You know, do your work out in open water and really get used to it and get comfortable with it, make it feel as comfortable as the pool and and test yourself in all the conditions because you never know what race day brings.

So for sure, that’s that’s lesson number one. And welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford.

Welcome to episode 201 of the effortless swimming podcast. My guest today is Prescott Bolch and Prescott was recently featured on one of our YouTube videos where we’re looking at how someone can go from a two minutes 10 per 100 down to 130s and over the course of three years. That’s what you did and and have really made some huge improvements. So I want to have you on the podcast to talk about that. But also talk about what’s happening recently about getting a little bit frustrated at the start of the season, not having some having some sort of races that weren’t as quick as you wanted. And then you’re able to overcome that And and get the times back down because I think a lot of people tend to go through that. So first of all, welcome to the podcast Prescott. Thank you. God to be here. And you, you came to our first news to camp, actually, which was at the start of 2020, about a week before the world shut down, traveled over from the states.

Yep. And turned it out very well. It did. Yes, it was great. A lot of fun. I do it again. As soon as your country opens back up, maybe we can do it again. Yeah, I’m mad. I’m hoping so. I’m really hoping next year we can get something going because I certainly miss coaching face to face. There’s only so much online. I think I can can do without actually seeing people. Yeah, well, I have a good story to tell about how good you are at coaching over the internet. So maybe let’s maybe let’s dive in and we’ll toot your horn.

Yeah. So yeah, would you like to tell people about your your background with swimming? How you got started in all of that? Well, I I took up triathlon three years ago and it the swimming was like like with many people. It was the thing you had to add to get to triathlon. I rode my bike a lot. I ran a lot and I decided heck, I’ll add swimming and start doing this triathlon thing and have have some fun. It was really apparent really quickly, especially after the first race that it wasn’t something I could just do a lot of and get better at myself. And so I consulted the internet to go look for some help. And I don’t know how I bumped into you, but I did. And we connected and I’ve been using your coaching services for those three years. I had had one race under my belt before I got started with you. My pool times were whether I was going all out or going as slow as I could. They were about 210 to 13 per 100 meters. And my my

pace in open water was about the same. And

with first race after that, and after maybe four to six weeks of coaching, I took a good deal of time off that. I think I came out of the water in an Olympic distance 1500 meters under 30 minutes. So right around two minutes per 100 So really quick improvement at the start of that three year time period, you know, big gains at the beginning and then they sort of taper off and they get smaller and smaller. But I’ve had

subsequent to a couple races in that season and and then into 2019 with the new succamp. I was making really steady progress. I think I’d taken that that single pace of 210 to 13 and I had taken it down into the probably the upper 130s. By the time I got to Nusa, that’s an all out 100 meter pace.

And, you know, all of a sudden I discover I have multiple paces. I can go really hard. I can go easy. I can find some tempo pace in between and you start to feel like you’re more of a real swimmer. I think the the beauty of the approach that you took during that time period was don’t try to work on too much work on a couple things take take those couple things focus exclusively on them and ultimately for the purpose of getting them into subconscious muscle memory rather than conscious focus. Once they’re embedded in conscious or subconscious muscle memory, then, you know, you go to the next things that you need to work on. And fortunately or unfortunately in swimming, there’s a never ending list of things to work on.

But here I am. I go to the Nusa camp spent a week there get a lot of really solid feedback ended up having you had a race. We had us all participating in a race on the last day there I had a pretty decent race was really happy with the result I came home and

Just as the world was deciding to shut down. I was really disappointed because I was only a couple months away from our

From our summer triathlon season. So I had races lined up. I was all ready to go a couple more months under my belt of training the pool and I’d get to open water and I’d show up in June, July, August for a race season and I was open to do really well. And of course, you know, you know what happened. There weren’t a whole lot of races in in 2020.

After after that Nusa camp. I kept swimming. I fortunately had a gym that stayed largely open during during the shutdown. So I got a lot of time in the pool. I got a lot of yards under my belt and I kept shooting the videos every every once in a while and getting your feedback and paces were coming down steadily.

