Forecast swimming improvements?
I had the best swim of my life this morning, a 1000yd TT of 15:57 (1:36 pace). For fun I plotted all of my TT results in excel and then forecast (using linear interpolation) where I will be at Wisconsin Race Day. The forecast is a 15:02 (1:30 pace). At what point do the swimming ninjas think I will start hitting diminishing returns? Is this a reasonable goal?
My latest breakthrough happened because I did some addressing of my form. I got some outside swim help and he made me do a lot of swimming with my legs tied together. It basically forced me to have a high cadence with no gaps and to really pull. It was torture but it worked. In the last 8 weeks I took a minute off my TT by working on strength by doing lots of sprints. I am now finally pulling with my lats. Can I gain the additional minute through strength improvements alone? I have little baby arms.
I also recently got a GoPro and will soon try to film myself swimming. I will post the video here.
Thanks!
Comments
Most excellent Peter. I'm not a swimming ninja so I can't comment on your expected improvements, but I have done some swimming with my legs bound by an inner tube and it is a tough drill. Congratulations on the improvement.
Really nice gains. Huge congrats. I too focused on my swim this past off season and got some good gains. Your results probably won't continue in a linear fashion on a chart, so I wouldn't focus too much on that. I don't know if you still have body position issues, as those could be low-hanging fruit. But at your current TP and knowing your huge engine, I suspect you still have tons of room for improvement. So . . . no diminishing returns for a while. What's your stroke rate (strokes per 25yd and SPM)? Have you done a Ramp Test to determine a good stroke rate for you?
I addressed a few position issues, did several Ramp Tests to find a good SPM (63) instead of my old glide-happy stroke (mid-40s) and then re-built my aerobic engine by doing tons of work at this new stroke rate at 95% of my TP/CSS. Not much different than what we do on the bike: frequent testing, adjust the pace, repeat. Frequency and volume help a lot. Coach P videoing me and pointing out a few flaws in January also helped a ton. I dropped my TP from 1:28/100yd to 1:23 in about 6 months.
Lifting weights to beef up your arms may be good for the beach, but I don't see that helping at all for the swim. Swimming isn't an arm sport (just look at the little old lady lapping you at Masters).
The above is what I did. Not necessarily what you should do.
Best of luck. Look forward to following your progress.
Mike
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/696419105
So my cadence is good, therefore I either need to make further hydrodynamic improvements, or I need to pull harder. I will post a video as soon as I can find a buddy to film me at a pool in daylight hours. Thanks!
Peter, your progress has been terrific. Congrats on your determination. I don't think there is any reason you can't progress as your calculation suggests. I've noticed Mike has made a lot of great comments since I've been on EN. I would agree with him that a good stroke is more important than big arms. I've seen my share of great swimmers with what might be described as weany arms.
I will be interested in seeing your video and I suspect Rich, and perhaps others, will have some helpful suggestions. I am actually a volunteer swim coach on a pretty good age group team and will throw in my .02 if I have something to add. Keep up the good work!
I agree with Bob ... your ceiling is not yet in sight. Just for motivation, I did a 1000 yd TT in 15:29 @ age 60. Certainly you can do better than that given your aerobic capacity and your dedication to training and skill improvement.
There must be SOME value in increasing muscle strength - otherwise why would I be going slower as my testosterone diminishes as I age? But, as always, you are looking for SPORT SPECIFIC strength, which may be best developed simply by trying to swim with proper form.
I bet your next set of improvements will come as you develop a better kinesthetic understanding of how to "grip" and "move" the water with your hand and forearm. Keen attention to exact positioning of the hand/forearm during the entirety of the stroke underwater can make a surprising difference.
Excellent results Peter. I have recently heard more and more about the swim workouts where you tie your legs together with a rubber band. However, I am currently ready the Matt Dixon " The well built triathlete" book and in his swimming section he addresses that drill and then also addresses the importance of a high stroke rate vs gliding and compares it to a high cadence with running. So I began looking into that drill and on a youtube video of his purplepatch coaching, he says he doesn't give that drill to age groupers, only to pros. I have not figured out why but it does seem to be a very effective drill.
Regarding stroke rate , he says as triathletes swimming in open water, the goal should be to progress to 70, 80 or even 90 strokes per minute. If that is really the case ( I dont know how people get to 80 SPM) then 68 SPM is a very good cadence of your arms. I recently started working on increasing my stroke rate ( currently at 58 SPM) but my times /100 yds are slower when I do this. For me personally it has an adverse effect on my pull.