Cheating

Back in the day when I cheated a lot more

It's been a standing joke on the Tritalk forum for a number of years that any form of swimming as training for a triathlon is cheating. To go for ‘a cheat’ literally means ‘I have swum in a pool or lake in order to be a faster swimmer’.  There’s a consensus amongst a large minority of triathletes that swim training is time wasted. Why spend hours in the pool, when that might only lead to an improvement of say, 10 minutes in an Ironman swim? Those hours are better spent, so the theory goes, on the bike or run where much larger gains can often be found.

I think that there is some truth in this. Last year at The Outlaw, I did 5 swims, total, in the lead up to the race. In fact, I only got into the lake three weeks before the event. I swam 1:15. Compare that to the Forestman where I consistently swam 3 times per week in the preceding months, including an open water swim every week and I ended up swimming 59 minutes. This was a great swim and was well above my expectations at the time, but ultimately it was only 15 minutes better than my Outlaw swim with virtually no training.

It’s hard to compare bike splits in these two events as I’m not really comparing like for like. At the Forestman I was on my road bike with clip-on bars and no aero clothing. At the Outlaw, I was in full TT mode. That said, at the Outlaw I was 25 minutes faster for a much, much lower rpe, as I was in full time trial mode and had three years of consistent time trial training behind me. The fact is that with the bike leg of a triathlon there is a lot of low hanging fruit that can be taken advantage of, if you know where to look.

With swimming, I don’t think it’s as easy. You need time in the pool but you also need coaching.  It is by far the most technical of the three disciplines and requires constant drilling and practice to get right and ingrain good technique.  I was fortunate that I had some really excellent coaching with the Kingfisher Triathletes but as I am no longer a member, I need to be a bit more self aware of my faults. Here’s a few things that I know have been weaknesses in the past;

• Crossing the centre line with my hands.
• Head position too high which leads to lowering my hips.
• Shortening my stroke when I’m fatigued, which leads to not finishing at the back of the stroke. 
• Weak and unbalanced kick. 

I don’t do all these things all the time! Only some of them, some of the time! I’m not going to cure all of them in one go, but as I alluded to in my last post, they are things that I can work on over the winter with drills to make some improvement, before focussing more on my speed endurance. 

So what does all this mean? Well, as I’m aiming for the best performance possible at Ironman Switzerland I’m going to need to do a lot more cheating. 15 minutes is a big chunk of time to give up if I am to aim for a low 10 hour time next year. I also want to be able to get on the bike after expending as little energy as possible so that I can work at a higher ftp, without already having expended a good deal of energy in the water. 

 On top of that, I enjoy swimming. I think I fell out of love with it a few years ago when I was really struggling with very severe pool sniffles that left me with itchy eyes and throat and a runny nose for days on end. I’ve cured this now (by joining an expensive gym, but hey ho) and I’m confident that I can get back to a sub 62 minute swim over the next 9 months.