Standing back for a minute, one thing which I have come to realise is how difficult it is to compete with the best guys. I have come so far – to represent GB and compete with some of the best elite triathletes in the world is a genuinely great achievement – but there’s still a long way to go, and perhaps progress is slower than expected. To use an analogy, think about becoming an MD in investment banking or a partner in a law firm, hierarchy/politics aside. To just gain the skills, knowledge and experience to be at that level takes years. No-one can realistically expect to train for one year and expect to get there. In fact, no-one would ever try in just one year because it’s such a ridiculous notion! So why should garnering the skills, knowledge and experience to become an elite triathlete be any different? Setting your goals high isn’t a bad thing, but they have to be realistic. In hindsight I was overoptimistic with what I could achieve in such a short time period. That just drives me on even more to see what I can do now I’ve built an excellent base. The cynical, non-believing part of myself asks the question whether it is possible at all, but that’s a question we will only be able to answer itself with hindsight. I don’t have much time for dwelling cynical side of life, and to remind myself why, here’s a fantastic quote from Theodore Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Paris 1910

Season & Illness; Lactose intolerance and IBS

As from the London Tri race report, if you read it, I was suffering from a stomach ulcer, and had been taking pills and was going to the doctor for a blood test. Well I went to the doc, gave him some of my precious red stuff, and he came back to me with good news and bad news. Good news: he hadn’t found anything. Bad news: he didn’t know what was up with me.

He came to the ‘conclusion’ that I should cut back on my training (something which I had already done significantly anyway) for a bit, which has effectively put an end to 2010. It means that I can rest now, which is probably a good thing after my first full year of training, to then start fresh both mentally and physically for 2011.

But what’s actually up? Well I was suffering from stomach cramps and fatigue, which is why I think I performed below par in the London race. I’ve swam and run so much faster than that; when I was racing I felt that there was nothing in the muscles. So what explains it? Well (chronic) fatigue is a tell-tale sign of overtraining, which is basically why the doc told me to take the foot off the gas. It could be possible, but it doesn’t explain the stomach cramps, and to be honest my training load wasn’t high anyway.

So coming away from it, after a couple of days of really feeling what the body was like, and doing a bit of reading up, I came to the conclusion that it is: a) almost certainly a lactose intolerance, and (possibly) b) IBS. I had already taken most lactose out of my diet as I was finding it was causing problems, but because I hadn’t nailed it I was still consuming at it was still causing me cramps and fatigue. As for the IBS, it in fact has very similar symptoms to lactose intolerance: stomach cramps, wind, fatigue. Perhaps from the dodgy food in Mexico I’ve caused myself a problem that has manifested itself as the last 3 months have gone by. Either way, I’ve cut out chilis and citric acid in the diet which seems to cause chronic, prolonged stomach pains.

The bigger potential issue is that I don’t actually know whether this is actually correct; there are no definitive tests for lactose intolerance. Another problem could also be some kind of parasitic infection that I have garnered from the Mexican flora and fauna… if I’m still not feeling much better in a couple of weeks I’m going to go for more checkups. Perhaps it can be some kind of parasitic infection that’s bothering me.

I’m not pleased this is the way the season has ended, to say the least, but there isn’t much I can do about it. I have improved in the 3 races that I have done, but I was looking forward to improving significantly on the results so far as I have the speed in me, I just haven’t put it together in the race yet. On a more philosophical front, I have put myself in a great position – on the basis that I recover quickly from from stomach troubles – for next year. I can build on this, keep myself injury free and improve further.

—–

Sometimes it can seem like a long, lonely slog

How many people have read or heard that line before? If I line up in an olympic tri against someone who has swam competitively since he was 10,  and I’m 25 and only started learning a couple of years ago, no prizes for guessing who will be fastest. But saying that I can never be as fast as him?  To say ‘never’ has a both a defeatist and a retreatist ring to it; the ‘destiny’ of being a good swimmer was not bestowed on us didn’t-train-when-we-were-adolescents swimmers; nature vs nurture – you can’t polish a (now matured) turd! On the basis that this is a load of old bullshit rubbish – but, like most things, to get there it will take some blood, sweat and tears – I shall continue.

Heard it all before

From a purely technical perspective (and leaving strength training for another day), in terms of literature there’s a sea of info out there to drown in: Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin, Joe Friel’s ‘Triathlete’s Training Bible’ & Blog, Maglischo’s ‘Swimming Fastest’, regular triathlon rag reports, great swimmers give their advice … (sometimes they’re one and the same)… and that’s not to mention training with the local swim club with a coach.

It’s all great info. So what does it teach us?

1) Drills – skating, advanced skating, sculling, high elbow, zipperskate, catch up, finger drag, single arm, etc. etc.

2) Common (novice) mistakes – dropped elbow, a low elbow, over-reaching, under-reaching, bad head position, crossing the ‘middle line’, snaking, lack of a glide/reach phase, etc. etc.

3) Quasi-philosophies – ‘feel for the water’, ‘be fish-like’, ‘be slippery’, ‘don’t fight the water’, etc. etc.  

4) Stroke Dynamics: catch phase with high elbow, question-mark/s-shaped stroke pattern, body rotation, relaxed recovery, etc. etc.

