How to Maintain Fitness and Wellness Habits: Tips and Techniques

How to Maintain Fitness and Wellness Habits: Tips and Techniques

Maintaining your fitness and wellness habits can be challenging, especially when life gets
busy. However, developing simple and effective strategies will help you stay on track and
keep your health a priority. This article will provide you with a comprehensive guide to
staying fit and healthy, complete with tips and techniques that you can implement in your
daily routine.

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6 Tips For Quality Run Training

6 Tips For Quality Run Training

Tips for Quality Run Training Train no faster than one pace quicker than the race you are training for. For example, 5k pace is good for an Olympic-distance race, while half-marathon pace suffices...

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The Goof Guppy – Swimprove #2

The Goof Guppy – Swimprove #2

In my recent post, Effortless Swimming-Goof Out#1, I gave a summary of the introductory lesson in Effortless Swimming’s Mastering Freestyle Course.  This course is located within the Swimprove program hosted by Brenton Ford and his Australian company Effortless Swimming.  I continued with that lesson for a week which was dedicated to balance and streamlining within the water, and I recently continued with lessons 1 & 2.

Lesson 1 was specifically geared to the feel of rotating from your hips.  I did this workout 3 times and I want to nickname it the Core Killer.  I never thought working out in the pool with so little movement would cause such a tightness in my abs and core, but nevertheless, my abs, obliques, quads and hammies where a little tight the next day.  It consisted of 1800 meters of drills, plus a warm-up and cool down making it 2400 meters total.

The Workout

WU: 300m any stroke
MS: 300m Kick on side w/ shoulder to chin
300m Kick on side w/ hand-to-face
300m Kick on side w/ switch
300m Kick on side w/ arms at side
300m Kick on side w/ arms across chest
300m Kick on side w/ blockhead arms
CD:300m Easy Free

I do not have a strong kick, so I continued to use my Zoomer fins to reduce my worry of propulsion since I knew that was not the focus of the workout.  Lucky for me, Brenton actually suggests the use of fins in both the written material and the videos that accompany this course.

Throughout the workout, I noticed that when it was more difficult to rotate from my hips, I was not streamlined, however when I engaged just my core, and lengthened myself, rotating the hips became a lot smoother and I did move faster to the other end of the pool.  I also learned more about breathing, because when you have one shoulder out of the water and you are look at the bottom of the pool, once in a while it is nice to turn your head and breathe.  The breath is quick, so I started to breathe out during the drill and breathe in when I rotated.  This was never natural for me and I know it caused a lot of anxiety for me.  It still isn’t natural, but it makes a lot more sense.  Once I finish the lessons, I will be able to develop a relaxing pattern with this new revelation.

Lesson 2 added the arms.  I kept the fins with these drills, but because there were only three drills, I dropped them afterwards and swam one thousand meters without them.  I was still slow, but I noticed it was quite a bit easier.  I also developed a patter of breathing for myself, which I still am not consistent with but, when my position is streamlined and I am keeping a high elbow, it is a lot easier with the new breathing patter. It makes for an interesting alert.  If I begin to feel like my breathing pattern is off, most likely it is because my swimming technique as fallen apart.

The Workout

WU: 300m any stroke
MS: 300m Shark Fin Drill with pause & return
300m Shark Fin Drill with practice entry
300m Shark Fin Drill with switch
10×100 Free Form Focus
CD: 300m Easy Free

This weekend will be the test.  My first triathlon of the season is Sunday at the HITS Ocala Olympic Triathlon.  I still have one more module of the Mastering Freestyle Course, but that will have to wait for next week.  I am going to use my last workout this week to continue with the lesson 2 drills.  We will see what happens. I am really excited

You can checkout the Swimprove program at www.swimprove.com

Carpe Viam!

Effortless Swimming Goof-Out #1

Effortless Swimming Goof-Out #1

In my post Goof Views and News #1 I again mentioned that swimming is my weakest event in the sport of Triathlon.  I remember completing a bike workout with the A-Train and one of our athletes David Nardoski was complaining of how slow a swimmer he was.  When we compared times, he was still 20% faster than I was or, am.  (Just for your information, David did not one, not two, but FOUR Ironman triathlons last year, plus a couple 70.3s as well.)

