Honoulu Tri '13 Race Report

Here we are, my last and final triathlon in Hawaii. Also, the only race I've done three times as a solo. Also, the worst run I've ever had during a race (save maybe 2011's Ko'Olina Sprint). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I registered for Honolulu ages ago, back when the early registration price was still reasonable. I figured I needed to do it, even if I wasn't trained up. This was before Dirtbag Baby was born, so I didn't yet realize how much my training was about to be impacted. Which was a lot.
I barely trained for this race. Barely barely barely. I hadn't really been in the water. I'd done a few rides over 25 miles, but not much over and not often. I hadn't run further than 3.5 miles since probably the Honu. I was not ready. If you went back and told 2011 me how I was preparing for this race he'd have freaked out. I was training like crazy back then. Not so much.
That meant mentally I was in a completely different place come Sunday morning. I talked about this in my last two race reports- I felt no pressure to perform at all. I was putting no expectations on myself other than finish the race and try to enjoy it. I knew it was going to hurt. I also knew that as far as courses go it is pretty easy. The swim is in a protected lagoon (basically, it's not really a lagoon). The ride is as flat as you can ask for, and not in a typically windy part of the island. The run is even flatter than that, and there is pretty decent shade. I can get through this on minimum training as long as I do it right. The big question was how long would it take for that lack of preparedness to catch up to me? Hopefully not until the run, because if I bonked on the bike I'd be miserable.
Dirtbag Mom was on island to visit with us and (mostly) Dirtbag Baby, so she drove us down to Ala Moana park Sunday morning, dark and early. Tiny human was so good the whole day. It was crazy early for all of us and we weren't sure how he would react to getting up and going in the car like that but he was great. Slept, no fussing, just a good boy.

I was feeling good, found Diesel and The Grey prior to the start, so we got to chat a little. Nice to have friends at the race with you. The Grey was complaining about his Achilles tendon, saying he'd probably have to walk the course so he didn't injure himself before the Honu. And Diesel was at the tail end of a cold that had knocked him on his ass all week. We were a couple of right strong triathletes, us. 
There were technical difficulties before the off, so we didn't get to hear the national anthem or Hawai'i Pono'i, the Hawaii state song, and I thought that was a bummer. I'm not a big fan of nationalistic chest thumping, but those songs start big events. They just do. We did get thirty seconds of silence for Boston, which I liked. And which was almost observed in silence, but not quite. Not quite because, well..ok, let's do this now.
The Honolulu Triathlon has become quite the travel race for Japanese triathletes. More and more visitors come every year to compete with us. Probably because the course is beautiful. Probably because they like coming to Hawaii anyway. Probably because they get some kind of deal- there are entire sections of the race staging area set up specifically for Japanese athletes. And I have no problem with Japanese athletes, I don't. I have a problem with the race becoming geared away from the people who live in Hawaii and towards the people who fly in for the race. This isn't a complaint about having everything translated into Japanese- I don't care. I really don't. America doesn't have a national language and I want everyone to know what's going on. But I no longer feel catered to when it comes to the Honololo Triathlon. I'm not the target athlete, but I'm the one who lives here. I'm the one here doing every other event the race director puts on. So when Japanese athletes do a cheer during the thirty seconds of silence for Boston I'm a little irritated. Don't believe me that the race is becoming more focused on Japanese imports than locals? Here is the race shirt from this year-

See? Look closer.

 Really look at it.

