The Ironworks Review: Sporti Power Swim Paddles

sporti power paddles 1If there’s an item of training equipment that most swimmers and triathletes love, it’s hand paddles.  Okay, some people may love pull buoys and fins even more, but a good set of hand paddles have always been my weapon of choice.  There’s nothing like that feel of gripping the water and extra speed that you get from a good set of paddles, and there are also some great benefits like improved strength and technique.  This is also the perfect time of year to get the paddles out.  The cold winter months make it tough to get out and put in the long miles on the road, so why not hit the pool and build up some strength and endurance?  This is especially valuable if the swim is your biggest limiter as an athlete.

 

sporti power paddles 2If you’re looking into getting a new set of paddles, the new Sporti Power Swim Paddles are a great place to start.  First of all, the price is just about unbeatable at $4.95.  You can literally spend more on a cup of coffee these days!  These paddles are well made and sturdy enough to hold up to a lot of pool time.  They also have a nice secure fit; you can put these on and pound out a tough set of 50’s or 100’s and be confident that they’re going to stay in place and not slip around on your hand even at high speeds.  I particularly like the ergonomic design that makes the paddles more comfortable and allows you to maintain a better feel for the water.

 

sporti power paddles 3Of course, like any other piece of equipment, it’s important not to overdo it with paddles.  You don’t want to turn them into a crutch and reach for them every time you can’t make an interval.  Used correctly though, they’re a great tool to use to help you build strength in the water.  When I use paddles, I like to put them on for the first half of a set, and then track my time and stroke count with paddles.  Then, I challenge myself to swim the second half of the set without paddles and to hold my time and stroke count from the first half of the set.

2008 Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker

2008 Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker

And if you’re looking for more great info on triathlon gear and training, be sure to stop by SwimOutlet.com for new features from Olympic Triathlete and ITU star Jarrod Shoemaker!  Jarrod is joining other Olympians like Mark Gangloff, Tony Azevedo, and Garrett Weber-Gale as an expert contributor and will be sharing some of the insights and experiences that he’s gained over his career as a professional triathlete.

As always, thanks very much for taking the time to visit my blog!  Happy New Year’s and all the best for a safe, healthy, and fast 2014.  Happy Training!

The Ironworks Review: FINIS Ankle Pulling Band

Finis Ankle Pulling BandWithout a doubt, the training tool most neglected by triathletes is the ankle pulling band.  Most triathletes love their paddles, pull buoys, and fins, all training tools that make swimming easier and faster.  Ankle pulling bands make training harder, and as my old swim coach always used to say, the point of training is to make it harder, not easier.  They’ve been a favorite of Australian distance swimmers for years, and as anyone who follows swimming knows, Australia has produced some of the best distance swimmers in history.  The Aussies are also pretty good at this whole triathlon thing, as Chris McCormack, Craig Alexander, Mirinida Carfrae, and Pete Jacobs have shown the world for the past several years.

Ankle pulling bands are also about the simplest training tool you can find.  My coach used to make them for our whole team by cutting up old inner tubes, but you can buy a much more stylish and comfortable version made by the great folks at FINIS.  Ankle pulling bands are simply a rubber strap that slip around your ankles, requiring you to swim without any kick.  You think that you’re not using your legs when you’re swimming with a buoy, but the buoyancy of the buoy actually makes swimming easier.  In fact, I would recommend using a buoy when you first start swimming with ankle bands.  You’ll understand when you give it a try.

The main benefit of using an ankle pulling band in training is developing strength.  You have to have to produce a lot of force with your upper body and core to overcome the drag produced by pulling your legs through the water without kicking.  I also like the bands for developing feel for the water; if you have a dead spot in your pull it will become instantly apparent when you’re swimming with bands.

Triathlon swimming is more about strength than perfect form.  Think about powering through waves and chop, dealing with swimming in a pack of thrashing arms and legs, and you can see why strength trumps technique.  Include some swimming with the FINIS Ankle Band in your upcoming workouts and watch your swim splits improve!  Here’s a set to get you started:

100 with ankle bands, buoy, and paddles, 30″ RI                                                                     4×25 swim, 15″ RI                                                                                                                 100 with ankle bands and buoy, 30″ RI                                                                                     4×25 swim, 15″ RI                                                                                                                   100 with ankle bands, 30″ RI                                                                                                     4×25 swim, 15″ RI.

Give it a try, and be sure to come back to Ironworks Multisport and leave a comment to tell me how it goes!  Good luck, and happy training!

