Just Keep Swimming...and Breathing

So I've been on this swimming kick lately...and by that I mean, my coach has me swimming like a mad woman! ;)  Regardless of the reason I've been drenched in chlorine day in and day out...I've come to realize some things being back in the water that I feel are important to share!

The first is that training with open water swimming in mind is TOTALLY different from training for races in the pool.  First of all, you don't have the luxury of turns in the open water--this, at first, brought me much dismay because as a swimmer, flipturns and underwater kicking were kind of my thing!  So, these flipturn things are taken out of the equation in a race...should you still do them in practice? In my opinion, absolutely!  Do they suck sometimes? Absolutely!  The benefit they bring to you, pool swimmer or not, is that they teach you to budget your air.  So when that huge wave comes crashing down on you in the middle of the ocean or a turbulent lake, you breeze through this little time lapse with no air rather than panicking and ruining the entire front half of your race.  Also, because most of our training as triathletes is done in a pool, you start to become more of a "swimmer" the more swimmer-like things you do, and yes, flipturns are faster if done properly!

Don't know how to do a flipturn?  Here is a video if you want to take that next step in the pool!

Speedo Pace Club Tutorial

Technique of a flipturn is probably not the most important thing to you as a triathlete, but they can be a fun thing to practice and definitely give you a different perspective/feel in the water, so add a couple to your next workout if you're not already doing them!


Another major difference I noticed in open water situations is that because there are no walls there is no barrier to break your breathing pattern.  This was the recent realization that drove me to post this.  Ever since I joined a competitive swim team at eight years old (circa 1998),  I have tried very hard to maintain a specific bilateral breathing pattern.  What does that mean? A bilateral breathing pattern assures that you work each side of your body symmetrically; mostly used to prevent injury but it can be used to see your competition on both sides of the pool ;).  My breathing pattern has evolved over the years from every 3 to a combination of 2's and 3's.  I know this might sound like gibberish...but I will explain just hang tight!  So these breathing patterns benefit me in a pool setting because I had a certain number of breaths per side, per length.  In open water races I found myself struggling to settle into a comfortable breathing pattern because there is no wall to begin and end the pattern.  At first this was frustrating and made me uncomfortable, but recently I started to think...it might actually hold a great advantage!  I have begun to play around with breathing solely to one side going one direction of the pool and then solely to the other side coming back because the coach at masters made it a "drill" in a warm up set.  This means I am breathing every 2 strokes no matter what.  I can't believe I didn't try this sooner in my swimming career.  I have known distance swimmers to use breathing patterns like this in the past, but I have always been stuck in my ways breathing to both sides on every length.  There is so much more flow and rhythm to my stroke following this every 2 breathing pattern and I can still maintain body symmetry by switching the side that I breathe to each length.  What about siting?  I thought about this the other night during a long aerobic set (I know, I'm a nerd, but one with enough ADD to let my mind wander away from the set I'm swimming =P) and practiced siting as I was nearing the wall...simulating what it would be like to switch sides in open water.  I'll let you know how it goes when I'm actually in a racing situation, but the plan is to treat siting like a wall and switch sides each time I look for the buoys.  Like I mentioned before, I'm a total nerd, and a little OCD about making sure I'm symmetrical so I know exactly how many breaths I take each length and will use that to judge when to sight in open water!  If you're not as OCD as I am you could try to do it by feel, you can usually get a good idea of how much one side has been used vs. the other.

Okay, for all of you that are lost on my breathing pattern explanation (sometimes visuals are better anyway)...here are some videos:

Turns out the video selection on youtube is pretty miserable for bilateral breathing.  This video doesn't actually show any bilateral breathing, but it is one of the best swim coaches in the world talking you through breathing technique, so it is worth a watch!  Bilateral breathing in the most basic pattern is breathing every 3 so...right, left, right, [breathe], left, right, left, [breathe], etc.

