This is my vision board for adult swimming in the Philippines.  (photos from: US Masters Swimming) Strong. Confident. Incredibly fit. and swimming well into their senior years.  I was a competitive swimmer up until college. Retiring from national level swimming didn't mean that I wanted to stop swimming altogether, but at the time retirement meant a full stop ?. There were no races to train for nor swim friends to train with on a regular basis. For decades, I was a sport orphan. Until I discovered triathlon in my late 30s. Yeay there's swimming! But I have to bike and.. (gu ..read more

The swimmers at Swimjunkie Challenge : Caramoan a few weeks ago were all strong, confident, and primed for their 5Km, 10Km and 15Km swims. We also have swimmies who are back from their power Ironman Kona stints. All have been a little surprised at how lately, short distances seem to leave them out of breath and that they can't seem to break out of their long-distance race paces. We get that, and we've got you. The swimmies and I are working on Project 1:29, an off-season challenge designed to help us break through our time plateaus and hit faster times before the next race season begins. Why i ..read more

Even the strongest swimmers can be caught off guard by the power of ocean currents. And many of the participants at last weekend's Ironman 70.3 Davao (March 26, 2023) will attest to this.  This blog's widest read post (over 50,000 hits) is: "What Happened at Ironman Philippines Cebu (the swim)". In that post I talked about how tides affect swim conditions and swimmers alike, and I watched the phrase "spring tide" turn top-of-mind in the tri community. I was not expecting to write a similar topic about Davao. Was March 26, 2023, a spring tide? It was not.  Then why was the current in ..read more

In triathlon the swim leg is often the most feared, especially for those who are new to open water swimming. The challenges the open water presents - such as currents, waves, critters, rough starts, and the potential to swim off course (sometimes way off course) - are the reasons why so many triathletes seem to struggle with the open water swim.  This post is about the benefits of swim analysis, open water swim clinics, and structured workout programs and how important they are in improving your open water swim. Because we're so proud of how far the Swimjunkie squad has come, I've include ..read more

It's happened! One of the most current-handicapped Ironman swim courses (in the world) has changed! From this: To this: What does that mean for everyone swimming this Sunday, August 7, 2022? IT'S A CHANNEL The swim is in a (Hilutungan) channel, which is swimmers' code for strong currents : ) We've explained why that is on several posts but as a refresher: if you force this much water through a smaller section, the currents are stronger. Some sections of Hilutungan have been known to house currents as fast as 2m/second. For reference, a competitive swimmer holding a pace of 1 minute per ..read more

I am in awe of family and friends who used the lockdown months to become fitter versions of themselves. I've seen people jump-rope to half their 2019 size, and friends with mini home-gyms walking around with wider shoulders and leaner physiques. After the desolation of one of the world's longest quarantines (Philippines, 18 months) getting fitter, faster, or stronger seems like the perfect gift to one's self. Of course I asked: shouldn't there be a swim version of this as well?!  How to be a better swim version of yourself. It has been tough staying swim fit, the venues where I coached (m ..read more

I have a new pair of paddles!! I asked a swimmie to buy a new pair of my favorite paddles, Strokemakers, on one of his trips to the U.S. He refused to accept payment for them when he got back so, Yeay thank you!! I love coach gifts ?. Before I gush about this new pair, I feel the responsible thing to do is offer a preamble aka premumble on the pros and cons of using paddles. In fact, in a survey (1993, U.S. study) of 1,262 age-group to national level swimmers, swim paddles and shoulder-bearing exercises were widely acknowledged as having the capacity to aggravate shoulder injuries. The ..read more

 This is our second post in the set of #askanopenwaterswimmer, where we asked: What Do You Worry About the Most Before an Openwater Swim?  We (who is this "we" I keep referring to? I'm the only one putting these charts together haha) pulled responses off of our posts and came up with an impressively long list of 'situations that can cause anxiety before an openwater swim'. I've listed them below and added a few tips that, hopefully, help you deal with them on your next swim.  I've also posted a chart to illustrate which worry weighs heaviest on the minds of swim ..read more

If you're a long time follower of this blog and my water-based mumblings, you must be feeling the pain of being away from the openwater and the pool for this long? This pain we share, I realized that it is the product of someone, somewhere -  a) introducing us to b) encouraging us to discover  c) showing us what is so amazing about openwater swimming. Because I love a good story, we posted the image below on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and asked:  It was comforting to see the community, at the time quietly suffering through the quarantines' "dry spells", sit ..read more

This started out as a written post and I gave up after fumbling over descriptions of lenses and such.  In this instance, it might be better to show you how to choose a pair, rather than write about it. At least I hope it was a better option, as this would be my first ever narrated video/instructional and the quarantine made me do it ?.  Am thinking of doing a similar series for swim errors. Let me know if that's a good idea?  And so, I give you, TIPS ON CHOOSING A PAIR OF GOGGLES FOR OPENWATER SWIMMING: A Video.  Happy Safely Distanced Swimming!  ..read more