The Ironworks Review: Sporti Hand Paddles II

Sporti Hand Paddles IIEvery triathlete needs a good pair of hand paddles.  They build strength, help refine technique, and provide some variety when you’re putting in the long yards for your big race.  The biggest issue facing most triathletes when it comes to hand paddles is which kind to choose:  Do you go for smaller paddles designed to correct stroke flaws and improve feel for the water, or do you go for the giant “trash can lids”?  Depending on how much swim gear you want to accumulate, multiple pairs of paddles may be a good solution.  If you’re looking for one solid, all around paddle, or if you have several pairs and you’re looking for a good versatile paddle for daily use, the Sporti Hand Paddles II are a great choice.

Sporti Swim Paddles III’ve been swimming with these Sporti paddles for the past week and have found them to be ideal for triathlon training.  They fit securely, are easy to get on and off, and are very comfortable to wear.  I remember the old paddles I swam with in high school that would leave marks on my hands and wrists after a long pull set, but those days are long gone with the new paddles like these.  The adjustable silicon rubber straps let your hand slip right in and hold the paddles in place without uncomfortable pressure.  The contoured shape of the paddle also helped improve my feel for the water.  The best part for me was how the paddles really made me focus on a clean entry.  Despite my best efforts, I have an awkward entry that my training partners dubbed “The Claw” years ago.  The feel of these paddles encourages a smooth, clean entry which I found very helpful.  Even after taking the paddles off I still found myself focusing on entering the water cleanly.  I also tried swimming with these paddles at various speeds and found that they work well for long, steady state sets as well as fast sprint efforts.

Overall, the Sporti Hand Paddles II are a great choice for triathletes and swimmers looking for a solid, all around hand paddle, and at $8.95 you can’t beat the price.  Thanks for reading, now get out there and work out!

Train hard and have fun,

Coach Land

 

Triathlon Tips From Ironworks Multisport: Finis Agility Hand Paddles

Finis Agility Hand Paddles

As a life long swimmer, and triathlete and swim coach for 15 years, I’d thought I’d seen pretty much every possible variation on hand paddles, but the Finis Agility Paddle is something entirely new.  So what makes it so different?  As you can quite easily see, they have no straps.  Instead, there’s a hole in the paddle which you put your thumb through, and then apply light pressure to hold the paddle in place. This strapless design has two main benefits.  First, there are no straps to degrade and eventually break.  Second, you must use the pressure of the water to keep the paddles on your hands.  As a coach, the second is what makes these paddles so exciting.  I’m constantly telling my swimmers that their hands should enter the water cleanly, catch early and with a high elbow, and to strive for an early vertical forearm.  These hand paddles encourage all of these traits; you don’t even have to think about it, you just feel it.  And if you have faulty technique you get immediate feedback because the paddles will just fall off!

The first time I tried these paddles out, I was a little unsure about how well they would perform, and they did feel different from a conventional paddle.  However, I didn’t have any problems keeping the paddles on, and after a few laps they began to feel completely comfortable and natural.  I experimented a little and tried to lead with my elbow for a few strokes, and as expected the paddles immediately came off.  Another great thing about these paddles is that they can be used for all four strokes.  They are equally comfortable for butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

Finis Hand Paddles

I would find these paddles suitable for all swimmers, especially younger age groupers and triathletes who constantly need to focus on form and technique.  Beginners will find them valuable because of the constant demand for an early vertical forearm, and advanced swimmers can benefit from using them for long sets where technique can sometimes falter.  If you’re looking for a great new paddle to help you perfect your swim technique and improve your swim splits at the races, I’d highly recommend giving Finis Agility Paddles a try.  Thanks for reading my triathlon tips, please check back soon for lots more information on triathlon and swim training!

 

Beginner Triathlon Tips: Triathlon Swim Workouts and Drills for Winter Training

January is a great time to be a triathlete.  Athletes are beginning to plan their seasons and ramp up their training with triathlon tips and tricks, the whole year stretches out before us with new opportunities to challenge ourselves and to take steps towards reaching our goals and realizing our full potential.  For most athletes, the area in which they have the most room to improve is the swim, and this is the perfect time of year to get in the water and build the endurance that will help you to use the swim to position yourself for a strong performance on the bike and run.  In triathlon, your fitness in the first half of the race directly impacts your fitness in the second half of the race, meaning that no matter how fit you are for the run, you won’t be able to use that fitness effectively until you are strong enough to attack the swim and the bike without accumulating an excessive amount of fatigue.  Here are some swim sets that I’ve used over 15 years of coaching swimmers of all levels, from beginners, to age group champions, to Ironman triathletes.

1. 4×400 with a 1 minute rest interval.  Swim the first 400 with paddles, the second 400 with paddles and a buoy, the third 400 with just a buoy, and the fourth 400 with no equipment.  Depending on your fitness, you can alter the distance of the repeats to as short as 100 or as long as 800.  Switching the equipment up provides varity and also changes up the workload on your muscles.

