While the swim portion of the ironman may only represent 10 percent of the race, it does play a significant role in the outcome. The time taken to exit the water is just a fraction of the whole picture of performance— the state in which we exit the water and how much energy is expended during the swim is critical to the overall performance at the end of the day. Continue reading
I just returned from Kona on Monday and was thinking about this piece which I previously wrote. Since I stopped competing, I’ve worked for David Huerta and the Transition Team for the last several years transforming the Kailua-Kona pier into a transition area. It’s a good bit of work, but by noon on Friday, when the first athlete show up to rack his/her bike, the pier has come alive and it gives you goose bumps. Here then are Two Ironman Stories.
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Sometimes, in surprising ways, the human spirit of kindness saves the day. A triathlete I know, despite his best efforts, is tad forgetful at times. I worked the men’s changing tent in Hawaii in 2010 when this gent came in flying after a pretty good swim. As is custom, he dumped his bike transition bag on the floor, quickly changed in to his biking gear, and was out the door. In a matter of seconds he was back having forgotten an item. Continue reading
The following is an article written by Andrea Himmel. Andrea almost died from a condition called swimming induced pulmonary edema (SIPE). It dose a good job of shinning some light on a condition that looks to be the reasons for deaths in the swim of triathlon. Here is Andreas story
I wanted to share something about the man who died during the latest Ironman US Championships in New York City, and my personal experience with the same medical condition he suffered from during the race.
After a year of training and focusing my life on this race, I had to pull out around mile 56 of the bike ride. I had developed what I learned was a swimming induced pulmonary edema (SIPE), a form of high output heart failure.
Now, we hear from people involved in the Ironman medical circles that the man who died after the swim likely died from SIPE. Luckily, mine didn’t get to that point because I pulled out. But, from what I understand, it doesn’t take much at all to get from where I was to it being fatal. He was a 2.5 hr marathoner and extremely fit. (I note to you there’s no way of knowing for sure how he died, but consensus among the medical folks is this is the most likely cause.)
Continue reading
You need to go the extra mile to absolutely ensure your safety-especially from motor vehicles. While running, attention to a possibly slippery road surface, choice of routes, bright clothing, reflector vests, even a red strobe light on your butt while always paying attention to your surroundings.
When cycling, riding single file is even more important than in summer daylight. Although we’ve all seen riders with hardly a reflector, I ride with 3 red lights behind: 2 solid on my belt and a strobe under my saddle. My friend has a suit with lights up and down the arms resembling Landing Signal Officer on an aircraft carrier. But, by gosh he’s visible. Careful, it’s a jungle out there.
Frozen Shoulder
In the office this is known as Adhesive Capsulitis. The patient is usually not aware of trauma (although a percentage of this group has has recent trauma or surgery to this shoulder) but notices an ever increasing loss of motion, a “capsulitis” or shrinking/tightening of the capsule around the shoulder joint. For some reason, it’s much more common in women than men, non-dominant shoulder, aged 35-55. Diabetes seems to increase the risk of developing FS. This is not arthritis or infection although its true cause is not known. Continue reading
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I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind. I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time.”
Kryptonite, 3 Doors Down
Your thoughts when injured?
We frequently think of overuse injuries as running related but swimming can also take it’s toll. Swim training/racing can put us at risk for a multitude of upper extremity difficulties. We frequently see problems with the rotator cuff stealing the headlines, particularly in overhead throwing sports, while less commonly the elbow is involved. Many of us have either heard about or experienced Tennis Elbow (pain over the outside of the elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis, less often from playing tennis than from an alternate source despite its moniker.) Triathletes are more prone to Medial Epicondylitis – pain over the inside of the elbow. This is known in the literature as Golfer’s Elbow. You might be able to guess why. Continue reading
Many swimmers (and some coaches) believe that every swimmer should look straight down at the bottom of the pool when they swim, so as to improve their body position. Is this true? Let’s look at some swimmers underwater to find out :
The Star Of The Pool
First up we have double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, showing us a mid head position, looking at the bottom of the pool 1-2 meters ahead of her:
As you can see Rebecca sits fantastically high in the water, a body position she can easily achieve despite looking slightly ahead. This is very typical of elite pool swimmers who rarely look straight down or very far forwards.
Key point: The very best pool swimmers in the world tend to use a mid head position, looking slightly ahead.
