ericmulk wrote:

What was the overall fastest swimmer's split??? I've found the speed of the very fastest guy/girl to be a pretty good indicator of swim length. I always evaluate my splits for all 3 legs relative to what the very fastest person did.

Very true, it's all relative. Local pro Balazs Csoke swam 21:14 (1:25 pace) in the invitational wave.

https://www.nolimitstiming.com/...ult.aspx?event=32726

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The 3rd overall male, Aaron Thomas, posts on ST as ajthomas. IIRC, he swims around 19:30 for 1500 scm in the pool, or about 20:30 to 21:00 for a full 1500m in OW, i.e. you're always slower in OW due to the loss of those 60 turns. AJ went 22:37 in your race, so the swim was definitely long, maybe by around 100-125 m. Indeed, looking at those swim results, this was one of the longest oly dist swims i've ever seen. Where is this race??? I might have to try to do it next year:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I have been trying to fix my pull, and I think on the ST forums I saw something about EVF, which led me over here to this. Read a lot of this thread, watched Sun Yang swim, went to eBay and bought a used Vasa Erg.

Cant wait til I get back from the Boston Marathon to start destroying/rebuilding my shoulders into pulling machines so I get get off being a 2:00/100scy swimmer.

I will definitely share my experiences, as reading through this thread helped me pull the trigger (well that and the very low cost).

Congrats on your results, even if the swim wasn't as good as you'd hoped.

Honestly, it'll probably take everyone (including me) SOME pool or OWS time, even if it's only a few sessions before race day, just to reacclimate. I'd view your results as pretty darn good for someone who literally hasn't been in the water for months before the race!

I can confidently say that I would get just as good results in racing/training as my current ones if I only swam in the pool once for 30 minutes every 3 weeks with Vasa training, but I'm not sure how well it would go if I went any less than that.

I suspect you'll get excellent results with 4x Vasa + 1 pool per week - I'm actually right now doing 3x Vasa and 1-2 pool (30 mins max) per week since I'm back to balanced biking/run training and not swim focus, and it's working well. I'm not as fast as I was compared to my peak of swim-focus training, but I'm still much faster than I was pre-Vasa - it seems that once you make gains, it takes much less to maintain it than to gain it (probably true for bike/run as well.)

Also, just a reminder as well - it's gotta be hard at some point to improve - I can't always pull hard on the Vasa, but I made my gains during a swim block where I was pushing the volume, and then intensity on the vasa. No surprise here, but it's def true that it's a tool that requires hard work for the payoff (same as the pool.)

Good to have another reliable data point, thanks for that.

The race is in Kemah, TX. They ship you out into the bay and you jump off and swim back to shore. It's been a straight shot in the past but for some reason this year we had to swim maybe 100-200 meters to the first buoy before turning right to shore. I didn't know about this until 30 seconds before jumping off the boat so I don't know if it was originally planned. The water is brackish with zero visibility so I don't think it qualifies as a destination race. However, come on out if you love some quality chip seal on the bike.

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Support cancer research with the world's longest annual charity bike ride.
Texas 4000 for Cancer
Austin, TX to Anchorage, Alaska
http://texas4000.org/

Kemah makes sense since AJ lives in the Houston area:) It's just very rare IME to have the fastest swim time at 21 min; out of the roughly 60 or 70 oly dist races i've done, maybe 3 had a swim that long or longer, but in the vast majority the fastest swimmer will come out around 16-17 min, which IMO means the course was prob 100-200 m short. Being a swimmer, i tend to like the longer swims:)

JOOC, at this time of year and in the bay/ocean, was it wetsuit legal or no???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

You want a long Olympic swim? Here's one for you: http://www.altavistasports.com/...lLONGtri05172014.htm

It's an admittedly small race, but the fastest swim time that day for "1500 meters" was 35:02 from a guy that has a history of 22-23 minute Olympic swims and a sub 1 hour IM swim. The distance was probably roughly accurate, but it was an ocean swim and that day there was adverse wind and a longshore current pushing down from the swim finish to start which made a ton of chop and rough waves. Sounds like your kind of race :)

Ya, it does sound like my kind of race. I did one similar to that down in Jacksonville, FL, a few yrs back and I was first out of the water in 30:XX. Had the police escort for the first 15 mi of the bike, and ended up 2nd overall. Only time in 110 races where I was first out of the water. One of my fav tri memories:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

E I am faster than 19:30 in a 1500m in a pool! I swam a 3000 straight with a descend and was like 19:20 over the last 1500. I have gone under 19 in a pool in practice twice in the last 4 years.

That swim was long because we were being sent out to seas by the current. The boat dropped anchor and we floated back for 10 minutes until it caught. It was not by design! Funny enough, I thought about you, Eric, on the bike because I had it at 1.06 miles (1700 meters or so ) and I thought, man this is ericmulks kind of race.

Wow, sorry that i under-estimated your 1500!!! I am honored that you thought of me when you were on the bike:) Have you done that race before??? Does it usually have a long-ish swim???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Wetsuit legal. Water temperature was reported to be 72 degrees.



