My Training Tips
WARNING
My training is very much personal to me. This is based on my own ramblings through the sport of extreme endurance. I do not guarantee that this will work for everyone.
I am not a qualified Trainer. I do not have a piece of paper that says I can swim, I have a PASSION --better than any paper qualification out there!!
I am not a qualified Trainer. I do not have a piece of paper that says I can swim, I have a PASSION --better than any paper qualification out there!!
The Risk of getting wet is inevitable!!
Principle I Adhere to
1 - KISS principle -- Keep It Simple Stupid
2 - The 6 P's -- Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
3 - TBC Training -- Total Body Confusion Never Train to a set schedule, this way your body does not know what to expect when the Gruelling training starts.
4 - In this game, Keep your ego in check.
5 - LISTEN to those that can benefit you
6 - Do not get startled by what others are doing.
let me clarify the above statement.
Whilst reading the many blogs of other Marathon swimmers I was often startled and amazed at the distances my fellow marathon swimmers were covering in their training, I was barely doing half of what the majority were doing.
Whilst reading the many blogs of other Marathon swimmers I was often startled and amazed at the distances my fellow marathon swimmers were covering in their training, I was barely doing half of what the majority were doing.
It often made me question my ability and fortitude for what I was undertaking. This all changed when I started my Open water training and could then guage my ability against other madmen and woman like myself. My ability was clearly there but I still felt that my fortitude might not be. This changed when I started speaking to other swimmers who would probably do double the distance I would do but at the end of their sets they were fine, bubbly and ready to do many other things with their Lives. After my shorter sets I was Absolutely shattered and was not really good for much. I soon learnt I could not train in the morning like many of them did as I then had to go to work and would probably be asleep at my desk by about 10am.This might go a little way to explain my subsequent redundancy at the end of my Channel swim Venture. Don't worry, it all turned out well.
My training would allow me to get home at about 10pm in the evening have dinner and collapse into bed. Luckily for me, the fitter I got th less sleep I needed.
My Question, which still remains unanswered is What is better , QUANTITY VS INTENSITY?
How I carry out my training
I do not employ the services of a professional coach. If someone wants to step up to the plate then I would be grateful for the help. The Channel swimming group and Dover training was my only time I listened to other People for my long open water training. All my pool training was haphazard, unplanned but, it was effectivefor ME.
I have no guides to help me when I train and the sets are made up as I go along. I might often arrive at the pool with a distance in mind but that is it. the rest is very much fluid and often changes during my set.Some of my sets include, but only as a small part, a Masters class.
Previous to this journey, for my English Channel attempt, my only training was in the pool,and later in Dover Harbour under the Guidance of The Channel General, An amazing lady who gives up every weekend during the summer to train Channel swimmers. Her and her band of shingle stompers ( volunteers) do not charge a cent/penny for their time and expertise.What the channel general says, YOU DO!! Try to disobey her at your own peril.
There was no cross training, no weights, no circuits no classes, no running The Goal was to swim and that is what I did- A LOT OF
I never really logged anything or monitored anything, My only training Aide was a stopwatch- when doing Hundreds of lengths in the pool, I tend to lose count after about 3 lengths so Having a stopwatch and knowing exactly how long it takes you to do various distances is imperative to this form of taining. there are many modern watches which do it for you. My other two aides were a kick board and pull buoy.
After having the privilege to meet many endurance swimmers and athletes there is one common theme thats runs through all their lives
PREPARE FOR THE WORST AND HOPE FOR THE BEST --ANYTHING INBETWEEN IS A BONUS.
Things that have changed for this Journey
To be Honest, NOT MUCH - why change a formula which works for you?
I am however15KG (2.3 stone) heavier than I was 4 years ago.
I have been doing Pilates once a week and I have an amazing Pilates Instructor, The Lovely Claire from YBfit
You Might ask, why is a hippo like me doing such a sedate sport?
The answer goes back to the main Reason I ended up swimmng the channel. My barometer of my health and fitness is my back, I was starting to feel exactly Like I was before I chose to swim the channel, Lower back pain on a fairly constant basis. I did not have any major goals in mind so started going to Pilates classes after my brother bought me a 6 week course. I did the six week course and about a year later still go most weeks, sometimes twice If I can. Beleive me when I say, I am often more knackered after an hour of Claires' Capers than I am after a pretty gruelling 4km in the pool.
The benefits are amazing and I will try to relate them to My swimmng.
I now have stomach muscles, stuff I only dreamed of. They might be packaged in a keg rather than a sixpack, but they are there, This helps tremendously when I start getting tired in the pool, I can control my core muscles and hence control my stroke a lot more effectively than I ever could. The key problem to marathon swimming is your stroke going to crap the longer your swim. Now I can go a lot further more consistently than I could at the same point of My Channel training.
