Swim Whine
I read recently that over the course of a long distance race a 5% improvement of your swim time amounts to shaving 8 minutes from the total. When compared to the same 5% on the bike in which the gain would be roughly 18 minutes its easy to see why so much focus is put on the bike and run.
I've been having a lot of problems lately getting my complete swims in. When I do get them in the Training Bible has me scheduled for distances that with breaks and kicks take more time than I have at the pool. My current pool setup really sucks because it doesn't open until 7 a.m. This only gives me about an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning. What this means is I have to swim about 4 times a week. With the 3-4 hour sessions I do get I haven't seen any improvement in my swim speed in at least 3 months. My aerobic capacity is fine I'm just not getting any faster. Im still at about 18:30-20:00 per 1000.
I picked up the Total Immersion (TI) book by Terry Laughlin that a lot of triathletes clamor about. TI is a method of swimming in which you "change the shape of the vessel". I had intended on waiting to start TI until October this way I wouldn't be doing drills right in the middle of the season but I've decided to start a little earlier. I can't seem to get through the book I swear I've read the first 5 pages of chapter 8 at least 15 times. I just can't seem to convince myself to start the first drill because this all seems like a big undertaking that may not accomplish what I'm hoping it will.
It seems to me the only way to truly learn TI is to spend $500 on a TI instructor. Without the instructor you'll never know whether or not your technique is correct. So you'll spend endless hours teaching your nervous system to forget its old bad stroke and learn a new bad stroke. This is not to TI's detriment. I have no doubt that the one on one instruction is of considerable value. Its just out of my price range. If we were socialist I could just get the government to 'provide' it. Of course if we were socialist it would have been discovered at the age of 5 I'm not an outstanding swimmer and I would never be allowed to swim again. Yeah capitalism!
I'm not going to write TI off until I've tried it because I have to get better at this. I'm going to have to try joining the masters group at the YMCA in Ormond at least one day a week. That'll be a 5 a.m. morning. Whine Whine Whine.
I've been having a lot of problems lately getting my complete swims in. When I do get them in the Training Bible has me scheduled for distances that with breaks and kicks take more time than I have at the pool. My current pool setup really sucks because it doesn't open until 7 a.m. This only gives me about an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning. What this means is I have to swim about 4 times a week. With the 3-4 hour sessions I do get I haven't seen any improvement in my swim speed in at least 3 months. My aerobic capacity is fine I'm just not getting any faster. Im still at about 18:30-20:00 per 1000.
I picked up the Total Immersion (TI) book by Terry Laughlin that a lot of triathletes clamor about. TI is a method of swimming in which you "change the shape of the vessel". I had intended on waiting to start TI until October this way I wouldn't be doing drills right in the middle of the season but I've decided to start a little earlier. I can't seem to get through the book I swear I've read the first 5 pages of chapter 8 at least 15 times. I just can't seem to convince myself to start the first drill because this all seems like a big undertaking that may not accomplish what I'm hoping it will.
It seems to me the only way to truly learn TI is to spend $500 on a TI instructor. Without the instructor you'll never know whether or not your technique is correct. So you'll spend endless hours teaching your nervous system to forget its old bad stroke and learn a new bad stroke. This is not to TI's detriment. I have no doubt that the one on one instruction is of considerable value. Its just out of my price range. If we were socialist I could just get the government to 'provide' it. Of course if we were socialist it would have been discovered at the age of 5 I'm not an outstanding swimmer and I would never be allowed to swim again. Yeah capitalism!
I'm not going to write TI off until I've tried it because I have to get better at this. I'm going to have to try joining the masters group at the YMCA in Ormond at least one day a week. That'll be a 5 a.m. morning. Whine Whine Whine.
posted by Migofast at
10:01 AM
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