Review - 3 Leg Cycling Turbo Training Video

Twitter is a wonderful thing. No one gets more than 140 characters and normal people get access to "celebs" (should it be your want). It's also a great way for companies to see what their customers think of their products.  I replied to someone asking which videos they should get for use on the turbo - 3LC or The Sufferfest.  I've always been an IWBMATTKYT kinda guy, so replied in support of The Sufferefest.  Later that night, I received a DM from 3LC offering me a chance to check out one of their videos, to see if my view could be swayed.

Cheeky promo video.....

So, I settled down on Thursday night with a pay-per-view copy of the sprinting session.  The pay-per-view is a cool little feature which means you can try the video for £2:99 before stumping up the £19:99 for your own copy.  The sprint session ties in nicely to my training plan, as I'm in need of some sessions which sharpen my speed.  I need to remember what it's like to sit at a HR well over threshold, as I just can't seem to push much harder at the moment.  This probably reflects a good winter of hard work, but without any real sharp stuff thrown in.

Doesn't everyone use a fee medical dictionary as  a wheel riser block?  

The "sprinting" session consisted of 3 or 4x 10 or 15sec sprints, with the remainder of that minute as a warm up.  Each set was followed by a 5min rest interval.  The final sprint includes a "lead out" of 3mins at 8-, 9- and finally 10/10 perceived exertion.  

The video takes an entirely different form to that of The Sufferfest.  The Sufferfest uses race footage and overlaid graphics to tell you what's going to happen.  3LC is essentially a recording of the esteemed Mr Cavendish and his fellow Isle of Man cyclists doing a spin/turbo session.  The banter is a high point and it's nice to see one of the top sprinters in the world grimace doing the same session as you.  My personal preference is for The Sufferfest.  I can put some loud, shouty music on  or listen to the decent soundtrack included and get on with it.  3LC is not dull, but the semi-artistic shots of turbos and the plethora of Cavendish victory photos would undoubtedly become tiresome after a few viewings.

If I'm honest, the session ended up being a little tame.  I'm used to sessions like The Sufferefest - Revolver, which is 15 x 1min on, 1min off.  This is a great session and it has had me feeling more than a little green in the past.  The longer sprint at the end of the 3LC video was the only time I felt properly broken as the sprints before that were so short, my HR barely had time to reach a good high level.  This was exacerbated by the fact there was such a long rest between each sprint and each set.  You can see this on my HR trace for the session and the breakdown of time spent in various HR zones.  You can see I was down to 65-70% of MHR between sets, which is pretty chilled out really.  This meant my HR had a long way to climb to reach the HR levels which I was hoping to work.  It's pretty difficult to increase your HR by 60bpm+ in 10-15secs! 

HR trace and zones for 3LC

76% of this video I spent essentially cruising.  Given this session is toted as a sprint session I thought I was in for a beating, but it just never really happened.  The final sprint, which included a 3min "lead out" was much more like it, and this got me working hard, but the sets before were leg ticklers in comparison to the offerings of The Sufferfest.

HR zones for The Sufferfest - Revolver

From the HR zones, you can see I spent only 3% at threshold HR in the 3LC video, but 17% in The Sufferfest video.  Nearly all of the threshold work in the 3LC video came during that final sprint.  It's worth bearing in mind I took this HR recording from a session I did last Jan, when I wasn't as fit and probably had a much lower threshold. There's a pretty good chance I spent much longer at either threshold or even VO2Max. 

There's also the price difference.  The Sufferfest only come as a digital format (MP4), but cost around £8:50.  The 3LC videos come as a DVD and cost £19:99.  I just can't justify that price.  I never use DVDs anymore and everything I watch is stored on my laptop, so the physical copy of the video has no real attraction.  For those using TV/DVD setups, maybe this could swing the argument one way or the other however.

