by Coach Mat | 15 Jul, 2018 | About Coach Mat, Flow State, Increasing Energy, Motivating Swimmers, Motivation, Running
Do you know what its like to spend energy of one kind in order to gain energy of another kind? That’s what it usually feels like for me when I go swim. It doesn’t have to be ‘easy’ swimming either. Most often I train quite strenuously,...
by Coach Mat | 10 Jun, 2018 | Distance Training, Exhaustion, Feeding, Marathon Distance, Nutrition, Recommended Reading, Running, Triathlon
The question about feeding has come up with some swimmers preparing for long swim (more than 2 hours). Something like, “I start to feel suddenly quite tired after an hour or so, and I think I need some food to keep going. What should I eat and drink? This...
by Coach Mat | 1 Apr, 2018 | About Coach Mat, Boredom, Burn Out, Fitness Training, Motivation, Other Related Sports, Practice Series, Running, Training Theory, Triathlon, Triathlon Swimming
We are continuing our discussion of The Habit Of Exercise. This is Part 3 of 4. Consistency Is Key We do need variety to keep it interesting and to keep the nervous system stimulated for growth. But it is also very important to be consistent in a regular routine....
by Coach Mat | 4 Mar, 2018 | Aging and Improvement, Coaching Adults (Masters), Design Principles, Injury, Lessons From Elites, Mastery Process, Pain, Running, Self Limiting Exercises, SPL, Stroke Length (SL), Tempo, Stroke Rate (SR), Yoga
I can’t emphasize this enough, because it is a cornerstone of our care for adult athletes: we train for superior technique because that is what is going to keep our body pleasantly functional into our oldest age . Taking off from the way it was said in the...
by Coach Mat | 25 Feb, 2018 | Competitive/Performance Training, Design Principles, How To Train?, Martial Arts, Metabolic Training, Muscle Training, Neurological Training, Plateau (No Progress), Running, Speed and Pace, SPL, Stroke Length (SL), Tempo, Stroke Rate (SR), Training Theory, Triathlon Swimming
A member of our online training site, the Mediterra Swim Dojo, has been noticing that after a certain distance in a training set, his stroke quality deteriorates which results in his stroke count (strokes per length of the pool) going up uncontrollably. He asked a...
by Coach Mat | 26 Dec, 2017 | About Coach Mat, Aging, Aging and Improvement, Motivating Swimmers, Motivation, Running, Training Psychology
Let me explain what motivates me to keep training, day after day, month after month, year after year – and perhaps this will resonate with you as well. When Fitness Must Be Earned It was somewhere around 1987. I was a freshman in high school, and it was the...
