I have a guy that I am coaching to swim now that is doing his 1st triathlon and it’s going to be IMWI in '07. This person cannot swim more than 100 yards in a pool now, actually I only saw him do 50 yards labored and he does not bike often nor run often. He is in very good shape in his mid 50’s and use to be a World Championship level gymnast and once roomated with Mark Spitts at the Olympics. So he knows about hard work to achieve his goals.
My question is, is it possible in 9 months to prepare this person for IMWI? Plus, what can I do as his swim instructor to aid in this?
I have a guy that I am coaching to swim now that is doing his 1st triathlon and it’s going to be IMWI in '07. This person cannot swim more than 100 yards in a pool now, actually I only saw him do 50 yards labored and he does not bike often nor run often. He is in very good shape in his mid 50’s and use to be a World Championship level gymnast and once roomated with Mark Spitts at the Olympics. So he knows about hard work to achive his goals.
My question is, is it possible in 9 months to prepare this person for IMWI? Plus, what can I do as his swim instructor to aid in this?
Thanks,
As long as he is content with doing and not racing it is plenty of time. Regarding the swimming, teach him the breast stroke, he only has to get in under the cut-off.
He’s seems like he’s highly competitive in nature and would not want to do breaststroke for the swim portion. He wants to do freestyle swimming most of the way. He knows how to swim, needs help on body rotation, body balance, hand entry, and so on but he needs much training on endurance.
A guy from my Tri club signed up for and raced Florida this year, completing the course. He finished his first IM in 11:53:51. 6 months prior he did not know how to swim.
Will power, perseverance and mental discipline can take you a long way.
I signed up for IMFL without knowing how to swim. I started lessons 13 months out from the race. I probably felt like him with 9 months left to race day;O). It took some time to swim continuous laps.
I only swim free style…no time to learn another stroke…hell, never learned the first one. I never got the body position/stroke/catch down and I finished the swim at IMFL. Slow…but onto the bike. Like Frank said, as long as he knows he’s not racing…he’ll be fine.
From my own experience, just keep putting in time to get comfortable and the endurance will improve even if technique doesn’t. I just made sure I had a few long pool workouts…with no stops. It helped my confidence. If he can build to that…he can get’r done.
I still don’t swim well…never improved but I’m on to IM #3…pretty sure bet that he’s out of the water before me next September;O).
January-2003. I’ve decided to register to an IM distance race in Montreal for September. Never swam, no road bike but some running and a lot of martial art training.
Still am a really bad swimmer but did my homework and had a 10h28 first IM.
In that summer I tried a short distance tri, a half Ironman and that’s it.
I see no problem in his plan, as long as he trains for it. For the pool, what worked for me was just regularity. Being 2-3 times a week in the pool was enough to provide me with the capacity the do the swim without any worries.
On another note, I actually think that doing the training and starting with an Ironman can be an advantage. People who do the other distance first sometime give too much respect to the distance according to their experience of shorter ones. Also, when you do other distance, you kinda have some speed reference that give you high expectation and that could be a big error. If it’s your first race, you will just take it as it goes, without pushing too much. My first race was a marathon and I did around 3h20 taking my time for more than half of the race. I had no clue about my pace and what it meant neither a clue on if 3h20 was good or not. I was just happy to have finish.
It is really nice to have dreams like this in his 50’s.
Yeah, I think it would be possible, but I agree that he should be prepared to DO the race, not RACE it.
One other thing - I disagree with teaching him the breast stroke…I would teach him the SIDE stroke. It’s less exhausting, he can breathe the entire time and expend less energy overall. I completed two full tri seasons swimming a modified side stroke only, and could average a comfortable 2:30/100, and an aggressive/tiring 2:00/100. It would also be less “scary” in a mass of 2000 swimmers too to be able to always breathe. The side stroke I used is actually a modified stroke taught to Navy SEALs - it’s a little more aggressive and faster than a standard side stroke (http://www.stewsmith.com/css.htm)
He should also do some shorter races next year as part of his training anyway to get used to the nuances of how a triathlon works (transitions, bike racking, etc).
Just an observation - in this thread we have a bunch of people saying 'Go do an IM with very little swimming ability. You won’t be fast, but it worked for me." But, just a week ago, we had outrage over the guy who died at IMFL and people saying that poor/mediocre swimmers are the cause of such problems.
That why I’m a little concerned. I don’t want this guy having an accident during the swim. I’m thinking of having him start by swimming 4-5 days a week working strictly on technique for the 1st half of the workouts and progressively increasing the distance of the swims. If time is an issue for training for him I’d tell him to do minimal on the bike and run and concentrate on the swim, his weak area. What do think?
10 months of training is a long time. I’m pretty sure that a natural athlete will catch on fast! But, I personally think that anyone competing in an IM should expect to swim the whole swim freestyle and should be prepared (training-wise) to run the whole run, too. Afterall, that’s what the race is…
I seriously doubt I can expect him to run the entire marathon. Not many people can run the entire marathon in a IM without stopping at least at some of the aid stations. I think I will tell him to run/walk the marathon.
I have a guy that I am coaching to swim now that is doing his 1st triathlon and it’s going to be IMWI in '07. This person cannot swim more than 100 yards in a pool now, actually I only saw him do 50 yards labored and he does not bike often nor run often.
Classic.
When he does do the race, make sure he brings he brings his family with him down the finish line.
I have a guy that I am coaching to swim now that is doing his 1st triathlon and it’s going to be IMWI in '07. This person cannot swim more than 100 yards in a pool now, actually I only saw him do 50 yards labored and he does not bike often nor run often.
So, since no one has asked, what is the rush?
Does he realize IM’s will be around for longer than 2007?
I realize that, which is why I said I think his training should adequate to prepare him to be able to run the whole thing. If he walks the aid stations after doing the swim and the bike, I’d say that’s a pretty successful day.
I think this depends on who he is, he obviously has genetics which helps. Most people don’t do their first IM in 10:XX so we can discount those posts I think. I have to say I think this is the biggest reason there should be some qualification system, even if the qualification is just finishing a half. Best of luck to you and your client
All I can offer here is the perspective of an athlete the second year into triathlon. YOUR CLIENT IS LUCKY TO HAVE YOU! I found it very easy to build swim endurance quickly - over just a few months, swimming just 2-3 times per week - maybe because overuse injuries are less common in swimming than in running/biking. What I WISH I had done, instead of jumping right into swim endurance, was to learn proper swim technique. I thought I had, but I hadn’t. Now I can swim forever, but never feel like it because I’m really uncomfortable in the pool.
Maybe go with that plan you were thinking of, to really get his technique correct before he launches into the big swim volume. He will probably find the technique work tedious but looking back after a year, will be incredibly grateful that you made him do it.
…though the death in IMFL was a real anomaly. I hope this guy can go for it - the little data we have seems to demonstrate an ironman attitude, at least. j
Just an observation - in this thread we have a bunch of people saying 'Go do an IM with very little swimming ability. You won’t be fast, but it worked for me." But, just a week ago, we had outrage over the guy who died at IMFL and people saying that poor/mediocre swimmers are the cause of such problems.
