GREAT GREAT THANKS TO SAMSAM for compiling the timing. Pardon me, but she was so lovely. =)
Tonight's menu:
W/U
3x200 as (100 kick + 100 swim)
Main set 1:
8x50m hard KICK ONLY on 2:30.
Main set 2:
100 easy FS
Rest 2mins
300 moderate FS
Rest 2mins
500 hard FS
C/D
100 Back
100 Breast
100 Back
Total:
2200m
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2 issues to tackle in this entry.
1) Kick
Question raised to me after swim practice:
"Why do we do this kind of kick practice when we don't kick like that in our swim?"
Two parts to the answer:
i) You CAN swim with a kick like that in your race. You have to train hard enough so that you're fit enough to do that much amount of kicks.
Look at his insanely strong AND consistent kick. He can maintain it for 76 laps before a 180km race pace bike and 42.195km race pace marathon. =)
ii) You train yourself to do kick sets because they increases endurance in two main areas important in swimming:
ii-a) Streamlining of body position. As the body's length is made up mostly of the legs.. when you do a proper freestyle kick with straightened legs, you're consistently activating your leg muscles to pull the legs STRAIGHT up to the surface of the water after the down beat. That is the perfect thing to do when you want to keep your hips up on the surface while swimming.
By now you should notice that it takes effort to keep the hip from sinking.. and by doing the kick sets, you're training the endurance of those muscles that keeps your hips up even when you don't kick that much during your swim.
And last but not least, in order to kick properly, you also have to stabilize and streamline your torso so it will not waiver and cause drags.
All in all, by doing kick sets, you train your body to hold a good streamline position because of the need to have a good and efficient kick.
ii-b) I don't think anyone of you will say kick sets is actually very relaxing and it is not taxing on the body at all.... right?
So, the second part of the benefit of doing kick sets is it strains your cardiorespiratory system a lot and thus makes you more aerobically fit in general. Isn't that what we want? **Aerobic fitness enables you to utilize the lactic acid produced by your body to recycle into more energy!
**Aerobic system = use more fats, lesser glycolysis means lesser pyruvate is produced meaning lesser lactate and hydrogen will be produced. Also, improved aerobic system can also mean an increased number of capillaries thus aids in better O2 utilization which means pyruvate can be cleared more easily before lactate is formed and lactate can be recycled with O2 too. All in layman terms, a good aerobic base = good foundation for doing higher intensity with lesser lactic acid and hydrogen ion caused pain~ :D
2) Second issue to tackle is *Breathing*.
First, let me reintroduce you to this side skating drill using this youtube video:
Now, let me encourage you to go and do the drill on your own. Try to pay CONSCIOUS attention to 2 things:
i) Do you sink when you turn your head up to breathe?
ii) Do you sink when you turn your head back into the water to bubble and kick?
If you answer yes to any one (or both) of the above question, then you're too tensed up when you breathe.
This is what I see when you guys swim... when it is hard effort, the breathing part is not well controlled and you tend to turn very hard upward to breathe.. this jerking movement caused the hip to drop.
Please try out the drill, and once you get the turning to breathe and then turning back down without letting your hip sink at all, you'll have to try to replicate that breathing in your normal swim in every effort possible.
Note:
The video teaches you to shift the arm downwards to balance, my view is in actual world, you have to use your back, glutes and hamstring and other core muscles to keep the hip floating... plunging the arms down deeper only creates more drag at the arms area while resolving the sinking hips issue.
What I suggest is you try to do the drill with the arm deeper if your hip sinks but once you get it right, you have to reach forward and let the arm come closer to the surface instead of using the arm to balance, train yourself to utilize your back muscle to pull that hip up and then your leg muscles and glutes to pull the legs up.
Good luck trying and feed back to me what you found out pleasE! =)
Here's the timing for the swim:
Special thanks to Yasmin who helped me break my kick PB in the 3rd last set and then AGAIN in the last set. =)
KH, different people takes different amount of time to recover from hard run. It was a PB run for you and it took me 2 days to recovery.. i am not surprised it took longer for you that you did not so well for this swim cos all the core muscle still very much weakened. Don't be discouraged but technique is an asset that will stick no matter how weak you become and when you become, you'll be slicing and dicing once again in the water. =)
The rest of you, do look at the mins/50m timing of Sam, Lawrence, Teck Beng, Calvin, Marianne and myself... In Triathlon racing, you have to know the key to pacing is to realize the progression that a 100m easy pace when you're FRESH will become a moderate pace if you maintain it for a distance and to maintain the same pace over an even longer distance may cause it to become a hard effort depending on how good your fitness is.
For example, for Lawrence and myself, the 500m was a sub-maximal pace and I did not do a hard at all because this is my first 500m "TT" after so long and I want to see how well I can pace myself. Still, maintaining an effort will almost definitely cause an initially easy effort to raise in perceived exertion due to the need to endure (thus the term endurance training) a longer period of exertion (duh). Hope this clarify some questions on pacing.
Cheers
KK and Sam (psst: you're good. Congrats on 500m PB. ^_^v )
Psst...some drafting lah....
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