You know, a few seconds off 100 pace every so often periodically there’d be a decent size breakthrough sometimes would be a frustrating couple of months with with no real progress. But if I graph it and look backwards, I frustration melts away because you can see a steady progress from that to 15 to 13 days back at the beginning to even being able to get under 130 and 100 meters and in all out and, you know, not not too shabby. But the story after after a barren 2020 racing season. The story takes sort of a little interesting twist. I had now been training like nonstop training block for 18 months, I guess, and was heading into the 2021 season and and hoping that that races would actually happen and and they seemed like they would and lo and behold we get to June and, of course, I’m in the upper Midwest so training outdoors here is a very little bit of a limited time period during the year. I’m not super hardy and cold water, even with a wetsuit on. So you kind of get July, August, early September as as reasonable swimming temperatures outdoors. So by the time the first race came up in June, I had had precious little time out here.

The, the prior season because everything was canceled. I just never really went out of my way to swim outdoors. So probably had a couple of swims and open water in 2020 but in in almost none to be honest. And so very little practice for almost a year and a half. June, I do the obligatory couple of swims and open water. And my pool time in June, I had had precious little time outdoors. The prior season because everything was canceled. I just never really went out of my way to swim outdoors. So probably had a couple of swims and open water in 2020 but in almost none, to be honest. And so very little practice for almost a year and a half. And my pool times are fantastic. I’m, I’m nailing really good 100 repeats 200 repeats 400 repeats, all at really healthy paces, low 140s, even upper 130s for the full like two 3k swim in the pool. And I go to my first race after probably one or two open water swims, and I wasn’t super impressed with the times and open water.

But I just sort of wrote it off as well I’m just taking it easy I’m just sort of getting used to the, to the open water. I get to the race and I have just a terrible race. I’m expecting probably 28 27 at worst and I come out of the water barely better than 30 minutes, which puts me back to where I was back in 2019, even 2018 I had, I had a like just under 30 minute pace. And so here I’m thinking I all this work with with effortless swimming, I’m doing super well in the pool, and I show up at a race in early June in 2021 and I have a horrible, horrible race horrible time. And of course, it’s a compounded by I, it was the our state championship was like, I wanted to be a big fish and a small pond. And I finished in second place in my age group by 25 seconds or so. So if you know if I, with all, with all reason I could have easily taken a few minutes off of my swim which would easily have vaulted me into first place in age group would have been nice.

So that was the beginning of the frustration and I, I had a few weeks between that race and the very next race. And I decided well I need to get more open water practice something that’s just haven’t I haven’t done it in a couple of years and are a couple seasons and it just need to get out there. So I have a few more sessions in open water. There’s not structured at all there I’m just going out there to go out there and I’m swimming back and forth from one one place to another nothing, you know nothing fancy nothing, nothing structured at all. And I show up for the next race, sort of writing off the first one is a bit of an anomaly maybe didn’t go hard enough, taken it too easy. I was trying not to get gassed at this in the swim legs so that I had a good bike and run. And the second race was even worse than the first one, and not by a small margin. I got out of the water in the second race and then 34, which, and I immediately reached out to you afterwards and I said I don’t I don’t think I can swim that slow in the

pool if I try. My legs would sink. It would be, I’d be looking like a, you know, a beginner swimmer if I if I tried to go that slow in the pool. And so I was, I was super frustrated I didn’t know what it was I I’m, I guess analytically inclined as a as a genetic makeup. So I said I’m just going to isolate single variables I’m going to figure out what what it is. If swimming is all about stroke rate and stroke and distance per stroke it’s got to be one of those two and now there are lots of variables that go into each one so start to pick apart things that could be impacting one or the other so I tried all the natural things I tried. Does is the does the wetsuit matter wetsuit no wetsuit no difference I came out with terrible times either way. I went to the pool and I tried citing in the pool thinking well it’s the citing that’s slowing me down lifting my head up every once in a while. I would cite once or twice per length in the pool absolutely no difference in the pace between those lengths and the ones where I didn’t cite choppy water smooth water didn’t make a lick of difference.

