The Boston Swimming Examiner caught up with Elaine Howley, Triple Crown finisher, to talk about what it was like to complete the Catalina Island, Manhattan and English Channel swims primarily without coaching. Here's what she said.
What do you consider to be advantages/disadvantages to training without a coach?
The advantages are that I had to learn a lot by myself through trial and error and I learned quickly what worked and what didn’t, particularly in regards to my nutrition. However, training without a coach is hard for some of the same reasons- I was responsible entirely for my own success or failure and I had to learn a lot about endurance training and how to write sets to make it work. It took a lot of reading and research to get it right and a lot of dedication and focus.
What did you find was the hardest part of training alone?
The hardest part about training alone is staying motivated. When you have a coach on deck barking at you or demanding that you turn up at certain times, it’s generally easier to just go along with it. When you’re responsible for your own training and no one’s counting on you to show up at a certain time, it gets a whole lot harder to stay true to your goal and get yourself to the pool. Procrastination can become a problem if you’re not actively guarding against it.
In the two year lead up to The English Channel, I swam with several different groups off and on, so I wasn’t entirely alone the whole time. I swam with a Masters group at Longfellow Sports Club coached by Dave Wilkins and another group there that was coached by Jen Dutton, who now coaches at Minuteman Masters. I also swam with Cambridge Masters Swim Club under Scott VanKuilenberg and the Wellesley Masters swim team with Chris Card for a few months each. I also worked with Nate McBride at West Side Swim Club in the last few months leading up to the Channel and his group was very helpful in keeping me honest in those last several weeks when the anxiety and uncertainty about whether I had done enough really started to kick in. Basically, I sampled a lot of different groups, styles, plans, and programs and took a little something from each in developing my own routine. Even though I was largely on my own, I had a lot of help along the way!
How did you come up with a training plan?
I talked to other long distance swimmers and runners I knew and got their thoughts on how to build a plan and took notes after every workout I did as to how I felt, what I did, and so on. Journaling my workouts was very helpful and I highly recommend it if you’re working towards a particular goal. I also researched marathon (running) training plans and modified some widely respected programs to suit my distances and the amount of time I had each week to train. I always had a spreadsheet with projected distances that I was aiming for each day and then budgeted my time at the pool, lake or ocean to fit those yardage goals. I wasn’t always able to hit the goal, but I’d say about 90% of the time, I was on target and moving forward with my training.
What other resources did you have available to you with regards to your training/nutrition?
I’m lucky that I have several friends who are extreme athletes- runners, swimmers, cyclists- who I could bounce ideas off of and a handful of swimming friends who were willing to keep me company for all or part of some of my longer training swims. It was so helpful to have my friends Lisa Mikkelsen and Greg O’Connor come swim with me on some of the really long Sunday workouts I did by myself at MIT. They would trade off and Lisa would swim with me for 4 or 5 hours and then Greg would come relieve her for another few hours just so I wouldn’t get too bored. They made a big difference in keeping me focused and honest.
Is there anything you would change about your training if you were to do it again?
Generally speaking, no, I think it worked just fine because I met my goal, learned a lot along the way, and had a lot of fun. However, there’s always room for improvement, so if I had more time to train and could do more speed work and dryland training, I think that would have been helpful.
What would you say to someone who is planning to embark on a similar journey with no coach/group?
Be honest with yourself and realistic about what you can accomplish when you’re writing your training plan. It’s easy to get carried away with what you wish you could do and then get discouraged if you don’t meet those goals. Your goals should be challenging but attainable to be effective motivating tools. I would also recommend talking to as many other athletes who have done the swim you’re preparing for and get a group to support you, even if it’s just on land rather than in the pool. I could not have done this without my swimming friends and my wonderfully supportive husband, and that’s so important to have a support system in place, because these types of endeavors can be so lonely and trying. Also, don’t train to the exclusion of all other things I your life; a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer, so make sure you’re taking time to visit with friends, taking time to do things with your family, staying on top of your work life, and resting and eating right. Resting is almost as important as training. But most importantly, enjoy the journey and learn all you can. It’s a heck of a ride!
For more information: Elaine Howley's blog
Comments
"Self-coached" - it doesn't read like that at all, sounds like she wisely sought the advice and good counsel of a broad range of experts
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