My thoughts on training plans

Throughout my years of triathlon I have been self-coached, by that I mean I read some magazines and books and from that got an idea of the kind of training I should do. I never sat down and structured each phase of training or sessions for that matter  My training plans were pretty rough simply to do a little more this week than I did last week, with the aim of building up to the race distance(s)....I rarely did interval training, mainly straight runs, cycles and swims...It wasnt until, by chance I got involved in a triathlon swimming group last year that I started to understand the benefits of structured swim sessions.

At the first session I was expecting the coach to tell me that I had a great technique and that I just needed to continue with what I was doing.  Oh how wrong can one be!!  It turned out that my technique was pretty rubbish, I had picked up most of the bad habits in the book and invented a few of my own....slightly shocked at this I resolved to improve.  Over just a few months of focusing on some swimming drills and mixing up my sessions with interval and pace work I was able to knock over 5 mins off my 3.8km OW swim time from the previous year.

Obviously this opened my eyes to the benefits of following a structured plan. So, when I decided to commit to swimming the channel I also decided that it was time to employ the services of a coach. The difference it made was instant, instead of working out what I was going to do on the way to the pool each day, I had a plan to follow and knew it had a structured approach. In the past I had committed many hours to training but always felt that I wasn't getting the most out of the hours I was putting in. I now realise that plodding up and down the lanes was not the best way to improve my swim times.

Each day my session has a different focus; pace, endurance, technique etc and each session is broken down as follows.

Warm up
Build set
Main set
Cool down

Not only does this breakdown give me a structured approach and ensure that I am getting the most out of each session, but it also helps keep mental fatigue and boredom at bay. Previously when i was swimming 3 or 4km straight I'd start to spend more and more time preparing my goggles at the beginning of each session, which was a sure sign that I was putting off starting the swim. Now I look at a 5km set and look forward to doing it as it is broken down into small chunks. By having a variety of aspects to each sessions means I challenge myself more, by sprinting hard for 10 x 50m and then going on to do a descending set and challenging myself to keep a steady pace.....I love it!

I always thought that taking a break during a session and using the various floats was cheating. It wasn’t until I regularly incorporated these into my training regime that I realised the benefits.

Since early March I have been doing at least one open water swim each week in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. I still do a lot of my swimming in the pool, but plan to split the time 50/50 with the open water to ensure I don’t lose the pace sessions and don't get back into plodding up and down.

Ultimately I want to be able to swim to the best of my ability and feel that I am gliding through the water, some days it feels that good others it feels as though my arms have been injected with lead and I am swimming through treacle. Swimming different sets in different locations helps to keep me fresh. All bodies of water are enticing when you feel strong and confident in your ablility. And there is nothing quite like being one of the first to arrive at the park as the morning sun burns the dew from the grass, forming a warm mist over the water. It even makes the duck poo murky waters of the Serps look stunning ......... from a distance!