2012 has started with a bang. Training has become more consistent and I am finally beginning to see some fitness in at least one of the 3 sports. I swam this morning with the masters group here in Boise and for the first time in 2012, started seeing some fitness return. It also marks the first time this year I have swam 6 days in a week. Over the last two years as I have seen my swimming elevate, this appears to be one consistent measure that I can count on. Early season swimming consistency over the last two years has proven to bode well for me during the season. Hitting the 6 day/week swimming early has been key for me. 
Along with the consistency in swimming that has started in 2012, I was lucky enough to be chosen to the Wattie Ink Elite Team. It has been a long time waiting for me. This has been a hidden goal of mine, to be part of an elite team the since starting triathlon in 2000. Growing up in high school, I participated in team sports and I really enjoyed that aspect. As I caught the triathlon bug in 2000, I transferred to a sport that was reliant on individual effort, but my desire to be a part of a team never waivered. After 11 years in the sport, I am back to “THE” team and looking forward to it. The best part of this national team is the opportunity to meet new friends and for the most part show up to any race nationally and there likely will be a fellow “mate” racing next to me. So for 2012, you can keep trackin of me “Rocking the W” by following my racing on our Wattie Ink Elite Team on Facebook or go to www.wattieink.com .
Along with the new team, I met a fellow local triathlete here in Boise who likes to get up as early as I do and train. Lance has been a trooper over the last few weeks, getting up early for 5AM swim sessions followed by a 2nd workout before work. Lance has taken the past few years off from participating in sport since he competed in high school, but began training for triathlon last year. He came from a swimming background as an age-group swimmer for 15 years.
His swimming experience is much different than mine. I picked up swimming 11 years ago when I started triathlon. I still remember that day, my brother and I headed down to the pool in Nashville, TN and took our splash. A splash it was, I promise you!!! I swam to the other side of the pool and nearly drowned, I remember thinking, I don’t know how the hell I am going to get back.
Over the last decade, my swimming has blossomed as a 1:15:59 first Ironman swim to a 52:51 Ironman swimmer. As Lance and I have swam consistently over the last few weeks, it got me thinking about what lessons I have learned along the way as a “Non-swimmer, swimmer triathlete.” Here are a few thoughts:
1.)Train bilateral breathing – In 2007, I had the opportunity to move to Boulder for the summer and train with Gordo et al. I learned quickly during that year that most of the time I was swimming way too hard. BB taught me effort levels and “tightened” up my stroke mechanics. Its tough to BB, but it ensures that you will be swimming aerobically, not anaerobically, which I was most of the time.
2.)Learn and train all strokes – During that same time, we did a lot of IM work. I learned quickly how weak I was from a swimming standpoint. At that time, I had swam under an hour for Ironman, but barely. Learning and training IM provided a different freestyle strength that I never had before. Later that year at IM Canada I swam a PR in Ironman.
3.)Train with paddles – in 2010 Chris and Marilyn (my coach) came and trained in Boise for the summer. We trained more than I ever had with paddles. I typically would train maybe one session for a few hundred with paddles previously. It was amazing how quickly my shoulders “blew up” with just 500 of paddles. Through out the summer, I swam one session per week with the majority of session with paddles and pull buoy, sometime with band and sometimes without. By the end of the summer, my feel for moving water was much better. Later that year, I went on to swim 53:00 for an Ironman.
4.)Swim at least one session/week in your wetsuit (even if a pool is all you have) – I started this doing this last year as a suggestion from Guy. It never really dawned on me that swimming only in a “wetty” on race day likely didn’t give you the best chance to swim your best. If your gonna be racing in a wetsuit, training in it often is probably a good idea. My pool swimming and race day wetsuit swims never matched up. After a summer staying consistent and swimming in my wetty, I was able to drop that wetsuit race day swim down a 2 more minutes.
5.)Train with Band only - This is my latest obsession. One of my summer training partners, Kate, does this quite often in our training sessions and I have never taken to it, but so far this year, I have began doing small sets weekly with band only. WOW!!! I have a feeling that this will be another small lessoned learned that will elevate my swimming again. I tried swimming a 150 the other day and if there was dirt on the bottom of the pool, I would have been drudging the bottom with my feet. It really exaggerates any poor body position that you may have. I think Kate can swim near here normal 100 aerboic pace with no issues, I gotta a long way to go.
For those out there reading this, I am in no way an expert in swimming, nor claim to be. These tips are solely my experience and have worked for me. One thing I have learned over the years with swimming is that there are as many opinions about swimming as there are people with a#$holes. Choose what makes sense to you and be consistent. As Malcom Gladwell points out in his book Outliers, it takes along time to become good at something. He calls it the "10,000-Hour Rule", based on a study by Anders Ericsson. Gladwell claims that greatness requires enormous time and swimming is no different. At the end of the day, if you want to improve at swimming, do it a lot!!
Rockin’ the “W”
J
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