JachinBoazTri's Take On
TRAINING FOR A LONG-DISTANCE SWIM: Swimming a 10K is swimming 6.2 miles… In order to successfully achieve this goal an athlete should consider five aspects of training: Hydration, Rest, Recovery, and Actual Training. I’ll address each of these separately.
Swimming a 10K is swimming 6.2 miles… In order to successfully achieve this goal an athlete needs to consider nutrition, hydration, rest, recovery and training. I’ll address each of these separately.

Calories consumed while swimming will vary, based on age, the stroke being swum, the level of exertion, the sex of the swimmer and their body weight. Active.com has published the following chart for the average caloric requirements of an athlete swimming freestyle:
Average athlete weighing 130 pounds will expend 590 calories an hour while swimming hard.
Average athlete weighing 155 pounds will expend 704 calories an hour while swimming hard.
Average athlete weighing 180 pounds will expend 817calories an hour while swimming hard.
Average athlete weighing 205 pounds will expend 931 calories an hour while swimming hard.

Again, actual calories consumed will vary based on exertion, water conditions, and the age and sex of the swimmer. According to Iowa State University, a healthy adult body can store about 2,000 calories - less for a smaller woman and more for a larger man. The average adult body can store 500 grams of carbohydrates. Skeletal muscles store about 400 grams of glycogen, the liver 90 to 110 grams of glycogen and your blood circulates roughly 25 grams as glucose. So… the average adult has enough calories to support swimming for about two and a half hours…

Remember, calories cannot be metabolized without proper hydration! This makes liquid nutrition especially appealing to the swimmer! If you combine water with nutrition your body can easily absorb the nutrients. Swimmers need to practice the consumption of a variety of nutritional products to see what best suits their GI and metabolic requirements. You’ve probably heard of runners hitting ’The Wall’ in marathons - the point where their body becomes depleted of calories, and they struggle to find the energy to continue running. The same can be said of distance swimmers… Once your workouts reach the point where you’re swimming for more than two hours you need to incorporate nutrition into your workouts…

I define rest as the amount of sleep an athlete gets each day. Recovery is your body’s ability to recover from one workout and hit the metrics of the next workout. Sleep directly affects the ability of the body to recover! Garmin has an algorithm built into its software and tells an athlete the general number of hours required to recover from a given workout. Recovery time is based on the level of exertion, the time expended and the attributes the athlete builds into their profile. When I’m coaching triathletes I generally try to write their workouts so they alternate between easy days and hard days, while gradually building workouts towards their respective race goals. It’s not uncommon for an athlete to taper two or three times in any given season… Tapering is a gradual reduction in the volume of workouts prior to a given race. I’d also strongly advocate exposure to race-day conditions PRIOR to the actual swim event. Sound judgement dictates that the swimmer must expose themselves to projected race day conditions (water temperature, ocean water, lake water, etc.) prior to the race… Plenty of open water races exist, with average distances of one mile to two or five miles.

Last, an athlete needs to periodize their workouts, gradually building distance in practice until the 10K can be accomplished. If a swimmer is starting from scratch, they should be able to swim for about 20 minutes, with rest built in to the 20-minute period. Depending on ability, an average athlete should be able to cover 400 to 800 yards in 20 minutes. I usually advise athletes to swim a minimum of three times a week - to maintain fitness. To build on that fitness an athlete should expect to swim four times per week to start. For an athlete planning to swim a 10K, a minimum of four or five weekly workouts should be attempted.