I, I tried, literally everything. And I was, I was one step away from actually no no lie, measuring my pool to see whether it was short. That’s getting desperate. Yeah that’s really desperate right. I did not go that far because what happened next was you. Well first of all I reached out to you and you gave me a couple things to think about and try and frankly nothing worked. It was the same, same result of course you’re in a bad position because all you’ve got to go on is what I’m telling you verbally you can’t see me like you see me when you’re coaching me over the internet with my pool swimming. So, I didn’t really have a whole lot of expectation was more out of desperation like is there anything I can try. But, coincidentally, at that same time, you were publishing an eight week faster freestyle course. And I was so beside myself and, and by the way to set the context there was a race coming up that’s our USA triathlon age group national championships and two seasons ago, I had surprised myself by qualifying.

And I went I had a terrible race like embarrassingly bad race, and I was, I was dead set on getting there this year and at least proving that I belonged. If not, having a really good race. So, I’m, I’m rapidly approaching this race day that where I want to redeem myself for a very poor performance two seasons ago. I’ve put in an abundant amount of work across all three disciplines, and my swim is falling apart it’s going backwards. So nothing seems to be working, and then just purely coincidentally, you publish the eight week faster freestyle program. And I just decided on the fly I’m going to pretend not actually I’m not going to pretend I don’t swim well in open water. I’m going to treat it as if it’s a different sport. And I’m going to wind the clock back to three years ago when I first got started with you and say, I’m, I’m a terrible swimmer, I can swim but I can’t swim well. Just apply that to open water. So I took your course week one, two, three, four, I had about four or five weeks in between race two and that in the age group national championships.

And I just said, instead of going to the pool, two times three, four, five times a week, whatever, whatever I could do, I was going to take advantage of every decent weather day and go open water swimming. And I was going to do every one of those workouts that are prescribed in that program in open water. Where there were prescribed distances I would either use buoys that mark the swim area and and just choose like one buoy two buoys three buoys depending on length or I would even count strokes if I didn’t have buoys to go with. But I essentially did those structured workouts in open water. And I think in hindsight it was the first one that probably really turned the light bulb on. It was apparent by the time I was through that first block relaxation and breathing that there was something about the context of the open water that was very different than the pool pool is very controlled pool is very calm.

The visual cues are all the same. They’re burned into my memory from going back and forth lap after lap after lap. You know just when to turn your head back. You, you use I use lane dividers to make sure that I’ve got one goggle in the water and one goggle out. There’s all these cues that you get in in the pool that you don’t have an open water and what I believe was happening to me was just sort of starting over redeveloping all those cues redeveloping comfort in the water redeveloping relaxation. I started with terrible breathing patterns. I was getting short. I was getting gassed doing whatever one K a half a K in open water and you know and then in the pool, a half a K or a K even at an aggressive paces and nothing to even get me my heart rate up. So, clearly going through even just week one made this huge difference because it allowed me to be bad again and be okay with being bad again, and sort of start over and rediscover how to get comfortable in open water versus the pool.

And I could feel from week one and going into weeks two and three I could just feel how much more calm. How much more comfortable I was in open water how much less the chaos of open water would disturb me. And I’m here to this when I was just frustrated as all heck, you know that every everything that was like sort of slightly different from one day to next and open water would would bother me and it would disrupt me. If there was a little bit more chop than the previous day if if the water wasn’t as clear because of turbulence kicking up the sand on the on the bottom. It was, it was just chaotic and frustrating and was really debilitating to my ability to relax and just focus on the stroke. So, I start to see a little bit of progress, you know some days way better than others it wasn’t like I snapped my fingers and all of a sudden was hitting my pool times again. I’m not not even close to that but slowly but surely I could feel myself calming down. I could feel myself rediscovering each of the steps that you’ve walked me through over the last three years.

