Swim Training for Triathletes

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, Feb. 25/10]

"Real" swimmers as I sometimes call them, are different from the rest of us. It's more than just being fast in the water, they swim different than us, they have a "feel" for the water that we don't have. They swim all strokes (correctly). They're able to swim endlessly breathing every 5th, 7th, 9th stroke. They can push off the wall and stay underwater for a really long time and don't even take a breathe on their first stroke (how do they do that?) And of course, they do all that stuff while swimming fast.

These are the swimmers that started swimming at a very young age under the watchful eye of a coach who constantly made corrections to their stroke. So by the time they start maturing their strokes are solid and they've probably logged more yards than most of us will in our entire life.

Those of us that started swimming later in life (read: non-swimmers) don't have the same foundation to build upon, so we've got a lot of catching up to do. And it might be best if we don't try and do all the things that swimmers do.

I've been fortunate enough to make some significant improvements in my swimming over the last several years. My first year (99) in Kona (Ironman Hawaii) I swam a blistering 1:04. Last year I hit the ramp in 55:50 (my official time was 56:20 and I'm still trying to figure out where those 30 seconds went). I benefited greatly from swimming with masters and learning some of the Total Immersion drills. The intent of this article however is to discuss the five reasons why I think I'm a better (and faster) swimmer than I was 5 years ago.

Warning: Real swimmers may not agree with everything that I'm about to say, but remember, we're different and we look at swimming differently. Here's what has helped me:

Stop relying on the pull buoy to get you through the main set

The pull buoy is a great tool if used correctly. Unfortunately, most non-swimmers use it as a swimming aide when they get tired or they interval gets too fast. Do you swim faster with a pull buoy than without one? It might be time to leave the pull buoy in your swim bag for a few weeks. I used to always reach for the pull buoy when the main set got hard. When I finally made the commitment to swim without it, I struggled, but eventually I got comfortable swimming without it and it's made a huge improvement in my swimming. The pull buoy can be a great tool if you use it correctly. Specific pull sets or recovery sets are fine. I also use a band around my ankles whenever I use a pull buoy. It keeps you from kicking, and reinforces proper body position.

Improve your Kick

Real swimmers might tell you that kicking isn't really that important. That's because they've been swimming for so long that their position is so good that they don't need to improve their kick, and they don't understand that us non-swimmers don't have the ability to hold good body position without a strong kick (it's a conundrum). Until last year, I could not kick 50m unless I was wearing fins. Why? because I always wore fins while kicking. I'm not sure why, but about two years ago I decided that I was going to learn to kick without fins, and I'm glad I did. It took a while, and I went 25m at a time really slow for a long time, but eventually I went 50 and then 100...and then I started getting faster at kicking. And then, I noticed while I was swimming I could use my kick that I recently developed to adjust my position or get a little propulsion. And then...no and then, just stop kicking with fins, you won't regret it.

Pull Wide

Real swimming use a lot of technical swimming talk like "keep the elbow high" I still don't know what most of means (Ok, I know what that means, but for a long time I didn't, and I don't think it's easy for a non-swimmer to understand). What I've found as I work with non-swimmers is that keeping the elbow high and not over or under bending the elbow is not as much of a problem as pulling too close to the torso. Pulling wide is really easy to explain: when you take a stroke, keep your hand farther away from your body than your used to. If you exaggerate it, your probably close to where it should be. Keeping your thumb along side of you hand and keeping your fingers together will help you feel the increased resistance of the water. Pulling wide makes it easy to avoid crossing over (when your hand enters the water). Reach wide and pull wide.

Lead

Ok, you probably can't lead, but don't follow so close. So many non-swimmers focus on going fast and making hard intervals that they leave 2 seconds behind the guy in front of them just so they can keep up. If that's you, stop it. You'll get much stronger if you break your own water. When I swam in masters I always wanted to try and swim in a faster lane, so I had to draft behind the guys in front of me, but I knew I could never make those intervals alone. Since I don't have a local masters program, I have to swim my own workouts and I usually lead. And it's a lot harder. And it makes you a stronger swimmer. If you have to follow, give em 10 or 15 seconds.

Slow Down

Swimming easy isn't so easy. But it allows you to concentrate on your form, your pull, and your kick. If you're swimming to keep up with the guy in front of you, your focus is on the wrong person. Just like running, you need to develop the ability to swim at a sustainable effort and for most of us, it means slowing down. Once you find that sustainable effort, stay there. do your intervals there. You'll gain efficiency and soon you'll be going faster at that same effort.