If you've ever ever been somewhere surrounded by tourists from that little island nation you know light blue and pink (PINK!?! ON BLUE?!? WITH YELLOW!?! WTF?) is their jam. It's the ugliest race shirt I have.
Anyway, there are a lot of Japanese racers here. They race differently than American racers do. They bunch. A swim start is always a washing machine mosh pit of bodies, and I like fighting through that and finding open water. But the numbers of guys in my wave made that very difficult. Not to mention (ok, this and one more complaint about Japanese athletes- I hope I don't sound racist because that's not it) they all wore their wetsuits. Now, according to USAT rules the water temperature was a wetsuit legal 77*. Except there was no way the water was that cold. I think the race director fudged the numbers because all those paying customers flew their wetsuits all the way to Hawaii and he didn't want to tell them to take 'em off or be ineligible for medals (not that we got medals, ohh I have so much to complain about I guess. Quick version in this tangent within a tangent- The Race Director, who nobody likes, has decided the event is going green. That means no awards for anyone but the overall winners. If you won your age group he will email you your certificate and personalized picture. Yeah, fucking digital awards for a race you paid nearly $200 to register for. Fuck that guy.). Anyway, wetsuits make crappy swimmers better because they float. That means crappy swimmers get in the way more.
I seeded myself near the front of my wave on the beach, mostly because I didn't want to get stuck behind too many people. Fidget, wiggle, shake, check goggles for the 12th time, wait- GO! The elite wave got a gun. We got a guy yelling at us. Whatever.
And I immediately got converged upon. This mass start was much more full than I remember from the last two years. Maybe because the last two years I was more confident in my swim so I charged harder right away. Either way, lots of bodies dropping to swim right in front of me, then standing back up, then dropping again. In my way. Come on, fellas, get on with it. There was probably 75 yards of this foolishness before we actually were able to get under-weigh.
It took longer than normal to find open water, and I spent quite a lot of the swim out right next to a dude who liked me a bunch. He didn't swim straight, so we kept bumping into each other. There's a difference between drafting and actually sitting on someone's hip, but he didn't know that. We were friends.
I chilled the swim out for the most part, concentrating on keeping a strong, steady, smooth stroke. Not spending too much energy, just get it done. Keep the heart rate under control and swim straight. The turn-around came quicker than I expected and I was feeling good. But I had forgotten about salt water chafing. Oh, the chafing. Right in the armpits it grinds and grinds, making the skin there raw. I normally put some type of Body Glide on my skin to prevent that, but had forgotten because it had been too long since I'd done a long swim. My bad. That stuff hurts, man. I couldn't wait to be done with the swim, not because I was tired but because I was raw.
Hit the beach and cruised to T1. I'm not in a hurry, I will take my time. No stress. Didn't see Wife, Mom, and Baby on my way up the beach  but that didn't mean they weren't there. The Grey and Diesel were in a wave way behind my own, so they hadn't been through transition either. I wondered if I would see them on the bike or not until the run. Expected Diesel on the bike. Changed, trotted out to the line, mounted and got to the going.

Even cruising the swim I was still pretty fast. You can do a lot with good technique, and I do.
The ride was smooth sailing. Because I was slightly slower on my swim than normal I was out on the road with a few more people. Last year and the year before I didn't have any friends for a while. I was out of T1 this year with two or three other guys, who left me in the dust pretty quick.
I had no illusions about how badly under-trained I was for the bike, so I was determined not to go crazy. Got down in aero, tucked in, and found my rhythm. I did pass one or two guys and played leap frog too, but mostly it was pass pass pass the Dirtbag. Still, I felt surprisingly strong out on the road. I knew I didn't have any sudden speed in my legs, there would be no sprinting, but I had a constant strength. Smooth and steady, that's the way to do it. Felt completely different from last year, when I had a great big distance engine. But it would do.
Since I'm all about complaining it seems like, here's another one- Where were the course marshals stopping the drafting and group riding? Our races are non-drafting events, meaning you need x number of bike lengths between you and the guy ahead of you. If you're passing then pass and the person passed has gotta drop back. There shouldn't be a massive peloton. There shouldn't be a line of three guys drafting off each other like they do on training rides. There was so much of that going on. I passed massive groups of riders clumped together. At the risk of sounding whatever, the biggest clumps were the Japanese riders, taking up the entire road and making passing impossible. No race awareness at all. No consideration for the athletes around them. Where was the people zipping around on motorcycles who are supposed to flag and fix that? Totally and completely frustrating.

 The one part of the course that normally gives me trouble, the out-and-back on Lagoon Dr. wasn't a problem. It wasn't any fun either. You see, normally there's a strong tailwind on the out and a strong headwind on the back. I was looking forward to the tailwind. You hit Lagoon around mile 19 and by then I was ready for a little natural boost. Twas not to be. On the plus side, that meant no headwind.
Pulled my feet out of my shoes for my amateur take on the flying squirrel dismount the super-fast guys use and rolled into T2 feeling ok. I knew there was pain ahead. I could feel it in the legs. I took my time in transition, got set, tried to get a but more water in me (thought I'd hydrated well on the bike, but it never hurts and the sun was hotting up).

The last time I looked happy on the run (15 meters in)

 The run fell apart pretty damn quick. I knew two steps in that it was going to be bad. How bad I wasn't sure, but bad.
It was worse.
It occurred to me not long into the 10k that I hadn't run more than 3.5mi since...oh probably the Honu last year. Crap. Swimming is easy. Cycling isn't hard, not on the flats (I'd have died if there were any significant climbs on the ride). But running, for yours truly, that's brutal in the best of situations.
I walked. I walked so much. I bonked like nobodies business. It was the hurt. I hadn't fueled well the morning of the race and I hadn't used my brain and bought some Gu before race day for during the race. What I had done was found a Hammer Gel from last year and stashed it in my back pocket in case I needed it. But I didn't know if those things go bad. What would they do? By mile 3 I didn't care. I needed calories. I took the Hammer. It was kind of gross. Still prefer Gu. I walked all of mile 3, waiting to see what the tummy made of the gel. Would I feel better or feel sick? Better, it turned out. Well enough to trot more than I walked for the last two miles. But I was miserable in the middle there. It was swiftly becoming a hot, windless day. Probably the worst run leg I've ever had. Lots of walking. Lots of fighting the negative. It didn't help that the run course is pretty dumbly laid-out. Lots of loops and turns and double-backs because the race director is too cheap to reserve the park next to Ala Moana as well, so it's a mess.
The Grey met me for the last quarter mile, having finished well ahead of me (and having run most of the race, contrary to what he said he was going to do). Actually, he and Diesel didn't catch me until the run, which was cool. They started with the old guys, waves and waves behind me, but still. We trotted to the finish line together, then he peeled off and I got to do something I've been waiting to do for five months.

