"Feeling the Water"

When I first began swimming last fall, and in my quest to improve swim times and fitness levels for this season's Triathlon(s), I often heard the term "Feeling the Water". At first this phrase perplexed me; of course everyone can "feel" the water, so to speak, every time they dive in. Certainly cooler water can be felt easier, and any old lake will leave you "feeling" pretty damn cold - however - that's not the point. What was the point?

Months and months of swimming passed, and even after marked and continual improvement, I reflected back on this quote often. I wondered if I had experienced it, and the answer always seemed to be no.

About a month ago, shortly after the BAM triathlon in June, something remarkable happened. I was swimming at my normal 6 AM masters group, lamenting to our coach about how my disastrous swim unfolded the prior weekend out on Deer Creek. She didn't look surprised, but rather told me to get my ass out of the pool and demonstrate to her my stroke on dry land. I scoffed, but complied begrudgingly, because after all - I'm a world class swimmer! What could I possibly learn after nearly a year of swimming 2 and 3 days a week?! I was in for a great shock.

As I hunched over with my head facing downward, I began paddling as if I were moving through the chlorine-induced pool water, hastily tossing one arm forward, down, then back toward my thigh. After two quick "air strokes", she stopped me. What I saw next was nearly as scary as the horror movies that haunt our dreams from childhood - DROPPED ELBOW. I couldn't believe it. Not me!

No wonder I had become so comfortable with lap swimming and mediocre splits - my upper body muscle memory had imprinted itself with a terrible dropped elbow stroke. BAD, bad habit. Swim coaches everywhere are tearing up their workouts and manuals and crying uncontrollably for me, whether they realize it or not. For those who don't know, dropped elbow is one of "the" cardinal sins of swimming 101. Dropped elbow causes inefficient pulling. Inefficient pulling causes bad form. Bad form causes slower workouts, and more difficult workouts. Difficult workouts lead to slower times and less distance - and the bottom line is that it can be hard to correct. Here is a great link if you wanna read more about it.

So back to poolside with my cynical-sorry-ass standing there, freezing, wondering what my elbow was doing. Coach Becky quickly adjusted my elbow to square, had me practice a few on dry land, and motioned for me to get back in the pool. What ensued was a real miracle, as I started up the next set. My pulls seemed more fluid, my follow-through was more deliberate, and my arm was square. No more dropped shoulder! As I continued swimming that morning, I made a focused conscious effort to keep the arms square, and catch as much water from the tip of my fingers up through my forearms, and finally my shoulders.

One week later, continuing workouts and focusing on avoiding this dropped elbow, I FELT THE WATER. I was streamlined - I was rolling, and I was PULLING like you wouldn't believe! More importantly, I was faster! What a relief. To this day, I still think about squaring that arm and "reaching over the barrel" as it were, and catching as much water as I can. I feel the water all the time now and it has literally changed the way I swim.

Echo Pre-Race

Today was the Echo pre-race swim clinic & course preview.

Out of bed at 5:30 and in Coalville by 7 AM - I was greeted by another workout club friend Kris, donning his suit and ready to swim. Sans some campers, we were the only two at the lake and it was an awesome chance to get a pre-swim in. I threw my suit on (remember the body glide next weekend, please) and we wandered down lakeside and found a safe spot to start. Echo is really full, so the whole "sandy beach" thing didn't exactly materialize.

In the water - slight chill at first, but acclimatized very fast in the suit and it felt absolutely perfect. Even a tad on the warm side after the first swim. We scoped out some bouys lining 100 meters or so from the shore, about 500 meters south and headed out, pausing at each bouy to chill. I wish I could express how much more relaxed and unhypoxic I was during this swim compared to BAM. Deer Creek was an absolute freezefest in retrospect. I enjoyed myself thoroughly!

Back to shore at 7:45, and the core group / Sharks club group showed up and we decided we would forego the "instructional" open-water preview, and took off again on our own. Same deal, rounded bouys - felt great, sighted great, pulled great, still swam crooked. Ahwell. I didn't wanna get out!

We undressed, dried off, threw on the bike garb and headed North. The first thing I noticed was we had the wind at our back going East up the canyon out of Coalville. The course was pretty uneventful - very roller-coaster and a false flat that gives roughly 600 feet of climbing over the 14 miles we rode out. The wind on the way back slowed us down some, but for the most part it was a pretty straight shot. This is gonna be a fast course - plenty of time in aero. My patellar tendon was giving me a little twinge during the last 10 miles so I opted out of previewing the run course to be safe. I'll try a long tempo run tomorrow - 8 miles, then taper the run next week.

Overall it was a great morning and effective swim-ride brick training session. Can't wait for next weekend!

A few takeaways for next weekend: RELAX! Get a pre-race warmup in so the shoulders don't tighten up at 200. REACH and glide! Don't drop the elbow. Hook and pull square, and pull through the thighs. ROLL! Adjust the seat slightly forward for a more comfortable aero. Wear some support under the jammers. Push it on the climbs. Small stride, lean forward, shoulders square, strong toes. I can see the podium already! Is that all too much to ask? ;)

3:33! (BAM Race Report)

Three minutes and thirty three seconds! More on that later.

So this past weekend was my 3rd triathlon - the Battle at Midway, in Midway and Soldier Hollow. I entered the lite course distance - 750M swim, 21.5m bike, and 3.6m trail run. I went in to this race feeling great and confident - despite the nagging tendinitis in my knee. I had an extra rest day on Wednesday and a questionable trail run on Thursday that left me a little sore (and beat up from falling down at one point on the trail.. gah!), but I don't feel unprepared at all.