Bob Bowman talks Breathing

This is the breathing technique I am now trying to emulate, breathing every 2....Ian Thorpe "The Thorpedo" is the swimmer in the video; he is one of the great distance freestylers--former world record holder in the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle (I would say he knows a thing or two about freestyle breathing! ;) )

Ian Thorpe-Freestyle Breathing Every 2

One more benefit I would like to discuss about the every 2 breathing pattern is the actual physiology of it.  When breathing every 2 you get a lot more air which allows you to stay aerobic slightly longer than if you were to adopt a breathing pattern where you breathe less often (every 3 or some combination of 2's and 3's).  This reason isn't as strong as the other two, in my opinion, because I don't know quantitatively how much it benefits you physiologically without spending lots of time and money (that I don't have) on testing ;)  Overall, however, I have noticed that with the extra breaths per length and the rhythmic flow of this new breathing pattern, I feel stronger in the water than I have felt in probably four years!




Now for my fav part...MUSIC!

Valeas has some sweet new beats...an entirely electric album that he released about 2 weeks ago...free download and listen here !

Some Kaskade is always good to keep you going (Just Keep Swimming :) )
Don't Stop Dancing


And last, but certainly not least....check out the website for Ver Duco!!
www.verducoproducts.com


That's all for this episode....keep training, keep learning, and Just Keep Swimming :)

@nicoletruxes

Riding in the Dark

The early mornings are getting colder and darker faster than anyone can really handle.  Normally this is when I decide to hibernate in my bed and not go out to ride until about 2 in the afternoon when everything is finally thawed and the sun is shining bright in the sky...  early mornings were always saved for sleep or the occasional long run, but NEVER a ride.

Since I've returned to the desert (yep, back home to good old AZ...but more on that later) I realized that people here are not afraid to ride at 5:15am in the cold and in THE DARK! This is a totally new concept to me...riding in the dark? That's dangerous though?  Maybe so, but something I never thought about is the fact that riding in the dark forces you to trust your bike, and yourself.  You may not see every little piece of random hazard in the road, and you may not see every little bump or crack, but believe it or not, this is a great thing!  In the last two weeks I have gained more cycling skills in the dark than I ever could have imagined. 

What I'm NOT SAYING is to go out at 5am or 10pm for that matter by yourself with no lights and fumble around in the dark until you're comfortable on your bike...please don't do that, you'll probably eat it and then blame it on me =P  What I AM SAYING is that there are major benefits to going out in a group, with BIKE LIGHTS and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.  In fact, I felt that this was important enough to blog about ;)

This light is like a spot light that goes on your helmet, super bright and intense...someone had it on the ride I was on this morning...I was pretty impressed with the visibility (Blackburn, front click)
 
This is the kind of light I use, and if you're bike mount challenged like me...you'll really like the little strap it has to attach the light...super easy to use and surprisingly effective for its size (and its rechargeable...always a plus) !



Back red flashers are also a good thing to add to your morning attire!!

Back in the Grand Canyon State so soon?  Yes, after a few months in lovely California, Lucas and I decided to turn around for home.  It's a long story as to why we left, but I definitely want to say-- home is where the heart is.  Since we've been back we've both seen our families more than we have in years and the living couldn't be better :)  I guess you have to leave something to realize what you actually left!

^Sunrise driving into AZ...after 12 hours of packing and 15 hours of driving Lucas and I were happy to be home :)

 Also, I'm working at a new job!!  I'm working with Ver Duco, LLC to launch a new product...stay tuned for more info...but in the mean time check out our logo, and maybe follow us on Twitter (@verducoproducts)...website and everything else should be up and running soon :)

I can't skip out on the music recommendations for this post :)

It's only fitting for moving home:
Welcome Home by Radical Face

An old favorite...and definitely a good way to pep up your morning...at say...5 am!
Jerk It Out by Caesars

That's all for now...happy exploring [in the dark]!

@nicoletruxes