Windrush Swim Training 18th August 2014

This is the session I gave at Brockwell Lido, a 50m pool. Most people were swimming in wetsuits save about 3 hardcores in the 19.5 degree water.

Warm up

500m swum as:
200m front crawl, setting off at a brisk pace to really get the body warm
100m kick, no kick boards, torpedo arms
200m front crawl using catch up.

With catch up, make a "window frame" with the hands by sticking the thumbs out and placing the tips together so when the arms are outstretched they stay just inside shoulder width, no narrower. This ensures that you don't get into bad habits with crossing the centre line of the body when you swim front crawl. 

Drills and Main set focusing on developing lung capacity

400m swum as:
4 x 50 kick and 50 front crawl with a hard kick.

To make this a bit more fun and competitive, I asked the swimmers to kick down the centre of the lane in pairs, peel off to the outside at the end of the lane and sprint back. 

600-800m swum as:
6-8 x 10-15 m underwater and the remainder of the 50m hard front crawl with a 50m active recovery either back stroke or front crawl.

2 x 300m breathing pyramid
50m bilateral breathing every 3 strokes
50m breathing every 5
50m breathing every 7
50m breathing every 7
50m breathing every 5
50m breathing every 3

With the breathing pyramid, you will need to slow down, relax and stretch more, the higher up the pyramid you go. Try and stick with the numbers for the length as much as you can, TAKE YOUR TIME. If you get to the end of the length and haven't completed the set number of strokes, don't take a breath until you turn and finish the remainder. For example, if you are on number 7, and get to the end of the lane on 3, turn and finish the remaining 4 before breathing!

Cool down
100m as 50m back stroke and 50m slow and stretchy front crawl.

Total time 60mins
Total distance 2200-2400m

Good Luck!

Windrush Swim Training 5th August 2014

Warm up

200m front crawl
100m kick with board, head up
200m catch up with pull buoy

Technique Drills

These drills are to put emphasis on the underwater phase; the catch with the hand, wrist position and forearm position. Think about where to exert the most power.

4 x 75m as:
25m sculling
25m fists
25m catch up

Main Fitness Set

8 x 25m
4 x 50m
2 x 100m
1 x 200m

Each set is meant to be swum in the same total time but with a different speed and different rest periods. If you're not sure of your capabilities, I would go with turnarounds of:
0.30
1.00
2.00
4.00

However, if you do want to make it tougher, only reduce the times of your 25's by a couple of seconds as it makes a big difference to your overall 200m time.

NO REST IS TO BE TAKEN BETWEEN SETS (only reps)

Cool down

100m back stoke

Total set distance 1700m, total time, 40-50 minutes

If you have more time and are feeling fit, do the fitness set in reverse straight after finishing the 200m

Windrush Swim Training 29th July 2014

Warm up

The idea of a warm up, as well as getting the body going, is to get the mind thinking. Swimming is a thinking sport. Use the warm up to go slowly and get into the mindset of lengthening and putting focus into whereabouts in the stroke the most force should go.

200m front crawl
100m kick, head up kick board
200m pull with buoy

Technique Drills

150m set x 4 as:
50m left arm only
50m right arm only
50m kick with board

This is to emphasise what the muscles' roles are in each part of the stroke. The one arm only also helps breathing technique to keep the head low and role to breathe, especially if you have a tendency to use the push of the arm stroke to lift the head out of the water.

Main fitness set

4 x 50m on 0.55 turnaround
4 x 50m on 1.00 turnaround
4 x 50m on 1.05 turnaround
4 x 50m on 1.10 turnaround
4 x 50m on 0.55 turnaround

To make this set easier, include a minute or 2 to rest in between sets and make the last 0.55 another 1.10

Cool down

50m slow front crawl
50m back or breast stroke

Total set distance, 2200m total time, 45mins-60mins

Go Bananas, I came first in my category- whoop!

This is the happy bunch of bananas hours after the race, when everything around us was being packed up and the sponsors Lidl were desperately thrusting an abundance of bananas at anyone slow-witted enough to take them. I came away with a pack of water bottles and my Dad left with enough cereal bars to start a tuck shop.

