And so what did you take away from the clinic? What did you learn there that you perhaps didn’t know before? Or was there something specific to your own stroke that you found out you had to work on? I guess it was something straight away after going to the clinic that I knew, just, he just changed my whole, whole way that I, you know, entered the water through to pushing the water out. Just my whole catch was completely different once I left that clinic. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. My guest today is Amy Rine and Amy recently did the Kansai Man and had a pretty big PB. So I went from 118 swim time down to a 109. So I wanted to get you on the podcast to chat about what it is you did to make such a big jump in your, your speed in your swim time.

So welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Brennan. So you’ve done two Iron Man’s prior to Kans and Kans was in June. What, what sort of inspired you to work on your swimming? Cause you came to a clinic of ours in March and you mentioned that had a good impact on your swimming. That’s correct. So I decided to do the Iron Man Kans. And I know Kans is sort of notorious for being pretty crappy weather, pretty rough swim. And I’m not a confident swimmer in the open water. And I’ve always sort of, you know, struggled to get into the water. And I sort of only really enjoy Iron Man once my hand touches the ground after the water. So I always sort of had that in the back of my mind and seeing the podcast and seeing the Instagram posts and thought, I really need to get myself along to one of these clinics so I can get that confidence in the water in case the weather does turn in Kans, which it did. So I’m quite glad that I did go along to a clinic.

With the race, how far along was it that you’re in the race where the wind started to turn and the swim started to get a little bit choppy? The day before, when we’re checking our bikes in and we can see it, it was really, really rough. And thinking, oh God, tomorrow’s gonna be really bad and woke up and it wasn’t as bad as the day before. But yeah, we knew that going into the straightaway it was gonna be pretty rough in that swim. And so what did you take away from the clinic? What did you learn there that you perhaps didn’t know before or was there something specific to your own stroke that you found out you had to work on? I guess it was something straight away after going to the clinic that I knew. He just changed my whole way that I entered the water through to pushing the water out. Just my whole catch was completely different once I left that clinic. And then I was able to watch the videos back and just see how different it was

from the start of the clinic to the end of the clinic, how much he just changed the stroke. And then I was able to work on that, work on that and slowly progress and get a bit faster and faster. How did you feel after initially making those changes? Did you see an instant result or was it something that actually sent you backwards? How did it go the next few weeks? To be honest, it was definitely the second. I got a bit frustrated, got a bit confused, but I just remember Mitch saying, it takes patience, you’ve got to be careful with it, like to do the drills. And after a few months, he’ll start to see an improvement. And it wasn’t till probably a month before Cairns after I started really doing those endurance swims and just really working on my technique where I just started to see the massive improvement. So it was probably two or three months after the clinic and then just something switched and it was just like, yep, I’m improving.

That’s awesome. I’m glad to stuck with it. I mean, when we first started running these clinics about six years ago, we didn’t tell people what to expect. And so I think people would give up fairly quickly when they got frustrated, but it’s a given that you’re going to get frustrated when you’re changing your rhythm that you might have done for quite a while. I was definitely frustrated, yep. And just in time, a month before Cairns, I’m glad it fell into place. And so what did you do to make those changes more permanent? Did you end up doing drills as part of your Walmart? Was it just something that you thought about when you were swimming? So I’m coached by Trivelo coaching as well. So I’ve got a pretty structured sort of training plan, you know, which was a six month training plan into Ironman Cairns. So with a mixture of what I was doing with Trivelo and then a mixture of the drills, I was able to sort of do the drills

for maybe the first kilometer and really sort of slow down my stroke and really remember what Mitch was saying and how to really get that catch and just slow that whole process down. And then for probably the next half of the swim, then I was able to do the main set that I was given by Trivelo coaching. Yeah, that’s great. I mean, we’ve had probably, I don’t know, maybe dozens of Trivelo athletes come through the clinics, which is great. And we’ve got a couple of other clubs and squads that send our summers to us fairly regularly. And the good thing is a lot of them will actually program in like do some of the swimming drills as part of your Walmart, or they’ll put something in the Walmart, which is great because you don’t want to have to add in much more of what you’re doing. But if you can fit it into your session like you’re doing, then you’ve actually got time for hopefully some life outside of work and traffic.

