Don’t Think…FEEL

Posted Chris Training

One of my favorite clips of any movie including Rocky IV (“I must break you”) and Mean Girls (“Is butter a carb?”) is Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon: https://youtu.be/sDW6vkuqGLg “We need emotional content…not anger….Don’t think. FEEL…It is like a finger pointing to the moon. **SLAP** Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all […]

Read More →

Our Secret Sauce

Posted Chris Articles

Coach Kevin might fire me for writing this blog. But it’s a New Year, new me, so what the heck, right? I am going to tell you the secret to how TSC has made our athletes (and we are reaching well into the thousands) more efficient, faster, and–most importantly–more confident triathletes. It is actually quite […]

Read More →

The fuel of the future?

Posted Chris Articles

Over the past few years, you might have heard of ketosis.  I will not dive into the details and science behind the diet in this blog/review. But to give you the one clause summary, it is essentially using ketone bodies as a fuel instead of sugar during exercise. Using ketones reportedly allows increased focus, reduced […]

Read More →

Seize this opportunity!

Posted Chris Articles

For many of you, your current season is winding down and you are already making plans for the “off season” (I prefer 2019 “pre-season”) and next year’s race schedule. Chances are that these plans include taking a break. If you have been racing and training at a high level with consistency, taking a break will […]

Read More →

A costly turn of events

Posted Chris Articles

This past weekend, I raced in a local Olympic triathlon on the banks of the St. Lawrence river. While my A race is still three weeks away, I wanted to do well here. In the local race scene, this race is pretty big and brings out the big racers from Ottawa, Montreal and even northern […]

Read More →

How to make every swim a quality workout.

Posted Chris Articles

Look at Zwift, Strava, or any off-the-shelf training program and you will see some workouts described as “quality sessions” such as: “I just finished up a quality session on the trainer…” “3200 m of quality” “Thursday Quality swim set: 2500 as….” But what does quality mean? Does this mean the other workouts you do are […]

Read More →

3 ways to expend less energy in the water but go faster

Posted Chris Articles

Triathlon swimming is all about increasing your speed while decreasing the amount of energy required to do so. Beginner swimmers are incredibly bad at doing this. Most of the time they expend more energy and get slower! They might do a 50 m sprint and feel like they went all out only to see a […]

Read More →

What you need to know about the recovery phase

Posted Chris Articles, Training

We received a question on our Facebook group the other day asking about what is the best arm position for the recovery phase of your swim stroke. Should you do a straight arm like these 50 m swimmers: https://youtu.be/bf4tc04ZhAA?t=4m37s Or a bent arm high elbow recovery like this: https://youtu.be/nIlHQWPdBec?t=3m45s As seen in these videos, both […]

Read More →

Five ways to make sure you are ready for your long course triathlon

Posted Chris Articles, Training

Many of you are making the jump to long course triathlons this season. Going long can be intimidating and anxiety provoking. However, having coached numerous triathletes through their first long course tri, we at TSC know a few things about making sure our athletes are ready both physically and psychologically for race day. What’s our […]

Read More →

Staying Consistent Part 2: Getting “Lifed”

Posted Chris Articles

Continued from Part 1. Last week, I told you about how consistency, with its physical and psychological benefits, is the foundation to long term swim success for beginner triathletes. The key to building consistency is to focus on doing the bare minimum. But the minimum that you know for a fact that you can do. […]

Read More →

Building consistency part 1

Posted Chris Articles

Many factors go into successful beginner and intermediate triathlon training programs, but for the swim, maybe the biggest factor is….. CONSISTENCY Consistency does not mean you have to swim everyday. But it does mean you stick to a regular and frequent schedule of swim practices. Creating a program that allows you to be consistent can […]

Read More →

I’m rebooted! #SwimReboot Lessons Learned

Posted Chris Articles, Training, Vasa Swim

(Continued from #SwimReboot 9: KISSing in the New Year) Almost 16 weeks ago, the Tri Swim Coach team and I launched project #swimreboot. The main purpose of the project was to provide you tips on how time-strapped athletes can improve your swim without spending hours and hours in the pool. We wanted to show you […]

Read More →

The Bitcoins of the Tri World: 5 smart investments that you should make now

Posted Chris Articles, Training

In the banking and finance world, everyone is (or should be) obsessed with “return on investment” (ROI).  This looks at how much money do you get back for the money you put in.  As investors, we want the biggest return for the smallest amount put down. If we get $50 back in 12 months by […]

Read More →

Project #SwimReboot Week 6: When your motivation begins to wane

Posted Chris Articles, Training, Vasa Swim

Continued from Part 5: Fitting everything in First, a disclaimer: this week was supposed to be about strength training and how to incorporate weight lifting and specific core exercises to boost your swim performance. But we had some technical difficulties at headquarters (i.e. I deleted the video). So I will post that update at the end […]