Most of that sound pretty familiar to you? Yup. Has it been useful? Well, yeah, I’ve got faster. Do you feel a bit lost with so much to take in? Sometimes. Have you ever asked yourself, ‘So, now I’ve tried to put all of this in to action, why am I not now ridiculously fast?’ Certainly.

HOW and WHEN, not more WHAT

So which part of the phase are you in, guys?

One possible reason is that it’s because we don’t know how to put all of this together in our stroke. We have the jigsaw pieces – swimming being a technical sport means it’s a complicated jigsaw - but no-one has ever told us the best way of putting them all together. This explains why all those oddly-shaped, out-of-shape bastards other swimmers at the swim club or lined up at the start of a tri can still swim faster than you: they’ve got the technique mastered, you haven’t.

Rather than me offer you MORE of 1 to 4 above, how about we talk about just point 4, and specifically HOW to implement the stroke elements already discussed?

It’s called Phase Classification. If you want to see if this is already old news, Google ’Phase Classification Swimming’ and nothing comes up. Nada. None in any of the triathlon-related articles I have read have ever contemplated these phases, even surprisingly under its wider-know colloquialised ‘Popov Phases’ name, eponymous of the great(est ever?) sprint swimmer Aleksandr Popov.

Why could it be valuable? Its aim is to classify the stroke in 4 separate phases based on movement requirements which, and more importantly, coordinate your body and arm movements in relation to those phases and thus in relation to each other.

It doesn’t, as with everything else you read, offer a dumper-truck load of drills, endless lists of mistakes and countless philosophies. We’ve already got more than enough of that, thanks! In fact, it isn’t telling you to use anything you haven’t already read or been told before; it tells you how and when to use what you’ve already learnt.

Phase Classification / Popov Phases Basics

This is taken from the following video which you can see on Youtube:

I have used the left arm (LA) as the stroking arm, and the right arm (RA) as the recovery arm, as in the video.

Phase 1: Catch & Exit

- LA:  is starting out the outsweep/catch phase. Wrist slightly bent, focus on not dropping the elbow

- RA: simultaneously, the turning motion of the shoulders (body rotation upwards on the right side) initiates arm recovery, with elbow appearing first above the water

- Action: there is a rigid transfer of forces through the back from the exit hand to the catch hand

- Goal of Phase 1: to support the body and not lose speed

Phase 2: Outsweep & Recovery

- LA: catch hand moves from an outward & backward sweep to an inward & backward sweep.

- RA: simultaneously with the LA, the recovery hand continues the ballistic movement forward

- Action: back muscles are stretched. This is the pivotal point, where the shoulders are at maximum rotation, and the elbow at its highest point.

- Goal: create optimum propulsion & not lose speed

Phase 3: Push back & entry

- LA: sweeping arm pushes back, achieving maximum hand velocity and propulsion

- RA: simultaneously, the recovery arm accelerates and drives forward in to the water

- Action: the right hip is forced down/the body moves back on to a horizontal plane, maximising the use of the strong back muscles in the LA’s sweeping phase

- Goal: reach & maintain maximum speed

Phase 4: Push back & reach

- LA: releases ‘hold’ on the water as the fingers brush the thigh

- RA: simultaneously it now fully extends now under the water

- Action: lasts only until the catch hand (here the RA) starts an active outsweep and the propulsive/now recovery arm is about to exit the water (elbow first). This would be the glide phase.

- Goal: maintain maximum velocity

The results of Phase Classification, & debunking myths

You will start to be able to feel where you should be, almost mechanically, during the stroke phases.  This shouldn’t be confused as a rigid/roboti stroke – if you look at Popov his stroke is extremely relaxed.

For anyone who is scared that it looks or sounds much more thrashy than Total Immersion, there are a couple of things worth mentioning. All three start from this basic fact: Popov in the video is sprinting; he’s swimming a 22 second 50m, not a 35 second one (corresponds to a 17:30 1500m time, what a pro triathlete might do).

Firstly, then, of course he will forego efficiency for outright speed. You can see what he might look like as he slows down when he does what is very similar to a TI drill (see video below). Secondly, in the video it mentions how Popov minimises the fourth, glide phase. This is again down to the fact that he is sprinting – the glide might be longer as you swim slower. That said, I don’t think you’ll ever see a TI stroke swimming as fast as any more ‘thrashy’ sprinting stroke would. Thirdly, the over-emphasis of the glide in TI is perhaps to its detriment and all its readers. As above, Phase 4’s aim is ‘to maintain maximum velocity’. However, even the most hydroefficient swimmer will within a few tenths of a second slow significantly given negative drag, and more importantly no pressure is being applied by either arm to accelerate the body. For that reason, remembering whilst you don’t/mustn’t ignore this phase, Popov mimimises it.

Armed not with new information but how to put the information together that you already learnt, the position of each part of our body reflects what each phase attempts to achieve. It also reflects what the other parts of the body are doing at that moment, and how those positions change over time; there is a balance of movement throughout the stroke process. This should help to put the stroke jigsaw together.

