SY – Swim Technique Analysis – 4/23/15

SY is well on his way to completing his first 70.3 race in Mont Tremblant. Having completed multiple marathons and adapting well to biking he’s in pretty good shape. His swim is the weak link in the chain. He’d previously been working with a swim coach and has been taught the mechanics although he needs a bit more targetted improvement in order to reduce the time in the water in his race.

The main two things I noticed about his freestyle is that he swims the entire time doing the catch-up drill, and that he pulls his head way out of the water to breath. The catch-up drill causes an issue because much of the momentum is lost at the front of every stroke because there is a long period of time where there is no propulsion created. Bringing his head out of the water so far causes another issue because he creates momentum to pull him out of the water so after breathing the only place for him to go is straight down.

Before we get into that, it’s worth noticing that at times he looks quite streamlined in the water:
When he isn’t taking a breath his body tends to revert back to a fairly flat position with his hips quite high in the water. I think if we resolve the issues causing him to sink his position will be maintained in this more hydrodynamic state.

Another shot from further forward. His legs are in the shadow of his body so do not create much drag. 

Now back to his head position when he’s breathing. He is really launching himself out of the water to grab that air. The first shot below shows the head, and then the second shows what happens below – he drops his hip and leading hand to support the vertical movement.

  

 

I had him do the one armed kicking drill and now I wish I had filmed it. He already does the drill but in order to breath he rolls onto his back to breath and then rotates the whole way round again. In the future he’s going to continue doing the drill but really focus on staying flat in the water and rotating no more than 90 degrees to get his breath.

Perhaps the biggest issue is catch-up style of swimming which accentuates the downwards momentum of the stroke. The following three shots show the progression of the hand entry to the point where both hands are fully extended at which point the stroke is initiated.

 

By the last shot his momentum has completely dissipated. His ability to create momentum seems to be pretty good because he manages to go from being completely submerged in the water (last photo) to being in a relatively great position (first and second photo).

We toyed with a few verbal/visual cues to have him initiate the catch on the leading hand much earlier. It was at the point I asked him to swim like a windmill that his rhythm appeared to be much improved. It did results in a higher turnover that felt hard, but I believe that it’ll feel much easier once he gets used to the change mechanics and how that impacts his breathing.

So the recommendations are:

• Swim like a windmill (NOTE: This is isn’t how he actually swims – it’s just the cue that seemed to work).
• Spend some time swimming with a snorkel trying to hold his head steady and just concentrate on the rhythm. I’ve highlighted the part of the head, below, that should be hitting the surface of the water (so that the crown of the head is slightly out of the water).
• When doing the one-armed kicking drill try to replicate that same position in the water and when breathing try to turn just enough to lift the mouth out of the water (one eye should remain below the water when breathing)

Swim Analysis LL 4/20/15

So the good:

• Good rhythm in the stroke.
• Good position in the water
• Continuous exhalation under the water
• Good elbow bend early on in the stroke
• Few bubbles on the hand entry

One of the key improvements Lindsey can make is to her stroke rate which is improving over time and is still an area she is working on.

Other thoughts:

Dropped elbow

The hand entry is clean and the first movement of the hand is into a nice position with the elbow above the elbow and above the forearm like so:

Unfortunately the next movement causes her elbow to drop (as seen in the next two pictures). I suspect that this is where she is trying to be long in the water. Whilst that is a good goal it’s creating a dropped elbow which causes a loss in propulsion and it is not until much later in the stroke that she the elbow is higher than the forearm again.

(But notice the nice body position!) The left hand has more of a drop than the right hand:

Hand Direction

You see a hint in the photo earlier (with the right elbow dropping);it appears to me that her hand is rotating in the water as she strokes. Ideally you want to think of the hand as a paddle. With a paddle you keep the paddle facing the same direction the whole time (i.e. pushing behind you to propel you forwards). In the photo, and the one below, it looks like her hand is twisting so although it’s creating a lot of surface area early in the stroke, by the time the hand is just past the shoulder has twisted so that her pinky is facing back, and her thumb forwards. I’m not sage enough to know what kind of time difference it would make so will let LL figure out where to put this on the priority list.