The Professional Triathlete
Fraser Cartmell is a star of the 70.3 world stage and a great swimmer to boot. Like all elite triathletes, Fraser’s main concern is performing well in open water swims and so he uses a very forward looking head position:
Looking so far forwards helps him navigate effectively and find the toes of other swimmers to draft effectively. Note that he can do this while still maintaining a high body position in the water (despite being super-lean).
Key point: If you have good stroke technique, you can achieve a high body position despite looking forwards and for open water swimming this is a major tactical advantage.
The Buoyant Age Grouper
Marina is an age group swimmer with a naturally high body position in the water, she’s been told to look straight down at the bottom of the pool when she swims but this was very bad advice for her:
By looking straight down she starts to rise up out of the water at the rear:
In a wetsuit, the extra buoyancy exacerbates this problem further, leaving her feeling very unstable. We coached Marina to look a little further forwards, rebalancing her in the water while still maintaining an excellent body position. Looking further forwards also helped her proprioception (body awareness) in front of her head so that she could develop a greater feel for the water during her catch.
The extreme version of this advice is to ask swimmers to ‘swim downhill’, which is a disaster when their natural body position is already very good :
Here Barbara has added huge frontal resistance after being asked to bury her head in the water. Returning to a higher head position and not pressing down with her chest allowed her to immediately swim more efficiently and be much more comfortable doing so.
Key point: For swimmers with a good natural body position, looking straight down harms their swimming. If you feel unbalanced when swimming (or in your wetsuit in open water) try looking further forwards and see if it helps gives you stability.
The Sinky Legged Swimmer
Glen is a former professional Aussie Rules football player and is relatively new to swimming and triathlon. He suffers greatly from low sinking legs in the water:
Much stronger on the bike and run, this athlete is massively held back by the drag from his low lying legs. To improve his body position there are numerous things he can work on in his stroke, such as:
– Removing hand-entry crossovers which cause scissor kicks and drop the legs downwards.
– Exhaling better into the water to remove excess buoyancy from the chest and make him feel more relaxed.
– Keeping his head low and using the bow wave trough when he breathes.
Once he’s worked on these things he can also try a lower head position to help bring his legs up further.
Key point: Looking down can be a useful modification for those with sinky legs. However, it makes navigation and catch development harder so treat it as a last resort by working on other areas of the stroke to improve body position first.
Conclusion
You can see from the examples above that selecting a head position should be an individual thing for individual swimmers – there is no universal head position that is best for everyone.
Try swimming 100m yourself experimenting with your head position, looking in each of the directions below for 25m in turn :
Choose the one that feels best for your stroke and allows you to swim faster and more efficiently, then stick with it. When we try this exercises on our Swim Smooth Clinics we always receive a range of feedback with some swimmers feeling better looking forwards, while others improve when looking downwards, others feel best somewhere in between.
You can repeat this exercise in your wetsuit, you might well find you can look further forwards which can be a great advantage for open water navigation and drafting.
These guys have no elbows. For the inaugural Ironman race on Oahu in 1978, Navy Commander John Collins made the winners trophy in his basement. It became known as the “Hole in the Head” for a couple obvious reasons, among them it’s appearance and, perhaps describing anyone who’d do the 140.6 miles! 8″ miniatures were given to each finisher of the 25th Anniversary Ironman in 2003. A cool thing to do for sure.
I was recently asked about tendinitis over the inside or medial aspect of the elbow. In Orthopedic circles this is known as Golfer’s (swimmer’s)Elbow.
Golfers elbow – or medial epicondylitis – is pain at/near the muscle origin over the inside of the elbow. Sort of like tennis elbow but on the opposite side of the elbow and less frequent. It seems to occur in men more than women, dominant over non-dominant arm. Although pain is the predominant complaint, people will sometimes note forearm or hand weakness, numbness radiating into the hand, usually little finger and ring like when you hit your funny bone. I’ve had some folks complain of a just plain stiff elbow.
You’d like to know why you “got” it. Was it overuse or repetition of placing the elbow in an overloaded state or was it a single forceful episode that over taxed the muscular origin? The diagnosis is usually made by your story and findings on physical exam. Often x-rays are obtained to look for arthritis, missed trauma, etc. Very rarely will someone think about an MRI.