I could feel myself redeveloping those skills but specifically to open water developing new cues developing a new sense of comfort in the pool and really feeling my body again in the water. Again, looking backwards I think well I was I was in the water and I was moving my arms but I had no sense of my body in the water whereas in the pool I can. I’m so hyper focused on on what the water feels like on my right thumb or we’re going over my knee as I swim you know you get that laser focused on certain feelings in the pool because the you’re so used to the stimulus around you but in open water it felt like somebody was just sort of blaring something in my ear or shaking me like a like a rag doll and and when the environment is that chaotic. You lose the ability to focus and so anyway I made it through week four of the eight week faster freestyle program. I showed up for age group national championships, and I had a fantastic race, it was still slower than the pool, but it was way faster than my previous two races.

I was out of the water 2748, which is about a 150 pace. So, I guess compared to the pool I’m still almost 10 seconds, somewhere between like eight to 10 seconds off of, but I think a decent race pace would be if I was in the pool, but I was thrilled. I was almost six and a half minutes better than a 1500 meter swim a few weeks prior by any by any measure that’s a fantastic improvement in that short of period of time. I had another five weeks to go before I did my first half Ironman. So, up to this point it had all been Olympic distance and true to form decided like I’m going to be crazy and move up to the next distance and I so I signed up I had signed up for a half Ironman and I wasn’t expecting anything miraculous I hadn’t like I continued to focus on the mechanics and the basics in open water. When I got to the half Ironman. I didn’t set my expectation, any different than I’m going to do what I did at the age group race plus maybe seven minutes.

I just, you know, I figured I would be roughly the same pace as age group national championships. And race starts. It was a four at a time start every couple of seconds. So I dive in. And I go out kind of aggressively. It was in a protected bay in in Lake Michigan. So there was in the there was no wind that day so it was other than the washing machine effective swimmers in front of you behind you into the side of you. It was perfectly smooth water. So that had definitely had that going for me. I started fast. My goal was to start fast and cut back just a little bit and then just kind of cruise the rest of the way. I just kept going fast though I felt great. I was, I was cruising along the buoys were like flying past me. I had started in a self seeded spot of about 35 to 37 I think, thinking that I would be right around there for my finish time. And I was passing people like they were treading water.

And I knew I was going fast. I didn’t feel like it was even work. I was just splitting people down the middle. It was a blast. I was just on. It was like I was on top of the water just gliding. And I got out of the water and 3334 that 1900 meters was faster than the than the worst 1500 meter race just like a month and a half prior to that, not not a faster pace, a faster total time. 34 something at 1500 meters. And that’s when I got abundantly frustrated and and reached out for help. And then to go from that to an absolute better time of 3334 at 1900 meters, I just got out of the water, like I had hit the lottery. And it’s such a great feeling to get out of the water with a good swim time, but it’s, it’s even that much better when you’ve been struggling with open water swimming, essentially all season long. And you haven’t had a real quote, good or great open water swim for them for a long time.

So I got out of the water and I had a great bike leg and running was the running was probably the the weakest leg of the race. But I’ll tell you that 3334 I kept saying to myself as my legs got more and more tired on the run, please don’t waste a good swim, please don’t waste a good swim. It kept me going for quite a while. I eventually faded a little bit on the run, but I ended up doing well in my age group and, you know, it was a great first half Ironman and age group wise or relatives my peers and age group. I came out of the water eight out of 123. And if you had, if you had asked me if that was possible three years ago, I would have just laughed out loud. I can I can swim in a forward motion but you know I was three years ago I would have said if I can get out of the water mid pack, I’d be totally happy. So I don’t know maybe maybe nobody fast showed up that day and my relative placing was was a fluke, but to finish that high relative to age group was was just icing on the cake.

