A visit to the local pool can often make us wonder when we see someone effortlessly gliding up and down the lane. How do they do that? Chances are that swimmer was a competitive swimmer as a child, but not always. Beth Potter advised me a few years ago not to waste my time trying to build swim improvement into the Tri Club juniors - just get them to join a swim club. Thankfully I ignored her and we have just had 2 more of our youngsters make the national squad - neither of whom have ever been at a swim club. Two youngsters swimming 1:50/100 now down to the 1:15/100 level. This, I think, is significant as over the last 5 years all of the other 8 that made the national squad all swam in clubs. Before I go on, there is no special sauce or magic bullet just the simple art of aquiring skill through purposeful, repetitive practice. In 1993 Swedish psycholgist Anders Ericsson conducted a study on elite violinists and found that each of them had accumulated around 10000 hours of practice by the time they were 20. The 10k rule was popularised in Malcolm Gladwells book ' Outliers' and he drew on examples from sport and other activities such as chess to further show the benefits of not just practice but purposeful, deliberate practice. Young swim club swimmers then lets say from age 8 start swmming. Typically they swim 5 or 6 days a week, often dong double days. That equates to 20-25k of swimming a week or say 8 hours of actual swim time. 50 weeks of the year by the time they are 18 years old that comes to only 4000 hours! As adults looking to improve to that level which is club level, not elite then to accumulate 4000 hours would take far longer than 10 years. Let's use me as a relatable example. I had never swam more than a length of a pool at any speed until I was 27. That feeling of exhaustion reaching the wall spent and out of breath after a single length, oh yes its etched in the memory. So what do we have to do to aquire higher skill levels? Practice on its own won't cut it as typically we have no idea what it is we are supposed to practice. We have to learn first what to practice then go do that purposefully. Practice on it's own doesn't make perfect - it makes permanent.

Having spent over 3 decades in daft outdoor pursuits I have seen ( and made) probably every mistake in the book. There isn't a week goes by when someone does something to limit progress. Without thinking about it super analytically here are my favourites. In no particular order 1. Not being consistent and doing the boring stuff. Being distracted by the fun stuff - fine now and again but i its a feature it will limit progress. 2. Under Fuelling. Not just in sessions but every day. One that popped up for me personally simply not eating enough protein. 3. Doing the hard sets too easy and the easy sets too hard. This links to number 1...I just joined the boys for a chain gang..next days Vo2 session couldn't do it. 4. Skipping the sessions that target your weakness and always playing to the current strong suit 5. For triathlon - viewing it as 3 sports rather than a 'linked system'. If your weakness ( see 4) for example is the swim and you fail to address it, there will always be a limit on how well the whole system improves

We usually have spring camps and we have occasionally done an off season one just to set us up for the incoming darkness so we are heading to the Costa again in Oct. Triathlon Training Camp (16–23 Oct 2026) 🇪🇸 We’ve just opened applications for the next camp - this time on a more invite-only basis following the success of the previous edition. This version of the camp includes: • Longer endurance rides • Outdoor 50m pool sessions • Evening debriefs & coaching discussions • Supported bike excursion day • Structured swim, bike & run training across the week Link to book below: https://thefitescapemalaga.notion.site/The-Fit-Escape-M-laga-Triathlon-Training-Camp-35a38a7c0a9180b2a3f5c465fda0a368?pvs=143

Hi All, we are heading to the white loch for the south side open water debut. I think its about 12-14c but not really sure. Hoping to get in the water btw 4-4:30pm. All welcome!

Training peaks is the most commonly used and mis used software in the endurance world. It has amazing functionality and making use of it more fully will help you maximise training outcomes. Time is a major constraint for many and there is always lots of chat about how best to use the time. The subject can be confusing and in depth and the 'answers' are not the same for everyone. This post will tackle the 'big picture' using data from athletes that we coach. This may spark some interesting chat! Lets take a look at CTL ( Chronic Training Load) as a marker or an estimate of 'fitness'. I would say that its more a measure of consisteny mainly driven by volume - hours spent vs intesnity. So you can drive a huge CTL with copious volume and be vey consistent but that doesn't always mean you are fitter than someone with a lower CTL. CTL will of course move at different times of the year but the guys that built the idea have attributed labels to the levels : Beginners <40 Recreational 40- 80 Competitive 80-120 Elite 120 -150+ Ironman (sic) 145 -185 ( with Kona Qualifiers regularly 175+) This is fairly one dimensional so rather than using this as a rigid blueprint it can be a useful guide and it is multifactorial if we consider race distances, level of a race and of course age of the competitor. When I first came across this number the Ironman one kinda disturbed me - 175 CTL would be the equivilant of 17.5 hours at threshold intentsity which is a tad nuts so looking at it another way 25 hours of zone 2 work. Still pretty hefty. So unless you are a professional or have the time to train like one then you aren't doing that. I took a look at our stable of athletes and split it into broad categories in a mix of runners, cyclists and triathletes and looked to see where the CURRENT CTL values are overlayed with where it would be in peak season from historical seasons. March Peak Juniors - Older juniors 100-124 130 Effectively elite athletes Youths 65 - 75 90 All still at school 14 - 17