My first unofficial (unintended) quasi triathlon
As my friends well know, whenever I have a challenge that I need to prepare for, then the blinkers go on and its all about that. Not to the detriment of work mind you.
Obviously I'm STILL talking about my Guildford triathlon challenge. Out of the three disciplines, in order of my strengths from worst to best its Swimming, Running, Cycling. So the rationale I'm applying then is to concentrate on the weakest event.
Step 1 was joining the Racestrong triathlon club which I wrote about in my previous blog primarily for some swimming coaching as it makes good sense to be taught by someone that knows what they're talking about instead of thrashing about in a pool, consuming boat loads of energy and potentially not even managing the challenge. OK I know I can manage a 500 metre swim, I just want to do it as efficiently as possible which in my head means as fast as possible, or as I now like to say "Same results for half the effort" (thank you Rob Needham for that saying).
I do feel like I have improved as the technique has also improved. Although its far from second nature as I do have a lot of things going on in my head to remind myself to do while in the water.
almost stomach churning the flexibility he has.
My biggest flaw in swimming is still the breathing though. I'm looking for a silver bullet drill as while I'm ingesting less water and burping less frequently, its always the first thing to go and when that does everything else just collapses like a house of cards on a windy day. After all, if you cannot breathe, then you're not really doing anything else much until you get that much needed air into your lungs to power the rest of your body and stop you from freaking out that you're suffocating / drowning.
There is no substitute for practice though so I have done more swimming in the last few weeks than I probably did in the entirety of 2019. My google search history is now a plethora of searches for videos related to swimming and breathing trying to see how everyone else does it because I look at them and they do it as simply as I'm breathing right now. Is it weird that I want to get to a point where when I rest, I want it to be because my arms are tired, not because I've cocked up the breathing again?
I'm trying to find the balance between getting to the 4th stroke in, controlling my exhalation, coming back up for air and repeating the process. Blimey that was so easy to type and yet to put into practice not so much!
So yesterday (Sunday 23rd Feb 2020) I went to Woking Pool with Keegan. The pool was practically deserted save for 1 or 2 other people in there. As I was going to be trying out some of the drills I had been taught during the coaching sessions, I kept myself confined to the area beside the slow lane. I did a warm up of 50 metres, not too much water being swallowed but again far from perfect.
After about an hour in the pool, as time was moving past lunch and Keegan wanted feeding (I had eaten beforehand) it was to Asda and then home.
Checking the time I wanted to crack on with my Zwift "Build me up" programme which I had been neglecting and so wanted to be as attentive to it before I head off to Canada at the end of this week. The next programme was called Red Unicorn. It was an hour and a half long in total with varying intensity. So I chose one of the flattest routes in the Zwift world called Watopia (Tempus Figit) and started on it. Now don't think because I chose a flat route it made it any easier. On Zwift a training program on the smart trainer that has ERG mode has the trainer set the resistance for you. So someone can pedal just as hard downhill as they can on a flat or an uphill.
As there was an extended break between the swimming and the cycling, I hit Zwift feeling relatively fresh, although the workout was a bit taxing and I was feeling it in my legs at the end of the session.
But before I got onto Zwift I was already thinking that I had never done a swim, ride and run all in the same day so I made some preparations before I got onto it, laid out the running stuff, trainers ready to go, arm band for phone etc so I could go from the cycling to the running in a matter of minutes.
The legs were still a bit warm at the end of the cycling session but I was still fixated on getting the run out the way. So out the door I went... About 4 miles which is the shorter of the routes that I do, a couple of inclines in there. I wouldn't call them hills really just where the road goes up. The pace did surprise me as it wasn't too shabby and I did feel I could have pushed myself a bit harder, but wanted to keep some back in reserve just in case. My Garmin did alert me when I was approaching the segment I'd recently earned the trophy on, but I knew I didn't have the legs to give it a decent crack, so I just kept my pace nice and even. No sprint efforts, but I did keep it all relatively constant even on the inclines which I'm happy enough with.
So that was it! A swim at twice the length of the triathlon distance (with 30 more breaks than I would be taking on the triathlon, ride (at twice the distance of the triathlon distance) and a run. Suffice to say I was definitely feeling it at the end and my Garmin even had the audacity to tell me I wasn't being productive!
I really want to go swimming tonight, but I know I'll be better off taking a night off and going back to prepping my snowboards ahead of Canada this weekend. Plus I have my next coaching session with Racestrong tomorrow evening so it would be wise to just take it easy tonight.
