2 weeks until the Malibu Olympic Triathlon

I haven't been on a rigorous training plan of any sort for the past year. The main reason for this is that between work and training 3 different disciplines, I simply didn't know where or when I could fit in workouts. When I was strictly running, that was easy - I could throw on my shoes and crank out miles any time, any where. However, when you start doing long bike rides, pool swims, and open water swims, things get complicated fast. I think it took most of the last 6 months to get myself into a semblance of a routine that would at least maintain, if not slightly improve my ability at each discipline.

Almost before I know it, the Malibu Olympic distance triathlon is right around the corner - 2 weeks! Ordinarily in marathon season, I'd be peaking and thus would be very aware of the race date, but in triathlon land, I haven't done a rampup and thus was pretty clueless about the race date except for the fact I'd signed up for the race months ago. This race is supposed to be a "tuneup" for my real goal race, which is the LA Triathlon in September, but I suspect that my performance at both races will be essentially identical.

The big question on race day will be how well I perform on the swim. Cycling and running will go well no matter what, and I expect the running to hurt much more than the cycling, since I'm fast enough to really burn off all my energy in the end of the race. Still, it won't matter how fast I run or bike if I have another disastrous swim.

Swim intervals have been going very well. I've been ramping up swim volume, and have gone from 12 x 100yd intervals at 1:52-1:55 to today's peak at 22 x 100yd at 1:46-1:48/100yds. The speed increase is likely technique related, and not just strength, as I've been experimenting with small changes that seem to make a significant difference. The two subtle improvements that lopped a good 7 sec/100 off my time in the past 2 weeks:

- Closing the space between my outstretched arm and my head - 3 sec/100

- Pointing my toes maximally throughout the swim - 4 sec/100

The toe pointing thing really surprised me. Runners are known to not have flexible ankles, and I definitely fall into the "stiff ankle" category. I never really thought much about my toes before, as the emphasis was clearly on more important things such as body position and rotation. However, I think I'm getting to the point where these differences are becoming significant. When I tried the toe-point aggressively last week, I couldn't hold it for the workout, as my feet started to cramp! It takes me a fair amount of effort to keep them maximally pointed, and I really need to work on my flexibility down there. However, the payoff is real - 4sec/100 is a substantial improvement, and I didn't even believe that this phenomena was real until I cranked out all 22 sets today in record-pace, which I attribute entirely to the two technical changes above, as there's no way I would have been able to exert supramaximal speed for me for all 22 sets, as I normally do 16-18. Bottom line - little things can make a real difference for me at this point, and I've got to go discover the rest of them. The next thing I really am going to focus on is my keeping my fingers together on the pull. I suspect this will not give me a real speed increase, but I've got to try it out, as I never guessed that toes would have made such a big difference as well.

One annoying thing that I'm dealing with now that hasn't bothered me since last year is pain in my left shoulder, or swimmer's shoulder. I got this pain in a debilitating manner last year when I started swimming earnestly, but it went away with rest and moderation. It is almost definitely due to my recent rampup in swim paces and volume, including a hard sprint set last week which seemed to tip everything off. I'm going to have to watch this one carefully, but on the bright side, I'll be away at a wedding for at least 4 days this week so the absence of swimming for this period will actually be welcomed.

I've still got my doubts though as to race-day performance. I was 95% as fast on intervals (albeit I could do fewer of them) as I was now when I did my last triathlon, and I finished near DFL (dead f*** last) in my AG then, so I'm being realistic and just shooting to be in the bottom quarter of my AG as oppposed to the bottom 2-5%. I think the biggest difference on race day will be that this time around, I'm going to go close to all-out on the swim, as I know I've trained the distance. At my last triathlon, I was very conservative due to the waves and my inexperience, and I swam at only 60% of my ability. I'm going to crank it up to 85-90% this time around and see how I fare. I'm hoping for a 2:05-2:10/100m pace in open water if all goes well - this is consistent with my 1:46/100yard pace in the pool, with allowances for slowing due to sighting.

Last interesting swim factoids I picked up recently:

Swim volumes per week:

- Back of Pack triathlon swimmer (aka ME): 6000-8000 yards / week. (3-4 miles)

- Front of Pack triathlon swimmer : 10,000 - 20,000 yards / week (5-10 miles)

- Michael Phelps world champion pro swimmer: 80,000 yards / week (50 miles!!)