Read More →

Project #SwimReboot Week 5: Fitting everything in

Posted Chris Articles, Training, Vasa Swim

Continued from Part 4: Retesting One of the biggest issues (and I am sure you can all relate) I have faced in project #swimreboot is not the workouts themselves (although they have been challenging in a good way). It is trying to fit everything in. Over the past four weeks, I have found some good […]

Read More →

Project #SwimReboot Week 3: Take a chill pill to get faster

Posted Chris Articles, Training, Vasa Swim

(Continued from Part 2 of the #SwimReboot series) This past week in project #swimreboot was a tough one. It was tough not because of the training was heavier or higher volume. But because of all of the other stress in life that come up in addition to training. I am sure everyone at some point […]

Read More →

Week one of #SwimReboot: Busting off the Rust

Posted Chris Articles, Training, Vasa Swim

(from Coach Chris Hague) This is from the #SwimReboot series starting with Part One here. Have you ever taken a long break from running or biking or swimming or even training activity completely, and then come back to it? Those first workouts are definitely rude awakenings. You just feel rusty and crusty. Before, the workout […]

Read More →

A few thoughts on Kona

Posted Chris Articles

As many of you know, Saturday is Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. To some, it is the triathlon highlight of the year. To our TSC members who are racing, congratulations! Enjoy the experience. Savor not only the journey that got you there, but the fact that you are out there on a magical course […]

Read More →

Beware this common beginner triathlete trap

Posted Chris Articles, Training

When I first started triathlon training, I read all the latest articles, books, and social media posts for advice. Whenever I came across a good article or post with a specific workout or lifting routine guaranteed to make me faster, I would clip it out and put it in a giant folder organized by sport. […]

Read More →

The coaching world has a HUGE PROBLEM

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

The coaching world has a HUGE PROBLEM. It happens in swimming, triathlon, running, cycling, weight training, fitness….. almost every sport. It ruins athletes, breaks down their motivation, and destroys seasons. The problem is that coaches design programs around them not you, the athlete. Even if you are self coached, you are not immune. Many coaches design […]

Read More →

Testing Not Guessing

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

What can be measured can be improved, as the old adage goes, and that is certainly true for the swim. Testing allows you to track progress, look for limiters, and sharpen your mental game. Since not all tests are created equal nor complimentary to your goals as an athlete, I am giving you three different […]

Read More →

The “Inbetween Zone”

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

In between Christmas and New Years might be the oddest fitness week of the year. Many people are coming out of a stressful holiday run up full of work parties, last minute shopping, travel, family gatherings, tantrums (from kids and adults alike), and an endless supply of sweets, alcohol, and rich, dense foods. However, the […]

Read More →

Winter Training Pitfalls

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

Many beginner triathletes have the great goal of improving their swim over the winter, but when spring comes they are usually disappointed with their improvements especially in the open water. Why? I have picked apart several training plans and traditional, typical programs to find the most common mistakes that are slowing your swim gains during […]

Read More →

Joci Goggle Review

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

There is a glut of goggles on the market all claiming to be different and special. From the wide scuba like masks that claim 140 degree vision to the minimalist, old school socket rockets, whatever your preference/goal is there is a goggle for it. Since everyone has different facial structures it is hard to rate […]

Read More →

Are Drills Overated?

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

Drills are actually a pretty controversial topic among swimming and triathlon coaches. Some, like Brett Sutton and Matt Dixon, both of whom have coached numerous Olympiads and Ironman Champions between see drills as unimportant for becoming a better swimmer in fact it is better to spend your time with intensity. Matt Dixon goes as far […]

Read More →

Sinking Legs revisted

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

One of the biggest sources of frustration for beginner swimmers and coincidentally the most common form error next to crossing over is sinking legs. It has been a while since we have addressed this and since we have received so many questions like “why do i sink when i swim”, “why my legs sink when […]

Read More →

Fixing Imbalances

Posted Chris Articles, Newsletters

If you look at many age group athletes’ stroke, you might notice that it is slightly imbalanced as if they were limping through the water. One arm might extend a little further, pull a little quicker, or recover across the water faster. Moreover, many of these same athletes get out of the water complaining that […]

Read More →

Think Yourself to Better Swim Form

Posted Chris Articles

Proper Swim form is tough. It requires exterior analysis (i.e. videotaped performance) and vigilant awareness of where your body is in the water. Unless you are already an experienced swimmer who has developed his/her swim stroke over the course of their lifetime, then it is very easy to slip back into old inefficient stroke patterns. […]

Read More →