It felt like a great swim it was, you know, it was obviously a relief based on my my summer performances. But it really did. It was like an a shot of adrenaline for the rest of the race and ended up ended up with a great half Ironman result to show for it really really happy with it. So that’s kind of the story. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. I and I think that feeling of when you’re passing people and the buoys that you go and pass them fairly quickly and like you feel like you’re just you know you you’re on top of the water you’re swimming fast and nothing can stop you like that is that’s one of the best feelings that you can get when you’re you’re swimming so no wonder you felt like you’ve been shot with adrenaline coming out of the water that race. Well, and, and when I first started triathlon three years ago. One of the first problems I had was the very common problem I understand of people going too fast breathing too short end up you end up hyperventilating in the water right I’ve had that problem multiple times

whether in a just an open water training swim or in a race. And so my reaction to that has always been start really slow. Start almost like you’re doing a catch up drill in the pool, go really slow don’t don’t let the turnover, get the better of you don’t let the adrenaline of the race get the better of you don’t want to go outcast and go back on that now I think that was probably less of a problem of going out too fast it was more of a problem of not being relaxed in the water. And so, so really solving that this time well I’ll prove it I’ll prove I solved it next season but if I’ve solved that problem, then I’ll end up having much better swim times that are much closer to pool times. And if I can, if I can maintain the relaxation, then I can, I can keep a fairly aggressive for me anyway, stroke rate, and not get gassed because I’m, I’m controlling the, the breathing and the relaxation in the water.

And that’s what it comes down to isn’t it like if you’ve done the training you’ve done the work and you have that fitness there, then you can definitely go out a little bit quicker at the start. And then either back it off a little bit as you’re going through the middle of the race but not much, but you can go out with speed and for me when I’m racing and I have a really good race it’s. I’m going out quick but the heart rates kept under control and I’m always mindful of am I spiking it too much if I still got this under control and can I sustain this effort. And when you find that that zone where you are going fast and I think it’s that easy speed that a lot of some coaches talk about where you’re going fast but it feels pretty easy that’s what you’re going for at the start of a race and it sounds like you hit that. Yeah, I think I did. I checked my, my Garmin data afterwards of course and I was holding a pretty high heart rate, which surprised me because it didn’t feel like work at all.

It took maybe 400 meters for the heart rate to elevate and then, but then I held it from there for the rest of the race and I wouldn’t have designed it that way. I’d go out at this heart rate but the the ease with which I was swimming, I literally felt like maybe a slightly hard workout but not. It didn’t feel like an all out race. And yeah, it was it was phenomenal and it’s the kind of race you just want to bottle up and keep in your memory for a long time and keep referring to it as as the right way to do a race. Hopefully I can, I can break that one out next time I head out to the course and looking back at a couple months ago when you’re frustrated with the times you’re getting open water to where you were recently with a really good swim. What what lessons have you taken from that? Well, one open water swimming is different. You got to treat it as different. You’ve got to practice it a lot.

It’s not. I think that the approach I took in prior years was just do it a few times to get used to it. To make sure that you don’t, you’re used to constant swimming and without the brakes at each wall. I will completely turn that on its ear each season from here on out. I’m going to, I’m going to essentially move my training to open water as much as possible in the summer months leading up to races and, and instead of just, you know, going out and swimming a solid 2k, go do intervals in the, in the water, go swim whatever, count strokes, do something, but, you know, do your work out in open water and really get used to it and get comfortable with it. Make it feel as comfortable as the pool and, and test yourself in all the conditions because you never know what race day brings. So for sure that’s, that’s lesson number one. And a quick note from our sponsor. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Form Swim Goggles.

With these goggles, you don’t have to look at the pace clock anymore or be one of those swimmers in the pool always grabbing for their watch. With Form Smart Swim Goggles, you can see all of your key metrics while you’re swimming. Distance, pace, stroke rate, they’ve got it all. And the swim data is displayed on the goggle lens and you can customize the display to see the metrics that you want to. And I was worried that it was going to be distracting, but you can literally see through the display, the metrics are always there, but you have to choose to focus on them. It’s really impressive. And it makes hitting intervals or any kind of specific training much more manageable and achievable. And the goggles track it all, it’s automated. So from the time you start your session to the end of the swim, you don’t have to press any buttons in between. It automatically tracks everything. Form also works with a bunch of the best pro athletes out there including Lionel Sanders, Sarah Crowley, Hannah Wells and the Olympic champion Usama Malouli to name a few.

