Triathlon swimming made easy (28 page)

Breathe This Way

Breathing to both sides is a key skill for open water. Breathing to one side for 20 minutes or longer can leave neck and back muscles tense; breathing both ways keeps you looser. Second, you never know on which side your landmarks or buoys may be. And finally, waves, chop, or splashy swimmers on one side can be a problem unless you're comfortable breathing the other way. Fortunately, our TI Lessons should have helped you become comfortable with bilateral breathing. I do most of my swimming, in both pool and lake, breathing alternately. That could mean breathing every
three strokes or every five if I'm going super slow (my effort level is low and
so is my oxygen consumption). It could mean breathing on the right side while headi
ng west and on the left going east. It could mean 10 breaths on my right, followed b
y 10 on my left. I practice all kinds of alternating patterns, so I can shift easily
while racing.

Practice Free Rides

Swimming just behind someone else can be worth as much as 10 percent in energy savings. Just as helpful, you can let your draftees do the work of navigation while you simply follow in their wake — but do check their bearings from time to time. I practice drafting in the pool, as I said,
and at the lake, where I sometimes start at the back of the pack to practice drafting. I'll do my no-look strokes, and practice following other swimmers without actually looking for them. I try to sense their proximity by feeling the bubbles from their kick. You can also catch a ride by sw
imming alongside another swimmer (or between two swimmers) but close enough to stay within their bow wave, by keeping your goggles somewhere between their knees and feet. When drafting that way you can keep your "rabbit" in view with normal side-breathing.

After swimming "blind" for 40 or more strokes, I'
ll sneak a quick peak at my draftee's cap or for the center of the cluster of caps. Another way to use the pack to stay on course is by swimming to one side. If you know, for instance, that you typically wander to the left while swimming, position yourself to the right of most of the pack. Everyone else will h
elp keep you in line.

Practice with Purpose

In addition to the gear-changing and timed pool sets outlined in Chapters 15 and 16, in the lake I test and develop my ability to stay smooth at racing speeds with a variety of pacing games. I will generally swim in a range of three "gears." Silent is virtually effortless. Cruise is a bit faster with some feeling of pace. Brisk represents the effort and pace I'd usually feel in the course of a mile race — but my race is complete after I swim so this pace may be a bit faster than most triathletes would want to swim. Here's a sample "lake workout" to sho
w the range of creativity that is possible. Each "set" represents one "lake lap" — just under 400 meters.

Swim Super Slow and Silent. I try for the lowest possible stroke count and try to cross with fewer than four "looks."

Speedplay. Alternate rounds of 40 strokes Silent with 20 strokes Cruise. Try to be just as quiet and splash-free as you accelerate to "cruise pace."

SSP. Alternate thinking about hiding your head and timing your switches, with purposeful exaggeration. Count strokes.

Speedplay. Alternate 50 Silent strokes —10 Cruise strokes, 40 Silent — 20 Cruise, 30 Silent — 30 Cruise, 20 Silent — 40 Cruise, 10 Silent — 50 Cruise. Be just as smooth for 50 strokes of Cruise as you are fo
r 10.

Drafting practice. Start at the rear and practice "feeling wakes" and not looking very often. Also practice how to advance within the pack by leapfrogging from the "free ride" of one wake to the free ride of another wake further ahead in the pack, like a trout working upstream from rock to rock.

Speedplay. Alternate 20 strokes Silent — 20 strokes Cruise — 20 strokes Brisk. Try to stay just as smooth and fluent at Brisk as at Silent. You can also practice adjusting your tempo in the core, by keeping keep your arms connected to your faster-moving torso as you cycle through this repeatedly.

Pickups. Start at the rear of the pack, give the leaders a bit of a head start, then build your tempo and pace steadily across the lake, from Silent through Cruise, Brisk, and finally to full speed in the final 50 meters or so. This lap is a microcosm of a whole race, distilled to 400 meters.

Really Open Water

Ocean swimming is a whole different story. The best way to become comfortable and adept is to spend some time body surfing. It provides a perfect o
pportunity for mastering sea skills while having fun. Body surfing teaches you to be completely at ease in the ocean and particularly to understand waves. Swimming through breakers takes strength, wit, and timing. You can't just mash through them; they'll throw you back, gasping and muddled. Body surfing is ideal practice beca
use after each ride in, you can't wait to catch another, so you learn to zip through the shore break quickly, with energy intact to grab your next ride.

Here's how to do it. Start in ankle-deep water and high-step through the shallows, leaping over low rollers. Ocean bottom is notoriously unpredictable (a hole here,
a sand bar there), so watch your step. But you probably won't run far anyway, unless the tide is way out; it's easier to porpoise once the water covers your knee
s. Dive forward, grab the sand, and pull your feet under you. Plant your feet, then dive up and over to arc back toward the bottom again. Each time
you pop up, immediately look for the next wave. When depth makes this awkward or laborious, start swimming. But you have to check the wave line every two or three stro
kes.

If you see a shoulder forming that looks as if it could break, you're probably over a sand bar. Try to get your feet down and prepare to dive under the wave. The ideal time, if you're fortunate enough, is to dive through the base of the wave just before it breaks. That will actually shoot you out the back with added momentum. If you can't manage that, just duck under before it reaches you.

Or, you may be facing 30 yards or more of rollers that broke farther out and are coming at you in lines, usually in water too deep to porpoise. Sometimes you may be able to take only a few strokes before another wave is on top of you, forcing you to dive again. Leave one arm in front as you breathe, swing the other arm over, and drive it in strongly as you pike under. Breaststroke once quickly and resurface, looking immediately for the next wave. Get in as many strokes as you can to power through the white water behind them, ready to dive under again. It can be difficult to get a r
hythm going; you really need to be comfortable with being buffeted and thrown off your stride every few strokes, then resuming your rhythm quickly. As I said, there is absolutely no substitute for practicing this a lot.

Once you're past the breaker line, you'll be swimming in chop or swells of some height. Practice comes in handy here, too, because it helps you learn to sense when you're riding up on a crest or sinking in a trough. There's no point in sighting while in a trough. With experience, you learn to time your looks for when you feel yourself rising on a swell. In July of 2000,1 swam a mile race in storm surf where the swells ranged upward of five feet, which limited the size of the field and scattered it considerably. Most of the time I swam blindly in what I hoped was the right direction, pau
sing frequently to take two to four breast strokes, hoping to catch a glimpse of another swim cap. When I saw one, I'd swim that way, anxious for company out in the wet-and-wildness. In any sort of chop, which is common in the ocean, it helps enormously to have had considerable experience getting your bearings. You need to learn to time the waves, and to perhaps delay a breath (or breathe to the other side) because you can sense a wave about to slap you in the face. Another option worth practicing is to take a deep breath to your side, then look up and spot without swallowing water as a wave splash
es over you.