Category: Swim


Swimming Technique – TI Swimming

Filed Under: Swim
May.14, 2012

One of the things I didn’t do so well with last year, was with my swimming. I basically have not swum for 18 months now. But in the middle of it all, June 2011, I did the Total Immersion Swimming technique swim camp. This in itself was a good move as I learned a lot about technique and swimming better, where it didn’t work so well was that I spent $600 plus a weekend in Brisbane learning, then didn’t get back into the pool – and now it is May the following year – 11 months on.

So my first goal this year is the 2012 10km run at the Gold Coast Marathon weekend. Hopefully I can do my best time, but I’ve dropped off the pace a bit in my training over the last few weeks. Once I have gotten through that, I think its time to get back in the pool. I’ll aim for 4 swim sessions a week. For the first month, I think I will run over all the TI training info and just drill like crazy. See if I can put it all together. From there I might see if I can do a refresher – I know they have 1 day courses now. From there, 1 drill session per week plus 3 squads I think will do nicely.

It would be great that come proficiency testing for life saving this year, that I can do my best time in the pool. That is the second goal for this year.

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Ski and Swim Session – Encouraging Signs

Filed Under: Surf Ski, Swim
Oct.17, 2010

Today, I really wanted to test my swimming time after I had already fatigued from the ski leg.  So the plan was to ski from Mermaid Beach to Coolangatta, which isn’t the full course but is about 18kms. From there, do the 700m run south, jump in and swim to Bilinga. My main concern today was the swim time.

Conditions were pretty benign. The swell was about half a foot, there was a mild north westerly wind. They were comparable to last years conditions.

Firstly, I was really happy with my ski time. I made the 18kms averaging 6 minute k’s. Translated over the whole 23km course, this is 2 hours 18 minutes. Last time(about 6 weeks ago) I did the long distance ski paddle in similar conditions, I estimated my full course time to be 2 hours 25 minutes. I found this has given me a real lift. All the hard work is paying off after all, there is improvement!

When I jumped in for the swim, I really noticed how heavy and fatigued my arms were. Within the first 1000m, it really concerned me. During the swim too, I drifted to sand really early, like somewhere around the Kirra SLSC. I couldn’t get off the sand for some reason, the tide must have been coming in or something, drifting me in – I did think I was swimming in a straight line ha ha. Anyway, I finished the swim in 1 hour 13 minutes. I was really pumped with this time, last time I did it I was fresh and I swum 1 hour 11 minutes. It looks like my 70 minute yardstick for this leg is a good one to hold.

So all in all, I was very happy with today’s hit out. It has really picked my spirits up.

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Swimming Speed Continues To Be Elusive

Filed Under: Swim
Oct.08, 2010

Well, I am about to give up on improving my swimming speed. I am stuck on 2 minutes per 100m, no matter how far I swim or in what condition I enter the water.

A few time trials have revealed I do 70 minutes over 3.5kms whether I am in the pool or in the ocean. It doesn’t matter if I jump in fresh, or after paddling the surf ski 20kms, its still the same. My variation is 3 minutes either side of the 70 minute mark. No big issue, at least all the pool work I have done has me holding this pace over the entire 3.5kms. Thats pretty solid fitness.

I need to turn my attention though to the disciplines where I can pick up speed. Namely the board leg. So from here on in, I think 2 sessions in the pool during the week and whatever I do on the weekend will have to suffice. That should be enough to maintain my fitness.

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Half The Coolangatta Gold For Training

Filed Under: Board, Run, Swim, Training
Sep.11, 2010

Today we did half the Gold as a training run. The weather was great, there was a slight sweep going from south to north and the swell was only half a metre or so. Perfect conditions, gees I hope it is like this on the day.

  • We started at Nth Coolangatta and did the 3.5km swim. I completed this in 1 hour 11.
  • Next, the 4km run from Bilinga to Currumbin, complete in 15:51. Excellent
  • Followed by the 5.5km board paddle to Burleigh – 1 hour 15… disastrous, but not unexpected, I have done no training on the board (the other guys in the group came in around 45 minutes)
  • Finishing with the long run, which was untimed. I cruised about 6kms and then pulled up with some shin soreness. Not too concerned with that, I know I have the run covered following July’s half marathon.

All in all, this left me feeling quite positive, especially following last Thursdays issues. All my times on the day (assuming a reasonable surf ski leg) would ha got me through the cutoff times, as compared with last year’s event, which was run in similar conditions. The only real concern I can see is the swim time which was done fresh (on the day I’ll have already been on the ski for 2 hours). But this is negated by the board, I know I can get some good time back there with some intensive training. I can hardly balance on my knees at the moment ha ha.

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Swimming – On The Verge Of A Technique Breakthrough

Filed Under: Swim
Aug.03, 2010

Today Steve my swimming coach said “…your stoke is finally starting to look good Damo” – I feel like I am on the verge of a breakthrough in the pool. I think this is attributable to three technique aspects we have been working on recently.

  1. My catch. I am always shortening my stroke by dropping my hand at the top of the stroke, missing most of the catch phase of the stroke. Recently we have been concentrating on really “rolling the arm over the falls”, bending at the elbow to get the maximum catch
  2. Buoyancy a. I need to swim higher in the water to reduce drag. Part of this is when I rotate on my side. The arm stretching out really needs to turn onto my lat, at the point just under my armpit. This is where I should be balancing and this is the point I need to lift out of the water. The arm that is woking under the water, should be working in a fashion that is providing me lift in the water, really lifting my body up.
  3. Buoyancy b. The second part of swimming higher is being conscious of where the water line is on my head. It should be around the middle of the forehead. Usually my head is much deeper.