The Washing Machine Effect

Well it was great to get out yesterday and race an olympic distance race after almost 2 months since the last one at Windsor. It also put a big smile on my face lining up against 6 Olympians which gave it the distinct whiff of charlatanry. Nevertheless in the individual events I know I have some competitive times in the best-of-the-rest category: 19:45 for the swim at Team Outrageous, a 59 minute bike at Ixtapa and a sub-35 minute run at Windsor; it was a question of putting the jigsaw pieces together.

The horn went and I started off well on the swim. Whilst the expected group of guys swam off the the front I found myself in a good position with a group not far behind. Looking back that’s where the first mistake was made, as I should have gone off hell-for-leather, as they do, to put myself in a good position rather than resigning myself to getting swam away from. This mistake, whilst I relaxed in to my stroke and feet smooth for the few minutes, led me to get washing machined at about 300 metres. Within a few seconds I’d been swum over, swam over, punched squarely on the cheek, hit in the ribs, missed my stroke on a number of occasions, taken on a not inconsiderable amount of the finest luminescent green water Victoria Dock has to offer, and thus dropped 20 metres or so. The washing machine effect is nothing if not to be expected in open water swimming, but being a little wet behind the ears meant I didn’t cope with it like I should have. I recovered to an extent but the damage had been done already and I found myself with a smaller group further back.

The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful but I didn’t resume the good swim stroke of the first few hundred metres, started to feel the cold in my hands again and exited in 22 minutes, much slower than I know I can swim. T1 was slow and I probably missed getting on to the back of a faster group by 20 seconds or so. Again, my fault entirely for not pushing it.

On to the bike and quickly there were 4 of us who worked quite well. We were rotating but not efficiently - sometimes the guy at the front would be doing a minute pull rather than 10 to 15 seconds. We clocked 1 hour which was around 2-3 minutes off the pace of the majority of riders. I felt fresh off the bike and with a fast T2 we were on to the run. By now we’d dropped 3 or so minutes to the closest group infront so it was going to be difficult picking off a decent number of them. I was feeling quite lethargic on the first and second laps but picked it up on the third and fourth to chase down one of the 4 riders I was with to do the 10k in 38 minutes. I wasn’t aerobically fatigued – at all in fact – but the muscles just weren’t giving. But why?

I know what you're thinking - I found it pretty manky too!!

I noticed just before coming back from Mexico a pain in my stomach and I had the feeling that the food I was eating wasn’t being digested and the calories extracted. I thought at first it was overtraining, the bane of any self-trained triathlete, but when the stomach pains increased to the point where I was bent over in pain and couldn’t train I went to the doctors who diagnosed a stomach ulcer. I have been on Omeprazole, a stomach acid production suppressant, for 6 weeks now so the stomach lining has a chance to repair, but really I feel I have been delaying a second visit to the doctor (appointment tomorrow), a Heliobacter Plyori test for ulcer-inducing bacteria and perhaps a hospital visit for a barium test.

Back to the race, it was progress from Windsor but I was still disappointed with the swim given how much faster I have proven I can go. It’s a matter of time, relaxation, some more open water acclimatisation and training to hit the first few hundred hard to give myself a chance.

Progress… but not at the speed I’d like. On to the next…

RESULTS HERE

Probably not going to run too smoothly...

So I bought my Trek 1.7 back at the start of 2008. Since then, the only things that I have changed are both tyres and both inner tubes after they burst simultaneously in Mexico.

What am I left with now? Well in the Windsor race I did around 1h07 minutes on the bike, that’s just 2 minutes faster than I did last year, AND it was draft-legal. In the local Team Outrageous race I splut 36 seconds faster than I did last year. A year of training, and I can only reduce my time from 24:59 to 24:23. Something is wrong. Either my training has been basically fruitless, to use a euphemism, or… something is up with my bike.

I’d been putting it down to something in the rear hub, so I took that apart, lubed her back up and put her (badly) back together. Still I was really working to push any kind of decent gear, and it was especially hard up hills. Maybe it’s the tyres, they’ve got some tread on them Bontrager AC X Lite and Racelite tyres: £50. I took, in desperation, the steed apart last Saturday after struggling to reach 40kph on the flats on a 1 hour training ride. That used to be just so easy, how can it have changed so much?

In need of some attention

1) The rear mech is wildly bent and the g-pulley ceramic bearing was had come apart and was barely moving. Oops. New 6700 Ultegra rear derailleur ordered: £54.95.

2) My bottom bracket lets the crank do, with no chain on, and if I am lucky, 3 rotations if I give it a very hard spin. As we can see from the following link, that is truly, truly awful. http://andy-bell.blogspot.com/2008/04/bottom-bracket-test.html. New Dura Ace 7900 Bottom Bracket ordered: £22.99

3) The cone on the rear hub was pitted, and I need new bearings. New cone and bearings: £15.

4) The 105 chain is looking a bit shabby (not so necessary this one, but as I was in the mood). New Dura Ace chain: £20.

5) Tools to do all the above. Cone Spanners: £11. Chain Whip: £6. Bottom Bracket Remover: £25.

Total: Haven’t bothered calculating it, but on the basis that I’d spent £30 on some rubber in 2 years, I figured that it’s pretty good going.