That’s it, yeah, work, life balance. Yeah, exactly, right. And leading to the clinic, did you expect that you’d be able to take nine minutes off your Ironman swim time? Like what were your expectations? I would have loved to, I reckon that was my dream outcome. I just, I knew, I’ve always been sort of around the two minute swimmer. I’ve been doing triathlons for maybe eight or nine years now and never really sort of advanced in the swimming. I’ve always felt more stronger in the swimming and I can get out the water fresher, but never really got faster or faster. And then so it was always sort of in the back of my mind that I’d really love to improve on that leg. And if I could knock five or six minutes off the time, that would be like my dream outcome. But just getting that confidence in the water was really one of my focuses as well. And yeah, just I was blown away by the improvement that I was able to get in about four months process.

Where did the confidence, increase in confidence come from? Was it the fact that you, that it started to click or was it that you felt like had a bit of knowledge behind you that you could use when you’re swimming? Where did it increase in confidence come from? I guess both really, like knowing that I was going to get out of the water a little bit quicker, but also just not like rushing through the stroke and being able to just sort of concentrate on my arm,

getting in there and just moving through the water, I think gave me the confidence knowing that,

yeah, that I was going to, yeah, sort of unknown.

So before, did you feel like you were, like the analogy I use is it’s like on a treadmill that you just can’t get off. And that often you find your heart rates are up and there’s no point where you actually relaxed and balanced. But when you do take your time with the reach and the catch, then you just feel like you’ve got almost a point of rest on each side. Was there some of that in there? It just sounds like it’s a bit of what you’re talking about. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just stretching out and reaching and knowing that I was actually making progress in the water and not just sort of swimming on the spot. Yeah, the treadmill analogy is a great one there. And how did you know you were making the changes in your stroke? Did you have someone film you at the pool? Did you just have a look at what you were doing or was it just more by feel? So with the Tri-Velo coaching, we do a fitness test every six weeks. So back in November when I started with them,

it was a 1500 meter swim and I was exactly 30 minutes. And then towards the closer to Cairns, it was a 1900 swim and then I got that down to like 33 minutes. So it was a big improvement and I could see, you know, with those testings every six weeks, I could really see the difference that I was making. That’s fantastic. And in the race, did you change or do you feel like you sort of changed your stroke at all in the open water and with the choppier conditions? Did those changes that you made in the pool transfer across the open water or what was that balanced like? Because it can be challenging to keep those changes in the open water sometimes. It definitely was. And a strategy I had was to get on the feet and to, you know, swim on someone’s feet. And there was none of that in Cairns. Like it was just choppier. As soon as you got near someone, you were just pushed off. So it was just a solo swim. And the whole time I was just thinking,

right, high elbow catch, you know, long stroke, that power V, and I just had that in my head the whole time. And then you’re focusing on the boys and just getting around it. Yeah, I didn’t really know till I was sitting there in T1. I even forgot to press my watch and I looked down and I was like an hour 10 and I was sitting in T1 and I was like, oh, I’d swim all right.

Oh, that’s awesome. And how did you go for the rest of the race? Did it set you up well for the rest of the race? And did you manage to sort of save a bit of energy on the swim?

Well, it was quite a windy day, so jury’s out, but I would say so, yeah. Just sitting in T1 and going, oh, I’m an hour 10 and that was a big confidence going, yep, I’ve swam well.

You know, now it’s onto the bike and yep. Yeah, so it was really a big confidence boost knowing that I’d swim under that hour 10 mark. Yeah, that’s fantastic. And it’s going forwards, if you’ve got any more Iron Man’s planned or any more races, or if you’ve managed to take some time off afterwards. I’m definitely in a downtime now, but I do have Western Sydney at the end of September, that’s probably my next focus, but I think the long-distance stuff, I’ll park for a bit, concentrate on the 70.3s, yep. Fair enough. And going forwards, where do you envision that you can get to with your swim with another, say 6, 12, 18 months of practice and work behind you?

Yeah, so I remember Mitch saying like, he’ll only give us three things to focus on, otherwise it’s just going to confuse us. The main thing for me was my catch and getting that arm position all the way through. But I do know my, you know, I could probably improve on my legs or whatever. So I am looking forward to doing another video, you know, in the next month or two, sending it through to you guys and getting that another analysis and then working on another three things. So I know that I’ll be able to progress. And who knows, I might be able to be a 140 swimmer.

Yeah, that’s great. And it’s, yeah, there’s always things to work on in swimming, which is the good thing. And I think it’s a good approach to keep it really simple like you’ve done. And it’s great to be able to make such a big improvement. So well done. And thanks for trusting that we’d be able to help you in some way. And I’ve got no doubt that the training that TriValley guys are giving you as well is making you pretty fit from some of the sessions that I’ve heard get this out there. So yeah, thank you for being on the podcast and I wish you all the best for Western Sydney. You’re welcome, Brennan. 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.