A new year, a new goal

[hjung84]

Hello all. My name is Heather and I am new to the "Rebellion" and my goal for the new year will be to train for and complete my first triathlon. I will be doing the Wildflower Triathlon in May with Team in Training. You can read more about my reasons behind my decision and my ongoing journey at my blog. That's another major goal for me, by the way, to be more intentional about my blogging as I move toward my bigger, scarier goal. So, I just wanted to say a quick hello and I look forward to hearing from new people!

[RedFalcon]

Hi Heather, I recently joined here as well and one of my goals for the past year was to complete a triathlon. I'm not sure what distance you were planning on but I had done a .25 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and 3.5 mile run. It was one of the hardest things I've done because of the swim. The swim wiped me out for the rest of the race and killed my bike and run time. Most tri-athletes recommend building your arm strength and endurance and save your legs for the biking and running. I found i needed every ounce of strength just to get through the swim.

Good luck on your goals!

[hjung84]

Weird, my reply never posted! Let's try this again...

 

To answer your question, RedFalcon, I am going to be doing the Olympic distance at Wildflower. I am super nervous because I know that's a huge undertaking. I will be working with Team in Training, and my friends who have worked with them said they are great at getting you ready for an event. I have heard the same thing, about using your arms more than your legs for the swim portion. I did a couple sessions of boot camp this year so that has helped my strength a bit, and until I officially start with my team, I have been doing arm strength exercises and some of my own training. Thanks for the advice

 

I read your introduction thread and want to say good luck on your goals as well!

[sumdawgtwigg]

What an awesome goal! Welcome to the rebellion. 

[hjung84]

Thanks

[Rob__]

Team in Training is amazing at helping you train for your event. In 2010, I was a Team member and ran a half-marathon with them. I didn't utilize their training resources, but they were pretty thorough with training plans, support, etc. Congrats on making the decision, and good luck with your goals

[hjung84]

Thank you for your encouraging words! I am very excited to train with them; I have had several friends who have worked with them and they all loved their experiences.

[Lowenna]

Good luck with the triathlon, it sounds epic!

 

As an ex-competitive swimmer I can safely say that upper body strength is massively important especially over longer distances (and I didn't even have to run and bike afterwards). Try doing lots of arms only training drills in the pool, that should help with getting stronger.

 

I don't know anything about Team in Training, do they offer coaching on swimming technique? If they don't see if you can sign up for some swimming lessons somewhere to make sure you've got your technique really nailed down. Having good technique reduces the work your muscles have to do dramatically.

[DLStuck]

I joined NF in October and slowly made changes in my daily food choices.  Now January 1, 2013 I am ready to jump in full time.  My goal for the year is to get to my goal weight using NF as my guide and support.  Then once I can maintain this life style I would like to help others who have struggled as much as I have with this. (this a new body, new life, new career).

 

I pray we all meet our personal goals this year no matter how large or small they may seen, a positive change of any size a a GRAND thing.

[hjung84]

Thanks Lowenna! Team in Training coaches do train participants in swimming basics; they also sent us some links to local swim coaches if we want some one on one training before we start working with the team. I might end up using that since the swim practices are during the week scattered over parts of Los Angeles and since I work in Orange County, those locations are a bit far for me. I think this weekend I am going to go get some goggles and a swim cap and then start going to my local gym just to start swimming some laps on my own. Any advice on drills I could do or websites that have some drills I could start on my own?

 

DLStuck, good luck with your goals!

[Lowenna]

I'm assuming that you're swimming freestyle, so all this is freestyle relevant.

 

The better your technique is the more distance you will cover on with each stroke, so try counting how many strokes it takes you to do one lap from time to time to track your improvement.

 

Technique tips:

Really reach through each stroke. Stretch your arm out in front of you as your hand enters the water, and stretch back down towards your feet as you prepare your hand to leave the water.

Don't slap the water as your hand enters the water, keep you fingers together and your thumb tucked in and sort of slide your hand into the water.