In any event, the right things to start with include strapping, NSAIDs, etc. I’ve had very good success with PT/Occupational Therapists who’ve gotten the patient to be absolutely anal about stretching and icing among other things.
Failure of the above, in my office, gets a corticosteroid injection as they just seem to work. Maybe even two, over time. Here the literature gets a little cloudy. As has been noted here before, Orthopedic Surgeons (and I’m one of them) are quick to jump on a passing bandwagon. PRP is basically your own blood placed in a centrifuge. The clear part, or plasma, is where this high concentration of platelets is extracted and subsequently injected in the area of chronic tendinopathy. It makes sense. But it’s still new enough that there are few long term studies on which we can base treatment on science, not intuition. A NY Times editorial earlier this year quoted two studies where it had been injected in elbows – one helped more than standard treatment, one didn’t. Also, and this is important, many insurers will not pay for it. And it can get right expensive! So, the jury is still out on PRP but I think, ultimately it will have a role. But not as first line treatment. We just don’t know what that role is. Yet.
Very occasionally a surgical procedure will be needed but in most people’s hands, only after failure of an extensive conservative effort.
“The guy sure looks like plant food to me.” Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors
Many of us have run into a jellyfish or two either training or racing in ocean water. More of an inconvenience than anything for most of us, some poor souls have a more significant reaction. I answered a questioner this week who stated a jellyfish sting allergy and she wondered about the legality of wetsuits in an important ocean swim she has in her future, I suppose thinking the wet suit a shield of sorts.
Well, her race is Ironman Hawaii where wetsuits are not permitted. I’ve been stung in Kailua Bay a number of times, but it’s always more like little needles that hurt/itch a little that day and then, like most of us anyway, it’s gone. I’ve never even seen the ones that got me. If you’re lucky, and looking ahead while you swim, which I know most of us don’t do, and there’s a big Portuguese man-o-war ahead, you can try and swim around it. Remember, it’s tentacles can be 5-8 feet in length and have 100’s of stinging cells on each. It’s not uncommon after a stinging that some swimmers experience nausea, headache, muscle pain, etc., and after the initial welts subside they’re left with permanent scars.
In some locations, primarily around Australia, some jellyfish stings are so powerful that those who encounter them may need hospitalization with intravenous anti venom without which they suffer respiratory failure and and die quickly.
So, if this summer you are stung by one, first (with gloves) peel off any left over tentacles and apply vinegar, straight from the kitchen. More involved stings may require medical attention and support from a cardiopulmonary perspective. And, always be aware of the signs of an allergic reaction – difficulty swallowing/breathing/swelling, etc.
And how do we advise our lady with jellyfish allergy? Well, first, I told her to contact the race director and race medical team well before the event. They need to know of the possibilities here. Second, there’s a high likelihood that she can be “premedicated” before the race such that should a stinging event occur that she’s covered. Sadly, in this day and age, I wouldn’t be surprised if a special document isn’t drawn up for her signature noting the risks she faces and accepts. Hey, it’s 2012.
www.johnpostmdsblog.blogspot.com
Reduce Your Fracture Risk, Take Vitamin “D” Daily
For Those Who Are Always Injured or Can’t Run
Through early morning fog I see,visions of the things to be… Johnnie Mandel, Suicide is Painless, M.A.S.H.
This week, as we prepare for the 2012 racing season , I’ll bypass the injury pipeline and pass on a little experience. After making many mistakes over the years, I can reveal the secrets to not only your fastest safe swim but how to be equipped for those unexpected problems that can throw a wrench into your whole day.
In other words, this is why I keep a spare pair of goggles in my suit. You must think of things that can go wrong, and have a solution in mind, well in advance of the race. Let’s divide these into:
What is a good time for my age? is one of the most common questions we are asked at Swim Smooth and, to be honest, it’s a question we find uncomfortable to answer. That’s because it’s a bit of a loaded question.
L-R: Suzi, Barry, Brian, John, Emmie
One of the most important duties of a coach (of any type) is to help remove barriers from someone’s progress and absolutely never introduce new barriers that were not there to begin with. Normally a swimmer asking this question is looking for an easily achievable target, perhaps one slightly quicker than their current speed, that they can achieve and be happy with. On the face of it this may seem virtuous but such an answer creates a very self limiting mental state that can stay with the swimmer forever: I can’t be any better because of my age.