Tips to help reduce swim anxiety

(Thanks to Josh Scott and SwimRX for the pic!)

- The obvious- make sure your wetsuit is on correctly. Really make sure the arms are pulled well up into your armpit and over your shoulders. As well, pull it up way into your crotch so it’s not pulling “down on you”.

Leave plenty of time for this process so you aren’t struggling and frantic heading into the water. And finally if it feels too tight while swimming, tug in the neck like to let some water in. It will make it feel A LOT more roomy. You can even do that mid stroke - trust me, I have 🙂

Even in hot water races where they are barely legal, it’s a great way to not over heat.

- Find “cues” in swimming every day. The sounds or your exhale under water (I used to make a noise when i did mine and would listen for it). The sound of your “tempo” or whatever. Look for your hands as they start your catch, is another good one once in awhile.

Point is you can always seek out those “anchor points, and check in with your rhythm, even in murky water

- Practice wiggling your fingers and the front part of your stroke. If you can’t, you’re too tense. Being tense will raise your HR, and slow you down. Even in Kona, trying to make the front pack, I’d still every 7 or 8 strokes try to make sure I could do that. Be strong with your pull, but not tense

- Realize NOBODY wants. To touch you. If they do, they don’t mean it and will instantly try to not. So if it happens, not a big deal.

In cycling, when coaching my ITU athletes, they would do a drill in the grass at ale speed, trying to push each other out of the circle. They realized that if they held their arms tense, they would be pushed right out, but if they stayed relaxed and loose, they really could absorb a lot of force.

So play around with your friends a bit in the water. Push each other a bit, play tag, or keep away with a ball. Get used to contact, and i can’t tell you, if they are coming at you like that and you’re fine. You’ll be more than fine when people are trying to avoid you

- Obviously, stay off the fast lines. Swimming 10-15 yard off the side will DRAMATICALLY reduce contact. Is it a “slower line”? Not if you’re not panicking and in a good tempo

- Which is another point. StarT WAY easier than you think you should. Most likely you’re still starting too fast. So stay as relaxed as you can

One drill I used to have swimmers do, is show me how slow they can swim a length. I used to say, you can swim fast, until you can swim relaxed

- Learn breast stroke. Realize you can do that at any point of time and breathe as much as you need.

-Keep in mind the swim will be over soon, so do not try to “Pr”, just swim relaxed. I used to ask a lot of nervous swimmers, if you swam 5 min slow but the rest of your ironman went as planned, would REALLY be that upset? Most likely no.

But if you swim 5 min too fast, it can change your blood chemistry and how you burn fuels for hours.

Look at Ryf, I think she proved the swim can be over come:)

- Realize only one person can be on your left or right at any one time.

Finally I’ll say this. 
Learning ANY drill is going to teach you awareness and proprioception in the water. 
So that will be help you if knocked just know how to get yourself centered again

What pace should you hold

When I talk to athletes I train for racing, run pacing questions always come up. It would be easier if there were simple math equations to tell you what to do. There are some amazing tools out there, and they are getting better every day, but they still need to be combined with “feel”. 

Feel, must be learned though. Here is how. 

Pacing - Before we had any tools, pacing was the basic and only to predict how fast you would run. Practice trying to hold a pace in practice, expect to be able to run that in a race. Seems reasonable. Problem is what happens when its uphill, downhill, windy, or off road? 

It becomes further complicated when you are trying to pace off the bike. Trying to ensure you come off the bike in the same state every time in practice, as well as the race can be quite complex. 

It was better than nothing though. So we tried to come up with new ways to ensure success. 

Heart Rate - has been a standard way. Practice training at a certain HR, its reasonable to assume that you should be able to do the same HR while racing and feel the same. Sometimes its true, but not always. 

Heart Rate can be effected by so many things. Heat, nutrition, hydration, nerves, rest, fatigue, motivation are some of these. A lot of athletes experience a raised HR during a race. If you are not prepared for this, it can throw off your pacing. 

