My most recent Ironman swim was a 1:17. Granted, I did not have much of a swim focus, but not only have I not improved this year, I have actually regressed when it comes to AG placement out of the water. In my first IM, I was at 72% in my AG and had made it up to 30% 2 years later in Louisville (and that was with a swim where I had major leg cramps). However, now I’m back down to 64% in my AG as of Florida 2011. Ouch. The swim is a relatively short portion of the day, but it still has an impact on race performance for several reasons:
- Coming out of the water quicker allows easier transitions. This year in Florida, the change tent was crammed and it took me 7+ minutes to get out on my bike. So getting through the swim quicker will make this easier and save double time – the time savings from the swim and the resulting time savings from an easier transition.
- It gets me further along in the 140.6 miles in a shorter time, leaving me more capacity for the run. Even if this is only a few minutes, it can have a large positive impact on my run. Feeling better later and later into the run makes it easier to dig deeper.
- If you are a good swimmer, the 2.4 takes less out of you physically, resulting in the same effect as #2 above.
All of these things will have a positive impact on race day performance, which is ultimately everyone’s objective, right?
There are those that suggest investing large amounts of time in swimming over the winter does not yield a good return on investment in that you need to invest a lot of time to yield just a few minutes improvement in swim time. For a busy age-grouper, they would say this is not a good use of time in the winter. I agree with this in principle and practiced this last winter, focusing on running and hitting some early season running races for fun. I had a good time and it kept me motivated. And I would argue the ROI equation for most AG’ers probably points to a more bike and run fitness approach in the off season.
However, I am also a big believer in working on your weaknesses and probably the biggest thing I need to improve to continue making advances up the AG results curve is my swimming. I have always been a pretty “strong” swimmer in that I can swim fine and am very comfortable in water. However, I am not a FAST swimmer. I am egregiously slow compared to others in my AG. Surely I have the aerobic capacity to go faster than 1:17 over 2.4 miles.
So, to continuously work on my weaknesses, I have decided to take some action! I am creating “Swim Project: 2012” and doing a little experiment.
My Objective – Make a focused effort for 5 months to improve swim technique and fitness and get back to 30% AG or better in competitive races.
How I will measure improvement – Benchmarks in the pool and race times in Open Water at Oceanside (half) and St. George (full). I will choose some from the following list:
- 3x300 TT (30 sec rest)
- Broken mile with 10 sec rest (with fins initially)
- Swim Golf
- All out 50, 100, 200
- Average Pace / 100 in straight 30 Minute Pool Swim
- Half IM swim time – PR = 36:04 – Auburn Long Course 2009 or 32:11* (20% AG) Vineman 70.3 2009 (* I consider this a bit of an aberration – it’s an easier swim)
- IM swim time – PR = 1:14:23 – IM CDA 2010
- IM swim percentage – 30% AG and 29% OA – IM Louisville 2009
My approach – I am attacking this problem in several different ways, primarily with a technique focus, but hopefully improving fitness while improving said technique:
- Hire a swim coach for a weekly session on technique – I have had a tri coach for a couple of years now, but have decided to hire a swim coach instead of a general tri coach. I will be writing my own plans and handling the bike and run myself and working with a swim coach in-person to focus on swim technique. For additional, supplementary technique focus while not working with the coach, I may consider adding the Finding Freestyle program to my agenda, but will consult with the swim coach first.
- Swim frequency – my intent is to swim as many sessions a week as I can reasonably accomplish while maintaining bike and run fitness and within the constraints of my life (i.e. spending time with my family, going to work, making sure my wife has time to train, etc.) My weekly goal will be 5 times a week as a minimum with 6-7 as a stretch goal. A session will be defined as 30 minutes minimum. Since I am going to focus on technique and quality, I am not going to outline any distance goals. However, having said that, I expect to ramp up the volume as the months progress and will be tracking as best I can, both time working on technique and distance.
- Accountability – since I won’t be working with a tri coach, I will use my blog to track progress and document my experience.
- Swim volume – I won’t be focusing so much on volume initially, at least not in distance covered in the pool, but perhaps in time spent and number of sessions. I am not going to just do mindless volume since my goal is to “imprint” some new technique and not just slog through long yardage with my “bad” form. We will monitor this as we go.
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