Bermuda Round The Sound Swim – Part Two

Where did we leave off…all I had to do was go from a pool swimmer who specialized in breaststroke and had never swum more than 500 yards in a row during a practice, to an open water freestyle swimmer who could cover 6.2 miles nonstop around a saltwater lagoon… No problem.

Image by lloydcrew via Flickr

How could I do this? I read about distance swimming on the Internet as there are few books on the subject for newbies (they all seem to focus on super-human feats like swimming across the English channel). I found out in short order that the best place to look was triathlon sites. In the Ironman triathlon, the swim is 2.4 miles. Not exactly the 6.2 miles I was aiming for, but a respectable starting point. Many of the posts on the Internet focused on stroke technique for efficiency. Most long-distance open water swimmers use freestyle, which can literally mean any stroke, but most often refers to the “crawl” stroke that most of us learned in Red Cross classes or at out local community pool when we were kids. It is the fastest stroke and uses the least amount of energy for long-distance swimming.

I saw frequent references to a swimming style called “Total Immersion” swimming (http://www.totalimmersion.net/) and already had the book at home, having bought it to help me train for a triathlon swimming two years ago. I hadn’t finished the book at the time and a medical problem kept me off my bike, so I concentrated on Master’s swim meets instead of long-distance open water events. It was time to dust off my copy and see if it could transform me into someone who could swim miles instead of my usual 50, 100, and 200 yard sprint races.

I re-read the book. I thought the concept was excellent although the drills were a bit tedious and hard to follow at times. The video on the website promises the ability to swim long distances with less effort and “swim any distance, anywhere.” That was definitely what I needed to be able to do.  I took the basic concept of lengthening my body in the water, rolling more completely on my side with each stroke, and gliding more with each stroke to the pool. I worked on my balance in the water with the easier drills and took note of the cues I was getting from the water as it flowed past me. I did find the kinesthetic section with its focus points during swimming helpful in making my stroke more fluid. I found I could cover more distance with less effort after using the information in the book.

I put my new skills to the test in a distance swim on 4/29/09 at my training pool, the Hannah Community Center in East Lansing, Michigan. I stood in the water in my bike shorts style suit with new comfort goggles (Speedo Baja) and my underwater MP3 player (the Finis SwiMP3 is here – http://www.finisinc.com/Technology/swimp3_technology.aspx) and joined the senior citizens who were slowly swimming lap after lap. I had a new appreciation for the stalwart group of older swimmers that showed up several times per week and covered hundreds of yards at a stretch. Several show an interest in what I am doing and a few ask questions about my electronic gear and recent exploits. They seem intrigued by the idea of listening to music via “bone conduction” while swimming. I explain how the device works and how it has enhanced my swimming lap after lap. Then I tell them that I have decided to swim a distance race on Bermuda, and the reaction is always the same, “That sounds nice…did you say six miles? Oh, How about that. Well good luck.” They usually look at me like I am a bit crazy.

I decided to swim a half-mile (about 800 meters). The new stroke technique takes a bit of getting used to, but I fell in to a rhythym with my music and the yards went by. I tried not to push off the wall very hard due to absence of walls in Harrington Sound. In order to decrease fatigue in my developing freestyle muscles, I did every fifth 100 yards in breast stroke. This seemed to give my arms a rest as breast stroke is 70% kick and freestyle is 70% arms. Counting laps was a challenge while focusing on the new stroke efficiency and I resolved to get some type of lap counter as I clearly did not have enough electronic gear with the SwiMP3, and my waterproof sports watch. I couldn’t press the lap button on the watch easily. As the laps went by, I was surprised at how little fatigue I felt. At a half-mile (about 35 lengths or 17.5 up and back “laps”) in to the swim, I felt like I could do it again, so I didn’t stop. I finished another 35 lengths and stopped, amazed. I had swum a mile. I looked at the watch and saw it read 31:30. It was an auspicious start to the biggest physical challenge of my life.

I was so excited by the potential of my new more efficient stroke that I checked on the lap counter idea on the drive home. Luckily for me, due to the increasing popularity of triathlons, my local running store had a swimming  lap counter for sale.  I bought the SportCount model ($29.95) that fits like a ring on the index finger and features one touch operation. It tracks total laps or lengths with a quick thumb click and then at the end of your swim, gives you your average time per lap, total time, and fastest and slowest lap. I put it to good use twice in the next week and swam 1750 yards, then 2000 yards. It is a great little piece of equipment for long-distance lap training. Since my race is in meters, I then tried 2000 meters (about 2200 yards) still using breast stroke for 100 yards after each 400 yards of freestyle. I usually swim three days per week and  found that doing only long-distance swimming was a bit hard on the shoulders and neck, so I substituted one of my old interval workouts each week and left some time for drills on other swim days.

On my interval days, I usually do a warmup, then several 100 yards repeats of freestyle and/or breaststroke. I also like to play “Swimming Golf” which as suggested in the Total Immersion book. In Golf, you swim fifty yards and time it. You count your total arm strokes and add that to your time to get your score. In this way, you can optimize your stroke length or distance travelled per stroke. For example, the average recreational swimmer uses about 25 freestyle strokes (per length or 50 for a lap going up and back) and swims the 50 yards in perhaps 60 seconds, so their score would be 50+60 or 110. Over time with some conditioning and better distance per stroke, the time for two lengths comes down to 45 seconds and the score would be 45 seconds+50 strokes, or 95. Now you are close to “bogey golf”. Having ben a Master’s swimmer for over a year (and having swum competively in high school), my starting score early last year was 40 seconds+40 strokes or 80. Now, with the more efficient stroke and conditioning, my score is 29 seconds plus 36 strokes or 65. I wish I could play “land golf” with that score. Over time I have been able to reduce my score to 63 for freestyle and 56 for breaststroke (40 seconds + 16 arm strokes). The reduction in strokes per length is crucial for long-distance swimming. The Total Immersion enhancements have allowed me to drop from 20 strokes per slow length to as few as 14 strokes per slow length. About 15 or 16 per length seems optimal for me in covering long yardage.

I have been able to double my original yardage in a month, while keeping my speed respectable. I have tapered off the breaststroke yardage during my long swims to zero as my freestyle muscles have become stronger. My long swims are only once a week now. My two most recent long swims were two miles (about 3500 yards or 140 lengths of the pool) and they took about an hour. I swim the second mile only about 45 seconds slower than the first. The average speed per fifty yards (2 lengths) has come down from 54:68 to 52:17 despite doubling the distance over time. Recently, I have caught the attention of the young lifeguards who ask “How many did you do today?” They congratulate me on swimming for miles nonstop and offer tips and advice.

Over the next month, I plan to increase my long swims to 5 kilometers (half the distance of the race on Bermuda scheduled 10/18/09). This is about 5500 yards or 3.1 miles and will be 220 lengths of the 25 yard pool. It should take about 95 minutes. I’ll then have July to September to double the yardage to 10000 meters. In the interim, I’ll be continuing my core body strengthening and stretching routines from a book called “Tri Power: The Ultimate Strength Training, Core Conditioning, Endurance, and Flexibility Program for Triathlon Success” and that program will be included in my next update here. The triathlon bug has bitten me again and since I can now ride a bike again, I have a Sprint triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run) scheduled for 6/24/09. The running and biking provide excellent cross training for my swim “marathon” on Bermuda.

Image by Joi via Flickr