Another Reason to use a Tempo Trainer

 

As if you needed another reason to justify using a tempo trainer!  Coach Terry and Coach Ryan have expounded on the many benefits of the tempo trainer and I don’t intend to expound upon their insights.  I have been using my tempo trainer for about a year and a half and at first I admit the first couple of outings were challenging, not so much from the tempos I was adjusting to or that wonderful, but annoying (at first), constant beeping, but in trying to figure how to incorporate the TT’s use into my workouts.  I coach several masters practices during the week and it’s a lot like owning your own gym.  You THINK you are going to be able to practice any time you want, but the reality is you don’t have anytime to work out at all.   I have tried going to the pool later and completing my practices by myself but I must admit that is difficult for me.  I think if they had had the ADD/ADHD classifications when I was young I would have been on medication for it.  Before incorporating the tempo trainer (which I had begun using very regularly with my master’s groups over a year ago).  I found myself getting halfway through my practice (the one I had the masters group do earlier) and I would find myself start to loose focus and interest even though I was analyzing and thinking about my swim from focal points to SPL and tempo, etc.  I grew up swimming; swimming on a team since I was five years old and apparently swimming has become a very social thing as well as exercise for me. I still needed someone in the lane next to me swimming the same practice, not necessarily on the same interval or tempo as myself but just there. 

 So here is the new use the Tempo Trainer has taken on for me.  I have now realized that my tempo trainer has become that person in the lane next to me.  It’s like on the stationary bicycles that have the video screen where you can see yourself riding the route with other riders and the pacer.  It has now become the “energizer bunny” that I needed to keep me in the pool by myself.  I can run and ride by myself but swimming has always been a team sport (plus I took those up later and not in a team practice setting) so I think I have been conditioned to have to have others around me doing practicing at the same time.  If you have this feeling often when swimming then for no other reason try one out.  And if you need more information on their uses look at Coach Ryan’s latest blog, “So you are swimming faster… but do you know why?