BEEP! BEEP!

With triathlons on a winter hiatus, I have begun my winter workouts. I still plan to ride a bit and will probably run once or twice a week. Since swimming occurs indoors, I still plan to take full advantage of my master swims and will hopefully be in the pool 2-3 times a week.

Last weekend were my first two trips to the gym and it took until this morning for my body to feel up to actually working out again. It is amazing how many different muscles are used during weight training.

I also came across my new training partner for swimming. In the past few weeks and even in most of my races this year, I noticed that my swim stroke cadence would begin to drop off rather drastically as I finished each set. I have a problem going out to fast and then fading near the end.

Well on Monday night, Kevin our master’s coach, introduced me to the Finis Tempo Trainer. This little toy really helps me focus on having a consistent and strong stroke throughout each set. You place the little gadget up under your cap and it beeps at a specified interval. Though the sound could be annoying to some, I find it way more helpful.
It was fun experimenting with different stroke intervals and I notice how difficult it was to finish with the same cadence that was SO easy in the beginning. I by no means am an expert in swimming or teaching swimming but if you ever get an opportunity to use one of these you might just find some benefit.

PS. Try setting the interval to 0:50 (half of a second) and swim. Apparently this is what the Olympians swim their 50m sprints at. It feels like you are just throwing you arms in front of you as fast as you can.