Swimming World Magazine carried an article called the 7 Essentials of Open Water Success that is a collaboration between Gerry Rodrigues and Steven Munatones. Click here to read the article.
November 2006 issue of Swimming World Magazine shows Chloe Sutton on its cover. Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association
3 comments:
Thankyou Gerry and Steve this has been a very helpful article. I am just wondering if you have any advise or example training sets for someone who is always up in the front pack, but when the pace begins to pick up towards the end, can not keep up. I beleive if the race were a time trial I have the aerobic fitness to beat alot the other swimmers, but because the pack pace is much slower than I want to go, I always struggle to change speeds. I have been trying to think up sets such as 10x500, and instead of going 160HR, dropping down to 140HR and trying to work the last 3 or 4 a bit harder. Would really appreciate your thoughts/ideas
Thanks
Codie
Codie, if you have the aerobic fitness to beat the pack, then I would take the lead and push the pace if I were you. I would not worry about guys drafting off of you because as the leader you will be able to dictate the pace or veer the draftees off a bit towards the end or around turn buoys. However, if you prefer to draft as you have been doing, then I would modify your sets as you suggest. However, I would modify it as follows: push the second and fourth 100's of your 500's so you get used to changing pace in the middle of a set (or race). Without seeing you swim I cannot make a definitive recommendation, but I think if you pick up your kick, perhaps going from a 4-beat to 6-beat kick and increasing your tempo (e.g., going from 78 strokes per minute to 82 strokes per minute), then this will be easier to pick up your pace. If you simply work the last 3-4 500's harder than the first 6, then you are not learning how to pick up the pace WITHIN the swim - you are simply working harder overall. There is a subtle, but significant, difference in open water swimming. You can also do paceline swims which we have described previously in this blog.
thanks Steve, I really appreciate your feedback.
I certainly agree with you about taking the lead to depict the race in shorter ocean swims, but I've found 10km swims are far to draining to pull other people around. I would much rather use the Illchenko technique and try and bring my aerobic stamina into play with 2 or 3km to go. I will definately be taking your advice of changing stroke pace every 2nd and 4th 100, because I am finding it far to hard to brake a rythem at the moment (in a race).
Thanks for you help, am looking forward to getting in the water and trying it out.
Cheers.
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