Triathlon Training with an Endless Pool

ITU World Cup Women's Winner, Cancun 2001 (photo courtesy: Triathlon.org)

One indication of Sheila Taormina’s athletic prowess is apparent in her only apprehension about trying the Endless Pool in the first place.

"I was afraid that the water propulsion system wouldn't generate enough resistance for the training program I had in mind," Sheila now laughs in recalling her original trial run in Philadelphia. "But I was pleasantly surprised. The Endless Pool’s flow is enough for me to do all of my aerobic and endurance training."

And that is a lot of training: A member of the 1996 team that won the Gold and set an Olympic record in the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay, Sheila switched her focus to the triathlon two years later. She is currently preparing for the triathlon competition at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the first time it will be a medal event. She placed sixth in the first Olympic triathlon, a "demonstration" event in Sydney in 2000. Last June, Sheila placed third in the inaugural JDS Uniphase Victoria International Triathlon, in British Columbia.

One of nine triathletes sponsored by Endless Pools (including Ken Glah, Jan Wanklyn, Tim & Nicole DeBoom, Nina Kraft, Barb Lindquist, Heather Fuhr and Heather Gollnick), Sheila finds the convenience factor at least as important as we non-triathletes do.

"Most triathletes have jobs and have to squeeze in their training regimens around their other obligations," notes Sheila, who also teaches swimming, and who trains primarily in the cold-weather climate of her hometown, Livonia, Michigan.

Sheila says she will install an Endless Pool in her home for both personal training and conducting coaching clinics. "Instead of bending my entire schedule to adapt to the hours at a public pool, my training routine can be much more flexible. I'll even do, say, 3,000 yards of aerobic training on the spur of the moment."

Compared to big convenience and water propulsion, though, her favorite Endless Pool feature is relatively subtle: the mirror on the bottom of the unit.

"Not only is the mirror invaluable for correcting the stroke production of students," says Sheila, who began her competitive athletic career purely as a swimmer, "the constant feedback is still great for the things I want to work on in my own technique. It’s a never-ending process."

Sheila's Strokes

We asked Endless Pools user Sheila Taormina for some of the workouts she does in her pool. As an Olympic swimming gold medalist in the ’96 Atlanta Games and the first woman out of the water at the 2000 Sydney Olympic triathlon, we figure she knows a thing or two about what makes a good stroke workout. She has three key Endless Pools workouts that are ideal for Olympic-distance triathletes: technique, transition training and endurance.

Technique. Her favorite drill is the technique work. “There are too many triathletes just hammering our miles, and not understanding technique,” Taormina says. In her eyes, being able to watch firsthand the effects of your technique is invaluable. “Before the ’96 Olympics, I swam with a snorkel a lot,” she says. “I still have three or four things I play around with on technique, so I bought a mirror for my pool, swim with a snorkel and do a lot with the pitch of my hand, body roll and tempo.” The benefit is tangible feedback; since the water flow and your swimming speed will stay current. Exertion, either perceived or actual through the use of a heart rate monitor, provides instant feedback. “The speed will always stay the same, and I can see the effects,” she says. “I can try different holds on the water and see if it was harder or easier.” Swimmers can use a heart rate monitor, or even just perceived exertion, to tell if they’re pulling themselves through the water efficiently.

Transition Training. “I’d been dragging my bike and rollers to the pool before getting the Endless Pool,” Taormina says. Now, from home, she does a good swim-to-bike workout, “because when you get out of the water with Loretta (Harrop) and Nikki (Hackett) and Barb (Lindquist), you gotta be ready to go hard with them.” So after a short 15-minute warm-up, she does three sets of 15 minutes of sub-race-pace effort in the pool, then hops on her CompuTrainer and does a hard 20-minute time trial effort.

“In the end I get about 4,000 meters of swimming and an hour on the rollers,” Taormina says. “It’s a great way to simulate a sprint, and after the first set and you’re warmed up, you can turn up the current a bit and do hard kicking for fatigue.”

Endurance. “In a pool, flip turns give your back and legs a break, and I want to keep my body in the prone position that I see in a open water race,” Taormina says. So she pulls on her wetsuit and goes an hour nonstop at her race pace to build the nonstop endurance the only open water workouts in temperate conditions provide.

For more about Sheila, check out www.sheilat.com

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