We generally get drawn into lots of drills when swimming with the Masters group. No doubt that the drills are great, and lot to learn from the Masters group. This post is not to discuss the pros and cons of the drills for Masters Swimming, rather incorporate those drills to suit the triathlon needs.

So after my Masters swim workout, I spoke to a triathlon coach. And I found three really good points from our talk-

1) Use of fins – Helpful ? It will help you strengthen your kicks, keep your feet parallel to the surface, and provide propulsion. So you will find yourself going a little faster. But as a triathlete, do you really need to kick during your long swim ? Don’t you want to save your legs for the bike and run ?  If you can just keep yourself conscious on how you are kicking, during the kick drills, it is more than enough :). For me not worth an investment. (Triathlon is expensive 😦 )

2) The IM drills – various strokes are really helpful, and a great way to cross train for swimming. But what if you don’t know the back stroke and butterfly like me. A creative way to do the IM drills can be :

• Pull your googles to your forehead (basically remove it), and then do a back float and kick as long as you can. Adjust your googles, and switch to breast stroke or freestyle. This will help replicate times, when you need to adjust your google or swim cap during the swim course.
• Going from one end to the other, do not touch the wall, rather practice turning just before the wall. Do this by going into the turn with a breaststroke, coming out of the turn with a breast stroke, and then freestyle. If you do this, digging into the water, you will tire your shoulders.

3) Alternate way to strengthen the glutes, and kicks is – at the deep end of the pool. Sink down vertically to the pool bottom, and then come up by kicking your legs using the glutes, forward-backward. Make sure, that your legs are straight all the way.