As weeks progress two factors will increase - the total time swimming and the distance covered in each workout. Start with the date of the race in mind, and work backwards, building volume each week by 10-percent (10%). I would advocate using a six-month training plan where a swimmer can start with 1,500 yards per workout in week one, 1,650 in week two, 1,800 in week three, etc. 10 weeks into this plan the swimmer will be averaging 4,000 yards per workout. Beginning with week 10, and going through week 24, I’d target swimming five times per week. During this build period, the 5th swim would be a ‘long’ swim - each week, and the other four swims would range from 2,500 to 5,000 yards. The swimmer would take one day off after their long swim and another day off based on how they’re feeling. During this phase of training total weekly yardage would range from 21,000 yards per week at week 10 to 45,000 yards in the final week of training! Actual yardage is dependent on the athlete, their fitness level and their goals for the race itself... The swimmer needs to build a taper into their workouts, decreasing the total yardage swum, about 10 days before the actual event itself… So, a swimmer averaging 2:00/100 yards could expect to complete a 10K swim in three hours and 34 minutes…

You have to be diligent about maintaining your body while training to maximize health and minimize injury. Proper nutrition, meals, the mix of carbohydrates to protein, etc. all must be monitored and explored to maintain a healthy immune system. I usually add a vitamin regimen when I’m training for longer distance events to ensure my body is receiving all of the necessary nutrients needed to maintain maximum health. Getting proper sleep each night becomes critically important! A swimmer needs to make sure their swim suit, goggles, caps, etc. will function well over long swims. Some swimmers use Vaseline or other creams to avoid skin abrasions, especially when swimming in salt water. ​

This month Coach Ed from Jachin-Boaz Bike Fit shares insights on maximizing racing potential as we age, and how to get the most out of your time on the bike. 

AGING & TRAINING

Over the years I've met a number of folks who have sold bikes they bought but could never comfortably ride. This was due largely to poor bike fit. Shops would never intentionally sell an athlete a bike they couldn't use, so where is the disconnect? To address this I'd like to look at a number of factors: the impact of age on performance, core strength, flexibility and bike fit.

Remember when you were invincible? You could throw any workout at your body and get up the next day and do it again! Age, genetics and past exposure to the repetitious nature of sport movement make each of us physiologically different in the way our bodies react to training. Sprint and Olympic volume impact one person's physiology differently than another person of the same age and gender. Training for 70.3's or 140.6's have a very different mix of aerobic to anaerobic content within training plans. A given athlete's  physiology may tolerate short-course training without issue, but struggle with long distance, or vise-versa.

Volume and intensity also impact our ability to tolerate training regimens. Then there's the issue of the ratio of intensity to volume over time, within a single workout, within a week, within a six week or meso-training plan or seasonal macro plan. The fact is, adding strength workouts to our regimen as we age is an effective way to combat injury caused by repetitive training activities. 

Gretchen M. Sanders talks about muscle innervation in an article in the November-December 2016 issue of Swimmer Magazine. In layman terms, muscle innervation is the process our body uses when sending electrical impulses originating in the mind through the spinal column to a specific group of muscle fibers, telling them to contract. The net result is movement. A motor neuron and the muscle tissue it innervates are collectively called a motor unit. The motor unit usually consist of either slow-twitch or fast twitch muscle fibers. Younger athletes have a mosaic pattern of mixed slow and fast-twitch muscle fibers within a given motor unit. For a variety of reasons, around the age of 40, our muscle motor units begin to lose their ability to innervate, and often become attached to adjoining motor neurons. Known as denervation, this causes 'clustering' of similar muscle fibers within given regions of a muscle, which changes the distribution of force as applied by the muscle.  

These changes can result in any number of issues, from falls to a simple lack of coordination. Muscle atrophy is simply the denervation of muscle fiber. As people grow older, fewer and fewer of these muscle motor units are able to be re-innervated. One of the most efficient ways to combat muscle denervation is to begin mixing strength training into your regimen. You may not be able to avoid muscle loss, but you certainly can slow the process by adding strength regimens to your workout calendar. My coach, Eric Limkemann, a local pro triathlete, includes strength training in my meso-plan through incorporation of the Oregon-Project-Stability-Routine.  https://www.therapeuticassociates.com/locations/oregon/portlandvancouver/north-portland/more/oregon-project-stability-routine/. 

