Why Swim Training is Important for Triathletes

The other day I'm sitting on the side of the pool with my feet in the water contemplating the workout I'm about to start, knowing just how much parts of the next 65 minutes will suck. This is a common occurrence, as I rarely just jump in the water and get 'er done. I am not a swimmer. Prior to joining a masters swim program when I was 32 years old, the extent of my swimming was confined to jumping around in the ocean when I was a kid and my grandfather's 16x32 backyard pool.

Yes, I did take swimming lessons in Lake Carasaljo when I was a kid, but I was not a swimmer. I didn't swim laps when I was 4 years old, nor did I swim for my high school team (because we didn't have a pool, let alone a swim team). I started to swim as a way to cross-train for my marathon training, not because I was planning on doing an Ironman (well,  it might have been in the back of my mind ...).

I can honestly say I will never be a great swimmer. I like to refer to myself as a "great" non-swimmer, as I have put in enough quality pool time to have reasonable swim splits at all triathlon race distances. It's taken quite a few years - and a whole lot of work - but I have found it to be worth the effort. And, not sugarcoating it, becoming a competent swimmer does take effort.

Not surprisingly there are many a triathlete who would prefer to only put in just enough pool time to make it through the swim and get to the glamour of the bike and the grind of the run. In a way I cannot blame them. Swimming sucks. If you have been swimming most of your life you are probably burned out from all the time you put in during your school years. And if you are not a swimmer, you don't have the technique and, without the technique, swimming is a huge challenge. Doesn't matter how much run fitness you have or how much power you can produce on the bike, poor technique = slow swim. To get the technique it takes time ... lots of time. Making the argument further, the swim is such a short portion of a triathlon relative to the bike and the run.

I'm here to say putting in the pool time is hugely beneficial.

For all distances of triathlon.

Seriously.

For racing short - Sprint or Olympic Distance - you can "get by" with little swim training and finish the race. If that's your plan, you are fine. If, however, you want to be competitive, do you really want to give your competition a 3 to 10 minute (or more) head start out of the water? Maybe you are that bad-ass of a biker and/or runner, but even on a local level you are putting yourself at a big disadvatntage at best. Same goes for the 70.3 distance.

For the Full Ironman Distance, swim training is so much more important. If you have ever gone the distance you are fully aware that 140.6 miles is a completely different beast than other, shorter distances. Long course racing is about your fitness level and not fatiguing over the course of the day. Sure, the swim is the shortest portion of your day ... almost like a warm up to the bike and run. But, in order to really treat it like a warm up, you need swim fitness in you so as not to burn energy on the swim.

See, the energy you burn in the water has a direct effect on your bike and your run. You may not know it. You may not believe it. You may even deny it. Truth is, if you burn a few matches as you make your way around the swim course you will pay for it later in the day. In the worse case, you go into the event undertrained and the swim kicks your ass. And nothing says fun times like being drained before you even get on your bike ...

From a training perspective, smart swim training has a nice spillover effect on your bike and run. If you ever watched "real" swimmers train you may notice the amount of training they actually do, and the intensity level they hit for some sets. From a triathlete's perspective, integrating high intensity intervals in the pool allows you to work your anaerobic engine without putting stress on your body. Think about the stress you put on the body running short intervals around the track vs. a set of hard 50s or 100s in the pool. Both suck; Both stress your upper levels of fitness. But only the running places a high level pounding on your body.

From a racing perspective, swim training helps condition the mind to deal with the physical and mental exhaustion that comes from racing all day. Don't believe me? I don't care how fit you are, do a set of 3-4 x 1000 on 30 sec. RI and tell me you aren't at least a bit drained by that set. Kudos if you aren't talking to the black line by the beginning of the fourth set.

The moral of the story? STFU, apply ample doses of Rule #5, and Get. In. The. Pool.

So next time you run into me at the pool and I'm sitting on the deck, staring at the water and I tell you I'm trying to decide on what I'm going to do ... now you know what's really going on.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Rule #5: Harden the F#$k Up

"Embrace the suck." - Chris "Macca" McCormack

The Queen comes into the kitchen this morning and asks me if I rode my bike this morning. I tell her I did ... in the basement,on the trainer. Hard intervals. She responds with three words: Rule Number Five.