2. 8×100 with a 15 second rest interval.  On the first 100, swim with a paddle on your right hand only, on the second 100 swim with a paddle on your left hand only, on the third 100 swim with paddles on both hands, on the forth 100 swim with no equipment.  Repeat this sequence twice.  For a longer swim, you can swim 200’s instead of 100’s.  You can also swim this set substituting fins instead of paddles.  This is a great way to improve your bio-mechanical awareness and your feel for the water.

3. 10×150 with a 20 second rest interval.  For each 150, kick with a kick board for the first 50, then swim the last 100.  For the kick, really go for it and kick hard!  Get your legs going and get your heart rate up, then cruise the 100 swims at a comfortable pace, concentrating on long strokes and perfect technique.  These swims help to simulate the feeling of triathlon swim starts, where your heart rate goes sky high and your way out of your comfort zone, and you need to settle into a steady pace while you swim.

4. 5×300 with a 45 second rest interval.  Swim the first 50 as right arm pull, the second 50 is left arm pull, the third 50 is catch up drill, then build over the last 150 (think of it as 50 easy, 50 medium, 50 fast).  This set was a favorite of my club coach, and I’ve been using it for years.  It starts you off with some drills to get you thinking about technique, then you have to go right into a progressive 150, so you’re also building speed and endurance.

5. 8×200 with a 30 second rest interval.  For each 200, swim the first 50 breathing every 2 strokes, the second 50 breathing every 3 strokes, the third 50 breathing every 4 strokes, and the forth 50 breathing every 5 strokes.  This one challenges your breath control and bilateral breathing skills.  Both of these are extremely important for triathletes!  When you’re in the open water being able to breath off both sides is a great asset when you’ve got a swimmer to one side of you who keeps splashing you in your face.  Also, having good breath control can help you to stay calm if you miss a breath when a wave hits you in the face right when you’re trying to breath.  It’s no big deal when you have the confidence to take another couple of strokes and get back into your rhythm.

Give these sets a try and have some fun!  Also, make sure to have the proper swimming gear when you train and race, check out my blog post on essential swim gear right here.  Thanks for reading, please come back soon for more of my beginner triathlon tips!

Triathlete Height to Weight Ratios for 2001-2010 Men’s Ironman Hawaii and ITU Olympic Distance World Champions

For some of you guys who have already been following my blog, you may have seen my highly unscientific survey of height to weight ratios of male and female elite triathletes.  Since those blogs posts took random samples from across the sport, I didn’t think they really said much about specific height to weight ratios for Ironman and Olympic Distance triathlon.  I thought a much more interesting survey would be to take the men’s and women’s champions from Hawaii over the past ten years, and compare them to the men’s and women’s ITU Olympic Distance World Champions.  So here are the men, and I think this does make a fairly interesting comparison.  Surprisingly, Ironman athletes appear to be slightly taller and heavier than their Olympic Distance counterparts.  I would love to have people comment on this and possibly share some viewpoints on why this is the case.  Also, it would appear that if you want to find your ideal Ironman weight (at least according to the height to weight ratio that on average has been most successful over the past decade), you’d need to multiply your height in inches by 2.25.  I’m 6’2″, so in my case I’d multiply that by 2.25 to find that my ideal Ironman weight should be about 166 pounds.  So, four pounds to go before the season begins, then!

MEN’S IRONMAN HAWAII CHAMPIONS 2001-2010

Tim Deboom: 5’11”/155 lbs=2.18 pounds per inch of height

Peter Reid: 6’3”163 = 2.17

Normann Stadler: 5’11”/167=2.35

Faris al Sultan: 5’10”/158=2.26

Chris McCormack: 5’11”/171=2.41

Craig Alexander: 5’11”/150=2.11

Average: 2.25

MEN’S ITU OLYMPIC DISTANCE WORLD CHAMPIONS 2001-2010

Peter Robertson: 5’8”/132=1.94

Ivan Rana: 5’8”/135=1.99

Bevan Docherty: 6’2”/154=2.08

Tim Don: 5’8”/142=2.09

Daniel Unger:6’1”/165=2.32

Javier Gomez: 5’9”/151=2.19

Alistair Brownlee: 6’0”/154=2.20

Average: 2.12

*Please remember that this is for informational and entertainment use only!  All the information that I’ve listed here was found on the internet, which doesn’t necessarily guarantee its reliability.  I’ve only put this together as a fun project that I thought would be interesting to read about, please don’t go and do anything crazy to lose weight to get to your “ideal” height to weight ratio, as I don’t believe that there really is such a thing.  If you notice, there’s a pretty wide varience even between the pros.  Be smart, be healthy, and train happy.