These form goggles are for all types of swimming too. One pair of goggles and you can use them in the pool, the open water, you can use them in swim spars and endless pools too. So the same pair of goggles can be used in all of these different environments. The battery life is incredible too. One hour charge is 16 hours of swimming time battery life. And you can have the display on either your right or your left eye. The goggles themselves come with anti-fog solution that’s used in dive masks, so it’s great in terms of quality. And there’s a protective case with a nifty drainage solution. So after you swim you can store them safely. And while the goggles connect to the Form Swim app on your smartphone too, they will sync with the Form app and then you can review all of the details of your swim. And you can see what other swimmers are up to in the Form Swim community as well. I’m a big fan of these goggles.

I was really impressed when I used them and I use them for the vast majority of the sessions that I’m currently doing. To find out more about the Form Swim goggles, go to formswim.com. And you can use our coupon code effortless at checkout and save $15 off your order. Back to the podcast. Lesson number two is never be too arrogant to refuse to go back to basics. Or maybe said more positively, always be humble enough to go back to basics. I thought there for a minute prior to the frustration, you know, I’m not a bad swimmer. I can do, I’m age, I’m 57 years old, I can do all out, 130 in the pool, easy. I mean, not easy. It’s hard work, but I’m, you know, it’s not a, it’s not a terrible time in the pool. I’m feeling like a real swimmer. Real swimmers don’t have to go back to lesson one and do relaxation and breathing, right? So yeah, a little humility goes a long way. So maybe those couple of terrible race results were just the humility injection that I needed to get me to get back to the beginning.

That’s, that’s what stood out to me was just being willing to go back to basics. And I think of tennis players as an example of that. It’s like when you’re playing tennis, it’s just, it’s a couple of shots, but they have those fundamental shots just drilled down and drilled down. And with really solid fundamentals, then you can work on more intricate parts of tennis or swimming, whatever it might be. And, but without those, those basics in place, then you’re not going to be able to build upon them. And the thing with breathing and relaxation that first week that, that we’ve got there, it’s, I think it’s people look at that and go, I can breathe, you know, I feel relaxed in the water. So a lot of times they’ll just either skip it or they’ll just get a browse over and go, okay, cool, got that. And they won’t actually go through it. But even for me, like I’ve had, when we, you know, when the pools are open a little while ago, there’s been times where I’ve focused on my, on my breathing and had a really good training session and just gone.

Wow. Like I was a couple seconds quicker per hundred. It felt great. And I was, that was a really good training session. And, you know, I’ve swam for like nearly 30 years now. And it’s just that stuff, it really can make a difference, but it’s hard to sometimes bring yourself back to those really basic things, especially like just breathing relaxation. It’s just so simple. Right. Right. I think the other thing I’ll take away from it is I need to learn to like open water swimming. It’s been more of a chore and not necessarily a pleasant one. And some of that is the, the frustrating performance, but I feel more in command when I’m in the pool. It’s a more comfortable environment. It’s obviously a safer environment, but I, I feel like I have more control over the workout and the pace and pretty much everything. And you get into open water and it’s, it’s a little bit cold or it’s a little bit choppy or it’s a little bit windy or whatever.

And, and there are just a few things that sort of knock you off that comfortable pedestal. And I have to keep going out and doing it. I have to make myself do it every, every reasonable weather day. I should be out there in the summer. And maybe I should even stop being such a wimp and go out in some slightly colder water temperatures really early in the season so that I’m not showing up on race one with two swims under my belt. But I really, I think I would benefit a lot from just a lot more work in open water. That’s where I raised. So I should do more work there. Yeah. And, yeah. I think that can certainly help. I think I, I think back to my first open water swim was when I was about 13 or 40 years old as a teenager, having only some in the pool. And I never learned to sight. I never learned about like going around billies or anything like nothing. It was just like, oh, there’s a, there’s a team triathlon down at Blue Rock Dam.