I have to say, I was particularly excited about this one as these nutters above provided some friendly and worthy competition AND my Dad, just a week shy of his 64th birthday took part in his first Triathlon- Fantastic!

My good friend Tammy (the girl on the left in the photo) is a little machine; she's been training really well throughout the year and this would be the first triathlon (and not the last) where we race side by side. She got her 5 km run time down to an intimidating 20 mins something which I don't know if I've ever done, certainly not in the past 12 months anyway. I was definitely apprehensive about going side by side with her in this race.

It's great having a bit of competition in your training and direct competition in your racing. If you know the person and respect their ability to beat you, it pushes your efforts to levels you wouldn't exert on your own. I would say that it is essential to train with people better than you or people on your level who have the potential to progress as quickly or quicker than you for you to make the biggest and best gains.

So this is how I won my category: I swam without a wetsuit for the first time (apart from testing the waters at Shepperton the Wednesday before) as the water was 21.something degrees. I got to the front of the pack before the horn went off and I stayed calm throughout my swim. I picked up the pace on the second lap and increased my leg kick and stroke rate for the last 200 meters or so. It felt great just in my tri-suit and made T1 a lot faster! I saw Tammy running up the ramp out of the water at what I judged was about 10 seconds ahead of me and didn't take my eye off her until I sped past her on the bike. For her, psychologically, that was the end of her race; and it's true, psychology plays a massive part in sports racing. Your body is always capable of that extra percent of effort, and only practice and experience in all sorts of moods, environments and circumstances can help you realise this; then of course, overcome it.

On the cycle, I kept my eye on other people who I passed and passed me again and again. (My weakness is inclines but I compensate by going hard on flats and actually DO pedal fast on down hills too) I spotted people up in front who I aimed to catch up with, then once I'd caught them, I'd aim for the next. Some people I was chasing for a whole lap before I got irritated and put in that extra burst of energy to finally get there. In my head I was constantly thinking that it's no use going too hard then "actively resting" because it's that small overall consistent speed that gets you there over all those laps. So instead, I went hard and when I couldn't and more, maintained an above-comfortable steady pace until I found it it me to go hard again.

Having no desire to feel like I felt off the bike at Hyde Park, I got in a couple of last minute runs before this tri and have been doing Bikram Yoga to loosen those tight inhibiting muscles so I got off the bike feeling good. I started slow and steady, then reminded myself of all those small techniques to stay ahead. "Run from the bum" "1,2,3,1,2,3" "lean forward!" At one point I'm pretty sure I came in violation of someone's personal space, just to use them as a pacer. The run was close-knit laps so I saw Tom and smiled at him to bring him out of his serious competitive face, high-fived Dan a few times and got the 2 fingers from Tammy.

Personally this Banana man is an important one for me because it's the only same one that I did last year so I'm able to compare my times. However, last year's run was cut short due to incredibly hot weather. Here is the comparison:

Leg	2013	2014
Swim 800m	00:13:44	00:13:42 (no wetsuit)
T1	00:01:52 (suit to take off)	00:01:40
Bike 31.8km	01:19:09 (hybrid bike)	01:07:27 (road bike)
T2	00:00:55 (no cycle shoes)	00:01:36
Run 7.5km	4mins53/km (6km run)	4mins43sec/km

You can see from the brackets, there are actually loads of variables so I don't know if you can really call it a fair comparison, or whether my training has improved time or not. I think it has with the swim even though the difference is only 2 seconds better, I didn't have a wetsuit which does make you slower anyway. I'm pleased with the difference in the cycle and don't think it's just down to a better bike. I still have a long way to go with the bike but WATCH THIS SPACE it's going to happen!!!

The atmosphere for the Lidl Banana man is friendly, non-judgemental and fun (if you can't tell that from the ridiculous bananas on our bright yellow t-shirts). You get the serious triathletes racing with their thousand-pound gear, the aspiring competitors and also those that just fancy a go on and with any equipment they have found in the garage and dusted off. If you've not done triathlon before and fancy something, this event by Human Race offers all sorts of distances and relays to choose from and remember my 64 year old Dad decided to enter a few days before the cut off date which was only a week before the event and still achieved a 23 minute 5km!!! (and no he didn't train)

YOU CAN DO IT TOO!  So go on!