So how does a good bike fit encourage efficient muscle use? My definition of bike fit is simply this: Physiologically positioning an athlete's body on the correct frame size to maximize muscle power output and cardiovascular efficiencies while tolerably comfortable. A good bike fit varies by athlete, and maximizes VO2 absorption through biometric positioning of the body on the bike. What good does it do if an athlete is totally comfortable but aerodynamically inefficient? The opposite of an aerodynamically inefficient bike fit would be a bike fit that's so aggressive an athlete cannot expand their diaphragm and breathe. The point is a perfect bike fit accommodates the most aerodynamic biometric position possible while maximizing oxygen absorption. Oxygen absorption is directly related to performance, and bike fit is directly related to oxygen absorption. The best bike fit for a given athlete should evolve over time.

I strongly encourage athletes to have a bike fit done first, prior to making their purchase. Bike sizing is very different from bike fitting! Bike sizing determines the correct frame size in proportion to the ratio of your inseam and torso lengths. Bike fitting uses the five points of contact - your butt, right and left feet, and hands, to that specific frame size in a way that maximizes your power output at a given level of exertion. Your bike fit may vary based on the length of the race you're completing, or the given volume of your bike training. 

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to learn more. You can reach me on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/jachinboazllc/ or on the web at:  http://www.jachinboaztri.com
Be well!
Coach Ed

​Rick came to me to fix his bike position, as his back was killing him on rides. In the process of adjusting his three-year old bike we determined that a new bike purchase might be best, so we used the Retül Dynamic Fit Bike to establish correct biodynamic metrics for the new purchase. Rick expects his new bike to be completely assembled shortly matching the new, more efficient and aerodynamic metrics!

Check out this video highlighting some of Andy Moser's bike fit I've recently done. You can see what Andy's up to by visiting Go To Eleven Racing.

Ed and I met in 2010 at the Y.  He encouraged me to get back in the pool and start swimming.  He was the primary driver in encouraging me to do my first triathlon in 2010.  Coach Ed has been encouraging me all along the way.  I started out with a 5k race and sprint triathlons.  Year after year, Ed has pushed me to train smarter, race harder and ultimately build my fitness and confidence season after season.  Coach Ed has strong communication skills and understands family, work and life can get in the way of training.  He works with his athletes to overcome obstacles and achieve the goal set by the athlete and coach.  Ed has the emotional maturity to understand when to push the athlete hard and when to lay off.  This skill gives him the ability to take a husband with two small children and a full time job from an 75th percentile finish at most races to a top 25 percentile finish at Ironman Florida 2015.  Ed is supportive in every way and can truly say my success at Florida was impossible without him by my side.
 ​

Cycling weekly will tell you the best way to increase your cycling speed is to bend and tuck your elbows, ride with other triathletes, do intervals, pump up your tires, brake less, ride in the drops, lose weight, build muscle, buy an aero bike and wheels and buy tighter clothing!1

While all of this is great strategy, let’s take a look at the basic elements that will help the average triathlete ride faster…  While cycling on a flat road aerodynamic drag is by far the greatest barrier to speed – it accounts for 70 to 90% of the resistance felt while cycling2 depending on physiology.  Think of drag this way – the thicker the medium you’re moving through the more drag your body creates. Given that air is thinner than water, your body position creates drag, but not as much as when you’re swimming… The drag created by your body while riding your bike is directly related to your position on the bike while pedaling through wind… The only obstacle greater than wind resistance is the force needed to overcome gravity while pedaling uphill!

