Coach TJ Tryon

I have been coaching an open water swim clinic, as most of you know, and I’ve had several people ask me this about this subject alot lately - I guess I’m the local go fast guy who knows the answers when it comes to swimming - I am a USMS and USA Swimming coach.

In coaching novice triathletes, I’ve come to the realization that most novice/rookie triathletes have no problem swimming 100-200 yards at a time. Afterwards, they are huffing and puffing, and it takes a ton of time for them to recover.

Swimming is all about efficiency, measured by speed or energy expended (O2 used, or fuel burned). Your efficiency will always get better with practice. You really don’t need anything more than the basic stroke development until you (most normal people) get to the point where you can comfortably swim 1000-2000 at a time. Just build up to the distance, and your efficiency will improve with the distance - your body will learn to use the larger muscle groups that have the ability to do more work with less effort.

I like saying that swimming 2 times per week will allow you to maintain your level of fitness, while 3-4 times per week will allow you to make marginal to medium improvemens. Once you get to the point where you can swim longer distances, look at working on more advanced stroke development (I do video above and below the water for my clients, which gives me a way to analyze every part of their stroke).

If you have issues with the long distances, work on the 0-1650 program, which will have you swimming a mile in 6 weeks. Here’s a link to the plan: http://ruthkazez.com/ZeroTo1mile.html Once you complete this plan, you should then look at advanced stroke development.

 The next installment of Swimming for Efficiency will cover basic stroke principals for improving the efficiency of your freestyle that will help you in your quest to build to swim that mile.

Many congratulations to Mother/Son triathletes Tyler and Linda Hardcastle, from Carmel Indiana on their awards for the June 20, 2009 Indy Sprint Series, put on by the Tuxedo Brothers. 

Tyler and Linda have been participating in our Open Water Swim clinic at Morse Park and Beach, and this race was Tyler’s first triathlon with an open water swim, having only competed in the pool previously. 

 Tyler came in third in his age group, and mom finished fifth in her’s.  It was a fantastic effort for both of them.  Great job!

I’ve had this topic come up 4 times this week, and it’s had much discussion on a couple internet forums I frequent, as well as at the triathlon last weekend, and my open water swim clinic.  I was looking for some reference, and ran across this great article: http://www.coachtj.com/?page_id=126

Kpoulsen - 2009-06-24 3:25 PM

Are there other drinks out there with a bit of protein and non-simple sugars? thanks for your help. keith

Coach TJ:  Protein intake during or just before exercise is not necessarily a good thing, and is probably a hinderance to you. Protein in your stomach is harder to digest/absorb than carbs, and forces extra blood flow to your stomach, as well as your body to expend some energy to digest this. Carb/Protein ratio can/is good for after a race though; the theory is that the little bit of protein will help your body to more fully absorb/use the carbs for recovery. If you feel you MUST try something with protein in it for during exercise, and you can’t handle the Hammer stuff, another shelf option is Accelerade. I’ve tried a couple of different fluid replacement systems for during exercise, as the standard Gatorade/G2/GE do not sit well on my stomach (reflux is bad in a race), and I can NOT drink any with protein in it - I immediatly get cramps. If you don’t like the standard Gatorade stuff, I can tell you from experience that the Gu2O has been great for me - I’m biased though as I am sponsored by them this year. Nuun is supposed to be a good product for electrolyte replacement, dissolved in water it’ll help replace fluids/electrolytes and let you use Gels for fuel. Also Hammer electrolyte capsuls are a good product, and you can drink water and eat gels. As I said, I’m biased, but the Gu Energy system is great stuff. Gu Gels every 45 minutes, and a water bottle of Gu2O every hour keeps me going. Just for reference, anything less than 90 minutes, I typically don’t worry about nutrition as much as I do fluids. Remember that your liver stores about 3500 calories of energy, probably enough for several hours (think of marathoners hitting the wall around 20 miles). As mentioned earlier in the post, some people like flat Coke. It’s got the sugars, some caffine, etc. Most people say that when you start on flat Coke in a race to stick with it, to avoid a caffine crash. I’d suggest this with any of the caffine products - gels, blocks, drinks, etc. Enough running my mouth, I’ll shut up now.

I am extending the June 2009 open water swim clinic registration until Friday.  We need at least 1 more person to have the class.  Please help us to get enough people to cover the budget costs.  Paypal link for registration is below:

Open Water Swim Clinic Registration

Open Water Swim Clinic Registration

Note: A detailed outline with description of meeting point and time will be send out three business days before the event.