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Height and Weight for Elite Female Triathletes

Okay, so as promised here’s part two of the comparisons of height and weight for elite triathletes.  I’ve taken the old rule of thumb for runners that they should have two pounds of weight per inch of height, and in the last blog entry I calculated the height to weight ratio of some of the top male triathletes.  So here are the height to weight ratios of a few of the top female pros:

Chrissie Wellington:  5’8″, 133 lbs: 1.95 lbs. per inch.

Natasha Badmann:  5’6″, 115 lbs: 1.76 lbs. per inch.

Desiree Ficker:  5’7″, 125 lbs: 1.86 lbs. per inch.

Michelle Jones: 5’10”, 133 lbs: 1.90 lbs. per inch.

Mirinda Carfrae: 5’3″, 114 lbs: 1.81 lbs. per inch.

Yvonne Van Vlerken: 5’3″, 125 lbs: 1.98 lbs. per inch.

Emma Snowsill:  5’3″, 105 lbs: 1.66 lbs. per inch.

Vanessa Fernandez:  5’6″, 126 lbs.: 1.90 lbs. per inch.

Laura Bennett:  5’10”, 125 lbs.:  1.78 lbs. per inch.

Erin Densham:  5’6″, 112 lbs.:  1.72 lbs. per inch.

Michelle Dillon: 5’8″, 146 lbs.: 2.14 lbs. per inch.*

(After I posted this, it was brought to my attention [Thanks, Jackie!] that Michelle Dillon’s correct weight is 125 lbs, which puts her ratio at 1.83.  That’s a lot lower, but still very slightly higher than Laura Bennett, so I think that my comment below still has some validity).

Some interesting things that I noticed were that the lightest athletes weren’t necessarily the best runners.  And also, some of the lightest athletes were the best swimmers, for example Laura Bennett, one of the leading swimmers on the World Cup Circuit, has a height to weight ratio of 1.78 lbs. per inch, while Michelle Dillon, one of the leading runners on the World Cup Circuit, has a ratio of 2.14 lbs. per inch.  So I guess the conclusion that I would draw from this information (and please keep in mind that this is only based on information I found on the internet, which is in no way guaranteed to be completely accurate, at best this is a rough impression) is that there are many factors that are more important than weight as determiners of performance.  So rather than starting your new year with goals of weight loss, maybe a better way forward would be to consider improving your strength, perfecting your technique, and improving you mental skills.  I’ll be writing more about all that later!  Until then, be safe, be healthy, keep smiling, and above all, never give up on your dreams!  Train happy!

 

Height to Weight Ratios of Elite Male Triathletes

People often ask me what they should weigh to race their best.  I’ve never really had an exact answer to give, but the question got me thinking recently.  There are a lot of reasons to try to optimize your weight, and the off season is a good time to lose a few pounds in preparation for the upcoming season.  I’ve always found it much easier to lose weight when I don’t have to worry about staying fueled for my big workouts.  Why should you lose some weight?  Here are some of the best reasons:

1.Less weight means a higher VO2 max.  When you have less body mass, it’s easier for your body to transport oxygen to all your cells. 

2. Less weight also improves thermodynamic regulations, which means that your body can cool itself more efficiently in hot weather.

3. An old rule of thumbs says that you can improve your mile pace by 3-4 seconds per mile for every pound that you lose, so if you loose 10 pounds that means up to 30-40 seconds per mile (this is not a scientific rule, however, so don’t hold me to this one!).

So, what’s the best weight?  I’ve always heard that an ideal weight for runners is two pounds of body weight per inch of height, so I decided to do a little research to find the height to weight ratio of some top elite triathletes.  Here’s what I came up with:

Craig Alexander: 5’11”, 150 lbs.: 2.11 pounds per inch

Chris Lieto: 6’0″, 160 lbs.: 2.22 pounds per inch

Michael Lovato: 6’0″, 170 lbs: 2.36 pounds per inch

Andy Potts: 6’2″, 175 lbs.: 2.33 pounds per inch

Andreas Raelert: 6’0″, 159 lbs.: 2.20 pounds per inch

Michael Raelert: 6’2″, 163 lbs.: 2.20 pounds per inch

Matt Reed: 6’5″, 180 lbs.:  2.34 pounds per inch

Dave Scott: 6’0″, 162 lbs.: 2.25 pounds per inch

Average: 2.25125

So it appears pretty consistant that the height to weight ratio of the top male pros is about 2.25 pounds per inch of height.  Keep in mind that this is an informal survey and that I relied on information found on the internet, which is not guaranteed to be accurate, but I think it’s reasonably close.

So, now you can take a look at your own height to weight ratio and see if any improvements can be made!  Good luck!  And lest you think that I forgot all about women, check back next week and I’ll put together a list of some of the top female triathletes.

Happy Training!