One other point (you’ll have to watch the video to see it) is that it looks like her stroke finishes at this point. There’s another 4-5 inches of distance she could push per stroke, whilst also engaging the triceps in the stroke more. My only worry with causing this change now would be that by telling her to push all the way back, the leading hand (already set to start the catch in the photo below) might end up sitting there creating a dead spot in her stroke. Given rhythm changes can take a while to nail, and that her half ironman race is coming up soon, it’s something I’d put on the todo list later in the year.

Breathing

When breathing both eyes come out of the water and her body rotation goes to the extreme. Her head position is good throughout the stroke so I’m not sure what is causing this. Perhaps it is just something for her to consciously work on but right now it seems to be less impactful on her speed. I suspect that as the other improvements are made (stroke rate/keeping the elbow high/hand position) she will move faster and start creating a wake which will create space for her to breath into. So this one is on the wait-and-see pile for now.

Summary

In loose priority order (for now leading up to the race):

1. Continue focus on stroke rate improvements
2. Reduce/Cut-out the dropped elbow (may need to film this specifically to test the impact of various cues)
3. Improve hand direction (i.e. prefer the paddle, never the knife)
4. Push the stroke all the way to the end (abuse the triceps!)
5. Review rotation of body and head position on breathing.

4 and 5 should definitely wait until after the race. 3 is perhaps the easier to fix although I would guess 2 will be a better performance enhancer if she can make the change in time.

Self-Review of Swim Technique (Result: NEED MORE EARLY VERTICAL FOREARM)

I was looking back at some old videos of me swimming and looking at a more recent one that a friend took for me (below).

I was hoping to have some more videos of 2014 while I was in Hawaii but unfortunately I can’t find them. Will have to double-check with the missus!

A quick review of the improvements:

• Stroke rate has gradually increased a lot over the years
• Head position has improved in that it is more steady in the water (I used to dunk it down deep below the water after every breath). It’s still not perfect but has improved.
• Looking quite flat in the water with legs following in the shadow of my body.
• Less of an over-glide at the front of the stroke

A few points of improvement:

My index finger splays out from my left hand on a fairly regular basis. I had never noticed this before. This should be a fairly easy change to make. I’m not sure if it’s improve my speed though. My thumb points out away from my other fingers when I swim but I’ve been told by a few reputable swim coaches that this is not an issue and many pros do.

One other note on the previous image is that it looks almost like my elbow is dropping a tiny bit but it’s too close to call so I’m not going to worry about it here. Generally when I see videos of myself swimming it isn’t an issue.

However, one key area of improvement where I think I can make an improvement is to improve my catch and get a vertical forearm much earlier in the cycle. The next two shots show my arm 45 degrees downwards with not even a hint of a bend in the elbow.

  

There is a slight hint of an elbow bend in the following shot but I believe if I can get the early vertical forearm (EVF) incorporated into my stroke I’ll be catching more water at the front end of the stroke and able to recruit my bigger lat muscles in the stroke more then my shoulders which still do a lot of work. I had been given this feedback by Daniel Viera at Full Throttle Endurance a while back and in my head had thought it had improved, but this goes to show I need to improve on that still..

I forget who the first screenshot is, but the second is of Rebecca Addlington. Here’s a link to Sun Yang who also has an amazing early vertical forearm.

Race Nutrition – Half Ironman (70.3) Distance

I was at a Q&A session at Hoboken Running Company organised by Gold Coast Triathlon Club aimed at newcomers to the sport to ask any questions on their mind. I figured I would put my thoughts to paper given I have 3 athletes doing 70.3 races this spring.

Firstly as with any advice, there is much that has to be tailored to each person. A person who is going to complete the distance at a high intensity in 4 hours is going to have a different approach to someone hoping to scrape though the 8.5 hour cutoff and for this reason it is important to practice ahead of time. Ideally you’d have 4-6 weeks of race-specific workouts where you can practice nutrition intake so that by race day you’re really confident.

Nutrition (inc. hydration) can be thought of as having these aspects:

• How many calories do I take in an hour?
• How do I space out these calories each hour?
• How much water should I take in?
• How about electrolytes?
• Solid calories vs liquid calories?
• How should I carry it?

