[Closed] Exercises to improve running up hills?

1200' of climbing, then a spot of lunch for me. That'll do.

molgrips - Member

Generally time gains in swimming will take a lot of effort and a lot of time.

That's kind of what I'm experiencing. Big gains in running, not so much in swimming.

Thanks for the running tip, it's noted.

All I'm trying to do in the pool is get comfortable, keep my form, and keep going for the distance. I can swim all day, but I haven't done long (800m+) swims without a break now and then, mainly due to extreme boredom.

My aim for this event is to beat the cutoff, be able to enjoy it, and not get my nose broken.

And I've never done any OW swimming in a bunch either! Does drafting actually help?

I wouldn't worry about doing "long" swims in the pool, I do the occasional 1500m tt as a yardstick for my coach to have a look at but generally you're better off sticking to shorter intervals. I do sets based on 25's, 50's, 100's, 200's, 300's, 400's and 600's generally depending on the aim for the session. In your case I'd stick to the longer ones of those to build aerobic capacity.

I'd get online and immerse yourself in technique, read about all the drills, watch videos of them and include them into your sessions. Swimming in my experience is far closer to learning an instrument or a language than it is an athletic endeavour. More effort usually results in a drop in form and over longer distances will most likely slow you down. Hence why you'll see 8 year old kids fly down the pool at speeds you only dream of.

Drafting in a swim has more benefit than drafting on a bike, and its effect is two fold: 1 the actual draft, 2 it negates the need to sight. You really need to practice a proper open water swim as it is a different kettle of fish all together and many more skills are involved. You don't swim in a straight line (close your eyes when your in an empty lane for a few strokes and shock yourself!) so you need to "sight" the course every few strokes. There is a technique to doing this and things you can do to sight less (being a better swimmer is one as you will go straight with a perfect stroke) sighting slows you down a fair bit so you want to avoid it. But you want to swim the shortest, straightest route possible also. With drafting there are a few do's and don’ts and little nuances about picking the right person to draft, when to draft and when to pass someone etc but get online and immerse yourself in all of this and you'll be much better prepared for the race. You want to be like Cav at a stage race in the swim, unseen for 99.9% of it, sucking wheels/ drafting, conserving energy then pop out at the front into T1 fresh as.

Iain

I'd get online and immerse yourself in technique,

I did a lot of that a year or two ago, and it transformed my swimming. I haven't done many drills though but I do normally do intervals.

Swimming in my experience is far closer to learning an instrument or a language than it is an athletic endeavour

Agreed.

Re sighting, I did a sea swim recently and that was rather interesting in learning about sighting and such. It was very very quick and easy though (water was calm!) which made me feel pretty pleased with my swimming.