This last February I had the opportunity to do a training camp in Kona, Hawaii in preparation for my upcoming season. The winter time can be a hard time to train in Bend, Or. (my home), so if I want to make improvements in my fitness before June, I simply have to skip town. I got a couple friends together, a cheap rental, and off we went for 5 weeks of hard work (and maybe a little fun too;))
As things go some times, my second day there I pulled my calf muscle on a run, and running was out for this month of training. Not ideal, but we must adapt. Focus became getting healthy and putting big miles in on the bike, and what was already going to be a focus….swimming! As luck had it, my Forerunner 910xt showed up in the mail the day before I left for camp, and I was able to use this amazing unit to track my progress and work for the next 5 weeks. I decided for these 35 days, I would swim– every day. No matter what happened I would touch the water every day. Whether it was swimming with my big brother on the Ironman Hawaii course or a workout in the pool. Sure, some days were lighter, but some days were heavier with double swims sandwiched around a long ride. But I was in the water swimming. I had never been able to swim this much before due to weak shoulders and chronic pain. Before my trip I went in to Rebound Physical Therapy and learned some pretty useful exercises that I did daily to strengthen my weak muscles so I could handle the swim load.
One of my favorite swims was an open water swim from my sponsor in Hawaii, The Mauna Launi Hotel & Bungalows. I would usually walk to a neighboring beach and swim laps around a boat that was moored about 500 yards out. Typically, I did a few warm up laps, then I would do laps for time, and then usually somewhere I would focus on breakout speed to simulate a race effort and then settle in. It was a great way to find rhythm and get a good feel for race type conditions. Of course the turtles and the handful of dolphins, I was lucky enough to have as swim buddies from time to time, were a welcome treat. They would come close enough for me to tack onto the end of their group, and I would literally swim my pace with dolphins surrounding me. Spectacular, and yes I promise this is work!
It was great to be able to swim in the ocean, but at least half of my swimming was done in a pool. This is essential as I am always trying to improve upon my stroke and drills and shorter intervals are essential for this. My coach Matt Dixon would prescribe the set, and I would put my head down and get to work. Most days in the pool were between 4-5,500 yards and consisted of a mix of intensities and drills. My focus for this period was to improve my cadence of my stroke and I would do this by swimming faster 25 yard intervals and doing drills with a snorkel and a band around my ankles (something that was easy to track with my 910XT). Try tying your feet up and swimming, your stroke rate will improve. ha
Did this ‘swim camp’ work? Yes, I believe it did. In 35 days I swam every day with a total distance for the camp of over 150,000 yards. This is not a huge load compared to some “swimmers”, but for me, as a triathlete with chronic shoulder issues, this was huge. In 5 weeks I had noticeably more speed and strength in open water and my pool 100yd pace had improved by 3-4 seconds. I’ll take it. Once the season gets rolling this should put me in the front group of every race and allow me to race from the front early. Definitely worth the 35 days of “swim camp”.
Moral of the story is, focused ‘one’ sport camps, or focusing on a weakness for a period of time can be VERY beneficial. With triathlon we have to juggle so much that sometimes we become stagnant because we spread ourselves too thin. For me, this camp showed that a single sport focus can allow you to make breakthroughs in a short period of time, and in the end will lead you to be an overall better athlete if handled correctly. And…. Training in Hawaii is pretty awesome
– Matt
Source: Garmin
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Pro Triathlete Matt Lieto Swimming With The Dolphins