kooks@egroups.com, Fringnut wrote:
I swim ( either mile or half mile) as often as possible. At end of swim workout, I swim a length underwater, then sprint a length – trying to simulate a wipeout and recovery. I do this underwater thing two or three times. It really builds confidence knowing that you can hold your breath for a long period of time while under duress. Came in handy many times in the past!
Kevin Date: Mon Apr 17, 2000
Subject: Getting in shape for surfing: A Recap
I try to always do flip turns when swimming in a pool (when you approach the wall about 2-3 ft away, do a little somersault and then hit the wall with your legs compressed so you can push off for the next lap). Flip turns train you for duckdives so you don’t lose your paddling momentum after you pop out the back, and help me to train aerobically for those long paddles outside … its usually approximately the same interval between waves as it is between pool lengths.
My swim workouts are usually about the same length as Fringnut’s, 1200-2000 yards, with main sets of 2-3×250 fast or 2-3×500 easy, plus warm-ups, drills, 50-100 yards of alternate strokes between sets, and cool-downs.
There is a really good little book by Steve Tarpinian on improving your swimming, which has a lot of information that is applicable to paddling and basically being confident in the water. If anybody is interested I can give you more info on it. Steve usually competes on the local triathlon circuit, last year he did the open water mile in the Mighty Montauk Triathlon in less than 18 minutes!