The Grey, mocking me into the finish

 I took my son from his mom and held him in my sweaty, stinky, gross arms and ran through the finish.

Pretty much the coolest way to finish a race ever

 When they handed me my finisher medal (plate) I had them put it around the boy's neck. That was a pretty cool moment. Tiny human's first triathlon finish.

After the race the boys, my mom, and Super Awesome Wife hung out in the shade for a while. We rinsed off in the ocean, getting the sweat clear. And we watched the millions of tourist triathletes roam.
Final race thoughts-
Swim- 27:22
T1- 1:50
Bike- 1:15.07
T2- 2:07
Run- 1:18.36
Total- 3:05.20 
My splits, aside from my run, weren't that far off last year's. I didn't get a ton slower by not training like a crazy person. I did lose a lot of the confidence I'd gone into the previous races with. I didn't ever feel strong. I don't like racing like that and I need to fix it.
I am very disappointed in what the Honolulu Triathlon has turned in to. The digital awards, the massive medals, the hideous shirts, the overly fancy number tattoos, the blocked up and over-crowded bike course, the ridiculous run course, the lack of Hawaii Pono'i or the National Anthem, it's just not a fun environment to race in any more. And the parking. For a price you can get cherry parking, something I like taking advantage of. The website said passes were $10. Diesel picked one up for himself and one for me. They charged him $15, said there had been a change. Later we found out they cut the price back down to $10 the next day. I don't know what's up with that, but it smells fishy. No announcements were made about, "Hey, if you over-paid for parking we'd like to refund you your five buck." Just screw you, sucker. I don't think I would do it again next year. Which is too bad, because it's the only Olympic-distance race on the island. I'm not a fan of the Race Director, who's other race is the Ko'Olina Sprint, another poorly organized and over-priced event. I'm sorry this report focused so much on the negative, I don't like to do that and it isn't what this blog is about, but that's the taste that the whole race experience left in my mouth. I'm finally finishing this race report weeks after I crossed the line and I'm still put off by the whole thing. I know it's not just me, at least The Grey and Diesel feel the same.
We are moving to the mainland at the end of this month, where I'm looking forward to new races and new challenges. I want to thank thank thank Background Profiles for their incredible continued support. 

A Faster 1.5km Swim in the Key of S- Part 4: Smart

Closing out my Massive SwimSplosion of Advice about a faster swim leg of your next Olympic-distance triathlon is some musings on swimming Smart. Strategy during the swim is very important, and you can be as Smooth, Strong, and Sustainable as you want, but if you don't swim Smart you're going to be eating wake.
Thanks for reading.

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Smart
Smart strategies are things that are important but don’t have any real place in the first three categories. These will help you think about swimming and plan your race better. A good swimmer is constantly evaluating, tweaking, and planning.

Tip#1- Warm-up
Thou shalt warm up before the race. Try to time your trip to the Port-a-Potty early enough to allow yourself ten minutes if splashing around in the water before the race starts. Yes, a 1.5km swim is long enough for a warm-up to happen while you’re going, but you don’t want to do that. Your muscles will thank you for getting blood flowing through them before the mad dash of a mass triathlon start. You can shake out the tightness, get a feel for the water temperature, fiddle with your cap and goggles, and pee (everyone else is doing it). A good, short warm-up can make a huge difference in that initial push, and will help you settle in once you get rolling.

Tip #2- Your Kick
There has been only one mention of kicking in this entire overview. The reason for that is simple- You don’t need to be kicking that much most of the time. What are you going to do as soon as you hit the shore? You are going to start cranking on your legs. The water is the only time you get to use your arms, so use them. Not to say you should not kick at all, but it should be steady and light. Freestyle is about 75% pull 25% kick, and I would say triathletes are more like 80/20. A regular kick can fix your body position, but that is not what its purpose is. Looking back at Smooth, the way to a good body position is pressing down on your T-Spot to bring up your hips. Kicking to bring your hips up means you are kicking down. Kicking down means you are using energy in the wrong direction. You want the force going back so that you will move forward. Don’t use your kick as a Smooth crutch.
Flutter kick does not generate from the knee, but from the thigh and glute. The degree of deflection is very small. Too big of a kick ruins your hydrodynamic property and slows you down. You want to remain torpedo-shaped. Your feet shouldn’t be jumping out of that and causing drag.
Keeping these things in mind, you should kick hard at the beginning of the swim (if you are trying to get out ahead of the main pack), then settle in with a regular, propulsive-but-not-hard kick. With about 200m left in the swim start revving your kick back up. This will force blood back into those big muscles, preparing them for the run to T1.