I also mentioned that I enlisted the help of Brenton Ford from Effortless Swimming and his Swimprove program.  If you are ready for a laugh here is the video I sent him for analysis.

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Interesting right?  Can you see those ankles?  How the heck am I supposed to move through the water with ankles that barely straighten past 90 degrees?  Unfortunately, the video didn’t exactly have the best angles so Brenton wasn’t able to analyze it, so I am hopefully going to enlist the help of a friend to do some more recording.  More videos are on the way. (Oh goodie, just what you wanted to see.  More horrible swimming.  Right?)

Yesterday, I completed the introductory lesson in the Swimprove Mastering Freestyle Program, which was 2000 meters of drills.  While at first glance the drills seemed rudimentary, even for me, they helped tremendously.

The workout when like this:

  1. WU(Warm-up): 250 any stroke
  2. MS(Main Set): 12×25 Kick on Back
  3. 12×25 Kick on Back with 20 degree rotation
  4. 12×25 Kick on Back with arm straight
  5. 12×25 Kick on Side
  6. 12×25 Kick on Side with arm straight
  7. CD(Cool Down): 250 Free

At first glance it doesn’t look so bad does it?  I didn’t think so either until I dug into it.  It was the amount of kicking.  As proof from the video, I do not have what any swimmer would call a strong kick, so it felt like forever for me to move from one wall to the other, but luckily that wasn’t the point of the drills.  It was to learn balance. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a lesson I learned.  I finally felt what it was like to be able to have a steady plane toward the surface of the water without a lot of effort.

From the second set on, I put on a pair of Zoomers(short fins) so I could at least get through the workout in time for work, and with each set I felt myself feel the water a little more.  Of course all the “feel” in the world didn’t keep me from zigzagging down the lane, at least while I was on my back, but my whole body was at least on the surface without dragging my legs, which is a huge issue for me.

By the time I turned over and was kicking on my side, and allowed my arm to dip below the surface about thirty degrees, I felt like I was really moving.  I even had an epiphany about breathing because while on my side I was forced to exhale out and almost roll completely over to get a breath.  I even started to relax a bit.  The cool down, while still not effortless, was far more streamlined than when I first entered the water that workout.

I think Brenton might have something with his Swimprove program.

Stay tuned, boys and girls, for more highlights from my journey to a faster more efficient swim.

Gasparilla Distance Classic

Runners – Have a great race weekend!

Carpe Viam!

In my head.

There are always interesting thoughts floating around in my head.  Of course there is a lot of room to “float” because there is nothing else taking up any room. 

After obtaining my current running fitness, I prided myself on the fact I could run on “autopilot”, where I could lean a little forward, my legs would move but in my head I could be just about anywhere I needed to be.  My first choice for solving problems and thinking about the problems of work or life, used to be the shower.  I don’t know what it was, probably the blank walls, but with the water hitting me I could float away and tackle some of the most interesting problems.  I usually would bound out of the shower singing or yelling; “I figured it out”, whatever it was.  Now my favorite time to think about my own issues, work problems, politics, etcetera is on a really long run.  I run for miles, and sometimes even more miles than planned just zoned out, and I come back refreshed and ready to take on the world.  I love it.

Now biking is a little different.  Most rides at this point I am either doing intervals, or on group rides so I have to think about cadence, speed and the wheel in front of me, but on rides that are just me where I am also not thinking about traffic, I can sometimes get into my zone.

Swimming?  No way.  I want to, I really do.  It’s just water, right?  There are no obstacles in my way, the pool is shallow and the only real maneuver I have to do is hit the wall and turn around. so why can’t I just do my laps and let my mind go.  I am hoping it’s just right now, as I am trying to get that level of fitness from swimming that I have from running.  Swimming is newer to me, and it is definitely my worst event.  I recently talked to my LMT and Biomechanic SME about it, and she said to start off by counting.  Count  my strokes, my breathes, something just to take your mind off your stroke, then maybe later on you will be able to zone out and the workout will just go that much quicker.  I can imagine the other idea is that due to the fact I do not have the same fitness level for swimming that I have for running I have not learned to enjoy it.  That is really my goal…Enjoy Swimming!!!  I like the water, I love the beach, I am not afraid of it, so why not enjoy swimming?  Something to ponder I guess.

Until next time…Live Strong..Finish Stronger!!!