first triathlonites 2006-07

[eclectic]

My problem is I need to learn to pace myself. I did 100m then CARKED IT... totally out of energy... So I the rest of the laps were 50m blocks... ;_;

Last time I trained I did 175 without stopping.

What can I do to slow myself down so I can do 300m without stopping at all?
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You asked so Imma gonna tell ya

My coach told me to "slow down to go faster" or in other words really slow down and concentrate on your body position, arm exit and entry, hand position, head position, breathing, sucking your stomach it, stretching your whole body out, kicking from the hips with a flexible leg etc. It is amazing because you will feel like you are going slower but in reality you are going faster and expending less energy

Make sure your Left arm is fully extended before your right hand starts to pull and vice versa and you are turning from your waist not your neck ( it is almost a snapping motion) - I can tell you some drills to get proper body alignment if you are interested but they do require a snorkel

Your bike ride probably warmed your legs up pretty good but your arms and shoulders will need some warming up.

FWIW here are my suggestions, forgive me if you already know them but hey maybe someone else doesn't

When you first start try some freestyle drills and really concentrate on form

One is called "fingertip drag" - you concentrate on bringing your elbow out of the water first then dragging your fingertips along the surface before entering back in

another that is a little harder but trust me it will slow you down and it is really good is "catch up"
the best way to do this is to hold on to a 9" stick (we use sawed off hockey sticks) a 1" dowel would work. Your continually hold the stick at arms length in front of you, you have to grab the stick with the LH before the right hand can let go, not only are you getting better timing w/ your stroke but you're also getting the resistance from the stick (and it is a lot more than you would think)
Eventually you can get the rhythm down and do this drill w/o the stick.
I am still not very good at this one 50 meters of it is more than enough

A fun one is "popovers" you do 3 strokes of Front crawl then roll over and do 3 strokes of back crawl and basically corkscrew down the pool

I don't know what this one is called but you kind of lay on your side facing left w/ your right hand extended and your face out of the water, kick for six kicks, do 3 arm strokes (l,r,l) with your face in the water, then face right, do 6 kicks, 3 arm strokes and you are back on your left - this is a great drill for starting to learn bilateral breathing.

If you can already bilateral breathe do 50 meters of this (3 stroke breathing) then 50 of 4 stroke breathing

tying a 4 litre icecream bucket onto a rope longer than your legs and then tying it around your waist so it trails behind you will slow you down and it helps build endurance. 25-50 meters of this is plenty (eventually we got "parachutes" that look like windsocks so we don't look quite so dorky)

start with 2 - 50 meter sets of these every swim before you start doing your sprint training. try to work up to 200 meters of them

Are you in a 25 or 50 meter pool?
for sprint training - try doing 50 meters on a set time and do 5 or more sets of them (example 50 meters on 75 secs ) the faster you get done, the more time you have to rest before you go again - you leave every 75 secs even if you got in at 65
- you do want to have at least a 10 sec rest so plan your time accordingly

If you are in a 25m pool try 25's on 35 or 40 sec

THEN when you are all done these do a nice easy cool down crawl stroke for at least 100 meters.

Eventually do a Slow (fingertip drag is a good one for this ) 200 meters before even starting anything else, count your strokes to see how many it takes you to get to the other end, as you get stronger and more efficient it should take less and less

(in an hour practice we did 5 - 600 meters of warm ups before starting drills or sprints)

Let me know if you try any of these and if they help