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Year: 2009

  • Trying to Lower my SPL

    Trying to Lower my SPL

    This week, for kicks, I decided to take one workout to see if I could lower my SPL for 25y to as low as I can get it. My best SPL before this was 12 strokes for 25y. I was determined to do better, but also figure out what I needed to do to actually…

  • Exercise Your Brain

    Exercise Your Brain

    I’m a voracious reader, and love to buy and read books on the topic of training. I’ve bought so many books on the topic and found many to be really lame and some that are truly outstanding. I’ve also picked up a number of DVDs some of which were also lame and some that were…

  • Tempo Training and SPL at Faster Tempos

    Tempo Training and SPL at Faster Tempos

    Based on my coach’s suggestion, on the next workout I decided to swim at a higher tempo settings. After warming up, I set my tempo trainer at 1.6 seconds, swam 4×25, then lowered my tempo by .1 seconds, swam another 4×25, until I got to 1.2 seconds tempo where I determined my comfort breakpoint usually…

  • Tempo Practice Maintaining Strokes Per Length

    Tempo Practice Maintaining Strokes Per Length

    Monday I swam, thinking a lot about what Coach Shinji and I worked on Saturday. I warmed up and then instead of only practicing Strokes Per Length (SPL) I did SPL with the tempo trainer. As one workout, I will practice SPL without caring about tempo. I just keep trying to maintain the lowest SPL…

  • Total Immersion’s Superman Glide

    Total Immersion’s Superman Glide

    Total Immersion has this drill called the Superman Glide. You basically push off the bottom of the pool (not the side; that’s cheating!) and launch yourself forward into the “Superman” flying position. The object is to practice good streamlining, relaxation and no tension. If you do it right, you will zip farther in the pool…

  • TI Swimming with Coach Shinji 12-12-09

    TI Swimming with Coach Shinji 12-12-09

    Another great session with Coach Shinji this last Saturday. It was a rainy, cold day but us swimmers don’t care; we’re wet anyways. It’s not so nice for coaches who have to stand in the rain though. Everytime I work with him, I always get a few more tidbits of insight from him. Some notes:…

  • Learning to Breathe and Sight with Shinji Takeuchi’s TI Swimming 11-13-09

    Learning to Breathe and Sight with Shinji Takeuchi’s TI Swimming 11-13-09

    It’s been almost a month since my last lesson with Shinji. My blog was busted until now but finally I can post my notes from my last swim session with him. This session was focused on improving breathing, and also learning TI’s sighting method which was slightly different than what I was doing. Previously I…

  • Coaches and Remembering What It Was Like Just Starting Out

    Coaches and Remembering What It Was Like Just Starting Out

    I was going through my last TI training session and recalled an important moment. I remarked to my coach that many swim coaches tell you what to do, or describe something to you, but it never seems to work. I never seemed to improve enough with what advice I get from them. However, in the…

  • Total Immersion: 13 Strokes for 25 Yards Baby Yeah

    Total Immersion: 13 Strokes for 25 Yards Baby Yeah

    On Thursday, I practiced swimming efficiency and tried to maintain as low a stroke count as possible for as many 25 yard lengths as possible. Amazingly, I was hitting 13 strokes for the majority of the lengths, one 12 stroke length, and one 14 when I was getting tired. Some notes: 1. Must be as…

  • RFID Timing Chips for my 5K!

    RFID Timing Chips for my 5K!

    I’m running my first 5K tomorrow and noticed they were using RFID embedded plastic timing chips! They’re pretty cool: They sealed an RFID chip into this plastic strip, and there is adhesive on one end to attach it to your running shoe: I wonder if they will start using these for triathlons. They look like…

  • TI Swimming with Shinji Takeuchi Third Lesson 9-18-09

    TI Swimming with Shinji Takeuchi Third Lesson 9-18-09

    My TI coach will be out of the country this next month, so I signed up for my next class for today so that I could practice some more things while he is gone. Following my amazing feat of hitting 13 strokes for 25yards, I was actually able to hit 12.5 today! Well, the .5…

  • The Two Beat Kick Decreased My Stroke Count!

    The Two Beat Kick Decreased My Stroke Count!

    On Friday, I learned how to do the two beat kick. Previously, I had no idea what two beat was, nor four or six or two beat crossover kick was. I still don’t. I’ve read the literature and they try to describe in words a physical action and I still can’t get it. Someday I…

  • TI Swimming with Shinji Takeuchi, Second Lesson

    TI Swimming with Shinji Takeuchi, Second Lesson

    Yesterday I had my second lesson with Coach Shinji. Once again it was full of insight and watching the video of me swimming afterwards was again painful (haha!). But Coach Shinji is great at breaking down the details of swimming and explaining it well, and also has taught enough people to know that there isn’t…

  • To Shim or Not to Shim Part II

    To Shim or Not to Shim Part II

    Check out this shot of a poster in my PT’s office: It looked eerily like my X-ray many years ago when it was determined that my right leg was about 1/8″ shorter than my left. The whole body gets jacked, the spine even curves to compensate. Impact forces from running get transmitted along a crooked…

  • To Shim or Not to Shim

    To Shim or Not to Shim

    Around 2004, I had been doing triathlons for about 2 years and was aiming for my first marathon, the NYC marathon, in the fall of 2004. It was during this training period that I went to my physical therapist at the time who took an X-ray of my spine and saw that it was curved,…

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