Dave Luscan wrote:
Generally, we see plateaus broken through in a somewhat significant manner before we see the methods used to achieve that breakthrough being heralded as the best and perhaps only way to do so.
In the recent past you self described yourself at a swimming plateau. In this thread you seem quite certain that your methods are the only good ones. Usually those two things don't go together. Can you elaborate?
Yes. I find it very hard to improve my swimming while also trying to improve my run and my cycling, both of which are typically more important for winning races, especially the races that I had on my schedule. I *believe* I came very close to breaking through the plateau I sat on for most of this year - Abu Dhabi being the notable exception where I had a bad swim - but I think that because of the bike-intensive nature of preparing for Abu Dhabi, I probably backed off my swimming too soon.
It's always a tough balance with three sports, and - in retrospect - I actually think that when I was tired from a lot of biking and running, I would have been better off had I done significantly more pulling and paddle work. I.e., when I look at how my swim maybe suffered - and even stalled a bit - this year, I think it's precisely because I did NOT follow the advice here. Not that I shifted to drills or any of that nonsense, but I think I was loathe to "rely" on paddles and the pull buoy and that I had worse sessions when I could have had better sessions if I'd just been willing to throw on the paddles more quickly.
That being said, I think Abu Dhabi was the only real outlier performance in the water this year, and I think I corrected the larger errors that I made leading into that race. Right now, I'm determined not to make the same mistake again, and I've started a heavier swim focus - that I will continue for longer - in hopes of actually breaking through the plateau this year. And I've made sure to use MORE paddles, more pull buoy, and ESPECIALLY more band in order to do so. So far, in just a few weeks, I've already set PBs, so it seems to be working. Now to keep the foot on the gas rather than thinking the changes are already sticky...
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