And we’ve chosen you to be the swimmer. I was like, okay, cool. I’m a good swimmer. You know, I’m going to go out there and snatch it. And I remember a guy that I used to train with and race with way faster than me in the pool. He, he actually beat me and he was like in this team that was formed to be like, you know, to win the event. He was in the tent was planned to come second, but he beat me and I was really filthy about it. So, and I was like, oh, I don’t like open water swimming. And then I started coaching adults and then we started to do these open water swims when I was maybe 19 or 20. And I was like, okay, this is actually pretty fun. But it took me a couple of years to actually learn how to do it properly. I can see that I’m not close to liking it yet. I’m, I’m getting close to being able to tolerate it and know how important it is to practice it and results are really helpful there. But I really need to spend this next season getting to like it and feeling in command of it.

And then I think really, really good things happen. Obviously I’ve got a long fall and winter to work out in the pool. And so I’ll keep working really hard there. Try to take a few more seconds off of the 100 meter pace. And when, when the water gets to human temperature in probably June, I’ll be back out there with a wetsuit on trying to learn to like it again. They’ve got, they’ve got like thermal wetsuits as well. You can get and you’ve probably seen like the little hoods or the thermal. I would need one. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when you add, I imagine it’s really cold. Yeah. So I figured I would probably have to do a Celsius conversion here for you. But I think, I think it’s like, it takes until maybe mid June to get above 15 Celsius. Yeah. Yeah. You’re being soft. Oh, I’m very, I grew up in Florida. I used to bathwater temperatures. So I can’t, I can’t take the cold. I would need all of the, I need head to toe neoprene to keep myself in the water when it’s that cold.

Yeah. But one of the, one of the things that I’ve started to do probably more when I’m surfing than anything, because I’ve done a whole lot of open water swimming recently. I do the same thing when I’m swimming open water and the conditions are like really windy and choppy. And it’s like, it’s hideous. And you can, you can take it one of two ways. It can be either like, like this, this sucks. Like what am I doing out here? Or you can take the approach of like, isn’t this wild? This is just like, I can’t live them out here in these conditions. And I was out surfing the other day and the, like it was, it was piercing down rain. It was really strong, cross shore winds. There was so much bump. There was like me and one other guy out there. I could hardly see the shore and it was just like, it was all over the shop. And I was like, I was going to go in. I was like, no, you know what? I’ll just stay out here and enjoy being out in the, in the ocean in such wild weather.

And it was like, I found it pretty fun when I sort of had that attitude. So this is more for myself on anything too. But it’s just like, yeah, when it, when it’s not desirable, you can sort of have that. It’s like a Steve Aaron approach, right? Like everything’s just like, isn’t this awesome? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I find one of one strategy I really need to pull the trigger on to an employee is taking my watch off. Especially when the conditions are bad, you know, you’re going to have terrible looking time compared to everything else. And, and you’re out there to practice. You’re out there to work on, on, on form amidst the chaos of the, of the water conditions. So just leave the watch behind. I can’t bring myself to do that. But, but maybe next time around when the conditions are really bad and I’m forcing myself to go out, I’ll, I’ll give that a shot. Cause the, the, the mental. Sort of mental drain of constantly thinking to yourself, oh my God,