So for all my rantings on how buying a new bike is unnecessary for amateurs, you indeed DO have to look after your pride and joy if you are going to be even remotely capable of beating the rest. Having a rusty Raleigh Tomahawk is NOT going to win you any events!

None of the above has been fitted (or in fact even arrived yet!), so give me a few days and I’ll update the progress!!!

ROCK OUT!

Much better result here, unfortunately still waiting for the picture off my brother’s phone… that’s now been rectified…

Swim felt great and my acclimatisation to cooler UK waters has obviously worked a treat as I broke the course record for the swim and T1 in 7:36, doing the 550m swim in around 6:30.

The bike was harder and, given my lead, I didn’t feel the necessity to push as hard as I might have done, at least at the start. That said, I got overtaken by 4 guys and clocked 24:20, around 1:30 off the fastest split. The second half was harder and I started to feel a bit tired.

I’ve been working on my bike strength and it’s clear that there’s still some work to be do. I have a sneaking suspicion that not replacing any of the moving components on my bike for 2 years could also lead to some wasted effort..!!

On to the run and the increased intensity after I’d been overtaken was being felt in the legs. I didn’t feel as free as I did at Windsor, even if I did a 17:46, breaking the record for the fastest run split at the Team Outrageous sprint races.

Feeling much better about my swimming after that result, I’d been left to stew knowing that my swim was much better but I only had that poor Windsor result to look at. Lots of positivity after this race I can tell you!

Results here

Bring on London!!!!

Dodgy recovery...!

So in short, coming back a few days before the Windsor race from Mexico didn’t go how I had planned it.

The preparation went well, I’d gotten rid of the jet lag, I’d been eating well and slotted back in to the training regime here in sunny Maidstone.

The day of the race I made sure I was there with good time to warm up, do all the bike admin, keep nourished and hydrated, and generally feel positive about the preparation. I’d had a great result in Ixtapa and my swimming has been going from strength to strength, so I there was no reason I shouldn’t be feeling great.

In the water it was COLD. This wasn’t the jacuzzi water I was accustomed to in Aguascalientes!! The good thing was we had a time to warm up for 10 minutes or so before the race start. 200m easy, some 25-50m sprints, a 200m harder rep and I felt good. They then proceeded to keep us static on the start line for a good few minutes and the cold started to penetrate.

The horn went and straight away something wasn’t right. The water was so cold I couldn’t grip with my fingers or wrists. I had lost all feeling in the middle two fingers on each hand. I stopped being tall in the water, couldn’t start the catch phase of the swim stroke and everything became very thrashy. I got left behind pretty much straight away and things didn’t get any better from there on. I caught one fella up on the swim (who then proceeded to drop out, a real confidence booster that…) but I was still a few minutes down hitting T1.

That was the end of my day. The bike was hardish work, worse seeing the lead pack a good 10 minutes ahead on Drift Road. I caught one guy but it wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough.

On to the run and I managed to salvage something of the day, running my fastest 10k to date in 34:49. That was in the top 10 on the day, even if I did finish overall 31st…

Acclimatisation... absolutely freezing

So, as the title suggests, it wasn’t the result I expected. My swim is much better than that result suggests, which wouldn’t have left me with such a disadvantage on the bike, and thus the rest of the race.

I can only learn from it and so have taken it in to my own hands, doing some (even colder!) sea swims at Whitstable with my brother and generally acclimatising myself to the colder climes here in the UK.

Recovery, training, and a Team Outrageous race in a few weeks. Let’s reevaluate then.

Is that really true? Does it really matter? What can I learn from competitive swimmers to improve my swim? Below is an attempt to answer these three questions.

Evidence that Age Groupers (AGers) need to focus more on the swim leg

Take the 2009 Windsor triathlon as an example. I chose this race as the course used by the elites and the AGers is the same.

Below I’ve taken the median times for the swim, bike and run legs of the top 15 finishers in the elite and AG races.

                                                 Swim:              Bike:               Run: 

Elites:                                     20:00            59:07            35:52                       

AGers:                                    22:37          1:03:53           38:26

Absolute time diff.            2:37                4:46               2:34

%age time difference.       13.1%               8.1%            7.2%

Immediately it’s clear that, in the swim leg is where AGers are relatively much weaker compared to elite racers. But there are various problems here - it is an easier elite field to enter (i.e. entries from excellent/v.good AGers, as well as elite athletes); you can’t draft in UK AG races, affecting the bike split, amongst other reasons.

So let’s have a look at another result, this time the Mazda London race, again where the course is the same for AGers and elite athletes. Here I’ve taken the first 25 finishers (as they’re much bigger fields).

Mazda London 2009:

                                                 Swim:              Bike:               Run: 

Elites:                                     18:54             56:26            29:49                       

AGers:                                   25:11            1:03:50          35:12

Absolute time diff.            6:27                7:24               5:23

%age time difference.       32.7%           13.1%            18.0%

Firstly, due to the quality of the field, the percentages have blown out relative to the Windsor results. Secondly, and more importantly, it is even clearer in this example that the swim is by far where the greatest percentage difference lies between the AGers and the elite racers. As is what more normally occurs – the Windsor example an exception – the run then comes next, with the smallest percentage difference in the bike leg. In the case of legal draft racing, this percentage would become smaller.

