Saturday, February 18, 2006
Comments by Terry Laughlin Total Immersion Guy (February 19 and 20 workouts are below)
Terry Laughlin is the person behind Total Immersion which is a method of training to swim faster. You can read the whole post at Triscoop forum with Terry Laughlin's posts on his recent training (his posting name is tiguy), but I've put a few of the things he said below. I found it very interesting.
Terry recently posted on www.triscoop.com (a triathlete forum) on the fact that despite major surgury (due to a ruptured rotator cuff in 2004) he has dropped his times and is swimming as fast as he did 10 years ago. Terry wrote: "What's interesting -- and a bit paradoxical -- about this is that I've spent much of the past two years recovering/rehabbing from two surgeries and a few other injuries - much of it sports-related, but not swim-related, weight lifting, mtn biking and winter sports. Still, this period is the first time since 1992 when I've actually turned back the clock and started reclaiming some of the ground lost to aging."
How is he doing this? He writes; "I've been unable to "train" for long stretches, and replaced harder work with "examined" swimming (since August mainly in the Endless Pool in our Swim Studio in New Paltz) which complemented rehab."
I didn't know what he meant by "examined swimming" rather than "harder work" so I posted a question to understand it better.
He wrote back:
"Examined" swims means mainly that I focus primarily on heightened awareness of how I'm working with the water, seeking to achieve progressively more subtle control, perhaps akin to working with the water like a jeweler adjusting a fine timepiece, rather than a laborer breaking rocks. While my physical capabilities will inescapably decline with age -- though I do all I can to minimize that decline -- my self-awareness and "physical wisdom" can certainly increase. And I'm learning that, to a far greater extent in water than on land, an increase in awareness can more than compensate for a decrease in aerobic capacity, strength, etc.
What I've been particularly struck by in the last month or so is how much this idea has been brought home by the fact that I've been injured or in recovery for so much of the last two years -- and that circumstance has turned into opportunity rather than disadvantage.
I separated my shoulder in a mountain bike fall August 4 and did no "workouts" until Dec 17, the day I signed up for the Manhattan swim. From late Sept through late Dec, I did swim 2 to 3 hours a week in the Endless Pools at our Swim Studio, but with no timed swims or intervals, all I did was "stroke tuning" - i.e. experimenting with fine adjustments in the current.
Despite the long gap in training, by my 4th or 5th Masters practice after returning, I was swimming faster than before the injury and within a few more weeks my training times were faster than in several years. On Jan 21, I had another injury, badly bruised ribs. I continued swimming, but with significant pain. One week later I swam my fastest 1000 in eight years or so in a Masters meet, though that morning I was in so much pain I almost didn't go. The next day in Masters workout, our last item was a timed 1650 (equivalent of 1500m) which I did in 21:30, faster than I've done in a meet in 8 years or so -- and fast enough to place 8th in my age group at Masters Nationals last year. I have been stunned by this turn of events and it's caused me to reflect on how it can be. And I can only conclude that the enforced limitation on swimming "hard" has forced me to do far more "examined" swimming than ever before.
Terry recently posted on www.triscoop.com (a triathlete forum) on the fact that despite major surgury (due to a ruptured rotator cuff in 2004) he has dropped his times and is swimming as fast as he did 10 years ago. Terry wrote: "What's interesting -- and a bit paradoxical -- about this is that I've spent much of the past two years recovering/rehabbing from two surgeries and a few other injuries - much of it sports-related, but not swim-related, weight lifting, mtn biking and winter sports. Still, this period is the first time since 1992 when I've actually turned back the clock and started reclaiming some of the ground lost to aging."
How is he doing this? He writes; "I've been unable to "train" for long stretches, and replaced harder work with "examined" swimming (since August mainly in the Endless Pool in our Swim Studio in New Paltz) which complemented rehab."
I didn't know what he meant by "examined swimming" rather than "harder work" so I posted a question to understand it better.
He wrote back:
"Examined" swims means mainly that I focus primarily on heightened awareness of how I'm working with the water, seeking to achieve progressively more subtle control, perhaps akin to working with the water like a jeweler adjusting a fine timepiece, rather than a laborer breaking rocks. While my physical capabilities will inescapably decline with age -- though I do all I can to minimize that decline -- my self-awareness and "physical wisdom" can certainly increase. And I'm learning that, to a far greater extent in water than on land, an increase in awareness can more than compensate for a decrease in aerobic capacity, strength, etc.
What I've been particularly struck by in the last month or so is how much this idea has been brought home by the fact that I've been injured or in recovery for so much of the last two years -- and that circumstance has turned into opportunity rather than disadvantage.
I separated my shoulder in a mountain bike fall August 4 and did no "workouts" until Dec 17, the day I signed up for the Manhattan swim. From late Sept through late Dec, I did swim 2 to 3 hours a week in the Endless Pools at our Swim Studio, but with no timed swims or intervals, all I did was "stroke tuning" - i.e. experimenting with fine adjustments in the current.
Despite the long gap in training, by my 4th or 5th Masters practice after returning, I was swimming faster than before the injury and within a few more weeks my training times were faster than in several years. On Jan 21, I had another injury, badly bruised ribs. I continued swimming, but with significant pain. One week later I swam my fastest 1000 in eight years or so in a Masters meet, though that morning I was in so much pain I almost didn't go. The next day in Masters workout, our last item was a timed 1650 (equivalent of 1500m) which I did in 21:30, faster than I've done in a meet in 8 years or so -- and fast enough to place 8th in my age group at Masters Nationals last year. I have been stunned by this turn of events and it's caused me to reflect on how it can be. And I can only conclude that the enforced limitation on swimming "hard" has forced me to do far more "examined" swimming than ever before.
# posted by gladorca's blog @ 10:26 AM 
