Triathlon swimming made easy (21 page)

Let's examine what you'll likely experience in the course of each set and the learning that results. You start with an easily achievable stroke count in the 1st Round. As you move to the 75s, the spl gets a bit more challenging, but the repeat is shorter. The 50s offer the same combination of tougher spl with easier repeat distance. In each set, you're also practicing the calibrate-and-recalibrate skill again. The 2nd 75 should go more smoothly than the first. Ditto for the last two 50s. But when you get to the 25s, suddenly the spl gets bumped back up to the starting point. The combination
of easier spl
and
easier repeat distance means you may "run out of pool" before taking the allotted number of strokes. So your task on the 25s is to learn
lofit in
the added strokes smoothly, which means to swim fast fluently.

After the first round, give yourself a recovery 100 of drilling or an SSP, if you like, then tackle the second 500. On the second round you'll use the same range of stroke counts, but the task — and the learning experience — will be completely different: You'll start with the longest repeat and lowest spl. You'll have to swim with incredible discipline and mindfulness to finish the 100 @ N-2. (Remember an average of 14 spl could be done as 13+14+14+15, for instance.) But then you
add
strokes as the repeat distance gets shorter on the 75s and 50s. The 50s @ N should be a breeze and you sh
ould be able to do them with a nice feeling of
easy speed
When you get to the 25s @ N-2, you're back to "stroke deprivation," needing to subtract two strokes per length from your count on the 50s.
But,
because they're 25s, try to swim them as fast as possible in the allotted 14 strokes. If you get to the point where you can do all this successfully, Congratulations! You have just crammed as much learning as is humanly possible
¹
into 1000 yards of swimming. You've also done a lot more to develop your swimming and triathlon potential than one more "same old, same old" set of generic 100-y
ard repeats on 2:00, or 1:30 or even 1:10.

The above set makes use of the world's most incredible learning machine — the human brain and body. The most neglected ingredient in training — for virtually all athletes, not just triathletes — is that of "fooling the body." The whole point of training is to create adaptability. Give the
body a task it has not done before and it adapts by making changes to strengthen its ability to successfully complete the task. Running, cycling, or swimming farther or faster stimulates your body to make cell-level energy-system changes to be equal to the task. Once it has made those changes, however, doing the same set again will not produce further adaptation. Yet most athletes do the same sets in the same way, day after day, week after week, year after year, motivated by the desire to "top off the fuel tank.

Effective Training sets keep your brain, body, and neuromuscular system in a state
of confusion,
having to constantly come up wjth solutions to new puzzles and tasks. And the more continually you maintain an environment for
adaptability,
the greater the
capability
you create.

Chapter 16

Swimming for Time: Speed at Last

Up to now, we've ignored the pace clock — something verging on heresy among swimmers and coaches. But we've had good reason: Allowing you to fully develop swimming as an
art
has readied you to train for it as a
sport
with far greater return for your investment of precious time and energy. With stroke count now ingrained as your most important piece of training data, we'll finally begin using the pace clock to give you another piece of information to cross-reference with your stroke-count numbers. This will give you the complete swimming-improvement picture. We'll start with my favo
rite pool game: Swimming Golf.

Swimming Golf

To play Swimming Golf, count your strokes for a fixed, short distance (I prefer 50s because the math is manageable) and add your time in seconds to that number. This gives you a structured way to find your most economical SL and tempo. For any swimming speed, there are many potential combinations of SL and SR; from one extreme of a very short stroke with extremely high turnover to a very looong stroke with a very slooow turnover. Neither extreme is energy-efficient, but playing Swim Golf and experimenting with a variety of combinations helps you quickly pinpoint the one that works
best for you. And when you compare your
effort level with your score, you gain an accurate measure of how to produce the greatest V with the least expenditure of energy. By playing regularly, you find the smartest, easiest way to the lowest score, using cunning rather than muscle. Here are examples of the two basic ways to lower your score. Please don't be intimidated by the stroke counts, times, and scores that you see here. Remember: Swim Golf is relative. No matter what your starting "score," (and it might be 90,100,110 or more), the point is to lower that score. You'll see benefits no matter what your starting point.

Version 1: On successive 50s, swim the same time but reduce your stroke count.

Example:

32 total strokes + :50 = 82

31 total strokes + :50 = 81

30 total strokes + :50 = 80

In this example, you'd start by swimming a relaxed 50 in 50 seconds. Adding your count of 32 strokes to your time yields a score of 82. The goal in this version is to repeat the same time on each succeeding 50 in the set, but to continue subtracting strokes, until you can't shave any more from your count without sacrificing speed.

This makes for an intriguing puzzle. You could, for instance, subtract a stroke by holding a longer glide after your pushoff, but that will slow you down a bit, so you'd need to regain that time without adding back the stroke you saved on your pushoff. The most valuable learning experience will come from using the knowledge you gained in Chapter 15 to carve strokes from your total, but — each time — to add just a little bit more "oomph" to each remaining stroke to keep your time the same. This version will teach you a lot; have fun with it.

Version 2: On successive 50s, maintain your stroke count, but descend your time.

Example:

30 total strokes + :45 = 75

30 total strokes + :44 = 74

30 total strokes + :43 = 73

In this example, you swim at a chosen stroke count, then note your time from the pace clock after finishing. To improve your score you need to keep exactly the same stroke length, but
take each stroke just a bit faster
in order to shave time. This poses a different problem and a different learning experience than the previous version. Looking at this version in light of the formula V = SL x SR, what you must do here is increase V (i.e., go faster) by raising your SR while keeping SL the same. It's not easy, but as soon as you begin solving it, you've advanced your skill set to an ex
ceptionally high order by acquiring the knack that decides races at the Olympics.