Having filtered through other results too, the general observation is that, in descending order, the percentage difference between AGers and elite racers goes: swim, run, bike. Comparisons could be made and debates opened up, but for the sake of excess verbiage I’ll leave it here.

The philosophy – or justification - behind the status-quo, and reasons for change

Back to the first sentence of the article, and now armed with evidence, of the 3 disciplines swimming is the weakest of AGers on a relative basis. Probably not ground-breaking news for many triathletes that.

Surely then, much can be gained from adjusting training regimes to improve that discipline? As Joe Friel details in his ‘Triathlete’s Training Bible’, you’ve identified a limiter, and thus can actively focus on it in your training.

“Why should I do that? It’s the shortest event so I’ll shave more time off my overall split by hitting the bike or run sessions harder, and, anyway, in non-drafting AG racing the swim-leg relevancy is limited.”

It’s a voice worth listening to. In absolute terms, the bike time difference is larger than the swim or run differences (exaggerated given the illegality of drafting on the bike in AG races. Thinking about it another way, the percentage difference to pros would become even smaller, drafting permitted, thus the multiple even larger compared to the swim percentage difference.) It’s not hard to see why, then, that looking at absolute numbers it would appear beneficial to train harder on the bike leg which has a greater absolute difference, or the run leg which isn’t too different in absolute terms from the swim-leg time difference.

That argument is surely flawed though; it is estimating ones potential abilities as being almost on a par with the pro athletes – “With a bit more training that time will come down even further”. You’d be accused of being a fantasist if you expected to become almost as good (i.e. tend the percentage difference to zero) as Alberto Contador if you biked more, Haile Gabreselassie if you ran more, or Michael Phelps if you swam more. So why is it different now the sports are combined? Maybe you’re a rough diamond yet to discover your true worth, but what’s more likely is that you reduce the higher percentage differences much faster as you improve your competence and physical condition in those disciplines.

On the other hand, maybe:

i) you’ve heard the argument that, by not tiring yourself so much in the swim, you will perform better in the bike and run portions. In other words, you’ve identified a limiter, or weak spot, and want to improve it.

ii)  you feel there is a bias in your training and you want to correct it, but aren’t sure how.

iii) your bike or run splits are pretty close already to the pros, evidence of a plateau in that discipline, and so are looking elsewhere for improvements.

iv) you’re a decent AGer and want to see how you’d fare in an accessible elite-wave race (e.g. Windsor), thus increasing the relevance of your swim split.

Competitive long-distance swimmer’s training regimes

Apart from getting my 1500m and Divers 2 badges before reaching double digits, I’ve never been a part of a swim club. I can’t lie, I was rubbish when I got in to a pool a couple of years ago as I was readying myself to complete my first triathlons. Things have changed dramatically since joining a swim team here in Mexico (see Nelson Vargas, Aguascalientes) as of last September. Whilst it’s probably still my weakest discipline, I’ve learnt a huge amount from training with a competitive swim team.

As a keen AGer in 2009, I was doing around 10km a week max in the pool, averaging 4 sessions weekly. One thing that has struck me (and tired me like never before), having never been a competitive swimmer, was the change in both distance and number of sessions. There’s undoubtedly a bias on long-distance swimmers where I am - a good thing from my perspective – which has fostered some very good swimmers. In the recent Mexican national trials, 10 of the best swimmers from Nelson Vargas went, winning 26 medals between them with a number of athletes narrowly missing out on the adult Central American Championships. The closest one to qualifying is 13 years old!

Of course I get ridiculed by these studendous swimmers on a daily basis, and, on that subject, let’s have a look at a typical weekly training programme:

                                               Monday   Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday   Friday   Saturday   Sunday

Morning Session:              3.5k            3.5k                   -                    3.5k          3.5k            6k               -

Afternoon Session:          6k                 6k                   6.5k               6k                 6k             3.5k            -

So that’s 11 sessions a week, 52km!!! Not to mention gym workouts 4 times a week too!!

That’s totally ridiculous I hear you mutter! I’d be inclined to say that you’re right, from a non-competitive swimmer’s perspective. You’d be 100% right when you say that you don’t need to do that amount of training from a triathlon perspective, even if you did have all the time in the world. I myself do the 5 main mid-week sessions, adding my own strength workouts and an easy weekend swim.

So I want to change my swim training. How do I change my regime? “Little and often…”

Aside from sore shoulders, from the above you can take away that, to be a good swimmer, apart from technique, the single biggest factor (cue all the articles that have been written on this topic), you probably need to be doing a swim session almost every day of the week.

Interestingly, and something that many amateur triathletes either don’t know or ignore, is that, speaking to the swim, cycling and run coaches, it’s probably more important to hold down an almost-daily regime of swimming than it is compared with cycling or running; your ‘feel for the water’ goes much faster than your feel for tarmac, bike or running shoes donned. When I brought up the subject with the individual coaches, they highlighted the need to reflect this in my training regime.

Time for a little common sense: you have to put the potential change in regime in the context of your current physical condition; i.e. one small step at a time – don’t jump from doing 2 1-hour swim sessions to 6 1-hour swim sessions a week. Injury is the most likely outcome, not improvement. Maybe start by moving to 4 45-minute sessions, then increasing frequency (per week sessions) and volume (time/distance) as time goes by.

