Acheiving a Goal

A few days ago I was doing some reading completely unrelated to triathlon. One passage I read dealt with establishing and achieving goals. As I read the passage, I immediately realized that I need to take a more methodical approach to improving my swimming.

As is likely apparent to anyone that is familiar with my race results or that reads this blog on even an occasional basis, my slow swimming is holding me back from being the best triathlete that I can be. While I've sought to address my weakness in the water in the past by doing things like upping my yardage a bit and joining a masters team, I have not done everything in my power to improve. The time for making minor changes to my training and hoping for major improvement is over.

There are all kinds of methods for achieving goals. My method is as follows: (1) set a bold yet achievable goal, (2) acquire the knowledge necessary to achieve the goal, (3) establish a plan for achieving the goal, (4) totally commit to achieving the goal, (5) perform periodic assessments to gauge progress and modify the plan as necessary, and (6) take action. I'll address these steps in order. (Oh, and this is the first time I have ever so systematically and explicitly set about achieving a goal; I'm not always this weird!)

(1) My goal: swim sub-58 minutes at Ironman Louisville
While this is a somewhat arbitrary goal, a sub-58 minute swim would position me nicely to win my age group at Ironman Louisville. Additionally, achieving a sub-58 minute swim this year would also nicely position me to race as a professional in 2011 because I would only need to improve by a few minutes to have a competitive pro swim. This goal is bold enough to inspire and motivate me without being so bold that I believe deep-down that the goal is unattainable.

(2) Acquire the knowledge necessary to swim sub-58 minutes
While one can be a fast swimmer without knowing a great deal about the technical aspects of swimming, and while one can be a slow swimmer despite having a depth of swimming knowledge, I believe improving my knowledge of swimming will help me achieve my goal. My ability to learn is one of my strongest skills, and I should do everything I can to use this skill to my advantage. Further, prior experience tells me that I am perform best in a certain area when I have a great deal of knowledge about that area.

How am I going to acquire swimming knowledge? First, I have began reading everything I can about swimming. I've gone through Gordo's swimming achieves and I've started reading everything at www.smoothswim.com and www.goswim.tv. Additionally, I am making my way through Breakthrough Swimming, albeit slowly because it is not exactly a captivating read, and I'll move onto other swimming books once I finish that one.

In order to manage all the information I'll be coming across, I am compiling a list of swim tips. My list is arranged by motions (e.g., reach, catch, and kick) and body parts (e.g., hips and head), and all the tips are very concise (e.g., a catch tip is to initiate the catch by flexing the wrist downward). While I expect to come across contrary recommendations -- for example whether my thumb should enter the water first during recovery or whether all fingers should enter simultaneously -- the point is simply to know as much as possible about swimming so I can figure out the stroke that is optimal for me.

In addition to obtaining knowledge about "the perfect stroke", I need to know everything I can about my own stroke. To this end I will have Stacey shoot more video of my stroke, and I'll pester my masters coaches to let me know what I can do to improve. Additionally, once Chuckie sets up shop in Colorado this summer I'll have yet another set of eyes to advise me. All the knowledge in the world about "the perfect stroke" is useless if I don't know the areas of my own stroke that require correction.

(3) Establish a plan for achieving the goal
My plan is multifaceted. One component is to always swim purposefully, and by that I mean not just for the purpose of gaining fitness. It's so easy to mentally zone out and think about something other than my stroke while swimming. Mindlessly cranking out a set is laziness. Since the "acquiring knowledge" step will presumably provide me with a list of stroke tweaks that I should make, I need to have at least one of these tweaks in mind at all times while swimming. One method I'm going to use to ensure that I constantly focus on technique is to pick one or two items from my "perfect stroke" list and put those items at the top of my workout printout so that each time I refer to my workout I'm reminded that I need to focus on technique.

A certain sports cliche is applicable here. Coaches used to say, "practice makes perfect." However, that cliche has become passe as coaches have encountered athletes like myself that fail to improve despite practice. Such coaches have modified their saying to "perfect practice makes perfect." That is a cliche I should embrace by mustering all the focus I can so that I approach "perfect practice".

Next, I will continue to focus on the pace clock. As Chuckie says, use the pace clock as a power meter. Sometimes during masters I don't pay attention to my pace, like when I know that a set's interval won't be too tough to achieve. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone, and the pace clock is a great tool for doing so. I need to start doing my fast 100s below around 1:27 for meters and 1:20 for yards, which I'm capable of when I work hard and get 10-20 seconds rest between.

The last part of my plan is to swim more. A little anecdote: every time Stacey and I swim masters the lanes next to us are occupied by the Hilltoppers youth swim team. This team is one of the best in the nation and produced a handfull of D1 swimmers this year. I think these kids practice from 6-8 pm most evenings, and they also swim weekends and some mornings. Not only do they do a good amount of volume for kids as young as 13, but they crush their workouts. A few days ago I witnessed a young girl, maybe 15 years old, cranking out dips on a bench. She probably did 15 dips in 15 seconds! That was impressive enough, but then her coach blew a whistle and the girl went over to the starting block, strapped a belt around her waist, dove in the water, and began sprinting -- sprinting!! -- down the lane. A rope attached to the belt looped over a pulley and was tied to a barrel slidable along a vertical track. As the girl sprinted toward the far end of the pool, she had to lift the barrel off the ground. I could last about 15 minutes in one of their workouts before being blown to pieces.

The point of this anecdote is that hard work pays off. I'm not going to match these kids in terms of swimming volume, but the closer I can get the greater my time will improve. From everything I've been told by coaches and from what I know about stroke mechanics, my stroke is actually not horrible. Thus, my plan is to swim a minimum of 20,000 yards per week with a target of 25,000 y.

This post is rapidly becoming too long. I'll tackle the rest of my plan later.