The Value of PreSeason Focus
by Konrad Ribeiro

The major races are now behind us and we have months to go before the season fires up again next March at the Strawberry Fields Tri (hint, hint!). This is the time of year to shift gears; rebalance, refresh, and make improvements in our "weak leg" of the triathlon - also known as, our "limiter". The TRIATHLETIX PreSeason Programs will coach you through 8 weeks of total commitment to improving your limiter and strengthening the entire body. There is a PreSeason program built just for improving your cycling, one built just for improving your run, and one dedicated to swimming. See PreSeason Programs for more detail. Let's take a closer look at the PreSeason Swim Limiter and the thinking behind it.

Motivating oneself to get in the pool and swim can be tough. As if pounding out laps isn’t already a challenge, without a specific race goal to aim for it can be darn near impossible. Cold air, wet hair, cloudy mornings…I feel your pain! Instead of focusing on your swimming yardage for fitness and endurance, repurpose your pool time. Now is the BEST time of year to make stroke technique adjustments. Instead of fitness, your goal is efficiency and stroke perfection. Each of us has issues with our stroke (some of us have a few issues to tackle!) Common areas for improvement include:

• Balance (and its cousin, Head position)
• Roll
• Distance-per-stroke
• Power
• Point-of-entry for your hands
• Crossover of the hands
• Breathing (which can mean any number of specific things including lifting the head too high, breathing too much, sighting in open water, etc.)

Workouts are designed with quality in mind. Whereas an hour of swimming in July during a big build period might include as much as 3,000+ yards of swimming, a high quality Autumn workout from the PreSeason Swim Limiter Program might only be 1200 to 1500 total yards. Allow yourself to let go of the need to equate quantity with progress and improvement! Empty yards in November will not necessarily translate into achievement next season. The PreSeason Program will focus this time on shorter sets with more drill work.

An example of a set that I might enjoy during a chilly November morning at Santa Monica Swim Center:

10 x 75 yards, :20 sec. rest
[1st lap – Kick on back (no board), 2nd lap – Drill (choice of drill varies depending on area of focus), 3rd lap – Regular swim build to medium speed]

In this set, I’m using a generous number of reps (ten) and a relatively short distance (3 laps) but am accomplishing quite a lot:

• By kicking on my back, arms above my head, I work on my balance and body position.
• By choosing a drill that supports my improvement objective, I get to work on a specific stroke deficiency.
• By swimming during lap three, I work on integrating the lesson of the drill into my actual stroke immediately.

With :20 seconds of rest, there is plenty of time to recover and stay fresh during the whole set. Again, the emphasis is on quality, not hammering out tons of yards and getting tired. It may seem unproductive to not be huffing and puffing through a swim workout…but trust that your effort at working on the technique of proper swimming will pay big dividends when the time comes to ramp up to bigger yardage in 2006!


Additional Coach Articles:

Carlyn's "Am I still a Triathlete? A Pregnant Woman’s Perspective"
Cherie's "Analyzing the Last Season to Have a Better Next Season"
Ian's "The True Value of Group Training"
Mike's "Good Runners Are Made in the PreSeason"