So for me, this 3LC try-out hasn't changed anything.  I'm going to keep on Suffering.

www.3LC.tv

www.TheSufferfest.com

Thanks to 3LC for offering me the chance to try out their video.  It wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it won't work for others :-)

18 - 24 Feb

Swim

 3 sessions

Time: 2:00.00

Distance: 8300 m

Run

 4 sessions

Time: 3:16.12

Distance: 27.5 miles

Run 1 - 4.9 miles, 31.56
Run 2 - 11.3 miles, 1:25.43

Run 3 - 4.9 miles, 34.21

Run 4 - 6.4 miles, 44.12

Cycling

 2 sessions

Time: 2:00.00

Distance:  miles

Bike 1 -  Turbo, 1:00.00
Bike 2 - 14 miles, 1:00.00 

Week Totals

9 sessions

Time: 7:16.12

Pretty decent week, with the only let down being the cancellation of a TT I had entered for Sunday.  I'd been laying off the bike work as I'd had some problems with saddle sores in the run up and wanted to be comfortable for the race.  Highlight of the week for me was resetting my CSS pace.  Went off way too quick, going through the first 100m in 1:15ish!  Struggled through to finish with a new 400m PB of 5:34 and a subsequent 200m PB of 2:38.  There's definitely more to come I think, sub-5:30 should be do-able with better pacing.

Very much looking forward to my next 10km at  Bushy Park this coming weekend.  I think I've got a sub-38:30 in me, maybe getting close to 38:15 if I can find myself in a good group to pace with.  Depending on how this race goes, I'll set my goal for my first half-marathon which I'm doing at the end of March.  I've only really entered for a bit of fun and the experience, so I'm tempted to just go out strong and see if I can hang on.  The race time calculators say I could do a sub 1:25, but this seems very ambitious indeed.  We'll have to see, I'll have a better idea after Bushy.

7 Jan - 13 Jan

Swim

 2 sessions

Time: 2:00.00

Distance: 5, 400 m

Run

 3 sessions

Time: 2:08.50

Distance: 18.8 miles

Run 1 - 6 miles, 38.55
Run 2 - 4.1 miles, 28.23

Run 3 - 8.7 miles, 1:00.32

Cycling

2 sessions

Time: 5:35.56

Distance: 101.7 miles

Bike 1 - 19.6 miles, 1:12.47
Bike 2 - 81.1 miles, 4:23.09

Week Totals

7 sessions

Time: 9:53.46

Distance: 120.8 miles

 Another solid week for me this this week.  Beginning to string together some good weeks and I'm starting to settle into a routine of training.  One of the things I've previously struggled with is, not having come from a sporting performance background, is knowing how much I can subject my body to before it just decides enough is enough.  There's a fine line between pushing yourself to do a session you don't really fancy and forcing yourself to do something because that's what the plan says, but to your own detriment.  Toeing this line is something I believe comes with experience (possibly the experience of getting it wrong!) and, without wanting to get too touchy-feely about the whole thing, knowing and understanding what your body is trying to tell you.  Those heavy legs may just be the result of a hard session catching up to you, or is it the nag of an imminent injury?  So far, I've not had any real problems with injury and I'd like it to stay that way, so for once, I'm all ears.

This week saw me bite the financial bullet and enter all my races for this year.  I'd spent a fair amount of time putting together a plan for this year, so I decided rather than wait around and try to spread the cost, I would get it over and done with and guarantee myself an entry to the races.  I'm still toying with the idea of a late season triathlon, but it may be a little difficult to fit it around my commitments with Uni and with work.  It's something I'll readdress as the season progresses.

I also booked myself a swim stroke evaluation with Fiona Ford of SwimSmooth.  I'm hoping to find some 'free' speed in the swim leg as I've never had anyone assess my stroke in anyway as I am self-coached and taught.  In an odd way I'd like Fiona to tell me I'm doing a number of things wrong, because by correcting them I may gain a decent chunk of time!

This week also saw me go out on a training ride with my club, the Kingston Wheelers.  The training ride is the quickest ride that goes out, although this week was a little diluted due to the absence of a couple of the quicker guys.  The pace was quite conversational until the final 1/3 when things ramped up, just as the stomach cramps which had been bugging me for the past 30miles decided enough was enough.  I'd tried a new drink for this ride and it obviously didn't agree with me.  I was disappointed to end up dropping off the group and solo'ing home, but it is what it is.  The ride also showed me that although my cycling has come on quite well - I've only been cycling with the club for a year - I still have a very long way to go.

