A Swimming Pyramid and Learn to Count

As soon as I hit the water at the pool, I lose all ability to count. How far do I swim? No idea. How many laps do I usually do? Not a clue. I've have certainly tried to count. Usually, around 4 lengths I lose count. This obviously is not helpful.

I think this has to do with the fact that swimming has become a meditation for me. There is something about the feel of the water, the methodical stroke, the controlled breathing, the buoyancy, and the repeated swimming path. And it also might have to do with the dim lights and the jazz music that they play evenings at Evans Pool in Seattle. The combination of all these definitely allow me to zone out or think about all that is going on in my life (except counting.)

Sometimes by best thinking comes during swimming and therefore I like to refer to the pool as the THINK TANK.

Dan has asked me several times how far I swam in my workout and usually all I can come up with is "at least 4 lengths." Tonight, prior to my swim he suggested writing down a workout to take with me that I would follow. This way, I would only have to keep track of segments, not the entire workout. Here is what he suggested:

400 yrds Warm-up (16 laps*)
2 x 200
2 x 150
2 x 100
2 x 50
4 x 25
...then repeat back up the list.
Cooldown
* based on a 25 yard pool

This workout is considered a pyramid because you are working all the way down and then back up the list. I wrote the above workout on a piece of paper and put it in a zip lock bag. I was then able to keep this on the pool side as reference. Wow, this definitely helped. I think only at one point I lost track and may have done an extra 2 laps on one of the segments.

The above workout equals 2500 yards is about 1.42 miles. I was only able to complete 2300 yards with the last 200 segment as my cooldown. I just ran out of time! This was the first swimming workout that I actually followed and it definitely helped keep me focused. Plus, I really liked that about half way I was able to add some speed with the 25 yard lengths. I think I will continue to organize some workouts prior to going. And then I can report how far I have been swimming.

1 mile = 1760 yards (approx 70 laps)

Triathlon Swim Distances
Sprint: 750 meters (820 yards)
Olympic: 1.5 km (1640 yards)
Half Ironman: 1.93 km (2110 yards)
Ironman: 3.86 km (4221 yards)

Efficient Swimming Open Turns

Oh seasoned swimmers and your fancy flip turns, how smoothly and effortless you change directions in the pool. Maybe I have turn-envy. With each approach on every lap I think how nice it would be to have such a quick change. Well, its not going to happen...at least not while I am practicing with 4 other swimmers quickly approaching my tail. In my previous attempts at flip turns I think I flipped and pushed myself straight into pool bottom, only then to get water in my nose and then lose sight of the direction I should be swimming.

But I think flip turns aren't natural, PLUS when is that useful in a triathlon. Yup, never.

So, happily avoiding the flip, I have started to look into increasing my speed and efficiency of an open turns. This is a lot easy to practice and could potentially be just as quick. Plus, I have 100% success rate of now banging my head on the bottom of the pool. The following videos are pretty thorough...ok, really thorough. There is still opportunity for style points with this one.

Online Training Resources: Beginner Triathlete

There are some good triathlon resources online which hopefully I will get the chance to navigate through over the next few weeks. The place I started was BeginnerTriathlete.com, where if you can prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed by the massive amount of info on each page, actually has some good resources.

Membership to the site is free. Bonus! What you find on the site is a lot of solid articles, training and racing logs, gear reviews, member forums, and my favorite Map Your Route. I am not use to tracking my workouts or writing anything down. Maybe its a little laziness, also I haven't been that serious, and also haven't liked the expectation that I have to do a certain work out even if I don't feel like it. That may change.

Above: Log information for all three sports.Above: Track your weekly totals for each sport!

However, Map Your Route is fun. After a run or ride (or swim too), you can use this Google tool to draw in your route. Not only will it give your actual distance it will also give elevation. Your routes are saved and when you choose that route, that information is transferred to your log. So far its been fun because apparently I have been going longer distances than I thought and its fun to draw on a map, of course.

Above: Map Your Route sweetness.

Two sites that Dan also informed me of (which I become acquainted with shortly) is Map My Ride and Map My Run. While I know there are some spiffy watches and other GPS devices (Polar RCX5 or Garmin Forerunner 305) that will do this for you, I am not hardcore enough yet to own them, nor will I any time soon (did I mention I am trying to get into triathlons on the cheap!) Oh, and of course, my watch died this week, so I can't even properly tell how long I have been going. Dang.

HITS Triathlon Series / Rev3Tri.com

Beginner Friendly series launching in December with the HITS Triathlon Series. Growing Family friendly series (great spectator races with plenty to stay busy) with incredible Pro fields at Revolution 3..
HITS Triathlon Series
I just saw this series launched and look forward to seeing its reviews and competing in 2012. No matter what triathlon level you are currently at or aspire to be (Iron distance, half Iron, Olympic, Sprint) this series has a distance for you. If you are a family of triathletes or trying to get friends involved in the sport you love here is a chance to compete together during the same weekend. There are 12 events slated for next year including the national championships and one event in December of this year in Palm Springs, CA. This series is unique because long distance triathlons are usually not coupled with shorter distance triathlons and I have never seen an OPEN division where athletes can compete for FREE in triathlon (100m swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run. Athletes who never thought they could compete in a triathlon can introduce themselves to this unique sport in a friendly, non-intimidating way.

Revolution3 Triathlon
Rev3 produces the highest level events in a family friendly environment and at certain venues has an Olympic distance race in conjunction with their half and full distance triathlons. These events not only draw many of the top professional triathletes from around the world but also produce an environment that is entertaining for spectators. 17 hours for a race can be a long time for spectators and these events ensure that while you are there to cheer your athlete that there are options for you as well. Look for this series to continue to grow in the next few years.