Power meters are new to the scene. They definitely are a HUGE step forward. These can start to add objective measures for you. Objective because quite literally, you get to know every step how hard you are working. if you see your pace drop, yet see the power output remains the  same, you can trust that everyone on the same course would be experience the same choice; either increase effort, or slow down. Your choice is up to you and your coach, but you at least now know what you are dealing with. 

We work closely with our coaches and athletes to help them with that decision you are left with. We measure and can more accurately predict the outcome give our experience. 

One of the best things you can do as an  athlete is start to gather your own experiences as well. You can start to try new tactics, learn which may be your “go to” at races. 

If you would like to speak to one of our experienced coaches to help you brainstorm some ideas, we would love to hear from you.  

superflycoaching.com

Peaking and Racing

This is the time of the season when most people are peaking for a big event. Most likely, one you have been training for all season, or maybe even multiple seasons.

its a time a lot of anxiety and second guessing can take place, trust me I know. I have been there many times.

Think back to what it is you wanted to accomplish this season and why. Take a second to remember that while this season is important, hopefully it fits into a bigger picture. For example, I usually think in about 3 year increments for my athletes. The significance of this is only that the mission of the season should hopefully be to leave you as an athlete in better place then the year started.

So how do you do that?

Back in the beginning of the year I challenged everyone to create the “avatar”. This avatar can do everything you want to do. We want to create a list at the start of each season that identifies what we need to do to get on the same page as the avatar. The race is an opportunity to check progress. Hopefully if you hit them all, it will show. If you missed something, or did something wrong, you can fix it.

Please do not get me wrong. I am NOT telling everyone to not be a competitor. In fact, jsut the opposite. Im trying to get you to relax so you can get a true picture of where you actually stand.

I just watched on a flight to Chicago a documentary called “Strokes of Genius”. It was a story about Federer and Nadal’s rivalry. I know most of us have a rivalry with someone, even with just the clock. Without spoiling the movie what was amazing was each competitor’s internal drive to improve and excel.

At one point one of them facing defeat during a rain delay made the decision that win or lose, he would rise to the challenge. That his competitor may beat him, but he would not “lose”. How awesome is that?

Its no secret at one point Federer did lose. After winning 5 Wimbledon titles - lost. He was of course crushed. Then he realized, he needed to change his game. It needed to evolve. THAT is the chess match I have always liked. It doesn’t mean you cannot get frustrated. It just means there is something bigger than just the next race.

Check in with your training log. Check in with your coach. Ask yourself - “what do I need to do to evolve?” You may know your weakness, but it may take a few cracks at the code to break it. You should not turn that into a negative.

The other thing Nadal’s coach always told him was “good face”. He firmly believed if you are in a bad mood, you are not in a mental state to improve.

So get out there with a good face, and get ready to check in!

Save up to 10 sec per mile without training!

Save up to 10 sec per mile without training! 

How hard would would you have to train to take 10 sec per mile off your half marathon PR!? What would be the difference if you saved that on your run, or your transitions?

The spread of transition times can range from seconds to SEVERAL MINUTES. 

Outside of these issues, mistakes in transitions are usually outside of the prior stated. 

Setup -

• Trying to make things too complex. Decide what you want in transition, leave the rest out. 

• Be clean and tidy. Try to take the space you need, but only the space you need. Be respectful of people around you and realize everyone there is trying to do the same thing. If you need more space consider the depth for position of things, not just side to side.  Tuck away any straps or loose ends that could be caught in moving parts. 

• I recommend not putting the helmet and glasses on the handlebars unless you are told to. My reasoning behind this is that we tell every athlete we coach to expect the unexpected.  Surely at some point your helmet and or glasses will be knocked off and you could be left looking for them. athletes running by with wetsuits and bikes is a bad place to leave thing gingerly hanging out int he open. 

Instead I always put my towel down, then my number belt, then my run shoes on top of the belt, then my helmet upside down, straps out with my glasses inside them. 

As I pull my wetsuit or skin suit down I gram my helmet and put it on as I step out of my suit. No time lost, and no risk. 