The primary reason for investing in good bike fit is to maximize your aerodynamic position (reducing drag) while concurrently maximizing your physiology’s ability to absorb oxygen (dynamic energy production just below your anaerobic threshold.) Remember, the faster you go the more wind resistance (drag) you need to overcome…

According to Cyclingtips.com3 the top four things the average triathlete can do to improve speed performance are investment in an aerodynamic triathlon suit, the addition of aerobars or the purchase of a triathlon bike, procurement of an aero helmet and investing in a bike fit.  In fact, they’ve gone as far to calculate the cost per second saved, per the chart below:

The main points for any triathlete are:

• Race in an aerodynamic uniform.
• Buy the best triathlon bike you can afford. On a limited budget I’d advocate buying the bottom of the top! Buy the best used or new bike you can afford!
• Use an aero helmet in every race!
• Get a good bike fit!  Pro athletes race in a more aerodynamic position than may be comfortable for you, i.e. elbows tucked in, hips tight and close to the bottom bracket and knees close to the top tube. Get a bike fit before you buy a bike to ensure proper stack and reach:
  • Stack (the vertical distance in centimeters or inches from the center of the bottom bracket to the top middle point of the head tube, where the fork passes through the frame.) Good stack results in an angle from the hip to the knee to the ankle of 150°+/-).
    
  • Reach (the horizontal distance measured in centimeters or inches from the center of the bottom bracket to the center of the head tube/ stem.)
    

If stack and reach are correct for your physiology oxygen absorption will be maximized while drag is minimized! Remember, you can move towards a more aerodynamic position over time as your level of fitness increases.

Personality Matters - OPP's blog
The sporting elite: which personality characteristics contribute to sporting success?
Posted 14/08/2013 by Betsy Kendall, Chief Operating Officer, OPP, and Fiona Young, R&D intern, OPP
With Andy Murray clinching victory in the Wimbledon final, the England cricket team winning the Ashes, Chris Froome becoming the second British winner of the Tour de France and Christine Ohuruogu scooping gold in the 400m at the World Athletics Championships, it's been another great summer of British sporting success. Of course, physical prowess and natural sporting ability are essential ingredients for elite athletes, but here we consider which personality traits might make the difference between the good and the great in the sporting world.

Low Anxiety
Elite athletes tend to have lower scores on anxiety scales than average performers, making them more resilient, emotionally stable, and better at remaining calm in stressful situations. Where amateur sportsmen and women may buckle under the pressure of competition, those at the top of their game are able to use their emotional stability to their advantage to stay cool, calm and collected in those crucial moments. In the first test of this Ashes series, James Anderson held his nerve when Australia were only 15 runs away from stealing victory from England to take that all important tenth wicket, sealing their win.
Mental Toughness
Despite losing three championship points in the third set, Andy Murray went on to win the men’s Wimbledon final in an emphatic straight set victory. This kind of “mental toughness” is distinctive amongst elite performers, who are able to maintain unemotional, single-minded focus in the face of adversity, and is considered by experts to be a key attribute in sporting success. Indeed, Murray himself described the last game as, mentally, the toughest game he had ever faced. The psychological edge that mentally tough performers have over their opponents could be a key ingredient in defining those who attain the highest levels of sporting achievement.
Perfectionism
To be the best you have to strive for the best, and perfectionism is all about setting personally demanding standards. When the smallest of margins can make the difference between success and failure, discipline and a strong drive to succeed are crucial. Dave Brailsford, head of Team Sky and performance director of British Cycling, talks about the “aggregation of marginal gains” and the large impact that small improvements have on performance. This meticulous approach helped Chris Froome triumph in the Tour de France and ensured Olympic success for the Team GB cyclists at London 2012.
Self-belief
Losing is an inevitable part of any sporting career. However, elite sports performers view defeat as merely a small delay on the road to success. Their self-belief in their ability to succeed is undiminished by set-backs. An unshakeable belief in the ability to achieve competition goals is perhaps the most important attribute of any sports performer. The ability to perform is not enough; it’s the self-belief in your ability to perform and succeed that is critical. Amateur performers may suffer self-doubt after losing; but elite performers use these losses as motivation, their belief in their abilities unbroken.
In summary
Defining what makes a champion is no easy feat, but the personality traits and characteristics considered here can be easily spotted in many of the sporting greats. Although there will always be differences amongst elite performers, it’s clear that there are a few stand-out personality characteristics that can determine success. Yes, superior skills and training hard are vital, but amongst the elite it’s the mind that is the winner.