Tip #3- Self-Seeding
Most triathlons do some type of seeding, even it is just separating the men and the women. Big races might divide you up by age groups. Within your own starting group it is important to find a good place to start. Be it a beach or water start, should you be near the front, mid-pack, or in the back? That depends on your skills and your goals. If you aren’t a comfortable swimmer, start in the back. If it’s a beach start, that might mean you let the crazy people go, then wade in with the cautious ones. You won’t be the only one.
Start too far forward and you’ll be an obstacle. You can’t hear other racers cursing at you like you’re a big rig in the fast lane, but they are. Some might go so far as to climb right over you. Start too far to the back and you’ll be the one climbing and cursing. Best to be honest and err on the side of caution. It is better to try and find open water and swim around people than it is to be in the way.
BE AWARE- Any race that isn’t a straight out-and-back will probably have a buoy turn after a few hundred yards. Swim wide. The crush of people trying to cut that corner as closely as possible aren’t going any faster. You might swim a few extra yards, but you’ll stay away from the white water mess right against the floating yellow pyramid (orange sphere?). If there is a turn buoy right after the start there will be a mass sprint for it. Not a confident swimmer? Let them go, hang back. It isn’t worth it and the time saved is negligible.

Tip #4- Drafting
Drafting is illegal in most triathlons. On the bike. In the water though it’s impossible to enforce. Hundreds of bodies all swimming the same direction at the same time equals plenty of chances to slip in on someones feet and go for a ride.
Drafting in the water follows the same principals as drafting on the bike. You tuck in behind someone else and they create a slipstream of water you can follow. They break the slow water and as it flows around them it will flow around you too, meaning the person in front is doing a little more work and you are doing a little less. Some triathlons are so full that you can’t help but draft. You want to be a few inches off your unwitting engine’s feet. NOTE- Touching someone’s feet for 1.5km may result in your getting punched in the face. Nothing is more annoying than tap tap tap tap tap while you are trying to swim. So be there, but give them some space.  

Tip #5- Sighting
Open water swimming sometimes means getting lost. There might be a point where you pop your head up, look around, and wonder how you got halfway to Hawaii. A good drill to do during workouts every once in awhile is heads-up swimming. Ocean lifeguards use this a lot. You swim normally, but every five or six strokes pop your head up just a little during your breath and try to look at the same spot on the wall. In a triathlon swim you’re looking for a giant orange or yellow shape. You don’t have to have a clear view, just a fuzzy idea of where you should be going.
Some races are so busy you will barely have to sight at all. Those become a case of I Hope The People I’m Following Aren’t Lost.

Tip #6- Swim Up the Beach
The swim does not end when you can put your feet down. I see athletes all the time get to a point where they can stand, put their feet down, and struggle through 20 yards of hip deep water. You're slowing yourself down and wasting energy. Swim until you're dragging your hands through sand. Then when you stand up the water level will be at your shins. It is much easier and faster to high step over shin-high water then it is to bull through hip-deep water.  The biggest danger here is being trod upon by fellow athletes you swim past in those last few yards. But that's not a real issue and the benefit of this small change is huge energy and quickness-wise.

Tip #7- Positive Self-Talk
Don’t get down on yourself during the swim. If you are not a strong swimmer it is too easy to notice how many people are ahead of you and how many more have passed you and how much further there is still to go. If you become mired in those thoughts the swim will become an adventure in pain and self-pity. Once you begin to go down that road off ramps are few and far between. That mindset can follow you right out of the water and it’ll hop onto your bike with you. Stay positive. The best way to do that is constant stroke check-in. Move through your body. How are your hands entering the water? How is your reach? Are you finishing past your hip? High elbow on the recovery? Powerful thrust forward on the reach? Good catch? The more you think about the basics of Smooth the better your swim will go.
Sinking into a rhythm helps too. Use the first three “S”s and repeat them over and over like a mantra. “Smooth, Strong, Sustainable, Smooth, Strong, Sustainable.” Self talk that often helps is to remind yourself to calm down and settle in, especially after something unexpected that might spike your heart rate, like catching a wave in the face or accidentally bumping into another swimmer. “Settle in,” reminds you to, like the British say, “Keep calm and carry on.”  