Your improving golf score will provide an unerring measure of how well you're using SL to create speed. If you play regularly, you'll be amazed at how quickly a bit more effort can add a lot more strokes. If those strokes don't translate into enough speed to lower your total score, you know right away you've been wasteful and can take quick steps to fix the problem.

Swimming Golf sets and scores are also the perfect way to develop a kinesthetic sense of how you should feel at the beginning of any swim longer than 400 meters in racing or as you start longer training sets. When you record a personal best score, immediately capture and store how you felt while swimming it. Those that feel the easiest, yet produce a solid score, give you a benchmark for the kind of stroke sensations you should aim for in your races. With enough practice, you'll be able to put yourself in a flow state at will.

Tiger Woods in the Water

Once you have the basics of Swimming Golf, you can easily add refinements to raise your game to a higher level. The first step is to begin factoring in your heart rate or Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE; see Chapter 12). You may play Swimming Golf inefficiently at first, wearing yourself out to get a good score. For example, you may drop your score by kicking harder, something you couldn't sustain in a long race or training swim.

The advanced golfer measures her scores against the effort needed to achieve them. If you swam a 50 in 32 strokes and 37 seconds for a 69 score, but had an RPE of 5, you'd be hard-pressed to swim like that for more than one or two 50s — and would probably need to rest a minute or more between them. On the other hand, when you can swim that 69 score with an RPE of 3, you might be able to maintain it for 10 to 20 repeats, perhaps resting only 3 to 5 yoga breaths between swims; this would definitely be a "race-ready" golf score.

Thus, reducing your RPE at a particular score is just as useful a goal as lowering that score. You might save energy by swimming more efficiently, or you might do it by using a different strokes/seconds combination. The more curious and creative you are in playing, the more you'll learn. Here are several variations that will make you a "tour golfer:"

1. Do a round of 3 to 4 x 50s to establish a benchmark score. Then do several rounds with fistgloves®. How close can you come to your ungloved scores? Finally, remove the gloves and do another round ungloved. Does your ungloved score improve after "educating" your hands with the gloves? If so, capture and store the feeling it produces.

2. How many ways can you score? Tiger Woods is so dominant because he has shots in his repertoire that other golfers can barely imagine. Once you've been playing for a while and have established your own "par," test how many different stroke counts you can swim at a slightly higher score. For example, if your record score is 77, try swimming a series at a constant score of 80 as shown below.

30 strokes + :50

31 strokes + :49

32 strokes + :48

33 strokes + :47

34 strokes + :46

At the end of the series, identify which combination felt easiest. That goes into your muscle "memory bank."

3. Repeat short series of 50s at several stroke counts. E.g., If you have an N of 20 spl (or 40 strokes per 50), try several rounds of 50s as follows:

3 x 50 @ 38 strokes

3 x 50 @ 39 strokes

3 x 50 @ 40 strokes

3 x 50 @ 41 strokes

Descend your golf score on each round and compare your best scores. Which stroke count produced the best combination of low score and low RPE? File that away. Want to learn even more? Occasionally, swim either of those series in the reverse order, from higher count to lower. The same range of counts will produce fresh insights, when you subtract, rather than adding, strokes.

4. Different Strokes. As the
Four Strokes Made Easy
DVD demonstrates, alternating backstroke and freestyle can benefit both strokes, more than practicing either one alone. I particularly enjoy doing LongAxis Combinations in Swimming Golf. Here's one of my favorite series. I may do two or three rounds of the following:

3 to 4 x 50s backstroke. Count strokes and
take times. Aim for best score.

3 to 4 x 50s (25 backstroke + 25 freestyle). As above.

3 to 4 x 50s freestyle. As above.

Compare the score you achieve for freestyle after swimming backstroke and then back/free as a warmup, against scores you achieve in other types of sets. Want to learn still more? Do a round of the above with fistgloves®, then another round with "nekked hands."

5. Use your own experiences to create imaginative golf sets to measure any aspect of your swimming. Try doing golf sets Super Slow and compare them with your scores at, say, 70%, 80% and 90% effort. Do them as silently as you can or with a focus on Piercing the Water and compare your scores with those you achieve using other focal points. Any "tweak" that produces a better score or the same score with a lower RPE is useful. File it away for use in a race or in another training set.

No More Generic Training

With so many learning experiences from Tl Lessons and thoughtful whole-stroke sets filed in your body's "athletic-performance hard-drive" you now have the tools to transform the generic sets prescribed in any book, article, or Masters workout, into Effective Training. Here's one simple example, based on a fairly routine training set.

The coach or magazine article prescribes a set of 5 x 100. You can choose any of the following ways of doing it.

Option 1: Swim all 5 x 100 at the same time and same stroke count. You're practicing constant SL, SR, and V.

Option 2: Swim all 5 x 100 in the same time, but subtract one stroke from each successive repeat. You're practicing constant V, but producing it more with SL and less with SR.

Option 3: Swim all 5 x 100 in the same stroke count, but descend your time on each repeat. Same SL, but more V from gradually increasing SR.

Option 4: Swim 5 x 100, adding one stroke to each successive repeat and descend your time. You go faster by "trading" some SL for more SR. This option offers other choices you can make in where to trade that SL for more V to practice yet-finer control.

In this example, speed and SR are added to the end of the repeat first, while maintaining the initial SL at the beginning of each repeat until deep into the set — which is smart rehearsal for effective distance racing:

Example:

• 13+14+14+15 = 56

• 13+14+14+16 = 57

• 13+14+15+16 = 58

• 13+15+15+16 = 59

• 14+15+15+16 = 60

Each of these examples would slightly change the learning experience and training effect of what was once a pretty generic training set. And each such change would squeeze out a bit more adaptation value from a finite amount of training time.