this time I’m going to, I’m going to pull up at, at halfway through before I turn around and the time’s going to suck. That’s a huge mental drain. And it, it’s yet another thing that is keeping you from focusing on mechanics. So I feel like if I could just, if I could just get over that hurdle of not, not measuring one of my workouts, it would be really good for me in open water swimming. I could, I could just, you know, make up the time and the distance to put in my logbook. Yeah. Yeah, that, that’s right. I, I, yeah, I rarely ever, if I do ever take my watch out when I’m swimming open water, I won’t look at the pace at all when I’m swimming. Cause I know it’s going to be probably 10, 15 seconds slower. And sometimes if I’m with the group will stop and that sort of things. So I just, I did not worry about time out there. Yeah. And maybe you could go like that in between step where it’s like, take your watch out, see what time you leave at like,

say it’s seven 30 in the morning and just see what time you get back at. And you could jump on Google maps and, and measure where you, where you’re swimming. Well, or, or I could, I could, I use one of those, those orange inflatable buoys attached to my waste, um, floatation devices when I’m in open water, I can just put it inside that so that I’m not tempted to look at it or start and stop it. So at least I get the measurement done, but I, I’m not at least mid race. I’m not worried about what the times look like. And I’m not, and I’m not going to be frustrated halfway through. I need some mental strategies to get me past my hangups about, um, uh, anal retentive measurement of all workouts. Like, uh, need like a 12 step program. I think. Yeah, exactly. I was thinking about giving up like, what if I gave up coffee for even like a week? And I was like, no, I couldn’t do it. I did not have that. No, that’s not on the witty.

Nope. That’s not on my list. I’d sooner give up my watch than coffee. Yeah. That’s right. I’m definitely addicted to it. If, if I can’t even do it, give it up for a week. But, um, yeah, it sounds a bit like you’re, um, like a watch, but, uh, I really appreciate you sharing that on the, on the podcast. I know you’re not alone. The funny thing was when you sent that message, uh, like the message about the poor times in the open water and just trying to figure it out. I had one, probably two other people that same week, uh, who was stroke analysis members sent similar things. And I’m like, they just returned to racing and been a while out. And there was like bad times. As well. So you weren’t alone there. So I think this is really relevant to probably a lot of people who are, who are listening to this. And, uh, it’s always good to hear how someone, you know, had a really good, um, run improved your times and then, you know,

drops back down and then it, but then it came back up. And it’s like, kind of like in the analogy I’ve heard for investing in, like in the market, right? It’s a, it’s going up a mountain with a yo-yo. So it’s not always going to be upwards. It’s going to have ups and downs, but the overall run is going to be, it’s going to be in a trajectory. And, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s what you’ve, you’ve done, which is fantastic. So, uh, thanks very much for sharing on here. And what’s your, what are you looking at now the next six to 12 months? What’s that sort of look like for you? And what are your goals with you for me? Yeah, I’m going to, I’m going to do the, uh, a couple of Olympic distances and probably another half Ironman next season. And I don’t have them picked out yet, but, um, I just want to keep getting better. I’ve, I’ve got a stretch goal in mind on the Olympic distance to, to take about 10 minutes off my time, which will put me in some rarefied air in my age group.

If I can pull that off. So I’ve got a, a plan that I need a few minutes in the swim couple, maybe a couple minutes in the swim. And most of it I need to get back in the run, but I’m just trying for like just continuous improvement. Just keep chipping away. Um, at, at all three disciplines, but mostly the swim in the run. Um, I think that’s where I have the most room for improvement. Uh, and I’m swimming, I’m having a blast getting better at it. It’s, uh, it’s fantastic. Sort of watch that, that trajectory rise. Uh, and the pace is decline. And I, I don’t think I’m anywhere close to what I can eventually do. Um, so I’m just going to keep, um, working on form, working on stroke count, working on, um, um, um, um, um, um, stroke count, working on, uh, some, some upper body flexibility. Just, just trying to do all the little things that we’ll keep adding up to improvement and, uh, knock on wood. Uh, this time next year, I’ll have some more great stories to tell about good

race performances. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, I think you can definitely do it. And I agree you’re, uh, not, you’re not even near your, um, your limit or your capacity of what you can get in the, in, and out. Thanks again for being on the podcast. Oh, thank you. It’s been fun. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast. If you’d like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.