Finding Your Trim Speed

If you've ever ridden in a speed boat and seen how it accelerates from zero, you'll notice all the effort the boat makes to get started. Once at speed, the bow lowers parallel to the water and the boat skims almost effortlessly through the water. I'm finding swimming is like that.

When I have my days where I'm achy or tired for whatever reason, my speed is naturally slower than usual. It's these days I notice that the effort to just go slow seems unreasonably difficult. Shouldn't it be easier to swim slower than faster? I find that the answer, surprisingly, is no. If I can break out of the achies - sometimes just working the muscles for a while helps - and I can pick up my speed, the "efforting" I'm engaging in seems to actually decrease. Yes, you read that right. I find myself streaming through the water easier, my strokes more efficient, and my speed unproportionally faster for what additional extra effort I've engaged. This is because my body becomes more horizontal in the water (as opposed to the more diagonal angle of slow speed). It's my trim speed.

This may explain, at least in part, why some fast swimmers are seemingly less tired after a long workout than slow swimmers after a short effort. Sure fitness has a lot to do with it, but finding and maintaining your trim speed helps a lot too.

Can Rest Make You Faster?

Can rest make you faster? When I take a long time off from swimming - say, over three days - I am definitely feeling the need to work hard just to do a comfortable speed. If I take a weekend off, I feel great on Monday and can usually go full bore. If I take no time off (go weeks without a break), I can get sore and take almost my whole workout just to get loose. So given all this, I see there is a fine line between taking too much time off and too little. Finding that perfect mix of "efforting" and rest is a delicate balance. I've found five days of swimming and two days of back-to-back rest is about perfect for me. I usually do some sort of physical activity on the two days off, but its usually not swimming (laps). I've heard that this recovery time is good for muscles to allow them to grow.

Kickboard Techniques that Build Speed

Several years ago I saw two young women with a college team logo on each of their swim caps using kickboards, seemingly gliding along parallel to one another and chatting amiably. What was most interesting was not any of this, but that they were going very fast, and their "efforting" didn't seem to phase them at all. Their conversation was animated and they weren't breathing particularly different than had they been walking down the street. I'm guessing they were averaging one minute per 50 meters. The speed to them seemed inconsequential. Obviously, those two women had some speed secret I did not share.

Ever since, I've striven to have a strong kick. Not to chase the women - though that might come in handy should that pair ever return - but to build up my swimming speed. I devote twenty percent of my workout to the kickboard and have found it has definitely helped my overall swimming performance.

In the several years since I first saw those kickboarding women, I've found a few techniques that have built my speed:
1. Lift my toes out of the water to maximize my leg length and depth of my kick
2. Keep my legs as straight as possible for maximum sized paddle thrust and kick from the hip.
3. Whip my legs like one whips a rope (kick from the hip - see #2). The whip action promotes a stronger leg thrust than your typical back and forth leg motion.
4. Focus on the whole leg rather than the ankles and feet. Feel it in your belly.
5. During the kickboard period - I do it at the end of my workout - do periodic sprints to the point of getting yourself nearly out of breath and legs burning. I use key points in the pool as my starting and stopping points.
6. Don't lie on the kickboard. Push it out in front of you and extend your body to its full length.

The Minutia of Slipstreaming Technique

If you know this blog, you know I examine some odd things about swimming from time to time. Today is no different. In fact, today I'm going to highlight a lot of swimming's oddity. If you don't know much about speed swimming, this post will enlighten you. Swimmers are known to do some very odd things. The guys wear those skimpy suits few of us wouldn't be caught dead in. Back in the sixties when long hair was the thing, they shaved their heads. If you see any telecast where they interview a group of swimmers, I challenge you to find one with a hair on his chest, much less his arms or legs. Why, you ask? Swimming is a sport of micro-seconds. Championships and records are set in fractions of seconds. The time between two contenders hitting the wall (that means finishing, in swim-speak)can be infinitesimal. All these odd things I cite above are for speed. It's hard for me to imagine shaving my arms would make me any faster, but honestly I don't think I could ever tell if I were 0.01 seconds faster. Maybe some of it is psychological. On Saturday, one of the major TV stations carried the Dual-in-the-Pool, a competition between the USA men and womens teams and Australia's. Together, they hold most of the world records so it was fun to watch. When Cullen Jones, an American was interviewed following his 50 meter freestyle victory, he mentioned having a bubble in his suit earlier and electing to go with another design. When you're competing against the best, I guess you'd rather your competition eat your bubbles than carry the things with you!

WaterTemp Does Make a Difference

I've harped on water temperature enough in this blog to write a book. In keeping with the theme, here's another post. Over the past two weeks I've seen my preferred lap pool's temperature swing from an average of 81F up to 87F and as low as 77F (this is an indoor pool). Today it was at 83F. What's amazed me is my speed variability as a result of these temps. I typically do a pretty consistent mile in terms of time. In the short period of two weeks, I've seen my times swing 1.5 minutes (maybe more) on either side. I always knew warm water fatigued me, but I find this disparity amazing. Obviously, I can factor out fitness or lack there of as a cause for this disparity. I've seen swings in my speed over the course of six months, but never so much over just a few days. I honestly don't think the people in charge of pool temps really have any idea of the impact they are having on those of us who use the pool (much less the impact on their own facility's bottom line. Sure they get a lot of hell from both sides - some are too cold, others too hot. But don't the high temps and the big, fast swings effect the bottom line - i.e. the utility bills? I'm all for saving money. Swimming faster is an added bonus! I think I'm on the right side of this argument. Save money and lower the pool temperature. Now!

Is there an Optimal Pull Speed

This morning I noted that at times during my swim I was pulling faster, but making less progress. I slowed down the pace of the stroke and found it more efficient. I didn't change the stroke in any other way and I didn't time myself, but felt like I was making better progress through the water with the slower stroke. Strange. This begs the question, is there an optimal pull speed that works best for the speed the body is traveling through the water? If one's stroke pace exceeds the speed of the water flow, are you defeating yourself by using excessive energy? I'm thinking the right speed is where one catches the water such that you can maximize the pull. But what is that? If you pull too fast, you pull less water and consequently use more energy than you get back in terms of forward momentum. Am I on track to something here or just full or it? Your thoughts dear readers ...