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.

I was reminded of an old friend the other day when I saw a post on 'wild swimming' or as we know it...swimming. So here are a few definitions for non BS minded folk. Wild swimming = swimming Hybrid training = training Cold water therapy = swimming outside Hyrox = adult PE Espresso = coffee Americano = weak coffee Decaf = dishwater Polarised training = lots of easy shit and some proper hard stuff Anyone got any?

Anyone have any recommendations for a bike fit? 🙏 Had my ‘new’ road bike for a few months now and getting the same wee niggles after each ride…I’m in the Scottish Borders (Tweedbank). Cheers 👍

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

My Garmin 735xt smartwatch has finally given up, with the battery lasting about as long as a Meat Loaf 80’s power ballad. Could anyone out there recommend an alternative model (Garmin or otherwise) that doesn’t break the bank please? Was thinking of buying another 735xt but it’s at least 5y old tech so maybe there’s a better one out there? Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Cheers