Amica Tri

If you have not registered for the Amica Tri yet, here is an incentive:

40% OFF

Use Code LVTRI2012

I will see you out there.  Hoping to hobble my way through it!

Love being out at the races with you!

Jackie

 

Open Water Swim Tips

Open Water Swim Tips

Most of you have most of your experience in the pool.  Open water swimming is much different.  The main reason is due to the conditions.   At any given triathlon, there could be calm clear conditions or practically hurricane force winds.  The conditions can make a long swim seem easy or a short swim seem almost impossible.   The best tip for handling most of the conditions is experience. The more that you have been exposed to various conditions in open water the more comfortable you will feel on race day.

Here are a few additional tips to consider:

The Wetsuit – A proper fitting wetsuit can improve your swim time 20% or more due to increased buoyancy and decreased drag. Not to mention a wetsuit will help keep you warm in colder water.  Use body glide on ankles, neck and arms to aid in removal and in the case of the neck, to reduce chafing.

Before the swim – Most people will overlook the need to warm up prior to an open water swim. It’s generally a good idea to do some light stretching 45 minutes prior to the race. As you enter the water let some water to enter the suit. This will allow your body to warm the water and thus keeping you warm for the rest of the swim.  Make sure your goggles are right for the conditions.  I always bring a couple of pairs that are used only in open water.  The chemicals in the pool break down the anti fog on most goggles.  I keep a pair for high glare and a pair for darker conditions.  Again, this is part of being prepared for whatever you are given on race day.  Remember, in triathlon:   expect the unexpected.  A series of easy, gliding strokes (100 yards) towards the first buoy will help with warming up your swim muscles.  Next, do a couple of quick sprints toward the first buoy to simulate the start of the race.

Race Positioning – Are you ready to start the race? For less experienced athletes, I would recommend trying to avoid the “center field” “middle of the pack” position.  It’s difficult to get into a rhythm and you will expend a lot of energy swimming over, around, and through other swimmers.  I would suggest an outside start position with a clear line to the first buoy. It may add a few yards to the swim distance but most likely will eliminate a few seconds from your time. If this is your first open water swim, it may be less stressful to start at the back of the pack where there is generally less confusion.  Another option which has proven very successful is to start 3-5 minutes after the main field has taken off.  This ensures you will be swimming through mostly “clean” (or swimmer free) water.  The difference is time can more than be made up by not having to navigate through lots of people and you will feel calmer.  Make sure however that you start before the next wave takes off.

Draft Legal – The nice thing about open water swimming is that it is draft legal. For slightly more experienced swimmers this strategy will save you about 20% effort.   It will reduce your overall energy expenditure to tuck in behind another swimmer that is a slightly faster swimmer. If you are close enough to feel the bubbles of their feet you are in a prime drafting position.  Try not to tap their feet.  Also, if you do not know the swimmer you are drafting off of, and usually you do not, do not assume they know where they are going.  You still must sight.

Open Water Sighting – There are many schools of thought on open water sighting. It certainly is a key to proper navigation. Lifting your head, even slightly will cause your hip and legs to drop and that’s a drag (literally). So it’s a trade off, sight  too often you will slow down, not enough and you may get off course. A good school of thought would be to sight every 5 or 6 strokes. If you have a naturally straight swimming stroke you may sight every 10 strokes. Most triathletes will slightly lift their heads straight ahead  as they are exhaling, then lower their eyes back into the water, then turn to the side for a normal breath. The key will be to only lift your eyes high enough to see the buoy or other landmark that you are using for sighting. You do not need to sight only straight ahead.  It is less energy to sight to the side.  It’s good to practice sighting in the pool. A good drill is to swim with your eyes closed at the pool. Open your eyes when you are going to sight. Try doing this every 3rd stroke to get the feel of sighting and closing your eyes.  This will give you the sensation of swimming in murky or dark water..

Learn to breathe on both sides – Waves may be coming strong in one direction or you may want to turn away from the sun while swimming with clear goggles.  In a triathlon, it is important to know who is around you.  It is safer.  I would rather know someone has started doing breast stroke around me than not know.  Tip:  you do not need to breathe bilaterally.  You can breathe every stroke but change sides every 6 strokes or so.

Know how to tread water – This will add to your confidence and ability to handle most situations that may arise.  On that same note, teach yourself to stay calm, focused and relaxed especially in challenging conditions.

The Last 100 Yards – You are almost finished, see it wasn’t so bad! This part of the swim will get you prepared for the next segment of the race. So far you have been using primarily your upper body muscle group. Now it’s time to bike, which is primarily lower body. How many of us have seen what I call the “T1 Tango”, most of the blood hasn’t made it to your quads so when you are jogging to T1, it kind of looks like a dance or maybe a stagger. To help get the blood to move to the lower extremities increase your kick cadence the last 100 yards of the swim. This will help you get your “bike legs” quicker. Keep swimming until your hand touches the ground, then you will be able to stand up and gallop out of the water. If you are wearing a wetsuit you can start peeling down the top to save some time at T1.