So far, so good for me in 2013.

26 Nov - 2 Dec

Swim

 3 sessions

Time: 02:30.00

Distance: 7100m

Run

3 sessions

Time: 1:38.50

Distance: 13.7 miles

Run 1 - 3.5 miles, 23.45
Run 2 - 3.1 miles, 18.57

Run 3 - 7.1 miles, 56.48

Cycling

 1 sessions

Time: 4:58.15

Distance: 86.7 miles

Bike 1 - 86.7 miles, 04:58.15
Bike 2 -  miles, 0:00.00 

Bike 3 - miles, 00:00.00

Week Totals

7 sessions

Time: 09:07.05

Distance: 104.8 miles

 A pretty good week this week.  Managed to get swim volume back up, but a little frustrated that my 3rd session was ruined because of how busy the pool was.  Never mind, I should have gone down for the morning session rather than the lunchtime session.  Cycling was just 1 session this week, mostly due to the cold, icy conditions, but it was a pretty good one.  Running was also pretty good again this week, including 2 races.  The first was my second XC race of the winter and I enjoyed this one a lot more.  The course was more suited to me, with a long drag uphill followed by a sharp downhil and I placed a lot better this time.  The second was the ParkRun at Kingston and I managed an 18.57 - RACE REPORT.  

All in all, another good week.  Need to get on top of this recurrent illness, seems every week I've got a cold or something.  Not sure what will sort it out, but I'm off to parent's house for Christmas soon so maybe some of the luxury of home will help....

This week while training I've mostly been singing....

29 Oct - 4 Nov

Swim

3 sessions

Time: 2:30:00

Distance: 7100m

Run

 5 sessions

Time: 3:24:46

Distance: 25.8 miles

Run 1 - 4.0 miles, 30:13

Run 2 - 1.4 miles, 14:00
Run 3 - 4.5miles, 29:44
Run 4 - 5.6miles, 39:21
Run 5 - 10.3miles, 1:21:28

Cycling

 3 sessions

Time: 5:33:27

Distance:  118.3 miles
  Bike 1 - 37.5 miles, 1:51:09

Bike 2 - 66.8 miles, 3:42:18
Bike 3 - 14.0 miles, 57:35

Week Totals

  11 sessions

Time: 12:15:49

Distance: 148.5 miles

Good week this week.  Swimming was a little hit or miss, but I think that's just because of a little inconsistency over the past week or two.  Probably lost some technique and subsequently pace since I peaked for Bala, but hoping some good technique sessions will bring it back and I can start getting some good swims in.  Bike wise, 2 really good rides including a cheeky evening ride with Kingston Wheelers on the winter training loop.  I used to join a weekly ride on the loop last winter and rarely made it all the way round in the group, getting spat out the back after doing as many turns as I could.  Now however, I'm relatively comfy until the end and feel happy enough to push to the front to up the pace if I feel it's dropping.  It's nice to see such improvements like this and it's given me a much needed confidence boost.  Longer ride this week took in some hills which were new for me.  I still struggle when the gradient ramps up >10% and I'm not sure why.  I seem to be just fine on lesser gradients, regardless of hill length and can push the pace, but as soon as it ramps up I just seem to go backwards.  Something I still need to do is get out my tri bike a bit more.  The evening rides are done at close to threshold so I've been doing them instead of a turbo so I've not been on my tri bike in a week or so now.  Run wise, I had a pretty good week with 3 runs >4miles and a longest run ever of 10.5 miles around Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park.  Felt great all the way round and looking forward to repeating the session. 

 Whilst training this week, I've mostly been singing.....