Following the Four “S”s of Smooth, Strong, Sustainable, and Smart will help you become a faster 1.5km triathlon swimmer. Do not expect immediate changes. Many of the drills in the Smooth section do not work overnight. And ignoring the Smooth drills and focusing on the Strong section will not help either. You will just drive bad habits deeper into your muscles. The Major Key to being a better swimmer is technique! Swimming is harder to master than cycling or running. There are so many moving pieces, and each of those pieces has tiny adjustments that can be made. This four part essay was guidelines to a better, faster, more efficient 1.5km swim. If possible, have someone look at your stroke for a more focused evaluation. A good, Smooth pretty stroke will make a world of difference.
One last thing- Enjoy the water. Love the swim. All good things love water. Water holds you up when you’re feeling down and massages your muscles when you’re hurting. Swimming is how we started. It’s the most natural thing in the world. You can’t win a triathlon on the swim, but who cares? You’re swimming!

A Faster 1.5km Swim in the Key of S- Part 1: Smooth

I got a request through the twitters for advice on swimming a faster 1.5km, the distance of an Olympic triathlon opening leg. This got me thinking and got me writing. There is no short version of that kind of advice that can be done right. So instead I present a Massive SwimSplosion of Advice. It will take place over four parts, each focusing on a different topic I feel is important to a fast triathlon swim. Enjoy.

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The first leg of an Olympic-distance triathlon is a 1.5km (0.9mi) swim. This thrashing, white-water, washing machine start is often the most intimidating and off-putting leg of any triathlon. On the bike you can put your foot down. On the run you can rest. But on the swim? You just have to make it. The cliche about a triathlon swim is that you can’t win a race there, but you can lose one. Let the lead pack get too far away, burn too much energy fighting the water, or simply get caught in a bad starting position, and the leaders are out of T1 before your feet hit sand. So how can you have a good, fast 1.5km swim? This advice works just as well for beginners as it can for experienced triathletes struggling on their swim, a notoriously weak discipline for most strong cyclists and runners. Included with most pieces of advice will be a drill or set to help put the advice to practice.

The key to a faster 1.5km swim can be summed up in Four “S” s- Smooth, Strong, Sustainable, Smart. Each S will be a new blog entry for easy reading.

Smooth

Smooth swimming is fast swimming. The natural reaction of anyone who wants to swim faster is to swim harder. Harder, in most cases, translates in the water as thrashing, splashing, and gasping. This only seems harder, and it surely does make it harder to swim, but it is in no way faster. Great amounts of splashing water in every direction mean energy is being expended that way and this way and over there instead of being focused back behind the swimmer where it should be. A fast swim is a Smooth swim. And a Smooth swim is all about good technique.

When a triathlete is thinking about good technique the should not be thinking so much about Michael Phelps as they should Sun Yang, the 1500m gold medalist and world record holder from London. This is not to take away from Phelps, he’s the greatest swimmer in history, but Yang’s stroke is very different than that of a 200m swimmer, and much more similar to the stroke of a triathlete.

 

Before we really get in to technique tweaks it should be noted that any technique work needs to be done slowly. It will not work if you are swimming fast. Changes should be done with a long-term mindset. Don’t worry if your times raise. That isn’t the point at the start. Times will fall again as the stroke becomes more comfortable. Technique work should not be done with pressure and pushing for speed right away makes any changes disappear. A good stroke is the most important aspect of swimming fast over distance. That’s why Smooth comes first. It is also going to be the longest section, as I believe it is the most important. You should do at least one Smooth workout a week. Beginning swimmers should do more like one and a half Smooth workouts. Nothing matters if your stroke is rubbish. You will see this information again.

Triathlete technique work comes in four parts- reach, pull, finish, and recovery.

Reach- A triathlete wants to cover as much distance as possible per stroke without sacrificing speed to an overlong glide. To lengthen your stroke you want to reach at the top. Stand up and raise your hand like a student reluctantly volunteering. Now raise your hand like the kid who knows the answer and needs to be called on. Oh, oh, Mr. Kotter! Feel what your body did? You probably rotated and raise that hand as high into the air as you could. In the water that means rotating your shoulder to your chin and reaching your fingertips towards to opposite wall, the far buoy, or the swim exit. Now you’re taller. Now your stroke is 6-8 inches longer than it was before you reached. 6-8 inches more stroke at the front means you are traveling farther per stroke. Traveling farther per stroke means your stroke count drops. A low stroke count means less energy expended in the water, which means more energy you can use to gap the runners on the bike.

When reaching do not let your hips drop. A level body is a fast body. Hips that drop in the water cause drag. Drag slows you down and makes you work harder. Imagine swimming downhill. Picture a line across your chest from shoulder to shoulder. Then picture a line from throat straight down the midline of your torso. Where those two lines intersect is called the T-Spot. Lean down on the T-Spot while swimming. Your body is a seesaw in the water and lowering one end will raise the other.

