Maybe One Day I'll Like Running...

Oof, I’m beat. I really don’t know how you guys train for these super long races that take hours to complete, I really don’t. My aquathlon should, in theory, take me no longer than 45 minutes to complete, and my training is still taking over my life. Is this normal? I’m told it is, but still, yeesh. And this is coming from someone who spent her formidable years waking up at 3:45am to jump into an icy cold hole in the ground and swim back and forth in it for two hours, and THEN spend 7 hours at school. Trust me, I’m no stranger to working out, but for some reason this training is really taking it out of me.

All of our SwimBox clients keep telling me to spread my workouts out throughout the day, but to be honest that sounds like the exact opposite of how I want to spend my time. I enjoy waking up early (sometimes too early, sorry Dominic), getting my workouts in and out of the way, then starting the rest of my day. I hate the feeling of having a training session loom over my head when it’s not the first thing I do when I get out of bed in the morning. If I have to workout after lunch, you better believe I’m going to be complaining about it. After dinner? Forget it, it’s not going to happen. Well, okay no, that’s not true. Back when our gym wasn’t flooded and out of commission (don’t get me started) it never bothered me to walk out of my door, take three steps and go to the gym. But when I have to drive somewhere, it somehow becomes the bane of my existence when the workout isn’t at o’dark thirty in the morning.

RUN WORKOUTS

Anyshways, my run workouts. Not a swimming specific post, I know, but what can you do about it. I’ve been trying my best to run at least 3-4 times a week, but more often than not lately it’s been three runs per week. The heat was my initial enemy, but lately it’s been the rain, and I’m sorry but I’m just not going to run in the rain if it’s more than a mist. Klutz is my middle name and I just know I’d slip on a leaf and break 578493 bones in the process. So, I stay inside. My long runs, which I try to do twice a week, are sitting pretty at about 40 minutes right now. Eventually I’d like to get up to 45 minutes, but for some reason these mentally kill me. It’s not that they’re incredibly taxing in a physical sense - probably on the upper-side of moderate pace - but the words “40 minute run” bury down into the depths of my brain and weasel around in there scaring the donuts out of me. I don’t know why, since my swim practices were always at a minimum 90 minutes long, but those came with built in breaks. I’m having to work very hard to keep my thoughts positive during these runs and not chicken out.

The other runs I do every week are a mix of fartlek style and walk-sprint combos. The hardest workout I’ve had yet was a 40 minute swim workout (made up of the interval training I wrote about in my first aquathlon post) immediately followed by a 30 minute walk-sprint. The sprint was one minute and the walk was two minutes, repeated over again until the 30 minute mark. My legs were DEAD after that. Completely dead. Thankfully I was treated to a cinnamon roll the size of my head after this, but still, that was a tough one.

I know this post has been a bit complainy, I’m sorry about that, but I’m always going to be honest about these things. And since this has been hard on me, that’s what you’re going to get to read about. And hey, just think, no food jokes this time! Well okay, not no food jokes, but one per post is probably the least you’ll ever get from me.

Come back in a few weeks to read about the progression of my swim workouts and what I’m doing for strength training!

SwimBox and Vasa Trainer Project: More Work w/Katie!

Before you read any more of today's blog, I want to let you know I'm 100% aware of how repetitive my posts about Katie's and Flaca's lessons are. And that's exactly how working on swimming should be, repetitive. As I've said before, swimming is a sport of centimeters, and every 100th of a second counts. So working on the minute details of your stroke and constantly reinforcing proper technique is exactly how you're going to make positive progress and help yourself to swim more efficiently. Yes, it can be boring at times, but you're always working at moving forwards. Especially with people who have been swimming for years and are set in their ways, changes take time. 

But anywayyyy, I wanted to start off my post about Katie's latest lesson with that little bit of background information so you don't think I'm just writing the same thing over and over again with different pictures. One thing Dan noticed during her recent lessons was that Katie's elbow was moving upwards as a result of her arm exiting the water too early. You want your elbow to stay on the same plane as your torso, not move higher or lower than that.

In case you missed last week's post, Katie's lesson focused on connecting the movement of the finish of her stroke into the recovery. You want to keep your palm facing backwards and make a "J" shaped movement from the finish of your stroke into your recovery in order to fully benefit from the propulsion you get from your catch and pull. 