• make sure your garmin is sync’d with all your power devices BEFORE you get to transition. Also I make sure the auto off feature is turned off. There are times, after sitting idle for a long time, the power meter will lose connection with the garmin. I usually recognize it right away when riding. Just power off and then back on, it seems to work each time

• Be decisive and quick, but not panicked. If you try to rush, you will make mistakes, fumble with things end up taking more time then just being clear and deliberate. 

• I recommend first learning how to take your feet out of your shoes coming into T2. Once you master that skill, you can then start working on coming out of T1 and putting your feet into the shoes while riding. 

*As a side note- When learning to put your feet INTO your shoes. I have always used the step over the top tube method. Meaning I know flying rocket mounts look kind of cool, but they are more dangerous and when you  are racing long course, a few seconds is not worth the downside to looking like a jackass in front of everyone if you get it wrong. 

Additionally, you need to be aware of when you will need to have your feet in the shoes, or wait until you should try based on the terrain coming out of T1. 

Coming out of T2

Look, if you need to go to the bathroom, or fix an issue in transitions - DO SO! I would never tell an athlete to try to “hold it”, or not fix an issue. Ignoring these, could in fact cost you more time then the time you feel you may save skipping it. Address these issues, and move on though. 

• once you take care of what you need, the key is making forward progress. If you can put your number belt on while walking, do it. If you can adjust your hat, your jersey, eat your gel, whatever - do that. No need to stand still

• once you start your run, I recommend starting with slightly smaller steps then you would normally take. This will help your legs transition

Be safe and thank a volunteer!!

CP30 Testing - What and Why

There is a general rule of thumb - what you can do on your own in training, will predict what you are capable of in a race. I believe this to be true. If I am honest, I haven’t tried to test a 6 hour run race at the 3 hour pace I gritted through in training a few times, but I think up to reasonable distances, and especially around FTP and threshold testing, this is a fair statement.

So if we know:

• "CP" Stands for Critical Power or Critical Pace. In other words "The best effort you can do for" and the number is the minutes. So CP30 = "The best effort you can do for 30 min".  CP60 would be the "best effort you can do for 60 min." and so on.
  
• what you do on your own you can do for 2x the duration in a race. 

Then consider this too

Anytime you DOUBLE duration, you can predict a 5% drop off in output. 

OK. So what does this mean when considering FTP tests on the bike? 

Lets remember true FTP is what you can do for an hour (CP60) in a race. So, if you did a 30 min all out RACE that would tell you your (CP30), which you would then must subtract 5% to predict a CP60.  

However, remember our rule above. What you ALONE predicts what you can do for double the distance in a race. So if you did a solo CP30 effort there would be no need to subtract the 5%. 

This is also why I do not like testing for 20 min. 

• Most happen in a group environment, so you have outside motivation
• Its not a clean doubling effect.  So even if you do subtract 5% its still going to leave you a bit high in terms of FTP prediction
• A lot of people become good at “training for the test”. Therefore, its not a actual indication of their ME (Muscular Endurance)  

Time crunched? Returning from injury? You can still train quite effectively if you remember these three things!

Volume of training is defined by 3 things:

1. Duration

2. Frequency

3. Intensity

Too Often people spend too much anxiety just worrying about duration. Ask just about any athlete how well training is going, they will almost ALWAYS respond with this metric.

The irony, it’s probably the single worst indicator of success, UNLESS you are trying a distance for the first time. It doesn’t matter how fast you can go, if you cannot complete the distance.

Time Crunched:

If you are short on time, bump the intensity, and shorten the total workout. If you are training for a half marathon for example, as your coach for equivalent 5K run paces and change the set.

3 x 15 min @ half marathon goal may not be realistic on a particular day. However you could do 4 x 6 min @ 5K effort and get a great fitness response, just as an example.

Coming back from injury?

Use frequency. Shorten the duration, not only of the total workout but build in more rest intervals, to include even walk breaks to help build duration and increase overall volume. If you use a muscle 5 min or less for aerobic exercise, it's is a lot less likely to have sustained inflammation.

So 3 x 60 min runs may be a bit aggressive to return. Change it up to 4 x 30 min runs with a day between with 4 min run, 1 min walk.

Too often we get stuck in the ruts we are used to. Changing perspective and ideas can really help!