Obviously I'm STILL talking about my Guildford triathlon challenge. Out of the three disciplines, in order of my strengths from worst to best its Swimming, Running, Cycling. So the rationale I'm applying then is to concentrate on the weakest event.
Step 1 was joining the Racestrong triathlon club which I wrote about in my previous blog primarily for some swimming coaching as it makes good sense to be taught by someone that knows what they're talking about instead of thrashing about in a pool, consuming boat loads of energy and potentially not even managing the challenge. OK I know I can manage a 500 metre swim, I just want to do it as efficiently as possible which in my head means as fast as possible, or as I now like to say "Same results for half the effort" (thank you Rob Needham for that saying).
I do feel like I have improved as the technique has also improved. Although its far from second nature as I do have a lot of things going on in my head to remind myself to do while in the water.
- Rotate my body
- Keep my head down and stare at the pool floor
- Small kicks
My biggest flaw in swimming is still the breathing though. I'm looking for a silver bullet drill as while I'm ingesting less water and burping less frequently, its always the first thing to go and when that does everything else just collapses like a house of cards on a windy day. After all, if you cannot breathe, then you're not really doing anything else much until you get that much needed air into your lungs to power the rest of your body and stop you from freaking out that you're suffocating / drowning.
There is no substitute for practice though so I have done more swimming in the last few weeks than I probably did in the entirety of 2019. My google search history is now a plethora of searches for videos related to swimming and breathing trying to see how everyone else does it because I look at them and they do it as simply as I'm breathing right now. Is it weird that I want to get to a point where when I rest, I want it to be because my arms are tired, not because I've cocked up the breathing again?
I'm trying to find the balance between getting to the 4th stroke in, controlling my exhalation, coming back up for air and repeating the process. Blimey that was so easy to type and yet to put into practice not so much!
So yesterday (Sunday 23rd Feb 2020) I went to Woking Pool with Keegan. The pool was practically deserted save for 1 or 2 other people in there. As I was going to be trying out some of the drills I had been taught during the coaching sessions, I kept myself confined to the area beside the slow lane. I did a warm up of 50 metres, not too much water being swallowed but again far from perfect.
After about an hour in the pool, as time was moving past lunch and Keegan wanted feeding (I had eaten beforehand) it was to Asda and then home.
Checking the time I wanted to crack on with my Zwift "Build me up" programme which I had been neglecting and so wanted to be as attentive to it before I head off to Canada at the end of this week. The next programme was called Red Unicorn. It was an hour and a half long in total with varying intensity. So I chose one of the flattest routes in the Zwift world called Watopia (Tempus Figit) and started on it. Now don't think because I chose a flat route it made it any easier. On Zwift a training program on the smart trainer that has ERG mode has the trainer set the resistance for you. So someone can pedal just as hard downhill as they can on a flat or an uphill.
As there was an extended break between the swimming and the cycling, I hit Zwift feeling relatively fresh, although the workout was a bit taxing and I was feeling it in my legs at the end of the session.
But before I got onto Zwift I was already thinking that I had never done a swim, ride and run all in the same day so I made some preparations before I got onto it, laid out the running stuff, trainers ready to go, arm band for phone etc so I could go from the cycling to the running in a matter of minutes.
The legs were still a bit warm at the end of the cycling session but I was still fixated on getting the run out the way. So out the door I went... About 4 miles which is the shorter of the routes that I do, a couple of inclines in there. I wouldn't call them hills really just where the road goes up. The pace did surprise me as it wasn't too shabby and I did feel I could have pushed myself a bit harder, but wanted to keep some back in reserve just in case. My Garmin did alert me when I was approaching the segment I'd recently earned the trophy on, but I knew I didn't have the legs to give it a decent crack, so I just kept my pace nice and even. No sprint efforts, but I did keep it all relatively constant even on the inclines which I'm happy enough with.
So that was it! A swim at twice the length of the triathlon distance (with 30 more breaks than I would be taking on the triathlon, ride (at twice the distance of the triathlon distance) and a run. Suffice to say I was definitely feeling it at the end and my Garmin even had the audacity to tell me I wasn't being productive!
I really want to go swimming tonight, but I know I'll be better off taking a night off and going back to prepping my snowboards ahead of Canada this weekend. Plus I have my next coaching session with Racestrong tomorrow evening so it would be wise to just take it easy tonight.
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