There are so many permutations that you can’t cover everything but here are my thoughts below.

Calories per hour on the bike

If you’ve read more than one article on 70.3 nutrition you’ve probably read two suggestions on how many to take. I’ve heard many different levels from 100 calories per hour at one extreme (someone very adapted to burning fat as fuel) to 500 at  the other end (someone huge who can digest a lot!). So to get to an amount that works for you, you need to pick a starting level try that in a training session and then revise. The starting point could be 250 calories per hour, or you could try a formula-based approach: 4 calories/hr x your weight in kg. On your long brick session (e.g. 56mile bike followed by a 30 min run) try your base calorie number. If by the end of the run your stomach is complaining intensely you know to revise the number downwards. If you feel really flat later on the bike ride or on the run, or feel hungry then revise upwards. If you feel fantastic, then try it again as you may have got lucky first time.

There are other ways to try and figure out your caloric needs which are based on models but in my experience there are so many assumptions in the models that it is not much different than just picking a number and experimenting. Here’s a couple methods:

1. If you have a heart rate monitor, take a look at your recording to see how many calories you burned and your average heart rate. Take a look at this site and put in your heart rate, age and gender to get a (very rough!) estimate of the % of carbs utilised to exercise at this intensity. Multiple that number by the number of calories you burned by hour to get your calorie intake per hour. I personally don’t like this method but figured I’d mention it.
2. Go see someone like Nicci Schock and get tested. This is like a much more accurate version of the previous method. Additionally, if you’re far out from your race you can get advice on how to improve the % of fat utilization through changes to your diet. The downside is that it costs money!

One final thought is that even if you go with method 1 or 2, if you’re doing a very hilly race and expect to experience heart rate spikes throughout, your calorie burn and ability to digest is going to be impacted to some level, so again we go back to experimentation.

Calories for the run

When you’re running your generally working at a higher intensity. That combined with the fact that your stomach is bouncing around means you can’t consume as many calories on the run. The general recommendation is 100-150 calories/hour on the run.

Evenly spread out calories?

If like me you tend to swallow a little bit of salt water in open water swims, you may wish to wait for 15 minutes into the bike before you start taking in calories. This gives you a little bit of time for your stomach to settle. Additionally I prefer to take in a slightly smaller number of calories towards the end of the bike just in case I’ve overeaten and need my stomach to settle. Other than that it’s good to spread the calories out.

How much water should I take in?

Water again is a highly variable area depending on the person. Some people sweat more than others. In hot weather you’re likely to sweat more than in cool weather. Probably the easiest way to measure your sweat rate is to weigh yourself in the nude, go out and do an hours exercise without any water and then weigh yourself nude (after you’ve patted yourself dry again). If you lost half a kilo then you need to drink half a liter of water per hour. You can do this on longer workouts, you just need to divide the weight loss by number of hours exercised and then add back in the amount of liquid per hour you drank during the workout.

Again it’s not quite as simple as that. What if you live and train in North Dakota and heading off to Florida for a race? This is where guesswork comes back into play. You can estimate it by doing the test above wearing extra layers to try and simulate the heat, or do a trainer workout indoors with the room temperature around the expected temperature for the race. Even then you need to account for humidity.

Try not to get too carried away with these kinds of tests. It gives you a broad sense of what to plan for, but if the race is hotter than normal just take a few extra swigs of water whenever you feel like it.

Electrolytes

Starting to sound like a broken record? Experimentation! This is a great article on electrolytes and although a little lengthy I suspect it is probably shorter than this will turn out to be! Most sport drinks contain some electrolytes but sports drinks really vary so check the content of electrolytes in your sports drink and consider getting one with higher concentrations or supplementing with Nuun tablets. The benefit of Nuun tablets is that you can make a judgement during the race as to whether to supplement, the downside being that you have to manage the logistics of putting them into your drink while you’re moving.

How do you take your calories

This is perhaps the most personal choice out of all the aspects of nutrition. You can use assumptions and models to pick out numbers on calories and electrolytes but you really need to listen to your appetite and stomach on what to take in.

