How to Swim Butterfly Forever

I've been knocking out some epic swim sessions this week, doing 2600 meters of butterfly without stopping.  I'm no butterfly phenom, so I thought I should share how I learned to do it for those of you that might want to try it.

First, I got used to swimming freestyle non-stop for 1 hour.  I just pace myself and take two extremely short breaks at 20 and 40 minutes just to gulp a mouthful of gatorade and then keep going.  If you don't refuel, then you aren't getting in the great workout that you should be.  Running on fumes leads to bad form, bad attitude, and bad results.  If you're going to be working out for an hour, don't waste your time by doing it half-assed.  Yes, you don't get to stop during a swim race and drink, but you've also tapered, carb loaded, and have a ton of fuel in your belly.  It's not the same thing, so we can all get over it already.

Once you learn the pacing to go for an hour on a regular basis, it gets pretty easy.  Next, start your swim sessions with some 100s of fly on an interval instead.  Swim 100 yards of it at a casual, very slow pace, and then add 30 seconds - That's your interval.  

At the beginning of every swim practice, start by doing fly at the casual pace on that interval.  Once you get up to being able to doing 10 in a row, you'll start being able to shrink the interval down.  Shrink the interval some, and then try to do more than 10.  11, maybe 12?

After a few weeks of this, you will get the coordination down of how to swim fly at a sustainable pace (very slow!) and doing 200s instead of 100s.  And doing 20 intervals instead of 10!  Eventually, the whole stroke finally "clicks" and you find you can swim nonstop, just like freestyle.

It took me a couple of months, but I went from nearly dying when swimming 25+ yards of fly to being able to go 1.65 miles of it in an hour.  The difficulty is easily outweighed by the feeling of accomplishment, so give it a fly try!

By the way, I wanted to mention that I just added my long audio interview with The Fruitarian Runner Guy in the ZenTri Masters Area.  Check it out!

Gone Texas-ing

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, which is the birthday of the other country that Texas annexed back in 1845.  You can argue if that's true or not, but I found it on the Internet here.

Anyway, I'll be biking by car to Houston tomorrow, so there will be no blog posts until Thursday.  But I did search "armadillo fireworks" in Google Images and came back with some interesting results to share.

First, here's "Armadillo Man."  This is apparently the ultimate in evolution of the Texan man.  If we can't fight you and win, then we dig a hole and roll into it.

What we have next is a great example of why Texans aren't allowed to be liberals. When we try it, terrible things start happening.

Here is what happens if to your heart if you eat too much Tex-mex.

And finally, this is a great example of why you should totally trust all your information to Google - they can't possibly confuse your 1's and 0's with anybody else's.  Obviously, an armadillo was driving this boat of fireworks when it capsized.

I'll be back on Thursday.  Until then, keep the rubber side down!

The Future of Power

If you read the tea leaves, there is an exciting advancement coming in power meters and shifting.  Sooner rather than later, you will be able to set your power meter to a preferred range of wattage and cadence, and your shifting will automatically adjust your gearing to the correct choice.

The technology is already in place to do it.  Just like heart rate ranges, you can tell a power meter a narrow range to target.  Electronic shifting is now functioning flawlessly in the marketplace, so the two systems just need to talk to each other.  The communication is easily done with ANT+ or low power Bluetooth.  Problem solved.  Tell your bike you want to ride the race between 200 and 210 watts, and it's done.

What about shifting ahead of time because a hill is coming up?  The system can't possibly know that, right? Wrong. It's using GPS, so it knows where you are, where you are headed and how fast, so it can easily tell that you've got a big hill coming up and shift moments before, just like you wanted.  

If it's all too much, there will be an override button and also a loud beep before it shifts, so you know it's coming.  

Why would you want all this?  In triathlon, it's all about keeping your wattage even so you can nail the run.  Is it an unfair advantage? Maybe, but you still have to put in the training to get your fitness up to the point where you can sustain winning watts in the first place.

Why Rapp is a Star

Jordan Rapp, winner of Ironman Texas and many other races, has garnered a huge following of devoted fans using a simple method - honesty.

Many of us are afraid to give up too much information in fear that we will give up power or control.  We end up retaining our grip, but it's of a small kingdom.  Ironically, the more you give, the more people want to be involved - and Jordan Rapp has a lot to give that people want.

Jordan routinely divulges nearly all of his training and racing methods.  He blogs it, speaks it in interviews, and tweets it.  If you want to know how a top pro wins, Rapp is your guy.  While many athletes fear that the competition will use the information against them, the few that share realize that techniques are one thing, but actually getting it done is something else.  The people who actually take the information and use it effectively and competively are so few and far between, there is literally zero chance of there being another Jordan Rapp to compete against Jordan Rapp at the same race.

The net effect is that by sharing information, Jordan becomes far more likable than if he kept it to himself.  He still wins races and he gets major opportunities with sponsors and writing.  

We all know people that hold power or information too closely.  We may even be that person.  Yes, you are powerful, but of a very small, dark, shrinking, and unpopular place.  If you're a hoarder, people don't want to come to you with anything, including opportunities.   Jordan Rapp sets a great example of the other side of the coin that we could all try to emulate more.

For an example of Jordan's winning strategy, here is his power data and race analysis from IMTX.

Get a Faster Deep Water Start

A problem with getting moving in deep water is that there is no wall to push off from. And, if you don't get moving quickly, you are bound to get mowed over.  

A simple trick to get from zero to race pace as quickly as possible is to go ahead and lay as prone as you can.  Kick your legs gently until your whole body is parallel to the water surface and get ready to rock.  Your competition will need to waste a couple seconds getting from vertical to prone, but you'll already be there and gone.

Next time you're in the pool, go to some deeper water and check out the difference.  It's really cool!