22 Oct - 28 Oct

Swim

2 sessions

Time: 2:00:00

Distance: 6200m

Run

 2 sessions

Time: 1:08:56

Distance: 9.9 miles

Run 1 - 4.9 miles, 33:35

Run 2 - 5.0 miles, 35:21

Cycling

 3 sessions

Time: 6:18:53

Distance: 108.2 miles
  Bike 1 - 37.6 miles, 1:58:40

Bike 2 - 48.3 miles, 2:50:13
Bike 3 - 22.3 miles, 1:30:00

Week Totals

  7 sessions

Time: 9:27:49

Distance: 121.9 miles

Not a bad week in all.  Ended up missing the LSR I had planned on Sunday because of a particularly good night out for a friend's birthday on Saturday (oops), which would have tipped me over 10hours for the week and made my run volume closer to 20miles.  I also really need to get to my local ParkRun so I can (finally) race a 5km and set new training paces.  I've been working on a guestimated time of 20min for a 5km, but I should really be closer to 19mins - I just need a free Saturday morning!  Went out for a spin on Tuesday evening on the Kingston Wheeler's winter training loop.  It's a 22.8 mile loop which is nearly all lit by street lamps and small groups blast round it regularly throughout the week.  I had arranged to meet up with some guys who are roughly the same fitness as me, but one of the very quick guys turned up and we ended up doing the loop with him.  The other two dropped off the back fairly early on, but I decided to try and hang on.  He ended up dragging me round the whole loop - I tried to do turns on the front, but only just had enough to stay on the back!  Great fun and he was kind enough to wait for me when I did get dropped on the hill.  I'd really like to make these sorts of training sessions a staple of winter biking.  It could replace/complement the turbo and seems like perfect training for Olympic distance bike leg, as it's nearly the same distance.  It's done at threshold+.  On Tues we averaged 23mph which included some slightly slower sections when we were stuck behind slower groups and at traffic lights and it was just the two of us.  In a larger group, with more people to share the work, it would have almost certainly been faster again.

This week I've been listening to.....

15 Oct - 21 Oct

Swim

2sessions

Time: 2:00:00

Distance: 6200m

Run

 3 sessions

Time: 2:15:31

Distance: 19.6miles

Run 1 - 5.5miles, 40:02

Run 2 - 5.0miles, 35:00

Run 3 - 9.1miles, 1:13:29

Cycling

Nothing.

Week Totals

  5 sessions

Time: 4:15:31

Distance: 23.5miles

What a disaster of a week.

Since the LCL race at Parliament Hill, I felt fatigued and generally a bit rubbish.  Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but coupled with the return of a large dose of man-flu and a really important deadline for Uni work I ended up missing 2 planned days of training completely and only doing half of 1 days planned sessions.  I was a bit lax at the start of the week, leaving all my double days until the end of the week and it really came back to haunt me.  Lesson learnt.  Next week, I'll plan my week and stick to it.  I'm far too liable to re-arrange my training because I feel a bit lazy that night and it leaves me trying to cram too much training into not enough days.

What I've been singing whilst training this week...

LCL Parliament Hill

On Wednesday, I did the London Cross Country League (LCL) race at Parliament Hill.  I hadn't done anything resembling cross country since I was at Primary School and to say I'd forgotten it's joys is an understatement.  I wasn't feeling great going in to the race, as I sit here typing this I have a dose of man flu that has never before been survived, but I still thought it'd be good training and I needed to go for a run that day anyway.

Warming up, I jogged half a lap and knew I was in for a tough time.  Slippery underfoot, an ever present gradient of some sort and a field of far more experience X-Country runners meant just finishing in a respectable time became the goal of the day.  The course was a 2.5mile loop which the men did twice, so a total of around 5miles.  Given my 10km pace is around 6:20min/mile, I thought something approaching 7min/miles would be achievable, given the course and how I was feeling.

The first lap was misery.  Unfortunately, my HR belt died on Monday so I have no HR data from the run, but it must have been seriously high.  It felt like threshold and above the whole time.  I thought I wanted to quit.  I hated the mud.  I questioned why on earth I was doing this to myself.

The second lap was worse.

Now I just wanted it to be over.  I thought about just jogging it in, but I couldn't do it.  I kept telling myself the last little rise was the one before the dip to the finish line.  Eventually, it was.  I came bumbling down that last hill, grateful for it to be over.  Then I heard it.  Someone was sat just behind me, waiting for their chance to out-sprint me at the finish and steal a precious place back.  Well, I'm not going to lie, I didn't like that idea.  If I wasn't competitive, I wouldn't be in sport.  So I waited until I heard him slightly pick up his cadence, then went for it.  He tried to keep with me, but I have a decent finishing kick on me and he was history.  I think he vomited.

