Posts Tagged ‘blue seventy’
Only have 30 minutes to swim? Get Caveman-BANG-for-your-30min swim set:
Make pool time count. Photo by Hendrik Steytler
Finding time to train for 3 sports is hard enough as it is.
Last week I was at the Specialized Dealer Event and between riding 2015 bikes with dealers, presentations, expo, catching up with industry friends and bike & run training, I only had 30minutes to squeeze in a quick swim.
I jogged the few street blocks to the local 25yd pool and hit the water running:
Caveman’s Magic 30min swim set:
– Warm up: 8 minute easy swimming, focussing on feeling the water and concentrating on good stroke. Once I start feeling good, I like to throw in some one arm swimming (other arm by the side) and maybe a 100 IM or 2- to get the heart rate up and get some more “feel” for the water.
– Main set: 20 minutes of sprinting 25s. Sounds easy, but the trick is in the rest period: Only 3 breaths “rest.” Between the hard sprinting and short rests, pretty soon I’m at theshold. Its the best of both worlds: I can swim 20min harder than race pace, but the short rests keeps the effort high,without blowing my arms up. The 3 breaths also teaches you to control your breathing- focus on breathing deeply and recovering as much as possible in the short time. In a 25yd pool my send off is about 20 seconds, and this work out adds up to about 1800yds. (1600m)
– Cool down: 2 minutes easy with some back stroke to flush the lactic acid.
Of course, if you’re serious about swim performance, this should not be your “bread and butter” swim set, but it works great if you’re short on time, just want to maintain fitness. And after all, staring at the bottom of the pool is only fun for a while.
Make every length count.
Caveman wins XTERRA New Zealand.
I cant believe that after 22 years of pro racing this was only my 2nd race in NZ. Last time was ITU World Cup in Auckland in 1995 or 96. Draft legal road triathlon.
After a rocky start to 2014 (2 punctures in 2 races, a biomechanical at XTERRA South Africa, a random injury, and some minor health issues- eye & skin cancer surgeries) its good to finally get the monkey off my back with a good win in Rotorua.
What a phenomenal course and venue! Beautiful blue lake called “Blue lake” surrounded by green mountains covered with dense tree fern growth 20ft tall.
I was out the swim in 5th or 6th, about 35” behind some Kiwi roadie, followed by Roger Serrano (ESP) and Ben Allen (Aus). After a fair bit of climbing Ben and I filed into Billy T neck in neck- some of the very best and unique single track I’ve ever ridden. Rain
A tsunami warning the night before caused some pretty interesting ocean conditions- complete with “shark” “no, dolphin” “no, shark” spottings at the turn buoy.
The tsunami was predicted to hit land at 10.28pm causing a large number of athletes to evacuate, only to return to bed at 1am.