Books like ‘Triathlon Swimming Made Easy’ by Terry Laughlin detail the benefits, but here are a few for convenience: i) your ‘feel for the water’ will improve, ii) any dislike or fear will start to dissipate, iii) and most importantly, you will be able to spend more time focusing on your technique. The relevance of technique is evident from the fact that a 13-year-old teammate was a few seconds away from lining up with the best adults in Central America.

Watch your times – overall, and in the swim-leg – come tumbling down as you adjust your training regime to reflect your weaknesses whilst maintaining your strengths.

I arrived on the Wednesday to nearing 40-degree-C heat and 60% humidity. Aguascalientes had got me ready for ridiculous Mexican heat, but this was moving up to overdrive from 5th gear. Luckily, the Wednesday arrival meant that I had a chance to at least do some decent adaptation, even if I mostly spent the time hiding from the sun.

I tried the Wednesday evening to go for a swim – my coach had set me up a 2.5km session each day leading up to the competition – in the sea and immediately lost my goggles to a two-metre wave. After staring at sunset water in vain for my goggles, I swallowed my anger, pulled my socks up, my swim cap down and dived in. Such a lame display of heroics was quickly cut short as the sighting in the salty water felt like I was losing blood through my eyeballs. Best wait ’till tomorrow.

The next couple of days involved some: decentish sea swims and acclimatising to the strange stomach feeling caused by the salt; being frightened by the ever-increasing Pacific wave sizes, and amused that I wasn’t the only one to get thrown around like a sea smartie; a couple of bike recce 50 min easy sessions and a 30 minute jog on the Thursday.

Deep in preparation

Lots of pizza, bananas and litres of water later, I was there at 9.30 on the Saturday morning with the bike racked waiting nervously to get to the swim warm-up area. The running and the biking I felt pretty confident about, but the swim would be the first one this season, and the first one ever with an international elite field. When I heard that the swim was cancelled due to the waves I can honestly say that I breathed a sigh of relief. My running training has been rubbish in the off season with 4 months off and various niggles, but at least I know where it’s at.

So a duathlon it became: 10.30 am start, 3km up ‘n’ down run, 40km 2-lap rolling bike, 10k pancake run.

I was number 50 out of 61 starting, and that with never having raced an ITU race! So there must be some people worse than me – get in! Always thinking positively…

We got called up name by name to the start line, waited for one minute whilst the officials fiddled with their iPhones, and the horn blew.

It was now 10.40 and the sun was beating down like some kind of sick bully picking on us human weaklings. I don’t like to drink much before races but I was sweating like an Englishman on a foreign beach, all of which had consipred to make me visit the toilet 3 times in the 15 minutes before race start. At least I felt light and bouncy… The first 3k wasn’t a mad dash as I had imagined and I remained with the main pack – right behind Francisco Serrano, in fact – for the duration. All the liquids I had consumed in the few moments before the start to stave off dehydration had led me to have a bit of a stitch in the last 500m, but I managed to limit the loss.

A 10mins 31secs for the 3km + slowish T1 split and I was half on the bike getting shouted at by the official to cross the yellow line. A quick sprint up to 45kph, I looked up and saw the main pack was probably around 10 seconds ahead. I got in my shoes, found a couple of guys around me including Cuevas and we reeled them in within a minute or two.

I'm back in the chasing group...

From there the bike was a pretty simple task of not getting smashed down by some of the dodgy swerving going on by various parties, others would probably say with me included. The pace wasn’t hard although I clocked a 59.09, 40 seconds faster than the average split from last year’s event. A couple of times there were some big pushes and there was a small 20 second break at the front by 2 riders, on the biggest hill at the back end of the course I got left right at the back of the peleton as I was caught napping, but that woke me up and from there I stuck with the pack right back in to transition. I didn’t fight out the first-off-the-bike back in to T2 so was probably around 10-15 seconds off the leader going out on to the 4-lap run.

Straight away it was obvious that the run was going to be tough as it was now 12 midday and the sun hadn’t stopped playing his dirty tricks. I covered myself with ice-cold water at the first water station 1km in to the run and did so at every time I passed. Filling my suit up with ice cubes being handed out was one of the most euphoric parts of the whole event.

I hadn’t been training in wet Asics Hyperspeeds and quickly found that was a serious error as on the first lap the second smallest toes on both feet were getting what felt like champhered every step. In comes the philosophy of any endurance athletes – ‘The pain doesn’t matter now, deal with it later’. That worked for a couple of dozen seconds each time.

I was catching athletes in front of me on each lap which felt good, and was only overtaken by Sterghos – a gringo, of all people – on the second lap. There were a number of athletes spread across the course which you could easily measure yourself against given the dead point turns.

I was feeling good aerobically but the toes and now the calf muscles were starting to hurt. I could also feel some crap creeping in to the quads no doubt down to the dehydration, as the bike leg was pretty easy. I started to pick up the pace toward the end of the 3rd lap and on to the 4th, moving up from 20th to finish in 16th clocking 36.10 for the 10k.

