Race Primer Swim Sessions

Two great sessions for you to try out as you lead into your Triathlon or Open Water swim race

It's all well and good smashing out intervals in the pool on a set time, at the same intensity.  Sure it will get you fit and strong, but it won't really prepare you for the first few minutes of your upcoming race swim leg.

The moment the gun goes in a Triathlon it is all on!  The hard work you have done in training is behind you, what you do for the first 5-10minutes after the start may define your day.  A great start has you getting into the position you want to be in, maybe moving into clear water, or straight onto the set of some fast feet, however a poor start may have your panicking, getting disrupted, working much harder than you expected and setting you up for a potentially disappointing day.

It is important to simulate the first part of a triathlon swim in training as you tend to always go much harder than you should ... which is fine, you just have to know what that's going to feel like and how to manage the feeling of your heart beating out of your chest for a few minutes.  It's also important to experience that unmistakable feeling of your arms wanting to drop off, despite your lungs and heart settling back into a good rhythm.  Here's the good news, if you have trained properly your arms will start to feel better as the race goes on and you will settle into that pace you have been training so well to maintain.  The madness is over, now lets get on with the race.

So how do we train for the start of a race?  The best way is to do some short, very fast efforts, followed immediately by a longer set around your race pace.  If you are going to be wearing a wetsuit in the race then it's a good idea to wear your suit in the pool for [at least a couple of] these sets as the extra buoyancy and resistance in the arms is worth getting used to. 

You may or may not know but I Coach some swim squad sessions at Rick Wells Sport.  I am very lucky to be able to work alongside the great Rick Wells here, who was (and still is) one of the best swimmers in Triathlon.  At the peak of his career he would clear away from a swim pack quickly and dominate the field, often staying away to win the race outright.  Over the years Rick has been very generous in helping me develop a good swim strategy, and a lot of this has centered around getting a good fast start.  I never lead the swim pack, but I am able to hang on to faster swimmers that I couldn't do before.

Another fantastic resource is the Tower26 Podcast, hosted by Gerry Rodriguez and Jim Lubinski.  Both these guys have a great way of explaining the finer details of Open Water swimming, and I highly recommend subscribing to their Podcast.  They also have a Subscription Coaching platform (much like we do here with the Foot Traffic Training Lab) where Gerry provides detailed swim sessions and feedback to their members.  Head to their Tower26 website for more information. 

In Episode 56 of the Tower26 Podcast Gerry and Jim discuss a great session to do to prep for the start of a swim race. I reached out to the Tower26 guys and they kindly gave me permission to rewrite the session for you guys to follow it.

Rick has also given us a similar session as preparation for a group going to the Triathlon World Champs.  I actually did the IM Distance variation of Rick's workout a few days out from Challenge Roth one year and I had my best swim performance, something that I attributed a great deal to this workout.

Below is a snapshot of the sessions, but you can also find them in the 'Shared Files' menu item in your Training Lab Dashboard.  The session is named SWIM SESSION RACE WEEK and you can download a PDF version of it to have with you poolside.  You will see there are options to add extra sets, this is fine if you are 7-10 days out from a race.  5-7 days out just do 1 set, but if you are less than 5 days out you may want to give it a miss and just stick to shorter intervals as you will be deep into your taper.

Give them a go and see which you prefer.  Give us some feedback on how they went for you, and better still, let us know how well you went in that race a few days later.