When rotating you should be as though on a spit. No side-to-side movement at all. Imagine a line from the top of your head to inside the tips of your big toes and you may only rotate on that center line.

That rotation should be driven from your hips. Much like a boxer can get a snap on his or her punch with a twist of the torso and a batter can drive the ball farther by opening up their hips to the pitch, an open water distance swimmer should be driving their strokes with hip rotation. Your reach is dictated by the power of your hip twist (to not quite 90*). You will feel this focus in your obliques.

Drills

Stroke Count- Swim 25 yards normally, counting each stroke. One stroke = front of reach to front of reach with same hand. Begin trying to drop the count by one or two strokes each 25 be lengthening your reach.

Catch-up Drill- Swim normally, but do not start the next pull phase until the previous pull phase is finished. Which means pull, wait for the recovery to finish, touch the leading hand with the recovering hand, begin the next pull. You will feel like you are sinking at first. You’ll get better. Press down on the T-Spot.

Sideline kick- Lay on your side in the water as though you are mid-stroke. One are straight out in front, one at your side, shoulders perpendicular to the pool bottom, head looking down, neck relaxed. Basically, the position you are in right before the recovery phase of the stroke. Kick across the pool with short, quick flutter kicks. This isolates the kick, is better for you than using a kick board, and teaches your body to balance in the water in the reached position. 5 x 50 of this is enough. Be sure you are always facing the same wall no matter which direction you are going so that you work both sides.

Pull-  The pull begins with the catch. Doubling up on the above picture, look at Yang’s pulling arm. Notice how high his elbow is. The elbow should always be higher than the hand during the catch phase of a stroke. Reach. Anchor your hand vertically, grabbing the water. Lever your body over your hand, digging deeply into the water with your elbow high, thus allowing you to pull using your whole forearm and hand. Allow your hand make a small S under the water, but it should not cross your body’s center line.

The key to the pull is the high elbow. Many swimmers allow the elbow to drop, which makes the whole arm slip through the water. Try one of these visualization techniques:

A) You are climbing through the water. The water is solid and you anchor your hand and pull yourself over your hand as though climbing a wall.

B) There is a barrel underneath you so your elbow has to be high because you are wrapping your arm around the barrel, swimming over it.

There should be force in the pull, do not let yourself slip through the water. You are grabbing water and pushing it towards your feet. Mr. Newton says that pushing water behind you will move you in the opposite direction. Splashing side to side means you are moving laterally rather than forward, wasting energy. As you pull use your hips to power to rotation into your reach.

Drill

1, 2, 3, Swim- Swim 100 yards, 4 laps of the pool. The first lap make a fist and extend only one finger on each hand. This will force you to grab more water with your forearm. The second lap extend two fingers. The third lap three. And the fourth lap swim normally, but not you should be able to really feel all the water that is there to grab.

*Note* Do not allow your hand to wiggle side-to-side in front of you. It will want to. Keep it steady in the water.

Finish- The pull phase ends with the finish. The finish is where swimmers get lazy. Your thumb should brush past your hip, extending your triceps. When swimmers get tired this is the first place the stroke suffers and swimmers pull their hand straight out of the water at their waist. Ending the stroke at your waist is a waste! You have ten more inches of pulling to do at least. This is where the pain starts first, you wear our the end of the triceps muscle with a good finish. Without locking your elbow you should contract the muscle fully, flexing it. Those last few inches of pull are very valuable and will mean serious differences in times once you are strong enough to maintain a good finish for an entire swim. And in triathlon, why not? When are you going to use your upper body again? Might as well wear those muscles out now, when you get the chance.

Drill

Flick drill- At the end of every stroke flick water behind you/over your butt. Focus on getting a decent splash towards your feet. Then you will know you’re finishing hard. This over-emphasis on the movement will translate into better regular finishing.

Thumb To Thigh-  Stand up, let your arms fall to your side, extend your thumbs into your thighs. Every stroke try to whack your thumb against your thigh. Try and leave a bruise in the same spot every time. Then you are finishing far enough down and you are finishing hard.

Recovery- The recovery phase of freestyle begins at the finish and ends at the reach. Your goal is to be controlled. Don’t simply flop your arms forward. Too much splashing is slow and ugly. Swimming should be smooth and pretty. Lift your arm from the elbow, allowing the bottom half of your arm to be relaxed. Breathing takes place from the finish to when your arm crosses just past your head. The hand enters the water a few degrees past your head and you begin the rotation/reach.

 

Drills

Thumb Drag- Plant your thumb in your thigh at the finish and drag it up your body to your armpit during the recovery. This will force you to keep your elbow high.

Fingertip Drag/Piano- This is the same concept as the Thumb Drag. Let the tips of your fingers graze the surface of the water during recovery, lightly as though you were playing piano.

