On The Water

All it takes is a lot of patience, practice, smart preparation, a good strategy, a good nutrition plan, an intelligent coach and an athlete who listens and executes. Patience : 3 1/2 years since I completed a major race (4th at the Collegiate Nationals in 2012) without any pain in my abdominal muscles (see: New 2015 season. Shaping up, building up and racing pain-free )  Practice : I never stopped working out during the past 3 years. I couldn't run for two years but I biked a lot and worked religiously on my swim! Smart preparation : We only had 8 weeks. I lacked running volume and we increased the mileage very slowly but steadily up to one week before the race. Because we did not do any running intervals, all the intensities (endurance threshold, aerobic/anaerobic and VO2 max workouts) were done in the water (swimming).  Good strategy : My racing plan was very specific: do your best in the swim, take it out a little slower and negative split on the ...

My new season is slowly getting into a proper routine of training and preparing for 2015. My dear Lord, it has been a long two-year anticipation of trying to resolve my abdominal pain mystery (see Shaping up for 2015 ). I am really excited to have that finally under control and be able to work around it, train successfully and plan for the upcoming months. I have been working on my swimming technique (see The path to becoming a more efficient swimmer ) and I have also been putting long miles on the bike. My running is still at a base-line as I only started running again a month ago. I have had some test-fitness races earlier this month. These races showed that my fitness is at a good level, both endurance-wise (3rd at the first round of the southeast endurance 6hr solo mtb cup) and speed-wise (3rd at the annual 11mi Cumming TundraTT). Cumming Tundra TT podium South-East Championships (round#1)  6hr solo mtb podium For the coming months, the plan includes a gradual...

I am a triathlete. I did not grow up swimming. Sounds familiar? This is me as this is with a lot of triathletes out there. I never really paid attention during the first year of training and racing-I just practiced and practiced and practiced. My 2011-2012 season showed that I could have some potential in triathlons but it ended prematurely (due to a deep abdominal pain) with my 4th finish at the Collegiate Nationals ( Lili 2011-2012 racing season ). I was hit with and unknown injury (see An unknown injury ) and as a result, I lost the two following seasons trying to resolve my problem. During these seasons, I could not run as much or as fast as I wanted because I was constantly in pain. The good thing though was that I could focus on my swim and on the bike (see How I trained through my injury  and  Swimming technique facts ). With Mike Cantrell The "junk" swim miles got substituted this year with real technique work under the supervision of my husband, who is al...

For most of us, who did not grow up swimming, technique is the key to faster swimming times in the future. I learned to approach swimming with a long-term perspective, work systematically and be patient! I had been swimming a little for some years but I really started swimming three years ago. This is a picture from a swimming analysis video after my first competitive year. What do you see? My elbow enters the water first, my whole body is literally submerged in the water, and I am dragging myself with zero body rotation. BAD. This is a similar picture from a swimming analysis video today, two years later. Things that have changed: More body rotation, almost no elbow drop in the entry and pull stroke phase and high elbow in the recovery phase. Not good yet but certainly BETTER. Lots of things helped me improve. Things that have worked for me may not work for you but here are the four must-dos that improved my swimming technique: 1. LOTS of kick-sets!!! Especially s...

Maturing as an athlete is a lot more than just getting faster or becoming more efficient. I believe that what makes an athlete mature is a great mindset.  From my own small-world perspective, my athletic attitude has changed dramatically over the years. I remember my first season that started in October 2011: I was restless. I wanted to train every day. The more the better. I was getting excited with every little success, from clocking faster 5K times every month to winning the smallest local race in town. I was also getting depressed easily: whenever my knee was hurting or my shoulder was pinching. I was becoming really pessimistic if I had to take time off training in order to deal with smaller or bigger injuries. I remember I was crying for days when I had to stop swimming for nearly 4 months to rehab my left shoulder from chronic rotator cuff injury: I went to the 2012 Collegiate Nationals having practiced 0 swimming for 4 months (I finished 4th overall). The majo...

This is from last year's interview (2013) of my coach at TriathlonWorld (TW) online magazine [ link ] Dave Williams has served as a Cross Country Head Coach at Flagler college for 14 years and a Swimming Head Coach at Episcopal High School and St. Augustine Swim Teams for 8 years. In a coaching career that spans over two decades, Dave Williams has earned 13 Coach of the Year awards while guiding teams to numerous conference and regional championships. While at Flagler, Williams has qualified an unprecedented 44 individuals to intercollegiate national championships. Williams has served on the Florida Swimming Technical Planning Committee, the NAIA Cross Country Rating Committee, seven terms as the Cross Country Chair for the Florida Sun Conference, and four terms as the Cross Country Chair for Region XIV. He is now the Associate Director of the Campus Recreational Center (CRC) of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA), which is the former host of the 1996 Olympic G...

A note from the coach. [Read his most recent interview here:  Best Coaches Special ] Physiological testing can provide information regarding an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses in the chosen sport.  The chosen test should therefore be as sport specific as possible to glean the most accurate results. Physiological testing should be used to provide feedback to the athlete about the effectiveness of the training program. Physiological testing should also be used to educate the athlete about the physiology of exercise so that they may be more likely to make better decisions regarding their training and racing preparation. In determining which physiological test to utilize the athlete/coach should consider the physiological variables to be tested and ensure that they are relevant to the sport. The test should also be repeated at specific intervals and measured against the training response.  Results can be instrumental in predicting race performance,...