Wannabee Newbie
Having now competed in 4 Triathlons now. (2 sprint & 2 Oly) I have played around with my swim srategy.
SWIM - This is my strength. While certainly not elite.....if I really pushed myself I could finish 1,500 Meters in around 24-25 Minutes.
BIKE - This is my biggest weakness. For 40K 1:12:00 is my personal best....however.....1:20:00 has been more typical which is quite poor. I am new to biking only starting in May and definetely improving....so we will see if next race allows me to establish a new PB.
RUN - If not too brutal on hills I can run around 49:00 in race scenario. Thus Run is kind of my middle strength.
I found when I swam to my ability that I would come out of the water a little aerobic and it hurt my bike. For instance I had an earlier race where my age group finish by % was.
Swim = 23%
Bike = 76%
Run = 48%
My last race I switched the Swim Strategy to a MORE GLIDING type stroke. Doing this slowed me down about 3 minutes to a 28 Minute time for 1,500 Meters. By Gliding in a pool for instance I reduced the number of strokes it takes to swim the length (25M) My normal swim stroke is around 13-14 whereas by gliding I reduce this to around 8-9. The tradeoff in both training and racing is a reduction of speed of around 8-10%. However.....I come out of the water with a lower heart rate and the first 20% of my bike is much improved.
Assuming I cannot put in additional training vs. what I can fit in now.............do you think it's better to swim faster...........or use the gliding method.
Does anyone else play around with these different swimming styles in order to reduce heart rate and set themselves up for better bike?
Bill
Very good qx.
My short answer......It depends on the race.
My long answer:
In a sprint distance of 600 yds or less I'll give it everything I got. In a OLY or greater distance I need to come out of the water feeling good. I need that strong bike and a good run. A hard 1500 yds can leave you a little shot.....starting out in hole so to speak.
In my opinion.....many triathletes do not spend enough time training for the swim. I'm not saying a real strong swim is going to set you up for an AG placement.....again, it is a triathlon, you need all three.....but if you scan the swim splits vs the run and bike splits and look at how many people have above average bike and/or run times but are still in the middle of the pack overall.....it's either thier swim or thier transition times pulling them down.
For me, concentating on the swim got me to AG placements.....My swim splits have improved and I don't feel like I'm swimming any harder.
You.....now you have a decent swim. For your future races I'd work very hard on that bike....maintain your swim fitness but get some serious saddle time in.
One thing I have experimented with is in the final 100 yds or so I will switch to a very hard kick.......Theory goes....since you had been horizontal you don't have the blood in your legs so they're not quite ready to go to work for you right away......I think this has helped but I have no proof.....I also run hard to T1....again, to get the blood flowing to the body parts that now need it.
It's anecdotal at best but another example of this is in some adventure races we do that have a canoe or kayak......my legs are like jello when I get out of the boat.....They don't want to move.....Is it because of blood flow?......I don't know.....damn tough trying to stand up in a canoe and run in place though.
Good Luck on your upcoming race. Let us know how you did !
Puttin' on the foil
Hey Bill - I started swimming seriously about 3-4 years ago. Started with Total Immersion which subscribes to a glide before the catch. Since then, I've read a lot on the subject. Good swimmers (I don't pretend to be one!) are always pushing water backwards. In otherwords, they don't glide. They always have one palm pushing water. I now subsribe to that philosophy. It doesn't necessarily take more out of you, it's just a steady approach to keeping you body moving and not loosing momentum.
I'd say in Sprint and Olympic races, pretty much all out for the swim. For me, I pretty much redline all three disciplines in Sprint and Olympic races. But that's me and I'm an idiot.
Don't be obsessed with your desires Danny. The Zen philosopher Basha once wrote, 'A flute with no holes, is not a flute. A donut with no hole, is a Danish.'
One thing I've always looked at though, is roughly half your time will be spent on the bike. If you can spend more time in the saddle next season, it should pay off in better bike times and thus better run times.
Good swim times, I wish I could claim those splits! After 3 years of training, your easy, gliding time is about the best I could do!