After working on this movement again Dan had Katie focus on the paddle you want to make from your fingertips to your elbow during the catch and pull of your stroke. In order to gain the maximum amount of propulsion from this paddle you want to make sure you're bending at your elbow, not your wrist. To ensure this Dan fashioned together a splint of sorts to prevent Katie from bending at her wrist and losing out on the majority of her paddle.

The splint forces Katie to keep her arm straight from her fingertips to her elbow, which creates the largest paddle possible to propel her through the water. The larger the paddle, the more efficient your stroke will become, and the easier it will be to move forward faster. Using the splint gives Katie better body awareness as to what she's looking for when she removes it and swims on her own. Understanding the feeling you're looking for when making a change to your stroke is key to making the change properly and progressing more quickly. 

In between her lessons here Katie's doing workouts on her Vasa Trainer SwimErg that she has at home to work on strengthening the main muscles we use for swimming as well as up her endurance. An example of one of her workouts is listed below.

Repeat each three times:

• two minutes of good catch movement (do butterfly or freestyle catch; no watts needed, just focus on proper movement)

• two minutes freestyle catch at 20-40 watts (make sure you focus on keeping a good catch movement - keeping proper movement is key, especially when picking up the pace)

• :15 seconds of freestyle catch at 100+ watts x 6; :30 seconds rest in between each round

Being able to focus on strengthening these movements outside of the pool is such an important piece to training and progressing in your times. The more endurance you gain on the SwimErg the more efficiently you'll be able to move through the water when you hop back in the pool. It's also a great tool to use when you're trying to find proper body awareness.

Stay tuned to see how Flaca's lesson goes this week!

The Best Drills to Perfect Your Open Water Sighting

When you wake up every morning, open your front door, and walk straight into a wall of sticky, uncomfortable humidity, what does that mean? Besides that you want to turn right back around and bask in the refreshingly cool feeling of your air conditioning that is. Summer's here in Northern Virginia! And in the summer open water races and triathlons take over a lot of your calendars, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to have a refresher course in our favorite sighting drills.

The first place to start, especially if you're learning to sight for the first time, is Alligator Eyes Drill. This is kind of like a modified tarzan drill where you're swimming with your head and shoulders much higher in the water than you normally would. For Alligator Eyes you want to swim with just your eyes above the surface of the water, keeping your nose and mouth in the water, allowing you to see what's in front of you. 

Make sure not to lift your head up too far when practicing this drill, as doing so will quickly drain your energy from having to hold your head up without the help of the water. It's important to know that lifting your head for this drill will cause your hips to drop, increasing your drag/resistance, and causing your stroke to become less efficient. Don't worry, it's just a drill! When you go back to swimming normally, with your head down and your eyes looking at the bottom of the pool, your body will go back to the proper position.

To take a breath simply put your head back down into normal position and breathe to the side, just like you would in your regular freestyle. When practicing this drill in a pool, find something in front of you to use to practice your sighting. 

Uploaded by SwimBox on 2018-07-12.

My next favorite progression for sighting is a Rolling Sight, which is an advanced version and the next step towards sighting in the open water. This is actually the exact way I've come to sight in open water, as it very easily incorporates into a correct freestyle. I used to swim Tarzan Drill every time I got in the open water, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. It also zapped my energy and I kind of looked like an injured seal...but anyway, back to the point,.

A Rolling Sight works on adding a sight to your stroke while still swimming your regular freestyle. As opposed to keeping your head up the whole time, like in Alligator Eyes, you want to lift your eyes out of the water every 4-6 strokes. This movement is meant to quickly sight an object in the distance, most likely a buoy if you're racing, to keep you on course. Keep in mind this sight is not meant for you to be able to see everything perfectly! It's a quick look up to check where you are and keep you swimming in the right direction.

Play around with this one the first time you try it out to get the right number of strokes for you. Some people swim straight without evening trying and only need to sight every 8-10 strokes, whereas others need to sight more frequently. My stroke count in between sights varies depending on how choppy the water feels and if I'm feeling jostled around. There's no right number, just whatever feels comfortable to you. However, it's always better to sight more frequently than less frequently to stay on the safe side.