Thanks to the Mexican Red Cross

That’s the fastest 40k bike and 10k run I’ve ever done, but both felt like they could of been faster without compromising the other. This remains to be seen of course!

I must take this moment to dedicate one of the biggest thankyous ever to the Mexican Red Cross. Crossing the line I didn’t feel too hot, but was given a freezing-cold towel and, after sitting in the tent, realised I was very overheated. Seeing other competitors, both men and women, being brought in on stretchers in comatosed states was particularly eye-opening, especially after it was just Olympic distance – if it was Ironman then its a different ball game – but 2 hours of competition in that heat had taken its toll.

Michoacán Paradise

I was off to sit on a Pacific-coast beach well away from the hellhole that is Ixtapa, a beautiful Mexican bay ruined by InterContinental, Barceló, Emporio, NH and the rest of satan’s offspring. Ranting aside, I was very pleased with a 16th place finish, with just 36 out of 61 finishing. Serrano didn’t finish, and I was just 1min 40secs off Cervantes, a 2004 Olympian. Get in!

On to the next…

The Plantar Fasciitis took another bite at the apple in the first week which wasn’t amusing. Fortunately it turned out to be just a light pull and so after a few days rest I could get back training. The Osteochondritis Tendonitis in the right patella has also been causing some issues, especially when the knees are twisted or if I land in a certain position on the knee during the foot strike. I’ve been given some exercises to combat the issues, but it still lingers.

The swimming is going great and I’ve been moved up to the hardcore group of swimmers: 16-min 1500m swimmers. I’m obviously being annihilated every session, but it’s been a great tow-rope on my form. Whilst it feels like you’re going slower, it is (I hope) all relative. In the competition on the 22nd we will see the proof, or lack thereof.

The bike is taking shape again after the lay-off and I did a couple of my best rides in some time trials so far. With the drop in weight and a focus on power, things have started to look quite decent in this camp too.

Week 1

Cycling: Force workout. Hard 3km uphill x 2, i) big plate + 14 chainring, ii) big plate + 13.

Running: 20 minutes easy jog

Swim: I 300m easy, 6×100 combined w/fins, 2×500 w/paddles every 6.30, 300 drill w/fins, 12×25 velocity. II 2×400 w/fins every 6.30, 4×200 combined every 3.15, 2×300 combined every 4.30, 12×50 kick w/fins, 500 easy

Tuesday

Cycling: Anaerobic Endurance. 2×2km at max.

Gym: Plyometrics – 4 x 15 squat jumps, 1 x 20 side-to-side jumps, 1 x 20 split jumps

Swim: I 300m easy, 3 x 300 w/paddles every 4.10, 2 x 300 combined every 4.40, 6 x 50 kick, 200 drill, 8 x 25 velocity. II 800 w/paddles, 1 min rest, 2 x 400 every 5.30, 4 x 100 every 1.20. 8 x 25 kick, 200m easy.

Wednesday

Cycling: 70 km with 20km of interval workouts.

Running: 30 minute medium-pace run.

Swim: I 300 smooth, 10 x 100 combined every 1.30, 5 x 200 w/fins every 2.40, 300 drill, 16 x 25 velocity. II 2000m combined, 4 x 25 relays, 200 easy

Thursday

Run: 10km rolling course, pulled tendon in bottom of foot.

Gym: Legs workout. Leg Press 5×10x80kg. Leg Press 4×8x100kg.

Swim: I 300m easy, 1200 w/fins combined, 1000 w/paddles, 300 drill, 8×25 speed w/fins. II 2x [400 combined w/fins, 45 sec recovery, 400 w/paddles, 45 sec recovery, 200 combined]. 4 x 25 relay, 200 easy.

Friday

Swim: I 300m easy, 8 x 200 combined, 400 w/paddles every 5.30, 300 w/paddles every 4.10, 200 w/paddles every 2.50, 100 w/paddles. 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 10 x 150, 30 sec recovery, 10 x 50 w/fins, 200 easy.

Saturday

Cycling: 40km easy ride

Run: 7km medium-paced run.

Sunday

Ended up being a rest day…!

Monday

Run: 30 minutes easy.

Swim: I 300m easy, 500 w/paddles, 400 combined w/fins, 300 w/paddles, 200 combined w/fins, 100 w/paddles, 300 drill, 8 x 25 velocity. II 1000 w/paddles, 1000 combined w/fins, 4 x 25 relay, 200 easy.

Tuesday

Cycling: Track, muscular endurance. 3 x 2km team trial.

Swim: I 500m easy, 8 x 125 w/fins, 6×150 w/paddles every 2.00, 300 drill, 16 x 25 velocity w/fins. II 3 x 400.

Run: 50 minutes easy.

Wednesday

Cycling: Force then Power workouts. 2/3 minutes uphill max output.

Swim: I 300m easy, 1200m combined, 1000 w/paddles, 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 15 x 100, i) 5 combined, ii) w/paddles every 1.20, 5 w/fins every 1.20. 4 x 25 relay. 200 easy.

Run: 30 mins easy.

Thursday

Run: 30 mins easy.