Then I vomited.

Official time was bang on 35:00 giving me average mile splits of 7min/miles.

In the middle is me.  Pain face on.

Cross-country is awesome.  There's no doubt, it's way outside my training and my abilities at the minute.  I've just not trained for that style of running.  But that's not going to stop me turning up each week to get covered in mud.  I think it'll bring my running strength on no end - something I perhaps lack.  It's also an excellent hard run once a fortnight, in race conditions.  Something I know I lacked experience of last winter.  So I'll be back to try again.  The courses apparently get easier from now on, which is just fine by me.

Lesson learnt:

• Pacing.  I should have listened to a friend who said that the good guys take the first lap as a tempo run, then nail the second lap.  The adrenaline got to me and I did it the other way around.
• My Salomon Speedcross' were awesome.  I almost didn't wear them, but the grip they provide is just biblical and I was very grateful for it.
• Garmin in the back pocket was a great call - I can't remember the last time I did a stand alone running race at 7min/miles and I think I would have found it demoralising to have seen it mid-race.

Garmin was messed around a bit by all the tree cover I guess and only recorded 4.85miles. 

8 Oct - 14 Oct

Swim

3 sessions

Time: 3:00:00

Distance: 9200m

Run

5 sessions

Time: 2:55:43

Distance: 23.2miles

Run 1 - 3miles, 22:58

Run 2 - 5.1miles, 36:16

Run 3 - 8.0miles, 1:03:25

Run 4 - 4.9,iles, 0:39:00

Brick - 2.2miles, 0:14:04

Cycling

3 sessions

Time: 5:11:28

Distance: 75.3miles

Bike 1 - 61.0miles, 3:30:48

Bike 2 - Turbo, 0:50:00

Brick - 14.3miles, 0:50:40

Week Totals:

10 sessions

Time: 11:07:11

Distance: 104.5miles

Pretty good week all in all.  Bike 1 got cut short by a duet of punctures and the bike part of my brick workout was abandoned due to the truly horrendous traffic clogging up Richmond Park.  I won't be going back there on the weekend on the bike any time soon!  Swims felt good.  Re-calculated my CSS with times of 5:42 for 400m and 2:51 for 200m - a little slower than I did at the end of summer, but that may have been due to a lack of tumble turns (I seemed to have lost the knack!) and a fairly crowded public pool.  Nice to see a >20mile run week - going to try to build on that this week with a 10% increase, so around 25miles.  I'd like to build up to around 30miles/week which, as long as I introduce real quality at a later date, should see me make some gains next year.

What I've been singing whilst training this week.....

Motivation

Motivation is fickle.  Some days I can't wait to jump out of bed at 0600 to go swim in a too warm, overcrowded, hairy pool with bits floating in it (not just the frankly impressive number of plasters, but also the old boys who like to come down in the morning for a paddle).  Others, I have to drag myself out of bed after a minimum of 25mins snoozing my alarm and grumble about how unfair life is and wondering why on earth I think this triathlon lark is a good idea.

It's not surprising motivation is so variable.  As anyone who trains regularly in any sport, it's tough.  It physically drains you, leaving you with that persistent ache in your legs that never, ever, ever seems to go, no matter how much you'd like it to.  Thankfully, I've never been struck down much by injury.  Injury is something I live in fear of.  I know that I would a be a miserable, irritable mess if I was forced to sit and watch my fitness disappear in a blur of biscuits, the sofa and poor quality day time television.  Injury is something which would break me.  I don't know whether I would come back from an injury fighting to get back on track, clawing back those lost days and weeks.  I don't know if I'd be so appalled by how sloth-like I had become, I'd struggle to get the sessions in.

The mental fatigue is also huge.  When every session you do seems to leave you a broken mess, stumbling back into the house, it's not surprising the idea of repeating the experience becomes less and less appealing.  When you throw in a demanding University course, it seems all your life consists of is sleeping, lectures and training.  Television becomes something other people do.  Going out?  I don't drink sorry and I have training at 0700 tomorrow.  Dinner happens when everyone else is about to go to bed.  Sunday lie-ins?  Ha.