I'm pretty sure my wife just called me a wuss for staying inside.

All endurance sports are hard, both physically and mentally. If you race a 5k it hurts a lot, but only for a relatively short period of time. Race an Ironman or a 100 mile run and it still hurts, just in a really different and sadistic way. Add to that conditions - heat, rain, snow, wind - or hilly terrain ... it doesn't get any better. No matter the distance, if you are looking to find your limit you are going to suffer.

So harden the f#$k up.

The point of racing and training is to push/test your limits and see what you have inside you. You CANNOT do that if you keep backing off when things start to get a bit uncomfortable, in both training and racing ... which is the exact opposite of what you want to do. When you hit that point you want to just push right through to the other side. Put your head down and get 'er done.

Chris McCormack has referred to this as embracing the suck. I say harden the f#$k up.

Hardening up is simple. Maybe not easy, but really simple.

1. Train outside whenever the weather conditions allow, using personal safety as the limiting factor to move a workout indoors - Limiting conditions include 10 inches of snow; sub-zero and windy conditions; a hurricane; icy roads; flooding. There might be something else I can't remember right now. The point is, you race in whatever the conditions are on race day unless there is a very compelling reason for the race to cancel (like a hurricane). In 2009 me and 20k other people ran the Boston Marathon in a Nor'easter because that's the day we got.

2. Stop complaining and/or finding excuses - We all get tired from time to time, just as we all have days where we just aren't our best. That's life. Deal with it and keep going. If you wait for the "perfect" day to do your track workout you might not get there. Cut the complaints and you will be more consistent with your training, which will make you a fitter athlete.

3. When it is time to up the intensity in training, hit it hard -  Interval training can and should be hard. Just like racing, the short stuff will hurt bad but for a short period, while longer intervals are that grinding kind of suffering. Whatever it is, hit your numbers and hold on for your dear life. And remember, fitness gains come on the last interval (or set) and not the first.

4. When things get hard, turn the mind off - If there is one thing that will kill me it is when I start to think late in a race. The mind is a powerful thing. That's good and bad. I have found as soon as I start thinking about the finish line ... or breakfast ... or how much whatever it is I'm in the middle of sucks, I'm toast. I'm not talking about when you get grumpy at mile 80 on the bike (you need to eat). I'm talking about when you start telling yourself that your done. For me I start doing the math: "If I run at x pace I'll be home in x:xx:xx stuffing my face with chips." Turn the mind off immediately and get back into the moment.If that doesn't work, try getting this song stuck in your head:

With all that said, you need to stay on the correct side of the smart/stupid line. The best way to do this is to know your body.  Recognize when the pain is bad pain, such as a strained muscle, twisted ankle, or severe dehydration. Understand when the weather just isn't conducive to training. There is a fine line between being tough and being stupid. Better to live to fight another day than put yourself on the sidelines with an injury. I've been on the wrong side of the smart/stupid line and it never works out well.

Here's an example of how to do it wrong:

Years ago I was out on a 20-mile run during a July heatwave with Lo-Jack down at the towpath. We got started late (around 11 am) and never even gave it a second thought that there we saw literally no one else on the path.We thought it was hot (90+ degrees) but we had tree cover. On the last 5-mile stretch things were getting ugly. Really, really ugly. The pace slowed and we were both clearly dehydrated. We finally stopped running when we saw his son who was going fishing. We got some water from him but it didn't matter. A few minutes we started to walk because our bodies forced us to stop. Barely made it back to the cars; wasn't back to being right for about a week.

A few years later, I did it right (kinda):

Again, I'm out on a hot Summer day doing a long run. I was working hard and felt good, all things considered. Around mile 12 I started to feel less good. By mile 14 I started to feel bad. Then I realize that I wasn't sweating, which is not ideal. In fact, it's really not good at all. Fortunately I realized this and stopped. I had water stashed about a mile away and walked to it. Drank the whole bottle, walked the mile and a half back to my car, lived to fight another day.

And that's that.

Getting back to me being a wuss this morning ... I did stay in, that is true. But I live in Eastern PA, not SoCal, and we have 8 inches of show and the thermometer reads 11 degrees as I write this. But after hitting the intervals hard, I think I held to the intent of Rule #5.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon