Steven Munatones, proprietor of 10kswimmer.com asked me if I’ve used the Endless Pools at our Swim Studio to train for cold water acclimatization. In fact I have often trained regularly in EP’s and gained marked benefits for my open water swimming, but have never been able to use them to acclimate to cold water – quite the opposite in fact, since we keep them at 88 degrees for the comfort of our students. I do my cold water training — when the temperature drops — in our local mountain lakes, and use the EP’s entirely for stroke "tuning."

I generally do little or no EP swimming between early June and late October. For those five months I swim almost exclusively in two of the three "sky lakes" of the Shawangunk Mountains – Minnewaska and Awosting. When I resume swimming indoors, between November and May, I mix EP and conventional pool training. During that period I swim an average of three times a week in a 25-yard pool and from one to three times weekly in the EP.

While swimming in the EP, I tirelessly tweak my stroke seeking greater ease. The combination of current and mirror on the bottom give instant and unmistakable feedback on stroke efficiency. If an adjustment results in reduced resistance, I can instantly hold my place in the current, with less effort and a slower stroke. My "obsession" with ease is because longer distances and the absence of walls increase the reward for swimming with the lowest energy cost – what I call "Perpetual Motion Freestyle (PMF)." I measure my success in achieving PMF in two ways:
1) Visually. I watch my hand speed in the bottom mirror. If I can slow my stroke – almost always by taking more time to make the "catch" that begins each stroke — then I know that each stroke is producing more propulsion.
2) By Feel. I also work ceaselessly to hold my place over the mirror with lighter hand/forearm pressure. That tells me that I’m doing a better job of "evading" the current. In water without a counter-current this would translate into lower-drag swimming.

My EP routine is pretty consistent. I’ll swim for 20 to 50 or more strokes at a fairly low current speed and a particular focal point (E.G. driving the front of each wrist to the X/Y coordinates established in Easy Freestyle Lesson Two) continuing to swim without pause until my sense of the focal point is quite strong, and then perhaps trying to move those X/Y coordinates a few millimeters further forward. When I’m satisfied with it, or have hit my chosen number of strokes or breaths, I’ll stop, take a quick breather (usually 3 to 5 breaths) and turn up the current incrementally. My goal at the new current is to recapture the sense of leisure, lightness and ease I achieved previously. I continue repeating this cycle until this sense of ease eludes me.

When that happens I’ll do one of two things – either choose a new focal point and start again at a low speed, or start again with the previous focal point, to see if I can work my way incrementally to a higher current speed than before, before I lose my sense of ease.

These EP sessions have brought three distinct benefits:
1) With neither lap count nor pace clock, my focus and experience is distilled to the pure essence of each stroke. This breeds a level of undistracted focus, which has proven invaluable in long races, helping me keep my attention on executing each stroke well, even when the number of strokes rises into the tens of 1000s. I took an estimated 25,000 strokes to complete the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 2006, but had no difficulty keeping my focus on each stroke because of the mental training in the EP.
2) The lack of interruption for walls and turns – and the consistency of the current speed – means that when my stroke is good, I can continue "grooving" it into muscle memory, and that my stroke rhythm remains absolutely consistent. Both are huge benefits in races that last from one to several hours.
3) When I’m training in a 25-yard pool, I do all of my race-rehearsal (race-specific speeds and tempos) training there, and all of my EP training is at relatively low speeds and effort levels. This is because the current would become far too turbulent if raised to the speeds at which I race 400 to 1500m. But the higher-intensity, race-specific sessions in the lap pool can be stressful for a late-50s athlete. The EP sessions have proven unexpectedly valuable for restoration. I recover more completely between "conventional" training sessions when I do 30 or more minutes of low-intensity stroke tuning between them, than when I do no swimming on my "off" days.