Swimming Tips for Triathletes #1

After helping out several of my triathlete friends over the years, I thought it might be beneficial to post some here.   If anyone else has some more tips, please add them.   Hey, if we get a good enough list maybe J.Justice (Triathlete ed.) will publish it...
Shifting Gears (bike analogy) -----------------------------
Believe it or not, you can actually "shift gears" while swimming simply by varying your hand placement in the water.   The power gear (small cog) is having your hand enter along your centerline (line from belly-button to nose, extrapolated in front of your head).   The spin gear (big cog) is having your hands enter at shoulder width. Now, apply the same tactics as in cycling.   If your arm muscles ache, widen your hand placement slightly and increase your turn-over.   This is especially useful for the open-water swim start.   If you want more speed/efficiency, slightly slow your cadence and place your hands closer to the centerline.   Note:   if you experience body/hip sway (or sharp shoulder aches), you are probably overreaching (crossing over the centerline).   Have your hands enter wider. --

Swimming Tips for Triathletes #2 HEAD and TRIMING the BOAT ---------------Your head is the main factor that controls how your body rides (planes) in the water.   This is analogous to adjusting the prop angle (trim) of a speedboat in order to achieve maximum speed and efficiency. Traditionally, you want the waterline to be in the middle of your forehead so that your eyes are focused 10-20 ft in front of you (you *should not* look directly at the bottom). A false sense of speed and power will be realized if your chin is too close to your chest (bury your head or look directly at the bottom).   This is because your head is to low and actually acting like a snowplow (creating extremely high resistance). In order to maintain the proper trim for long-distance swims, the appropriate neck and trapezius muscles must be properly developed (see Swimming Tip for Triathletes #3). Note: a full-legged wetsuit will give abnormally high buoyancy to the legs for a proficient swimmer.   The trim (head position) will need to be adjusted accordingly (look an additional 5-10 ft ahead).

-- Swimming Tips for Triathletes #3 Train like a Lifeguard ----------------------
One of the best training for open-water swim starts and for developing your neck muscles for proper head positioning is to add some lifeguard training to your swimming regime.   Specifically, practice the approach (rescue) stroke. The approach stroke is often known as the tarzan crawl (made famous by Johnny Weismuller). swim the front crawl with your head (including your chin) out of the water.   Your head should remain stationary and not move back and forth.   Lifeguards have their eyes constantly fixed on the victim. Imitate this by fixing your eyes on the end of the pool, diving board etc... Practice long "tarzan crawl" swims so that you can eventually work up to 300-500yds of continuos swimming.   Don't get frustrated, its pretty hard and tiring at first. Practice short, intense "tarzan crawl" intervals of 25-50yds.   This simulates how you want to start an open water swim. Note:   one day when I was screwing around in college swim practice... We were doing time-trials off the blocks at various distances.   For the 100, I turned a low :58 sec (long-course meters) doing "tarzan crawl".   This isn't a blazing fast time by collegiate standards, but it sure helps me gain an advantage during open water swim starts. --

Biking Tips for Triathletes #1 TOEING the LINE ---------------
One of the greatest aerodynamic benefits is achieved by holding a nearly perfectly straight (within 1" or 2) line and keeping your upper body as motionless as possible.   This might sound pretty obvious, but only very slight deviations at higher speeds result in significantly higher drag. The best *real world* example of this is Induirain's time-trial the other day.   Upon watching the coverage two aspects of Big Mig's cycling became very apparent.   First, he is as strong as a Mack truck.   The second was more subtle.   He looked like he was riding on a tightrope compared to the other riders.   His upper body and head position remained almost motionless. All the other riders, weaved slightly or bobbed their heads... The drill that I use is during my weekly time-trial I ride the white line on the side of the rode.   (Note: there is a 1 foot paved shoulder so this does not present any safety concerns...)   I try to keep both wheels on the line at all times, even when drinking, shifting etc... A few weeks ago, we had a downhill (ave 1-2% grade) time-trial.   I showed up with my training bike and training wheels (no disc or deep-dish front, just aerobars).   Using this technique, I was able to average 38.1 mph in a 10 mph crosswind (a new course record :) ). P.S. I know there is a lot of experienced bikers on the net.   Please add your favorite tips.

Swimming Tips for Triathletes #4 If you have your own TIPS, please post or follow-up...Don't Sychronize Swim ---------------------
I've been agonizing over the title.   I know it's   pretty weak, but I couldn't think of any other description... As your hand enters the water, drive your arm forward to full-extension. This creates a natural shoulder roll.   If you have strong shoulders, you can try to press downwards with your shoulders (deltoids). A lot of books/coaches tell swimmers to try to minimize the splash as their hands enter the water.   While this can be good advice, many swimmers over-compensate and place their hands too carefully (synchronize swim). After a fairly thorough discussion of (swim) drafting in rec.sport.swimming, a consensus was built that a body traveling through the water creates a turbulence wake-- which pulls water (molecules) along with it.   While this was just a qualitative discussion, I pondered whether emphasizing the hand/arm entry would create a mini-draft.   In the past two weeks, my 100 splits have dropped 2-3 seconds (which is a phenomenal amount).   Note: you shouldn't feel like your thrashing in the water, instead you should feel a powerful glide.

