POSTED BY  by Garret Felder in SWIMMING

If you’re thinking about competing in your first triathlon, you might want to take a good look at the three activities involved in such a race.

Chances are you probably feel confident about the running and you’re not too concerned about the cycling. But the open-water swimming might make you cringe a little.

If this sounds like you, maybe you should think about joining the Masters Swim program at Life Time Fitness. Besides, many other triathletes have.

Barb Folsom, a Masters Swim instructor for Life Time Fitness in Chanhassen, MN, said plenty of triathletes have joined the Masters Swim program to develop the swimming portion of their event.

Of her 50 students, Forlsom said at least 45 are triathletes trying to improve their times in the water. Interesting enough, most of them are runners, she said.

“The running was easy. The biking was easy. They thought ‘Oh, no problem with the swim,” Folsom said, describing the mindset of some aspiring triathletes. “They got in with the swim and went ‘I’ve got a problem.’”

Folsom said they joined the masters program and “now they are getting a little bit better.”
While swimming makes up only one-third of a triathlon, Folsom said, most triathletes struggle the most with that portion because swimming requires the body to function differently.

“Swimming is hypoxic,” Folsom said. “That’s what singles-out swimming as being more difficult, in some cases, than the running and the biking in that they’re having to work without air.”

Because swimming requires so much work without oxygen, Folsom said the Masters Swim program has its students undergo a lot of training without air, such as performing drills where they swim underwater for 25 meters at a time.

She said they also have students complete some lake swims so they adapt to the uncontrolled swimming environment.

“It’s just the overall training of swimming that gets them ready for the triathlon,” Folsom said.

For many, Folsom said, a student’s development can be as easy as changing their breathing patterns while swimming so they take a breath every three strokes during the front crawl instead of a breath during each stroke.

“We work a lot on their strokes to make them more efficient,” Folsom said. “A lot on their kicking to make them more efficient.
“It’s just kind of a whole aquatics package they’re getting to just make them a good swimmer.”

However, Masters Swim isn’t just about teaching proper breathing techniques or a more efficient stroke.
For triathletes, it also means better results in the water.

“The smallest gap we saw was 4 minutes and the largest was like 18 so its significant,” Folsom said, describing the “before and after” statistics of her students.

In some cases, Folsom said, the training also helped triathletes perform better in the running and cycling portions of the grueling race.

“One of the ladies was really excited because her mile times were changing,” Folsom said. “I want to say she dropped 45 seconds per mile.”

Folsom credited the improvement to the student’s greater capacity and ability to apply some of the Masters Swim teaching to running and swimming. Folsom said she teaches a lot about the physics of swimming and this student applied some lessons, such as using your hips more or using your legs more, to the other parts of the race.

Ultimately, Folsom said, joining Masters Swim is one of the best things a triathlete can do because it provides the right guidance for the swimming portion of their sport.

“We have more expertise about swimming other than just getting in and swimming laps,” Folsom said.

“Most of the people who do it on their own just get in and swim laps. They don’t swim intervals. They don’t get stroke correction … They don’t get what they need to get better.”

Once a triathlete gets the courage to join the program, Folsom said, it’s fun to see just how quickly they can progress.

“The funniest is having them come in and having us switch their technique and just this light goes off in their head and they’re so excited,” Folsom said. “Because it’s no longer the worst part of the triathlon. It’s OK now.”

But many triathletes don’t join Masters Swim, Folsom said, sometimes simply because of the name of the program.

“Masters means 19 and over. It doesn’t mean you have to be a master,” Folsom said. “I find that intimidates a lot of people.”

Masters Swim is open to all abilities and the instructors work with the swimmers at their individual skill levels. If they can swim 50 meters on their first day, Folsom said, “they’ll be able to swim a 2,000 five or six weeks later.”

Folsom even remembers plenty of cases where aspiring triathletes were afraid of the event’s swim or even afraid of the water, but Masters Swim helped them conquer the fear and compete in their triathlon.

“That’s the part that just blows my mind,” Folsom said, remembering some students who were 50 years old, but couldn’t swim. “That’s really cool.”