* We want to extend our love for the environment and to ease parking by encouraging you to carpool to the lake. Please enter in the comment box during checkout if you are willing to share your email with other participants: I have a car and am willing to give others a ride. / I am looking for a ride. / I am willing to rent a car with others.

Coach TJ and T3 Multisports are please to announce a partnership in the triathlon area in the central Indiana region.  This partnership will represent an extreme powerhouse in the local triathlon scene in Indianapolis. 

Vern LaMere, M.S, of T3 Multisport Fame, has a Master of Science Degree in Exercise Physiology-Human Performance from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (1991). His primary areas of study and research were Lactate Threshold and Multi-Sport Training and Performance (Running, Cycling, Triathlon/Duathlon). Prior to starting FitTech in November of 2003 he was Director of the Human Performance Lab at the National Institute for Fitness and Sport in Indianapolis Indiana. During his 13 years at NIFS he conducted research, carried out physiological testing, including VO2 max and Lactate Threshold testing, Body Composition assessment running form analysis, and dynamic bike fitting.

He has been a competitive cyclist, runner, and multi-sport athlete for over 25 years, competing in running road races, cycling time trials, triathlons, and duathlons. He was ranked 16th in the nation in his age group in duathlon.

Vern combines his experience as an athlete and his knowledge in endurance sports physiology and biomechanics to help individuals achieve their true athletic potential. He has helped improve the running, riding and racing performance of hundreds of men and women throughout Indiana and the surrounding region. He is a Certified USA Triathlon Coach and a F.I.S.T. Certified Triathlon/Time Trial Bike Sizing Specialist He has attended numerous workshops and conferences on the “art and science” of bike fitting, coaching and multi-sport training and racing and has presented on proper bike fit and the science of endurance training on numerous occasions over the past 15 years.

Coach TJ Tryon, one of the strongest local swimmers, has shown his swimming skills in many of the local triathlons, with many top 5 swim finishes, including a 2nd place swim finish.  Coach Tryon is a US Masters Swimming coach, as well as a USMS participant. 

He has been competeting in swimming professionally since 1978, and is one of the few people still around to be able to say he swam with Doc.  His first multisport event was the Blacksnake in 1987, and his first triathlon shortly afterwards.

His role in assisting with triathlete coaching for swimming will be a focus towards stroke optimization, as well as helping less strong swimmers gain confidence in open water swimming.  Coach TJ Tryon has alot of experience in stroke technique, and the ability to fine tune one stroke from the minute detail, to the largest error; from the smallest child, to the full grown adult - and he has worked with all. 

He currently teaches swimming lessons and stroke development clinics at Carmel Aquactic Center, as well as coaches the Master’s swim program there.  When he is not there, he can usually be found on top of one of his bikes, in the pool, or helping to wrench on someone elses bike in need.

CoachTJ Contact Information:

Coach TJ Tryon
Noblesville, IN 46260
http://www.t3multisport.com
317.774.8762 

T3 Multisport.com Contact information:

T3 MultiSport
1343 W. 86th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46260
http://www.t3multisport.com
317.257.1117
317.257.1126 (fax)

For those looking, Carmel Master’s workouts are found here:

 http://www.coachtj.com/?page_id=96

Brightroom took photos, so it will probably be a couple of days before I get some photos posted.  For now, here’s my race report.  I’ll update it when I get some pictures.  I was very happy to get through this let alone as strong as I felt, considering I was not training for this, and have a broken tailbone (which hurts - I’m currently sitting on a donut pillow).  I’m heading to bed, night all!