Swimming Tips for Triathletes #6 Riding the Wave --------------- When swimming with a wetsuit, accentuate the glide phase (finish) phase of the stroke.   As your hand passes beneath your face, it should constantly accelerate until it brushes your thigh.   WARNING: keep you wrist in-line with your forearm.   A common problem is to flip your wrist which results in premature tiring of your forearm.' The extra buoyancy of a wetsuit helps your body plane out much faster. You should concentrate on a smooth, powerful, long stroke.   Take advantage of the extra buoyancy by "riding the wave" or gliding after each powerful stroke.   Without a wetsuit, your body is less buoyant and tends to get out of plane much quicker which requires a quicker arm cadence and a good kick. Now actually swim faster, with less effort. ---------------------------------------------

Wetsuit Time-Trail QRman was kind enough to let me test out one of his new proto-type fullsuits... Actually I've had it for several months (trying to get back into good form after the birth of our first daughter in August..) Our local pool is at 7300 ft.   I performed the test at 6 am and the water temp was unusually hot (84 deg yuck!!!). Due the nature of the warm water and fullsuit combination, I decided to just swim at about 75% effort, keep heart rates consistent, and compare the results... Also, I did this test when the pool was set up for short course (25 yds) instead of 50 m which would have probably been more accurate (flip-turns and wetsuits are not winning combinations ;-) ). The test a swam 5 500s (no wetsuit, quickjohn, fullsuit) and tried to keep my heart rate equal (and tried not to burn up either...)   

Trial 1         Trial 2          Trial 3   
No Wetsuit     Quick John      Full Suit   
----------      ----------      --------
1:09.5         1:06.3          1:04.0
1:09.2         1:05.9          1:04.9*    *errant kickboard went into my lane
1:08.9         1:06.5          1:04.3
1:09.7         1:06.2          1:04.9*    *starting to melt
1:09.2         1:05.8          1:04.7  
HR132            135             141

The heart rates are pretty close, but I attribute the elevation to the added insulation of the wetsuit and I was starting to get somewhat fatigued. I will do some *real* open water tests this spring/summer and let you'll know.

Re: Swim help
In article **, ** wrote: <snip> I am having a Great deal of trouble > learning to breathe while attemting to freestyle. A lot of my problem is > just not being comfortable turning my face in and out of the water to get > air, (not required in other strokes).I would appreciate any > ideas,tips,hints on this subject.  

Here are a couple of water relaxation drills that I came up with for beginning swimmers...   Note: these drills are only to get the individual comfortable in the water and are not designed to build any type of fitness. 1.   Bobs.   Get in about 7 - 8 ft of water.   Take a deep breath, and allow yourself to sink feetfirst toward the pool bottom.   Slowly exhale and relax your whole body (try to get the same feeling as you have just before you go to sleep-- closing your eyes can help).   Push off the bottom to get back to the surface.   Take only one breath on the surface and repeat (20 - 50x). 2.   Long glides.   Push off from the wall (in the shallow end) in a streamlined positions (hands above the head with your arms squeezing your ears).   Try to be just a few inches above the bottom.   Watch the pool tiles go by.   Don't kick or move.   Try to achieve the same relaxed state as in #1.   Slowly let your body float to the surface and try to float on the surface for 5 - 10 seconds without taking a breath. 3.   Rythmic breathing 101.   a) Hold a kickboard in one hand and practice exhaling in the water and taking one breath by turning your head to the side.   Breath easy and breath often and AVOID HOLDING YOUR BREATH (you don't want to build up residue CO2 in your lungs). b) Add fins.   The fins will give you enough propulsion so that your head will make an eddy wake for you to breath.   Try to minimize how far you have to turn your head to take a breath. c) Lose the board and swim just with one-arm.   In order to get a lot of practice, breath every stroke. d) Put both arms together.   As soon as you get too tired to use good technique, STOP and REST.   When you are rested, start practicing again.   ***Remember you are only working on technique (like perfecting a golf swing).   Build your fitness running and biking (cross-training works) until you can swim comfortably and relaxed.

>Is it possible to compete in triathlons using a side or back stroke?   If I can >overcome this problem then the Ironman is my ultimate goal.

You can use any stroke you like.   However, most of your competitors (especially male) would appreciate not being *scissor-kicked*.   It is hard to navigate using backstroke when you look up at the sky, but it definitely can be done.   I recommend using the backstroke sparingly and use it to rest when you get tired doing the front crawl (freestyle).   When you feel rested flip back over and continue doing the crawl.

Re: Why no LSD swims?
In article **, ** wrote: > > Why do swimmers seem to train so much differently than bikers and runners?>>

Occasionally I do an overdistance, easy, continuous swim .   Perhaps, once every 2 months we'll do a long 1 hr swim.   So occasionally its okay. Swimmers don't do LSD for several reasons-- 1) For beginning - intermediate swimmers after a few hundred yards their stroke technique suffers greatly.   When coaching, you want your swimmers to practice good habits.   LSD tends to perpetuate bad habits. 2) For competitive pool swimmers, race time durations are akin to track not road (running or cycling) racing.   It is not necessary to build, the large slow twitch endurance base as you do in triathlons.   Even for the ironman, LSD is not necessary since the swimming leg (time wise) is so short compared to the total race. 3) Swimming is an extremely low-impact sport, so your body can withstand daily interval workouts (unlike track workouts). 4) Swimmers still do distance workouts, but do them in 500m or 1000m chunks; however, these are generally never less than 70% of race pace. 5 ) Nowadays LSD doesn't give you the most bang for the buck.   Just like triathletes who are pressed for time, you do BRICK workouts; swimmers do intervals. 6) Your body-position changes significantly when doing LSD vs.intervals. You don't develop a good "feel" for the water w/ LSD.   When you do intervals, you body planes out and rides higher in the water.   In my earlier swimming days, when we did a lot of over-distance, it would always feel like I was "spinning" or "slipping water" the first few interval workouts we did.