Core Muscles. Something else I only dreamed of. Again My ability to control my stroke and link my legs and my arms is much better. I seldom used to use my legs to swim as I am blessed with slightly broader shoulders than average, I also have big legs but I haveVERY SELDOM used them Like I am able to now.
Controlled Breathing. I always used to breathe every 2 strokes when I swam, this is very energy sapping and also affects the body alignment, forces you to breathe always on the same side leaving you unable to glide effectively in the water and also stuggle to swim in a straight line, there is no black lines painted on the bottom of the channel or Windermere Now I predominantly breathe every 3 strokes, sometimes 5 strokes. The benefits of this are my balance in the pool is much better, My head is further down in the water as I am not breathing so often,effectively bringing my mamoth rear end up and out of the water giving me a more streamlined position in the water.
Another side benefit, in the pool at least, is that I am now able to tumble turn conisitently without lifting my head to take a gulp of air just before I tumble. When Training for the channel I never did tumble turns, my reasoning for this was, in openwater marathon swimming you don't do a lot of turns so why bother with it in training.
Back and Hips. Always been a problem with me. I am now able to keep my stroke a lot more together. My biggest problem was Breathing, effectively trying to twist my whole body to breathe this would bend my torso slightly to get my head out and effectively break my streamlined positing. Now, with a Good core, back and hips, My breathing is a lot more fluid and maintaining a streamlined position is vastly improved.
I think This is the main reason that I seem to be a fair bit faster in the pool than I was at the same sort of Time in my training for the Channel----But I still can't do a single situp.
How does this equate in real terms?
Channel training-- I could consistently hammer out 100m in 1 min 30 seconds
Journey to 21 training --siimilar time to goto swim--I am doing that same distance in 1 min 23 seconds. So 7 seconds every 100m and My swim will e 35000m. I will leave the maths to you.
Well I am sure I have bored you enough with My ramblings, I hope that they will be useful to someone who might be thinking about Doing something like this.
You Might ask, why is a hippo like me doing such a sedate sport?
The answer goes back to the main Reason I ended up swimmng the channel. My barometer of my health and fitness is my back, I was starting to feel exactly Like I was before I chose to swim the channel, Lower back pain on a fairly constant basis. I did not have any major goals in mind so started going to Pilates classes after my brother bought me a 6 week course. I did the six week course and about a year later still go most weeks, sometimes twice If I can. Beleive me when I say, I am often more knackered after an hour of Claires' Capers than I am after a pretty gruelling 4km in the pool.
The benefits are amazing and I will try to relate them to My swimmng.
I now have stomach muscles, stuff I only dreamed of. They might be packaged in a keg rather than a sixpack, but they are there, This helps tremendously when I start getting tired in the pool, I can control my core muscles and hence control my stroke a lot more effectively than I ever could. The key problem to marathon swimming is your stroke going to crap the longer your swim. Now I can go a lot further more consistently than I could at the same point of My Channel training.
Core Muscles. Something else I only dreamed of. Again My ability to control my stroke and link my legs and my arms is much better. I seldom used to use my legs to swim as I am blessed with slightly broader shoulders than average, I also have big legs but I haveVERY SELDOM used them Like I am able to now.
Controlled Breathing. I always used to breathe every 2 strokes when I swam, this is very energy sapping and also affects the body alignment, forces you to breathe always on the same side leaving you unable to glide effectively in the water and also stuggle to swim in a straight line, there is no black lines painted on the bottom of the channel or Windermere Now I predominantly breathe every 3 strokes, sometimes 5 strokes. The benefits of this are my balance in the pool is much better, My head is further down in the water as I am not breathing so often,effectively bringing my mamoth rear end up and out of the water giving me a more streamlined position in the water.
Another side benefit, in the pool at least, is that I am now able to tumble turn conisitently without lifting my head to take a gulp of air just before I tumble. When Training for the channel I never did tumble turns, my reasoning for this was, in openwater marathon swimming you don't do a lot of turns so why bother with it in training.
Back and Hips. Always been a problem with me. I am now able to keep my stroke a lot more together. My biggest problem was Breathing, effectively trying to twist my whole body to breathe this would bend my torso slightly to get my head out and effectively break my streamlined positing. Now, with a Good core, back and hips, My breathing is a lot more fluid and maintaining a streamlined position is vastly improved.
I think This is the main reason that I seem to be a fair bit faster in the pool than I was at the same sort of Time in my training for the Channel----But I still can't do a single situp.
How does this equate in real terms?
Channel training-- I could consistently hammer out 100m in 1 min 30 seconds
Journey to 21 training --siimilar time to goto swim--I am doing that same distance in 1 min 23 seconds. So 7 seconds every 100m and My swim will e 35000m. I will leave the maths to you.
Well I am sure I have bored you enough with My ramblings, I hope that they will be useful to someone who might be thinking about Doing something like this.
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