Today when I starting putting these three things together, I really started to feel the glide. It felt much more efficient, streamlined and hopefully, quick.

Now I need to beat it into my natural stroke…

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Swimming Training – Seeing Improvement In Training Sets

Filed Under: Swim
Jun.26, 2010

I’m going along quite nicely in the pool now I am endeavoring to do 3 squad sessions a week – i think.

Friday just past for example, the main set in the squad we did was a 40 x 50m effort, my lane was starting every 50m on 1 minute or, if you were not getting at least 7 seconds rest between each effort, you have 10 seconds break before starting the next one. (Ie. This means you have to come in at a maximum of 53 seconds per lap – else you are onto the 10 second rests.)

We did this same main set about 4 – 5 weeks ago and I remember I lost it and went onto the 10 second rest reps after about the 5th effort. This time I lost it after about 18 laps. Given my recent result also in the 1km time trial, I have found this improvement very encouraging.

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A Week of Firsts – Running and Swimming

Filed Under: Run, Surf Ski, Swim
Jun.11, 2010

Been a pretty good week all up. It started out well on Sunday when I ran my route to Mermaid Beach car park and back. Compared to my effort in April this was much better. It still left me very sore, but not feeling crippled. Coming back too, my knees were not seizing up and I made it back to the start of the hill in Tallebudgera Creek road, finishing the 1 hour 40 minute time requirement for the day and strolled home from there. It was probably 16kms all up, this is longer time wise and distance wise, than I have every run in my life.

From there, I did the hill runs over the Talle Creek Rd hill and for the first time, made it over and back three full times. The last one was very difficult but I pushed through.

Finally in the pool I started me 3 squad sessions per week. I have never done three weekly sessions in the pool on a consistent basis so I am really looking forward to seeing how 3 months of this will see me improve. Today we did a 1km time trial too – I’m not too happy with my effort. 19 minutes 37 seconds. I did my first 100 at 1:41 and every 100 after that was around the 2 minute mark. You can see all the splits at the swim training page – but clearly I have so much work to do in the pool.

Ski training tomorrow – I am looking forward to that one. Since learning how much I was still using my arms to paddle, each session is an opportunity to get my core better.

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Long Distance Open Water Swimming – The Byron Ocean Classic

Filed Under: Events, Swim
May.04, 2010

Exiting The Water After 2.2kms

This weekend I just competed in my first distance, open water swim. It was the Byron Ocean Classic, a 2.2km surf swim at Byron Bay, which also is Australia’s eastern most point.

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. What a great experience, event and entire weekend for that matter. The delightful weather… and surfing after the race contributed no doubt, as did the few beers we shared with dinner on Sunday night (it can’t all be about training and competing now can it :) ).

I did pretty well for a first time swim. 37 minutes and 6 seconds. Cardio wise, I was really happy with my fitness. Coming around the last can, I was not breathing hard at all, meaning I could really swim hard to the beach and sprint up the sand. The only place I felt fatigued at all, funnily enough, was in my legs, particularly upper outside thighs and my hips. This is no real surprise, as my kicking has always been a little weak.

One thing about ocean swimming I think is you can really just get into a comfortable rhythm and swim all day. I guess one thing I need to work on in these situations is lifting a bit, pushing myself for a better performance rather than cruising out whatever time I could.

All in all though, I am very happy.

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Fartlek Run and a Swimming Update

Filed Under: Run, Swim, Training
Apr.12, 2010

Swimming

I’ll do my swimming update first, as that happened last Friday and I haven’t jotted it down. I managed to get myself out of bed last Friday though and got to the pool by 5.30 am for squad. We had a different coach this week though which is always good. A fresh set of eyes. Friday’s coach basically had three things to say about my swimming. These were:

  • Stretching. Both my pecks and ankles are too stiff. My ankle stiffness stops me from straightening my feet and therefore kicking effectively. My peck stiffness stops me from lifting my elbow in the recovery part of the stroke.
  • Elbow Up. Lift my elbow out of the water and relax during the recovery part of the stroke
  • Elbow Bent. Catch starts by bending elbow and pulling the forearm through the stroke. Upper arm stays high.

This is basically the same as what Steve has been saying. Keep elbow up, relax, get better with kicking. Same picture, different painter.

Running

Today I did a fartlek running session. I cruised 3kms as a warm up, to the netted off area, then fartleked it back home. The fartlek session was 45 seconds hard followed by 75 seconds recovery. Overall I found that when I switched on, I found it easier going than I expected. I felt quite strong and ran quite fast. On the other hand, in monitoring my heart rate monitor watch, I did not recover at all during my recovery periods. The fact that I continued jogging for the 1 minute 15 seconds only allowed my heart rate to drop 1 – 3 beats per minute through the whole recovery. So there is improvement to be had here.

Overall statistics for the session were:

  • Duration: 32:17
  • KCal: 501
  • Max Heart Rate: 176
  • Avg Heart Rate: 164
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Swimming – Using What I Have

Filed Under: Swim, Technique
Mar.28, 2010

I’ve mentioned previously that swimming will be my most challenging leg in this amazing race, I quail when I think about it. I know also that I have a lot of resources in front of me that I am not using. I have the swimming pool in our complex, the creek behind me and the ocean not far away. I also have $300 worth of total immersion swimming videos.

I have to get in the water everyday and do something to improve my swimming. If I am not in a squad, maybe I will be catching waves at the beach. If I am not catching waves, maybe I’ll be doing laps at the netted off area at the Tallebudgera Caravan Park. If I am not doing laps there – I have to get into the pool and spend at least half an hour doing the T.I swimming drills. Commit to it today. Done!

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