Gym: Legs workout. Warm-up squats, 4 x 8 w/bar. Leg Press 5 x 10 x 80kg. Deep Squats 3 x 10 x 30kg. Leg Press 4 x 10 x 100kg. Hamstrings 5 x 10 x 24kg.

Swim: I 500m easy, 9 x 100 combined every 1.35, 800 w/paddles, 300 drill, 8 x 25 velocity w/fins. II 1500m w/paddles, 1 min rest, 1500m w/fins, 8 x 25 velocity, 200m easy.

Friday

Swim: I 300m easy, 900 combined, 2 x 500 w/paddles, 2000 w/fins, 350m total of relays.

Saturday

Cycling: Easy 1 hour ride.

Run: 1 hour endurance run.

Sunday

Rest day.

Monday

Gym: Plyometrics. 6 x 15 deep squat jumps. Calf raises 4 x 20 per side, Single Leg Squats 4 x 8 per side.

Swim: I 400 easy, 4 x 300 combined, 12 x 100 w/paddles every 1.20, 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 1000 combined, 1000 w/paddles, 100 easy.

Tuesday

Run: 1 hour endurance run, with 10 minutes muscular endurance.

Swim: I 400 easy, 8 x 150 w/paddles every 2.00, 4 x 300, 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 10 x 300 w/15 sec rest. 100 easy.

Wednesday

Gym: Legs workout. Warm-up 3 x 10 w/bar. Leg Press 5 x 10 x 100kg. Hamstrings 5 x 12 x 24kg. Leg Press 5 x 8 x 120kg.

Swim: I 300m easy, 8 x 125 combined every 1.55, 800 w/paddles, 300 drill, 12 x 25 w/fins & paddles. II 1500m w/paddles, 1 min rest, 12 x 100 every 1.25, 2000 w/fins, 100 easy.

Thursday

Run: 40 min easy

Swim: I 300 easy, 600 w/paddles, 5 x 100 combined every 1.35, 400 w/paddles, 3 x 100 combined, 200 w/paddles, 100 combined, 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 500, 10 x 100 w/20 sec rest, 800 w/fins, 20 x 50 w/fins every 45s. 200 easy

Friday

Swim: I 300 easy, 6 x 150 combined every 2.15, 5 x 200 w/paddles every 2.45, 300 drill, 12 x 25 velocity. II 800, 5 x 200 combined, 800 w/paddles, 10 x 100 combined. 100 easy.

Saturday

Gym: Plyometrics. 4 x 15 deep squat jumps, 4 x 20 split jumps. Calf raises 4 x 20 per side, Single leg squat 4 x 8 per side.

Sunday

Run: Endurance run, 50 minutes w/ 10 minutes moderately hard.

On the Monday I found that the knee pains I was getting was Osteochondritis Tendonitis Patellar, or an irritation of the tendon that runs from below the kneecap under and laterally on the outer side of the knee. The doc said that with some antiinflammatory tablets and some heat rub it should get better, and was nothing to worry about. I must say that it has been bothering me, up until the day I write this email, but it has improved considerably. I was also given some specific exercises to help keep the kneecap in position, which is apparently a cause of this type of complaint.

I did a couple of good sessions in the swim and also a decent time trial on the bike which left me feeling happy about where this month’s training had left me. The run is also improving, with the focus being more on recovery and keeping some solid longer-distance training going to build up the knee strength once again.

Build 2 here I come…!!!

Monday:

Swim: Half session, 2km easy.

Run: 30 mins jog after going to the doc’s, felt fine.

Tuesday:

Swim: I: 300 smooth, 6×100 combined, 12 x 100 w/paddles: 4 every 1:20, 4 every 1:25, 4 every 1:20. 400 kick w/fins, 10 x 25 fast kick, 300 drill w/fins, 12 x 25 speed w/fins. II: 2 x 150 every 2:20, 3 min rest, 400 w/paddles, 2 x 150 every 2:20, 300 smooth.

Wednesday:

Cycling: 30 min warm-up. 7km time trial on a rolling course, 45km average. 30 min warm-down.

Swim: I: 300m smooth, 800 w/paddles, 800 (100 free, 100 combined), 400 kick w/fins. II: 4 x [10 x 25 speed, 250 drill]. 200 smooth.

Thursday:

Strength: Legs. Squat 4 x 8 w/bar. Deep Squat 5 x 8 x 30kg. Deep Leg Press 5 x 10 x 80kg. Hamstrings 5 x 10 x 24kg. Deep Leg Press 5 x 8 x 110kg.

Swim: I: 300 smooth, 8 x 125 combined, 2 x 500 w/paddles, 400 kick w/fins, 10 x 25 kick, 200 drill w/fins, 12 x 25 w/fins. II: Speed workout. 3 x 100 every 1:25, 2 min rest. 2 x 300 w/paddles every 6 mins. 3 x 100 every 1:25. 300 smooth.

Friday:

Run: 45 minute easy jog.

Swim: I: 300m smooth, 1200m w/fins (200 combined, 100 free), 1000 w/paddles, 300m smooth, 12 x 25 speed. II: 2 x [200 w/fins combined, 300 w/paddles, 5 x 100 combined]

Saturday:

Run: 40 minutes moderate run.

Sunday:

Rest Day.