But despite all that, when it's good, it's oh so good.  Looking back at your week and noting that you did every session planned, smashed every interval and got your hours in you cannot help but be proud of that.  The look on people's faces when I tell then I tend to get between 9 and 11 sessions a week of training in is frankly priceless.

I'm looking forward to Winter.  I'm only 3 days in to my winter training, after a lovely fortnight of "off season" but I'm loving it.  I'm genuinely excited to see what happens after this winter.  I'm undoubtedly stronger than ever and with a winter of training behind me, next year is promising.  I'm nervous to set goals, but I have ideas of what I'd like to achieve next season.  I'm going to keep them to myself for now, as they will undoubtedly be influenced by how successful this winter is.  Things can only get better.

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

I have a plan.....

                                       AM                                                 PM
Monday                           Swim                                            Run #1
Tuesday                          Swim                                       Turbo Session
Wednesday                                                                          Run #2
Thursday                         Swim                           Shorter Bike Ride on Tri Bike
Friday                             Swim                                            Run #3
Saturday                       Long Run                          
Sunday                         Long Bike                                Stretching/Massage

Run #1 = Short Tempo Run (4-6miles) (5km pace + 20secs)
Run #2 = Long Tempo Run (7-8miles) (5km + 50 secs)
Run #3 = Short Tempo Run (4-6miles)
Long Run = Long, slow run (9-12miles) (8min/mile-ish, but taken as easy as needed)

As I begin to sharpen up for the season, one of these short tempo runs will become a track session.  The reason I've included the "long run" is to increase the amount of time on my feet.  I don't come from an athletics background and my thinking is that my running will be improved by including just some basic mileage.  I may look to do a half-marathon early next year, just for a change and to have something to break up the training.  I am in no way training specifically for a HM but racing is fun after all!

Shorter bike ride = 40miles or so
Long bike ride = 60-80miles
Turbo = 1 hour

Pretty simple I think.  The shorter bike ride on my tri bike is just to try and ensure I'm used to the position - no nasty surprises on race day!

I will be following the Level 3 Olympic plan provided by Swim Smooth for the swims.

I'll also be having every 4th week as an 'easy' week, where I'll slightly take down the mileage/drop a run.  For the first 3 weeks I'll be building up to this plan, so won't really be following this plan until the 1st week of November.  Although I've highlighted Sunday PM to stretch, I'm going to try and do some stretching after every session, to try and stay as injury free as possible.

James

The season that was....

My first season of triathlon is over.  Unfortunately, unable to race at Hever this weekend due to a persistent chest infection, I have no more races left this year.  Looking back on my season I think I can take away lots of good points and a couple of things I would really like to work on.....

Positives

- I qualified for GB Age Group, which I was pretty convinced would not happen. 

- Went sub 40mins for a 10km for the first time.

- Developed my cycling so that I am much stronger over longer distances now. I also feel like my 5 and 10min power has improved considerably. 

- With help from Swim Smooth I've managed to get my 400m time down from 6min40 to 5min37 and my 1500m time down from 27min-ish to doing a 23:0x at Bedford.  

- Snuck onto the podium for the first time with a cheeky 3rd place at the Thorpe Sprint Triathlon (1st race of series).

- Sorted out all the bike bling I will ever need and got a pretty good position sorted too.

 Negatives

 - A big, fat DNF at Bedford.    

 - Not nearly enough racing across all disciplines. I need to race more without a doubt.  

 - Still no real PBs over straight TT distances (though mostly due to only doing a couple all year).  

 Looking back over this list, I realise I actually had a fantastic season and it is all to easy to be too critical. On the other hand, who knows what sort of time I could do in Turkey if I correct all these little bits? The racing can be quite easily sorted. I have several ParkRuns very close to me so could race over 5km every week without too much hassle. There's a great little lake near to me too which hold swim races and aquathlons when it's warm enough. I've also begun to get quick enough to join the quick boys in the Club on their rides - they are considerably stronger than me at the moment, but it gives me something to aim for and will undoubtedly really help my cycle leg.