Race info: One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

Entry by:   tjtryon   One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon 2009-05-02 Indianapolis, Indiana United States 50F / 10C Overcast     Run- Half Marathon   Total Time =   7h 30m     Overall Rank = 21432/35000   Age Group =   Age Group Rank = 0/   Pre-race routine: Day before race, one I was not actually planning on doing, as I was NOT trained for it, I was injured with a broken coccyx and the glass in the foot thing is still not 100%. Plus, it had been sold out for months. One of my swimmers said her brother had a bib he was not going to be able to use, and offered it to me. Well, you know, I, being smart about this, knowing I have not trained for it, and knowing it’s a long race, the fact I am injured, I know that there is no way I am going to run it, so I decide not to. Well, there was a disconnect between my ego and my brain, I accepted the bib, had a bowl of spagetti, and washed my shoes (they were still muddy and wet from the cross country run the other day). Being smart, I know that you never try anything new on race day, so my AM routine should remain the same. So I head off for Kroger to get my typical eggo waffle, and ended up coming home with a bunch of Almond Milk, and some Cliff Bar (banana bread). I had never even had Almond Milk before. My thought, I did not want much protien in my stomach, and the Almond Milk only had 1g of protien. Cliff Bar only had 10g. I figured this would help get it through my stomach quicker. I had the early dinner of spagetti around 4PM, and nothing but liquids after that (tried a couple of different flavors of the Almond Milk). This actually worked well for me - I had no cramping nor stomach distress for the race. I believe I’m probably going to have to make the switch from Skim Milk to Almond Milk (no, I do not want to try soy) on a perm basis. Event warmup: I parked about a mile and a half away, ran/walked a bit to stretch out on the way to the starting line. I was in wave “L”    Run Comments: This run just felt right. The triathlon a couple of weeks ago - the 5k was just brutal. I was really questioning my sanity in the 1/2 hour before this race, but I just chugged through it - and I ran the whole time. I was very happy, and the finisher hardware is really nice.   Question: I just ran 13.1 - does that allow me to wear the finisher medal for the next week or three? What would you do differently?: I don’t know, everything was very last minute and there were no plans to run it, so there were no prep. errors. I did wish that I had put some Body Glide on my arms, they tend to chafe with my tri-top when running when I don’t do it. I probably should have taken a couple of Advil early that morning. Post race Warm down: I was trucking the last 5k, something like 8:30-9:00 per mile, and my last 1/4 was as flat out as I could, given everything I had left. When I got into the chute, my legs just couldn’t hold me up more, nor propel me forward. I am sure I looked just drunk, staggering from side to side for about 20 minutes. Water/Gatorade/Banana/Cookies. Met up with my sister who ran 2:20 - she’s been working hard training for this for months now.   Once my legs got more stable, I left for the 1 1/2 mile back to the car. What limited your ability to perform faster: Aside from the lack of training due to not planning for this race? Nothing. My base fitness really helped. I was able to run the entire distance. I told myself I’d be OK with a 3:00 finish, but I was trying for 2:30. It was a good experience for me, as I am doing Steelhead in August, and I had not run a half marathon before. Event comments: This was truly a national or international quality race, 40k+ runners, a TON of volunteers. Never ran out of anything at the aid stations, and had live entertainment (local rock bands) about every 1/2 - 3/4 miles. Truely first rate, and fun to run on the Speedway track.

Running 02:46:12 | 13.1 miles | 12m 41s  min/mile Age Group: 0/ Overall: 21432/35000 Performance: Good FiveMile TenMile RunnerTIME GunTime 1:01:07 2:06:12 2:46:50 3:09:41 Course: Fairly flat course with a couple of slight grades to go over the river bridges, or under the tunnel at the track. It’s a out and back that takes you from Downtown Indy, through Hallville, and into Speedway. On the way back, you get a nice tour of the IUPUI campus.Hallville has never been my favorite place, as it is full of gangs, crack houses, etc. I have even had my car shot at while driving through it one night. Fortunatly, there were lots of cops, Indiana National Guard, ROTC and private security. The majority of people watching the race in Hallville were hanging around the few liquor stores and bars. Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough Post race Weight change: %-3lb Overall: Good Mental exertion [1-5] 4 Physical exertion [1-5] 4 Good race? Yes Evaluation Course challenge Just right Organized? Yes Events on-time? Yes Lots of volunteers? Yes Plenty of drinks? Yes Post race activities: Good Race evaluation [1-5] 5

I had the pleasure today of a nostalgic run from 20 years ago, when I ran cross country for Carmel HS.  I needed a good 30 minute run, which I was planning between swim lessons and coaching stroke development.  Since I was already at the school, I though I’d just run the old CC course.  I forgot how much hell that “agony” is (picture on the right, YouTube Video Below).  If you have never seen “agony”, it’s like climbing a 30ish foot cliff with steps made from railroad ties that are about 3 feet high, so you have to basically jump to reach the next step.  It’s some real pain to get through it.

If you are looking for a great, challenging 5k run, head to Carmel’s Greyhound Park, across 136th street from the football stadium (park at the stadium lot).  Below is the map of the course, as it’s a little confusing the first time or two on the course.