• Energy drink only (e.g. Perform/Infinity/Skratch/UCan). This is my preference.
• Energy drink + energy sweets (e.g. Cliff Shot Blox)
• Energy gels + power bars
• Real food (e.g. PB&J sandwich). In training I have had success with Pop Tarts; 400 calories per packet and easily transportable. I don’t do it in a race, but mention it just so you don’t feel constrained.
• Any combination whatsoever!

Remember that for the run if you have to carry the calories yourself you’ll need to pick something portable. Energy gels and coca cola are good options to play with as they are generally available on the run aid stations.

Logistics for the bike

The logistics depend a lot on the goals of your race. If you’ve practiced your strategy with items available from aid stations on race day then you’re pretty much set (assuming they don’t run out of your favoured items!). Generally it’s safest to transport all your calories on your person as you know you’ll have it. Some ideas:

• If going for an all-liquid strategy you can put all of your calories for the bike in one bottle and just take small sips from it. If you try this, use a see through bottle and mark lines on the bottle so you can keep track of how much you should drink per hour. Additionally make sure you use a mixture that stays consistent through time (i.e. the mixture doesn’t float to the bottom of the bottle and you realise you’ve been drinking water for most of the bike leg).
• Strap energy gels/bars to the top tube of your bike, or buy a bento box to store your calories.
• Stuff everything in your back pockets during T1 (assuming you wear a tri top with pockets or a cycling top).

Logistics for the run

In an ideal world you simply use the race nutrition, but if you have a preferred brand of energy gels you can stuff a couple in your back pocket during T2.

My preferred strategy for logistics

• Supermix my nutrition drink into one bottle that I put on the frame of my bike
• Use a hydration bottle between my arms that I can drink as I ride and also refill without stopping
• Stick something solid in my back pocket in case I get hunger pangs (normally Cliff Shot Blox)
• Put my tools/spares in a bento box
• On the run I just use race nutrition

Parting thoughts

These are ways to look at your nutrition for upcoming races, but there is much talk in the triathlon community about how to improve your fat-burning capability. GC’s own Matt Bach raced a full Ironman on less than 100 calories per hour. I’m experimenting with the same approach this year but don’t have any first hand experiences to relate. I’m game to try anything once, although if you’re coming up to a race soon I’d suggest you use the approach I outlined and then experiment with ideas such as MET when you have a longer time horizon.

Road Bikes for a shorty mcforty!

My lady is looking for a new bike. She had been riding an old 45cm Fuji bike with 700c wheels. It worked great as her first bike but after being stolen we figured it was a good time for her to upgrade to a ‘nicer’ bike. She had proved to herself that she enjoyed riding a lot and wanted to pursue it further.

We went to see Joe LoPorto at FitWerx to get a pre-fit so that we could figure out which bike frame might fit her. Often people will buy a bike that seems to be a reasonable size and then go from there. The problem with that is if you later decide to ride races or want to put aerobars on the bike for a triathlon you might find yourself far from ideal position.

Joe did his usual magic of finding a good fit. We were also educated about the pros and cons of women’s road bike frames (Lindsey wants a road bike primary and occasionally put aerobars on it for triathlons). Over the last few years road bike manufacturers have been discontinuing their frames with 650c wheels and altering the geometry to allow them to fit 700c frames.

Some great reading:

Some science and thoughts on the two wheel sizes:
http://www.rodbikes.com/articles/650-vs-700.html

A few notes from my favourite bike manufacturer:
http://www.cervelo.com/en/engineering/ask-the-engineers/what-is-your-opinion-on-650c-vs-700c-for-smaller-cyclists-.html

Another good read:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Bike_Fit/Choosing_a_Tri_Bike_via_Stack_and_Reach/The_Problem_with_Women_3440.html

And one more for good luck:

Click to access Lava_June2012_RIp650c.pdf

Lindsey’s options were basically:

1. Buy a 700c bike and live with the fact that she wouldn’t be able to get into an aggressive bike position ever
2. Buy a custom frame made of steel with a carbon fork. That would have 650c wheels although would be a bit heavier than the carbon frames available.
3. Buy a junior road bike made of aluminum

After trialling a couple of 700c road bikes Lindsey decided to go for the custom Guru frame size. She is currently awaiting it to be built and is very excited. In the meantime she’s passing the time on a Felt with 700c wheels.