I hope that these tips will help you with your next open water swim.  Practice and experience will help you gain the confidence to perform more effectively in open water swimming.

 

 Finally:  Never swim alone and make yourself as visible as possible.

Good Luck and I will see you at the races!

Think About this During Your Next Race!

I have had this laying around for several years and thought it was inspiring.  I hope you find it to be as well,

Every sport  has its champions and winners. I have been involved with the sport of triathlon and triathlons are a great sport. It’s a lot of fun to swim, bike, and run, but it also can be a sport we can learn valuable lessons from that can help us later in life.

I want to share with you two lessons that I feel are important to any athlete: “Act like a champion to be a champion” and “The champion isn’t always the individual that’s first!”

One kind of champion is the athlete that crosses the finish line first or has scored the most points at the end of the game. And we want to be that kind of champion, training to win and winning involves a tremendous amount of work and commitment. There is another kind of champion, a champion of life, and I feel that in the big picture of our lives this champion is the real winner. It’s great to win a race or game but being a champion of life is the ultimate reward for sports.

To be a champion we need to start acting like a champion. And a champion is someone who is working for mastery of their sport and themselves. And learning how to achieve mastery over ourselves is the difficult part. To be a champion athlete you don’t need to beat all your opponents!  A true champion realizes that this type of winner’s fame will expire because sooner or later someone will beat them. A champion of life is concerned with being the best athlete that they can be under the circumstance, acting like a champion at all times, being mentally strong, and helping others to achieve success. This athlete realizes that awards and ribbons reflect one small moment in time and mean little in defining a true champion!

Being a champion involves four qualities:

1. Life and sports aren’t about finding yourself they’re about creating yourself and realizing success is defined as mastering yourself first.
2. Never ever quit learning and helping others. You learn when you teach and happiness is created by helping others achieve success. You must be a student of life and sport.
3. Mental toughness is not defined as the toughest, meanest, loudest person in the arena of sport. Mental toughness is being able to summon your emotional strength at the right time and using it with grace and dignity – win or lose. Knowing that we will be defined not by the fight by how we fought. What we overcame to get to the starting line and cross the finish line.
4. Champions don’t talk – they act.

If you remember these three things and act on them as I stated in the fourth. You will be acting like a champion, and you will be a champion in life as well as a champion athlete.

Now, go have a great workout and get in the game of life. Think and act like the champion you are.

by Alan Ley, former USAT Coaching Education Manager

 

© 2008 USA Triathlon. All rights reserved.

From USAT web site

Tour de Cure April 14

Join Team Xcell for a fun ride through Lake Mead and support a very worthy cause.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/UtahArea?pg=entry&fr_id=8081

 

Use Team XCELL to register.  contact Monica for more details:  702-353-9005

 

Xterra Wetsuits Price Cut/ Free Shipping

Xterra has increased discount for XCELL from 55% to 60% off:  CO-XCELL

• Vortex Sleeveless Wetsuit – $120 (regularly $300)
• Vortex Fullsuit Wetsuit – $160 (regularly $400)
• Vector Pro Sleeveless Wetsuit – $160 (regularly $400)
• Vector Pro Fullsuit Wetsuit – $240 (regularly $600)
• Velocity M Speedsuit – $150 (regularly $350)

I do recommend a wetsuit for the open water swim clinics and the Tri Workshop. The water will still be COLD.

T what? T-Pace for Swimming Explained

This swimming test which I do every month at Swim Training for Triathletes is used to determine your “T-pace”, the equivalent of your threshold swimming pace.  Since it is difficult to use heart rate monitors in the swimming pool, using pace is an accurate way to establish training guidelines.  In addition, repeated testing can be used to measure and track your progress throughout the season.

Here is how we do it:

Warm up for 10-15 minutes of easy swimming

5 x 50 drill of your choice (closed fist, finger tip drag, single arm, zipper arm pit)

Swim 3 x 100s with 20 sec rest in between each one

The goal of the set is to swim at the highest possible sustained speed, achieving the lowest average time.  In other words, do not swim the first very fast and the second two very slow. Try to keep the three within 5 seconds of each other.  The average time of the three 100s is your T pace.

Cool down

Last Xtreme this Saturday 3/10 at 8 AM

What can I say.  This is one of the most asked for workouts of the year.  It goes like this:

20 minutes on the bike trainer followed by a 2 mile or 20 minute run.

Repeat 3 times.

This is followed by 20 minutes of core work and stretching.

It is more FUN than it sounds.  I promise!

Discounts available for those who bring their own trainer.