Speed and Pace | Mediterra Swim & Run

Take Your Training Plan To A Higher Level

by Coach Mat | 1 Feb, 2020

Just the other day one of my swimmers was describing his weekly training plan in order to get my input on it. His goal is to build up his capabilities over the next few months in order to prepare for his first Alcatraz Triathlon with a 1.5 mile swim (2.4 km), and a...

How To ‘Lift Weights’ In The Water – Part 2

by Coach Mat | 14 Dec, 2019

This is continuing from How To ‘Lift Weights’ In The Water – Part 1… The Primary Form Of Strength At this point in the essay, the main lesson for everyone is that stroke length is the foundation to speed and the better you are at achieving a...

How To ‘Lift Weights’ In The Water – Part 1

by Coach Mat | 7 Dec, 2019

If you want to swim farther and/or swim faster, you have to be both more skilled, and stronger. Some people focus on just one or the other. But you can develop both of those together if you require both in how you go about your training. I trust you are already sold...

Being Streamlined Is Not Enough

by Coach Mat | 28 Sep, 2019

Watching a nicely shaped boat cut across a smooth body of water is a wonderful thing to watch. Photo by Oleksandr Hrebelnyk on Unsplash Watching a nicely shaped swimmer cut across a smooth body of water is too! In moving forward most easily in the water, although...

How To Improve Endurance

by Coach Mat | 30 Mar, 2019

When do we need endurance? When we are going really hard? When we are going really fast? When we are going really far? There is great discomfort in any of these and that discomfort needs to be overcome to finish, Maybe we need endurance in all three, but a different...

Can You Increase Speed Without Increasing Power?

by Coach Mat | 22 Dec, 2018

Can you increase speed without increasing power? Yes, and no. Or rather, it depends. To explain why the answer could be yes and it could be no, let’s look at the speed equation: Stroke Length x Stroke Rate = Speed (Velocity) In terms of training in the pool,...