In Reply To:
In Reply To:
terry laughlin himself can keep putting out that garbage slow swimming while the rest of the swimming world gets fast.
as usual, someone is trying to sell a gimmick to lazy rich triathletes that want to skip the work.
the only truth he spouts is a ridiculously verbose wall of text that really simply means, pace well.
"You can't win the race during the swim leg, but you can certainly lose it - or seriously compromise your chances for a satisfying outcome. Unless you are a near-elite, who practiced lots of "red-line" swimming in your youth, your best races will happen when you keep your HR relatively low during the swim and can recover it fully within 90 sec to 2 minutes of leaving the water."
"brevity is the soul of wit" LOL
I will admit- I bought into the TI Kool-Aid last year when I started triathlons. I have only been swimming for about 20 months but in all honesty, it helped me a lot- to a point. I spent a lot of time focusing on their drills and "feeling" the water.
After I could swim relatively decent (decent being a stretch) then came the hard work. Just with anything, you need to put the time and effort into the workout to become faster.
Maybe some people have the talent I lack. However, if I want to run a 5k in 20:00, I better be able to complete half-mile repeats under 3:00 and mile repeats around 6:00. For me, I have to train my body at that pace in order to hit that pace.
Again, for me, the same goes for swimming. If I want to average 1:40/100 on my next sprint, I should probably be hitting 1:30-1:35 in the pool or it's not going to happen. I can tell you for certain if all I do is swim 2:00/100- chances are my swim time will be right around 2:00/100.
Again, just my opinion.
This is 100% what I experienced, and after talking to other folks in the local triclub who learned to swim with TI at the same time I did, it's the NORM, not the exception. It's really "duh, common sense!" but Terry definitely oversells his TI approach.
I think he does this subconsciously - he's an accomplished swimmer with a lifetime of swimming experience, so his "go easy" taps into that. So it likely does work for him as it does for folks who swam a bunch in childhood and revisited it as an adult.
But for adult true newb learners like myself, it's not realistic at all. How are you possible supposed to magically swim 1:40/100m for 1500m when all you do in practice is do well-rested, technique-perfect sets at your uber-comfy pace of 2:10/100m with tons of rest between each 200m? I had repeated rude awakenings of swimming closer to 2:30 in OWS on race day because of the shock of having to swim while fatigued - something I hadn't done enough in practice due to Terry's advice.
Perhaps the only good thing, in my opinion, about the outlandish claim that you can swim fast with no hard work, is that it seduces newbs (like me) who otherwise wouldn't have touched triathlon with a 10-foot pole because of our fear of the swim leg. If I knew how hard I'd have to work on the swim just to get to MOP, I almost certainly never would have started triathlon at all! But I drank Terry's cool aid, and I recall being super-excited to find that "free speed" he was talking about.
2 years later, and I've yet to find any sort of free speed in swimming. Yes, technique is crucial, and I spent an entire year doing nothing but technique, but I wouldn't call that free speed, more like avoiding drowning (slower than 2:40/100m.)
I can tell you what definitely works for a beginner like me to get a lot faster, though. Swim 15,000k per week. For months. That DEFINITELY works, and is absolutely indisputable. Regardless of what minor technical flaws you still have.