Swim: All the athletes were instructed to enter the water in waves for the in-water start - basically we all cross a chip mat, everyone lumps together near the start buoys, and they fire off this loud-ass cannon. Now I've done open-water swimming before, and cold open-water swimming, and hundreds of thousands of meters in the pool, but this was a little shock to the system. I started off head-up freestyle to try to get acclimated quicker and warm up some, and within a minute or two I felt better. There's one thing I've learned about myself, and that is I can't swim a straight line to save my soul. I was pulling right, breathing right, and veering - yup - right. A few quick course adjustments, and I was back on line. I wasn't shattering any speed records, but I was doing OK. At around the first buoy, I was feeling a bit hypoxic (couldn't get enough oxygen to match my exertion level), so I flipped over and did some backstroke to catch my breath. Total - I think I ended up doing a few hundred yards backstroke and maybe 50 breast + head-up free. Looking back, the swim was a near-disaster compared to how well I can do in training and pool racing. The cold water really affected my ability to breath comfortably more than I wanted to admit, so I have that to take away. Total swim time was 13:58 - which was a shocker considering how much time I spent backstroking and veering off-course.

T1: Pretty uneventful - the suit came off easy like I was an old pro - goggles and cap tucked into the sleeves like I was supposed to, and slid off quick and stuffed in the bag. I was pretty warm at this point, but I opted to throw on my wick long-sleeve top for the bike - I'm glad I did even tho it cost me a few seconds. Total T1 time was 2:05 - which I think I could've shaved a few seconds off, but I digress..

Bike: This I felt was the strongest leg of my race. I was out fast, had a very strong push up to Midway the first 6 or 7 miles, and moderate climbs. I cornered like a mad-man, and rode pretty straight lines where I could. The frustrating part (if there was any) was constantly getting passed by TT bikes rode by Oly athletes. They better watch out - I'll be a TT bike owner at some point and I'll be the one doing the passing! The course pushed us back toward Heber and looped back around into Midway again - this 2nd trip up the long straight north was a little tougher - I could feel my legs tightening up and knew I needed to spin down before the run. I took that opportunity on the fast downhill from Midway to Soldier Hollow sans the last small climb. Total time on the bike was 1:08:16 even tho I felt like I had gone faster (avg 18.96 MPH).

T2: Minus the water bottle rolling down the hill, and strapping on my chopat knee rubber support, T2 was really uneventful. Dismounted well, left the warm top on, and away I went in about 1:12.

Run: If this run course was only 2.5 miles, I would've rocked. Came out of transition feeling so-so - legs were still a tad tight and cold, but I knew a few long strides and some downhill would stretch me out and warm up. It took maybe 200M before I was really feeling good, and I took off. In retrospect, I could've saved some here - I pushed hard those first couple miles and felt great. My run split for the 2 miles was near 16:00, which would've been a stellar time given the course. The last mile turned out to be absolutely brutal - my legs gave out, and my energy faded fast. I knew I had bonked, but I had to push! Total run time was 32:20 (just under 9-minute miles), which left me a tad frustrated. I warm up 9 minute miles! This was a pretty tough run - and looking at the rest of the field finishing run times makes me feel better, but still.

The Good: Great bike, above-average transitions, strong start to the run. Pre-race training and taper were good, and confidence was high. Knee didn't bother me at all the entire race.

The Bad: Disastrous swim - could've made up several minutes here easily, disastrous final mile to the run - lost a ton of time.

I'm extremely happy with my race and full of confidence going in to future races. Some takeaways - GET in the water and get a pre-race warmup to acclimatize and avoid the system shock. Longer training durations - I really need to push the 2-3 hour barrier if I expect to perform all the way to the end of an Oly-distance race. The 90-minute sessions I've been doing were fine for short sprints, but BAM really exposed my training gaps. Trail running - after talking with a few friends post-race, I see the importance now. I was clearly focused too much on flat perfect track running instead of technically difficult and strength-building running. I'll try to incorporate all these into my training schedule from here on out!

The 3:33 thing - yea, so that's what I missed the podium by. 7/11 age-group finish, and the 3rd place AG finisher was just out of reach. How frustrating - but what does that tell me about how well I'm doing, all things considered? I think the 35-39 age group occupied 10 of the top 20 spots in the race, which makes it stupidly competetive. I'll stop now - the goal was to just *finish* the triathlon, and here I am!

BAM Pre-Race Report

Thought I'd get a little BAM pre-race report written up. The next tri I'm doing is the Battle at Midway tri this coming Saturday June 13th - at Deer Creek / Midway Utah. A few weekends ago we went with a group and did a pre-race clinic that involved swim instruction, about 1000M of light swimming in the reservoir, followed by the 21-mile bike course and 3.6-mile trail run. I'm really stoked to race this course altho I do have reservations about the trail run and my nagging patellar tendonitis. I've been wearing a knee brace that helps immensely, and I'm planning on wearing it during the race.

Here are a few of my unofficial distance times: 800M swim @ 16:00, 5k run @ ~23:00, and 23-mile bike course @ 1:15:00 (avg ~18.4 MPH, with 1500 feet of total ascend/descend). Quite the difference compared to where I was 9 months ago.

Also looking to do the Scofield Sprint event in late July, and then finishing off the season with an Oly-distance Tri down in Daybreak.