At the Tri-Mania expo this weekend, I went to a talk by the founder of Total Immersion swimming. It was just a 45 minute talk, so it was mostly an overview of the TI method, but it was a good reminder to pull out my Total Immersion book again.
When I first started swimming for triathlons, Jennifer mentioned the TI method to me. I bought the book and the DVD… and then read half the book, never opened the DVD and promptly forgot about it.
But this talk was a good reminder and the TI method makes a lot of sense for me. One of the things that I struggle with during all athletic workouts is my heart rate issues. Too much pushing and my HR gets way too high and I inevitably have to slow down to catch my breath. Not a big deal at all while running (and it’s why I run intervals). Not a huge deal with cycling either. If I have to coast a bit, so be it. Plus, my heart rate typically gets high going up hills, and frequently (though not always), uphills are followed by downhills, so that gives me a chance to recover.
Swimming, however, is a different story. I can’t just stop to catch my breath. I can slow down, but it’s a scary thing to be super out of breath while swimming, so I prefer to just take it easy. So the idea of being a more efficient swimmer and getting better at moving my body through the water is really appealing.
Of course, I’m PAINFULLY slow right now. So there are a lot of areas in which I can improve. I’m sure my body position is horrible. I’m thinking I should go to a clinic with filming (as much as I don’t want that) and see what I can do about improving my form in general. But every step helps.