After a two year hiatus, I’m back to blogging again for triswimcoach.com!

I plan to make this as educational and entertaining as possible. After watching Michael Phelps at the Olympics, it seems everyone is ready to “Laugh at the Water”!

I’m thrilled with the excitement that Phelps has brought to swimming. Triathletes can learn a lot from him, but there is even more when you add in the open water, a distance of a mile or more, and a bike and a run to follow!

I just competed in the La Jolla Rough Water swim (1 mile) here in San Diego. My training this summer has been mediocre at best, and although I wasn’t totally unhappy with a 6th place finish, I learned a lot from some big mistakes and also proved once again some simple and easy tricks that I teach go a long way:

1) Always get a good night’s sleep the night before a race, and get as much sleep as possible before midnight. I failed to do this and ran out of energy around the last buoy.

2) DO NOT try to get pole position on that first buoy and fight the masses. Start to the outside, and swim your own race, even if that means adding a little distance. I gave this advice to my friend Stewart Reid, who used it and ended up winning our age group! (why again do I give away my secrets to competitors?)

3) If someone starts overly touching you or grabbing you on the swim, just get away from them. Don’t let yourself get angry or annoyed, it will screw up your race. I had someone swimming on top of me on the final stretch and almost got into a brawl out there! Not good for racing.

Well, I’m off to the pool today for hopefully an exciting and productive swim workout!