Stephen Clendenin
ENGL 202, Writing about Sports.
Just recently, Stefaan Engels completed one of the most amazing feats I have ever heard of. He ran a marathon (26.2miles) every day for a year. Incredible. Stefaan Engels may not be an open water swimmer, but he’s got the mentality for it: Just keep going. Open water swimming requires massive amounts of endurance, and to get that endurance athletes must train. According to Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair of Competitor Magazine, open water athletes get some of their best training in a pool with a pace clock. There, they swim using interval training with the pace clock, keeping themselves aware of their times, and how fast they need to go to swim a certain time. They recommend swimming with a group of fellow enthusiasts, and to swim mixed amounts of speeds and strokes, while still going for long distances. By changing strokes and speeds, it challenges the swimmer’s body to coordinate different motions in the water. This cross-training helps develop the ‘feel’ for the water that all great swimmers have. Plus, it keeps the workouts interesting when one mixes it up, and has fellow swimmers with them.
ENGL 202, Writing about Sports.
Just recently, Stefaan Engels completed one of the most amazing feats I have ever heard of. He ran a marathon (26.2miles) every day for a year. Incredible. Stefaan Engels may not be an open water swimmer, but he’s got the mentality for it: Just keep going. Open water swimming requires massive amounts of endurance, and to get that endurance athletes must train. According to Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair of Competitor Magazine, open water athletes get some of their best training in a pool with a pace clock. There, they swim using interval training with the pace clock, keeping themselves aware of their times, and how fast they need to go to swim a certain time. They recommend swimming with a group of fellow enthusiasts, and to swim mixed amounts of speeds and strokes, while still going for long distances. By changing strokes and speeds, it challenges the swimmer’s body to coordinate different motions in the water. This cross-training helps develop the ‘feel’ for the water that all great swimmers have. Plus, it keeps the workouts interesting when one mixes it up, and has fellow swimmers with them.
In an interview, Philip Rush of New Zealand described his 1987 triple-crossing of the English Channel as “trying to break the person beside you.” Rush put himself under a lot pressure and plenty of open water swimming for long periods of time to help train for such a feat. The triple-crossing took an exhausting 28 hours and 21 minutes to swim 63 miles, making Rush an icon of open water swimming. He said that long swimming in colder water prepared him well enough to achieve his epic swim. Rush had been training for four years building up to the point when he decided, he was ready to do it. During the race, he held a pace of 70-73 strokes per minute pace. Consistency with training, and a fierce mental determination is what helped Rush get to that point. While training, Rush would often cross-train, mixing different strokes to better his feel for the water. Much of what Clay and Bonnie prescribe for open water swimmers is good swimming logic, and pretty basic stuff. Philip Rush is one of those athletes who understands as they do, that open water swimming requires fierce determination to build up the endurance needed to swim long distance races.
To compete in open water swimming events you have to train for hours on end, helping your body to get used to exerting itself for long periods of time. Endurance: you’re sunk without it. There are so many training techniques to help building up a swimming endurance, and I recommend looking them up.
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