My Ironman training kicked off in earnest this week and I’ve been getting back in the pool and back on the bike.
My coach, Paul Kinney, has me working out 8 times a week…8 I hear you say, but there’s only 7 days in a week. Well, on Tuesdays & Thursdays I swim at 5:30 am, go to the office and then I’m supposed to be lifting weights or running in the evening…10 months to go and counting!
Whilst I was swimming this week, Coach Mike had his Flip camera and kindly video’d me in the pool, so now you can see what it’s like to swim one handed…definitely need to pick up the pace a bit if I’m going to make that 2.4 mile swim in under 2 hours.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWNwONCisw4&w=580&h=360]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDdq_l7MO1o – Here is my crawl 1 lane video. Does not look fast but pay attention to the leg stroke. I go above and beyond my way of duty to max speed and stability by using legs. If you watch the time, I don’t take a lot for 1 lap (25m) and that was a water start / video type swim, not all out. You may get a lot faster by returning your head to the midline a lot faster than waiting for your recovering arm. Also keep your head flat and only breathe with 1 goggle out of the water to not lose main axis forward orientation. Right now you turn your whole face out to breathe and you then make a real swerve particularly to your left (at 0:09 and at 0:20). I’d say, triple your leg work, play your arms from the hips, keep your head in line and that’ll save you a lot of energy.
Wolf, thanks for the comments, you look a damn site faster than me in your video! I’ve been working on my stroke quite a bit, trying to correct a couple of the things you point out, I can at least do 100 yds in under 2 mins now, looking to get that down to 1min 30s if I can.