I did it last year and I don't remember distances being long though I don't own a gps watch. Times were definitely a fair bit faster though I don't know if the currents in that bay flip with tides or if it has a consistent current.



So you're saying we had a longer swim against current? Good to hear. Congrats on your race.

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Support cancer research with the world's longest annual charity bike ride.
Texas 4000 for Cancer
Austin, TX to Anchorage, Alaska
http://texas4000.org/

I just received my Erg yesterday. I'll be putting it together today and give it a try. I swim in the pool 3x/week and will be using the Erg 3x/week. I found these videos helpful for learning EVF and why.

Vasa videos
https://www.youtube.com/...t=PL9A2987B8115A939E


Race Club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9oEj8nOffk

The swim has typically been long because the captain always drops anchor at 1500M. It was particularly long this year. I didn't wear a wetsuit last year and went 21:22. With a wetsuit this year I went a 22:36. Sub 20 has only been achieved once and plenty of sub 17 1500 swimmers have given it a shot.

Wow, now that's a long oly swim, cool:)

JOOC, since this is actually a Vasa thread, I've never heard you opine on these trainers. Ever use one much??? I've never used one myself.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Put together the Erg yesterday. It is a bit longer than I thought it would be, so it takes up about a 10ft x 4ft area. Gave it a try this morning just to see how it felt. I did a 400m on door 2 and my lats were screaming by the end. Hitting the pool tomorrow, alternating vasa and pool days.

I just got mine in the house and assembled yesterday. The prior user must have only used it to store clothes, it is brand new.

Now to set baselines and get to work. Any suggestions on what I could use for my baseline testing on this tank, let me know :)

I'm primarily using the VASA for strength work and recovery/easy sessions. It's great to be able to knock out a workout in 10-20min without having to change and leave the house. No problem squeezing in a workout. Endurance work is in the pool.

mine will supplement swim workouts too, probably twice a week in water (pool & open water) and then as much as I can on the vasa

Use the same protocol for running and swimming

Do a swim smooth css swim test

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age is just a number after your name

Thought this was interesting myself and to share to those newbies.
History: starting using the vasa ergo at july working on building up to door setting 7. Prior to this no swimming in a pool for 18mth. In the past 10 mths no pool swimming only time I touch the water was in a race. Now nearly a year later back to the vasa to build for the next 70.3 season, so I will have some residue base from my just gone season with the first race in Sept. This time I am aiming for the 70.3 world qualifier on a podium, not on a roll down slot. No training plan purchased or the build phase which is currently 1 week old and 4 weeks since my last OD race during which it has been run/bike. Now serious AeT zone 2 work for 3 weeks till I get to 16 weeks out from A race, then I will buy into Dave Scotts training peaks plan for the build peak taper advance 15hr week. All my vasa AeT work will be accordingly to race distance in this case 2187y, the bike 2.5hrs, the run 90mins all in AeT zone 2 for another 2weeks.


Today: 2187y 36:55mins 1:41/100m Pw:Hr 63.7% 58watts 91aveHr (max108) 42spm... compared to Monday's 1st session
.....2187y 40:16........1:45/100y........... 65% 54w 83Hr


The reason in sharing this is for those newbies starting out is will take several months to build up to door setting 7. Through my reading with Maffatone, Joe Friel, Alan Couzans, et al lots of qulaity consistent AeT will pay off when it come to the peak period in the plan.


Anyway I though it was interesting.

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age is just a number after your name

Just a quick update. So I've been using the Vasa Erg fairly consistently for the past 3 weeks. 3 days(Mon, Wed, Fri) in the pool for 2-3k. and 3 days on the Vasa(Tue, Thur, Sat) for about 1k(5min warmup & cooldown with 1-2min strength intervals on Door#4). I'm a slow swimmer and usually swim HIM in 35 min and IM in 130 min. In the pool I am 1:50-1:55/100m. I've seen some noticeable improvement in the past few weeks. I can now swim 1:40-1:45/100m. I do notice that my left side gets more fatigued than my right on the Vasa, so I have a muscle imbalance I need to work on. So far it has been great. If I miss a pool session, then I just do intervals on the Vasa.

I got my Vasa in, and am working on getting it into my routine (just brought a coach into the mix). Setting all my baselines now, have gotten some time on the Vasa on door 1.5 (I was messing around with it, left it in that position, havent moved it). It is friggin hard, mostly because I am lacking the strength needed to properly do an EVF. Baseline 500 in the pool today, so I will have a starting point.

I also realize how good of a deal I got on this, I got it off ebay for $500, did have to ship it, but still way way less than the cost of a new one, and this thing is pretty much brand new.

I got a new ANT+ Vasa recently. It appears to be significantly harder to "propel" oneself on this device than in the water. I do notice the lack of body rotation while using the VASA but is this important compared to strengthening? I keep the work intervals short.

I am curious about the ANT+ part, how does that work?

The ANT+ is installed in the headunit. This means you can use your ANT+ monitor (Garmin or other) to record the data and upload it to your training log.