*Notes* Breathing should take place half underwater, half above water. be sure you are blowing bubbles so that when you turn your head all you are doing is inhaling. No reason to turn and exhale inhale. You do not need a lungful of air, you only need enough to get to the next breath two or three strokes away. I will detail a breathing drill in the Sustainable section. When breathing do not pull your head out of the water. Your head floats, allow it to float. When you need to breathe simply turn your head with your body until half your face breaks the surface. No need to look left or right. Breathe with the natural motion of the stroke.

There was not much mention of kicking in this section. Your kick should be smooth and regular, but not hard. Kicking will be detailed more in the Smart section.

*General Notes*

All of these drills can be included in the workouts in the other sections, especially the Sustainability section. They will not work as well in the Strong sets because the goals for Strong are different. Examples will be given.

Technique will be the biggest difference maker in your times, especially if you are a beginning swimmer. You can’t muscle your way through 1650yds. You must fix your stroke first. Fast is not a worry until Smooth is taken care of. Smooth is never completely fixed, there are always small things to fix, but you’ve got to move the big rocks before worrying about speed.

Women's Olympic Triathlon Live Blog

Watching the live feed online of the Women's Triathlon online. Decided I would like to try a live blog, so I'll be throwing thoughts up as they come to me and as the race goes. Ohh, Dirtbag experimental. It's a 10pm Hawaii time start, 9am London time. First Olympic thing I've gotten to see live. Very excited to see racing at this level.

-Wet suit swim. Bleh.

-Start off a pier thing. Kind of an undramatic and fast Ready Go! 

- Swim is great to watch. Big washing machine behind the lead group. Beautiful strokes, even with the wetsuits.

-Short run into T1.

-Blazing T1, even with wetsuits slowing them down. Saw a helmet get knocked off a bike. D'oh! 

-They said there are 100 turns on the bike course. And it might be raining because, well, London. Sounds fun. 

-Tri is free to watch at the Olympics because the course is so big. Another reason triathlon is awesome. 

-Olympic bike is draft legal, making the bunching and strategy very different from what I'm used to. The groups are so tight.

-Lots of laps on this course. Six, I think. Keeps everyone near spectators.

-One girl already goes down. Front wheel got loose. Looks like her bike got tweaked in the fall.

-So many corners make it hard for the girls to spend any time in aero. Doesn't look like a fast bike course.

 - Cheering for Laura Bennett, you know, because her husband and I are now best friends.

- Tons of people lining the road. So cool.

- Bunch of front tires getting loose. Same spot in the road it looks like.

-Draft legal bike means the run is so very important. Bike is more about hanging with the lead pack and conserving, doing your share of pulling but not too much.

- God, these crashes look like they hurt. Sliiiiiiide.

- Oh, seven laps. Not six. Right then.

- I have transition area envy. 

- Bennett still leading, but only by a second. So really she's just doing a lot of the pulling right now. American Sarah Groff back in 21st at Lap 2, but still close enough to the lead pack.

- Love having the announcers with accents in my ears.

- Bike course goes by Buckingham Palace. How cool would that be? Think Her Majesty is looking out the window checking out the race, corgi in her lap? *Jon Stewart impression of the Queen* "Helloo!"

- Keep getting commercials on my live feed. They are much louder than the race. Ohh, my ears.

-There seems to be some specific spot on the course that women are going down. Looks like they are showing awareness of it now and trying to avoid. Hard with such a big bike group. Really seems like a lot of girls sliding out.

- Two groups right now. Lead group only has about five seconds on the first chase pack. Mini-pelotons.

- I want average speed information. I want to be even more impressed with how closely they are riding to each other by knowing how quickly they are doing it. 

- Attacks are fun. Get out of the seat and blast!

- The runners are working heavy strategy right now. Stay close enough to grab the lead pack off the bike, but don't blow your legs out. Touchy balance, that.

- These bikes don't have the flat wing bars most tri bikes I've seen have. Must be a rule thing. Or a handling thing, since you need drops to stay low but still in control. You know what, that's probably it. Ignore the first part.

- Emma Snowhill's (AUS) selection robbery is big conversation for the announcers. She would be the defending gold medalist, but she got snubbed buy the Aussie selection committee for some reason.

- 4 of 7 laps down at 57 minutes of race time. 

- Right now they are predicting a two and a half minute gap between the leaders and the chase group getting off the bike. Which means someone is going to make a big move soon to try and close that gap.

- Sun is coming out, hopefully it will dry the road. But they are saying they see black clouds on the horizon. 

- Course is so flat. Weee!

- One of the announcers is a Kiwi. Awesome accent explained. He's my new favorite announcer (Behind Vin Scully, naturally.)

- Laps are taking 7-8 minutes. Lead group is sticking together nicely. Haven't seen a crash in a while. Will everyone settle in and wait for the run or will there will be drama? Come on, drama! Two laps to go.