Start pulling back through the water deliberately, almost slowly, to gain purchase on the water. Accelerate you hand towards the end of the stroke to really push through the finally bit of water.

When you pull through the water don't pull in a completely straight line, pull in a slight s-shape as if you were tracing along the side of an hourglass. 

As you bring your arm back over head keep your elbow bent and high and your fingers low.

Keep your core engaged to prevent your body from snaking through the water as this will just create more drag.

The lower your feet are the more drag you'll create so try to keep your body as close to parallel to the water's surface as you can.

Allow your body to roll in the water. If your core is engaged and you are stretching through the stroke your body will roll slightly left to right, this is all good left it happen.

Don't look ahead with you head up, your face needs to be in the water. But equally you don't want to be looking straight down. Keep you neck long and look slightly in front of you with your face fully submerged in the water.

Turn your head to the side to breathe, don't lift it up.

When you turn you head to breathe you don't need to turn your whole head, just turn enough to breathe. This can take some practice especially if you're scared of accidentally inhaling water, but eventually with practice you should end up being able to breathe by turning your head just enough for the tip of your nose to out of the water but one eye still submerged.

Try bilateral breathing (breathing on both the left and right sides), rather than always breathing on the same side, it helps to keep you stroke even and reduces drag from breathing because you'll be breathing every third stroke not every second.

Kick from you hips, let you knees and ankles follow, they will both move but it's not where the movement starts.

Your entire kick should be underwater, any effort expended above the surface of the water is a complete waste. If your kick is coming out of the water try to focus of the downbeat of the kick rather than the upbeat.

Don't try to keep up a fast kick throughout any distance swimming, you'll just exhaust yourself. My instructor used to say that your upper body is your main engine and your kick is the turbo. A fast kick is for sprinters and that last push at the end of a distance race.

The more you splash the more effort you're wasting, if you watch professional swimmers they slice through the water smoothly, aim for this.

Be really aware of your body and what it's doing, if your mind wanders so does your technique.

Don't try to fix everything in your technique in one go, pick one thing to work on at a time otherwise you'll just confuse yourself.

 

Some drills:

Catch-ups. This is where you leave one arm stationary over your head on the surface of the water whilst completing a stroke with your other as you fingers touch together begin the stroke with the other arm. Almost like swimming normally, just with only one arm moving at a time and the other stationary in front of you. This can help on really focusing on reaching through the stroke.

Feathering. As you bring your arm back through the air gently drag your finger tips across the surface of the water. This helps train you to keep your elbow high.

Fists. Try swimming a few strokes with your fists clenched, when you open your hands up again you'll really notice the resistance of the water.

Arms Only. Hold a kick board between your knees or ankles, or if you don't have a board just hold your feet still. This helps to strengthen the arms gets you used to the idea that your arms are you powerhouse.

 

There are also loads of fitness drills to try, like sprinting every third lap. Or pyramid drills, where you start by swimming a set distance, say 1 length, then you take a short rest ( we usually did 5 or 10 second rests in training), then double the distance you swim, rest, double the distance, rest, double the distance, then when you feel like you can't take any more take your short rest, then half the distance you swim, rest, half the distance, etc, until your back to your original distance. If you're feeling particularly masochistic, do a full pyramid drill and then take a medium rest (30 seconds or a minute) and do another pyramid drill, but try to swim further on your second drill. Swim further in training that you will on your race day. Doing other exercises which involve breath control, such as Yoga, or practising your breath control when your running can help a lot, the better your breath control the easier you'll find the swimming. When you're training, train! I see so many people swimming at the gym who just sort of mosey along, you need to to push yourself.

 

I'm afraid I don't really know any good online resources as I've not swum seriously for about 7 years and most of my info then came from my instructor

 

I hope all that made sense and some of it is useful.

[hjung84]

Wow, thanks for all of that information Lowenna! It will certainly be helpful You rock!

[Lowenna]

Glad to be useful