming regularly in early Feb, leaving just four months to prepare for a 28.5-mile swim.

While I lacked an aerobic base, I felt confident in my efficiency base and decided to focus on making that even stronger. I wanted to test the proposition that it’s possible to comfortably complete an ultra-marathon swim on non-ultra training volume.

For the next 16 weeks I averaged about 16,000 yards per week (a half to a third of what other MIMS’ers were doing), with the exception of swimming a 10,000-yard, 3-hour pool practice in weeks 14 and 15, raising my total for those weeks to a bit over 20,000 yards.

I swam those not with the intent of building extra endurance, but to see if I could finish each session feeling more energized than when I started by swimming with consummate ease. Doing so showed me I was on track for a successful marathon.

On marathon day, I swam as easily as possible, but intent on making every stroke count. Or, put another way, not wasting a single muscle contraction. Taking a quite leisurely 49 strokes per minute, it was essential I travel a good distance on each.

Swimming like a tourist, (and slowed by relatively sluggish currents where my paddler guided my hugging the Manhattan shoreline—the rest of the field was closer to mid-river where the currents are much faster) I reached the Harlem River, about 8 miles into the race, well behind the rest of the field.

But over the next 20 miles I passed three other soloists and a relay. Not bad for an ‘undertrained’ swimmer. And despite being badly dehydrated in the final miles, because of inexperience planning my nutrition and hydration regimen, I felt only moderate fatigue upon reaching the finish, which I reached in 8 hrs 53 minutes. After drinking 64 oz of water on the drive home, I felt fully recovered the next day.

2005 Betsy Owens 2-Mile Cable Swim (US Masters National Open Water Championship)

In October 2004, while doing a bench press set—mindfully, with moderate weight and impeccable form—I ruptured the biceps tendon in my right shoulder. For a swimmer, this is normally a very serious injury requiring 9 months or more to return to full strength. HMO requirements delayed surgery for 5 months, while I did more conservative therapies.

It was evident I’d need surgery (I didn’t have a diagnosis yet—an MRI was inconclusive)  because, after months of therapy I experienced disabling pain attempting undemanding tasks like pouring tea from a kettle, flipping a wall light switch, donning my seatbelt. However, two months after the injury, and before surgery, I could swim pain free.  By modifying my stroke to avoid pain—the origin of the Mail Slot focal point—I was able to swim pain free, and even a bit faster than before the injury!

I had surgery in Feb 2005, followed by 3 weeks with my right arm in a sling and 3 months under doctor’s orders not to swim any whole stroke. I used the Endless Pool to replicate exercises I was doing in PT and to gently explore range of motion. For that time, ‘swimming’ meant easy reps of the TI SpearSwitch drill, in which I could hone balance, streamlining, and rhythmic rotation without lifting arm from water. To avoid over-eagerness, when I applied water-pressure with my right hand, I visualized the staple holding tendon-to-bone pulling out.

Five months to the day after surgery—following just two months of quite moderate whole-stroke training—I swam the Betsy Owens 2-Mile Cable Swim.

In 2004, I’d swum a personal best of 49:20. Swimming with modest expectations, I was dumbfounded to see 45:40 displayed on the race clock as I reached the finish line. I led the 50-54 age group for the National Masters title for 3000 meters, being passed in the final 200 meters to finish 2^nd, to that date, my highest finish ever in a National championship.

What could be the explanation for improving my personal best for two miles by over 3-and-a-half minutes after having my training severely restricted for most of the 10 months preceding the event?

Summer of 2012 – Top 10 Percent 4 Consecutive Weeks

Last year at this time, I was looking toward the upcoming open water season with rather modest expectations. Because of a torn meniscus in my right knee at Christmas, then four months hampered by autoimmune symptoms, I was restricted to swimming in the Endless Pool three times a week for 30 minutes (the equivalent of less than 5000 yards per week) at very gentle current speeds and minimal effort levels.

As I began my racing season (also at 2 Bridges), I told myself I’d take pleasure in the social aspects of attending the events races, seeing friends and enjoying the experience, not allowing finishes below my usual standard to detract from the pleasure of simply swimming.

In that first race , on June 2, I finish in mid-pack but enormously enjoyed being there nonetheless. A week later I began swimming regularly in Lake Minnewaska, and my symptoms also began to abate. I began swimming at steadily brisker tempos, using my Tempo Trainer.

During my five months of gentle stroke tuning in the Endless Pool, I’d acquired an unprecedented feeling of silky synchronicity in my strokes. That feeling held as I increased tempo from 1.10 to 1.0 to 0.9 seconds/stroke. Soon I felt as if I was flying effortlessly up and down the 200-yard line at Minnewaska.

On July 22, I swam my second race of the season, a mile in the ocean at Coney Island. I maintained that silky feeling throughout, but didn’t expect the finish I had. I won the 60-64 age group by a minute. I also placed in the top 10% of the field overall—something I hadn’t done in at least five years!

Over the following three weekends, I swam three more races—another ocean mile, followed by two races of two miles. I won my age group in each by steadily larger margins. And in each I again placed in the top 10 percent in the field—the most exciting, and least expected, level of sustained racing excellence in my 40 years of open water racing!

Again, how to explain this in light of entering the season significantly undertrained —by conventional standards—in both volume and intensity for the rigors of open water distance racing?  In particular, all three occurrences of hard-to-explain success occurred in my 50s and 60s.  When I was much younger (I swam my first open water race at 22) I never raced well unless I’d done long, hard training.

Do Less, Get More

The short answer is that—to a far greater extent in open water than in pool races– it’s possible to do quite well with smart, strategic—yet fairly modest–training. This seems counterintuitive—isn’t open water racing reputed to be far more grueling than pool racing. But there are far more opportunities for error in open water—in starting, pacing, navigation, etc. And it’s like that most of the field will make those errors.  Minimizing error can compensate for gaps in training.

Doing more with less in open water swimming is of great interest to aging swimmers like me. And of even greater interest to triathletes, who have to make time for three sports.

In next week’s blog, I’ll share the particular lessons I’ve taken from these experiences and will apply in my training for the upcoming open water season.

COACH YOURSELF IN OPEN WATER SKILLS AND STRATEGIES (click links below for details)

Outside the Box DVD

Outside the Box ebook

LEARN OW SKILLS AND STRATEGIES FROM TERRY LAUGHLIN AND TI COACHES (click links below for details)

August 1-4  Open Water Camp in New Paltz NY

Aug 13-17 Open Water Camp in Lake Placid

The post How Age and Cunning Can Win the Day in Open Water appeared first on Swim For Life.

The post How Age and Cunning Can Win the Day in Open Water appeared first on Total Immersion.