- Draft legal means Lucy Hall looked back at the girl behind her and said, "You pull now," and dropped back. 

- T2 is going to be so fast. There are 22 girls that are going to come out together it looks like. Almost at one lap to go.

- Interesting. Lucy Hall (GBR) looks like she wants to jump away, she's already leading, but she wants someone to come with her. No one is biting. Two Americans, Bennett and Groff, still in the lead pack.

- There is a box at each athlete's transition and everything needs to go into it or there is a 15 second penalty. Don't muss the transition area. 

- 1:17 race time and on to the bell lap of the second leg for the chase group. Two minute gap.

- We are looking forward to a 35 minute 10k. Blazing!

- Doesn't look like any attacking is going to happen. Soon the girls will be pulling feet from shoes to prepare for their flying squirrel dismounts into T2. The ONLY time a super-fast transition matters. 

- Did I mention that the Palace is gorgeous? Because it is. 

- Athletes taking on fluids and probably grabbing some kind of Gu. 1:23 race time, almost back to transition. Looking forward to watching this.

- Damn. In an out in no time. Crazy fast T2. Bennett and Groff still in it. Hall, who lead from the swim, already dropping off the back of the pack. About 1:26 race time.

- McDonalds being the official restaurant of the Olympics is like Jack Daniels sponsoring AA. 

- The announcers haven't been giving any splits or average speeds. This is information I want. It would be cool to know. They've gotta have real time updates. So I'll go with they are running really damn hard. You're welcome.

- Lead group had 22 girls and they have already dropped almost half. Hard to tell who is in there. Aussie, Kiwi,  Spaniard, Swiss, Swede, Brit. Sounds like Bennett is in there somewhere too. Hope so. Go Laura! She took fourth last time she competed in the Games. Looks like she might be getting dropped. No!

- The run is four laps. Tightly packed lead group through lap one.

- Groff in the lead pack one second back, Bennett seven seconds back.

- Midway through Lap Two and the lead group is cut to eight. The pace is very high. 

-Bodies are so different than their iron-distance sisters. Less shredded, but more powerful looking. 

- Groff now getting dropped.

- The math is getting to some of the women. They know their pace and the one getting set is too high. The girls getting dropped off don't look blown out, they just can't hang. Something weird going on with Paula Finlay (CAN). Pulled out of the race. Looks in pain.

- Through Lap Two at 1:42 race time. Half way. 5k pace/ 16.12min. Holy. Crap.

- Seriously looks like there will be a sprint to the finish. Love that. Racing for almost two hours and a sprint still happens. And it looks like Groff and a girl from Spain are running together to close the lead gap. 

- Lead group down to four at 1:46 race time. Leading is a Brit named Jenkins. The Brownlee brothers are expected to win the men's race and they are British too. Could be a big weekend for the Union Jack.

- Aussie, Swede, Swiss, Brit leading. Groff in fifth. Might be closing, hard to tell. Come on!

- Noticed they have to wear the ankle timers just like I do. For some reason I really dig that. One big happy tri family.

- 1:51 into bell lap. About eight minutes to victory. 

- Groff closes the gap! She's right back in this thing! Lead group of five now. Come on, girl!

- 1:53 race time, 2k left. Someone has to make a move.

- Has to be some gamesmanship going on here. 1km left. Waiting for the move. Jenkins getting left?

- Lapping other athletes now. Tight group of four leading.

- MOVE SARAH!!!

- No one giving ground. Blue carpet. Big finish.

-  Dead heat! Spirig & Norden tied 1:59.48. Denshem 2 seconds behind. Groff 12 seconds behind them. What do you do with a tie? That was an amazing sprint on the blue carpet, watching them turn it on. Groff fropped off right away, then the Aussie Denshem, and after almost two hours of racing it came down to a 100m sprint. Do they go to the hundredths? They should both get gold. 

-Laura Bennett 17th, 2:29 behind. 

-The three finishers crossed the line and hit the deck exhausted. Waiting for official statement. The clock has them at the exact same time, but maybe they have a photo finish. Unofficial report right now is Spirig. Some replays and good shots make it look like she may have just barely taken it. It'll be thousandths of a second.

Gutsiest comeback I've ever seen from Sarah Groff. Dropped off the back, came back in the last lap to make it a contest. Dropped again at the final sprint but still put herself out there all the way. Brilliant sprint finish after two hours of racing.
More great pictures here. It's also where I stole most of mine. http://www.london2012.com/triathlon/photos/latestpictures.html#the-lead-athletes-race-the-running-stage-the-women-triathlon-event

Hope this live blogging thing worked out ok. I'm going to try it again with the men's race. It was a lot of fun for me, even though I was basically sitting in a chair staring at my computer and pumping my fist, trying not to wake the house.