It's at this time where I also need to start planning for winter base training.  I know I need to keep working on all 3 disciplines but it's my running in particular that would seem to hold the most gains.  My swim and bike legs are of a good level, but I always lose time on the run.  I'm going to be putting together some sort of a plan over the next few weeks which will then make it's way up to this blog.

J

Swimming Smooth.....

Swimming is something I do not have a huge amount of talent for.  I surfed for the best part of 8 years before I moved to London for University and that has undoubtedly set me up quite well in terms of muscle development but I have never had any swim lessons past the absolute basics, let alone been part of a swim squad.  This complete lack of knowledge left me at a loss as to what my swim training should consist of.  There is information out there, but I had no real idea as to how to put it together.  This made itself obvious by my fairly average swim split of 28min at my first triathlon (London).  I didn't really know what I needed to do to really improve until on the recommendation of another swimmer I had a look at the Swim Smooth plans.

There are 3 different levels of plans, the Swim Smooth website describes them as:

Level 1 is for swimmers who swim around 7:45 to 12:00 for 400m or faster swimmers returning to fitness after a long layoff. A typical session is around 2300m. Don't be put off if you're quite new to freestyle swimming, these plans are just what you need to improve your swimming - and motivate you too!

* Level 2 is for swimmers around the 6:00 to 7:40 mark for 400m swam hard. Each session in the plan is 2500 to 3000m in length. This plan will direct you and challenge you - giving you the perfect mix of training and technique to get you into top shape for your triathlon season.

* Level 3 is for strong swimmers who swim sub 6 minutes for 400m. Each session is 3000+m in length. As an advanced swimmer you may feel your need to swim further than this but these sessions are highly focused and avoid 'junk yardage'. Exactly what you need to keep you motivated and gap the field.

I opted for the level 2 plan as fitness tests for work showed that my base level of fitness had me splashing my way through 400m in 6min37 - not exactly what I was hoping for.  Best will in the world this was going to give me a 1500m time of 26-27min, which is way off what I really needed to do if I had hopes of qualifying.  I only got round to ordering the plan just before the Easter holidays began giving me just enough time to complete the 11 week plan before my first 'A' race of the year and my first chance to qualify at the Bedford Triathlon.

So, the plan began.  3 mornings a week I dragged my weary body to the local pool and did around 2700m of swimming.  This was either a long swim (concentrating on endurance), a "fresh and fruity" set working on speed or a technique set.  Some of the techniques and drills seemed very odd to me and I couldn't really see their purpose.  Then, as I read some more articles about the Swim Smooth technique, I began to see what they were targeting and were hoping to improve.  I knew I was beginning to actually swim and not just power (read splash) my way down the pool.  I felt fluid and I felt as if the rhythm that was noticeably absent before was beginning to develop.  However, I was not prepared for the result of my session #14 (4th week of the plan) which called for me to repeat the 400m and 200m time trials that I used to set my CSS* pace.

I needed to check my watch again.

5:57.  5min 57 secs.  I couldn't believe it and a little squeak let everyone around me know I was pleased with the result.  In just over 4 weeks of training I had gone for 6:3x to 5:57 for 400m

These improvements just kept coming.  Understandably the improvements were smaller, but nevertheless, by the end of the 11week program, I was down to 5min36 for 400m.  This improvement was reflected in my swim split at Bala where I came out the water at 23:0x (can't be specific, timing mat was on entry to transition).

For winter, I'm going to be moving up a level to level 3 plan and I hope to get down to close to 5min for 400m by the time I go to turkey and a 1500m split of 21:xx and I truly feel that following this plan will see me achieve this.

If your swimming is stuck in a rut and you can't even comprehend how to swim faster - then check out Swim Smooth.  If you like the idea of structured sessions and not having to trawl Google results to piece together a patchwork session - then check out Swim Smooth.  If you like nicely bound books full of techniques and words like "fresh" and "fruity" you can check out these guys too.

James

* estimated pace which is lactate threshold pace

Swim Smooth Website

Swim Smooth Training Plans