Team Clementine Appoints Running Coach

As Team Clementine continues to grow by astronomical leaps and bounds, we are proud to announce that Womack, yet again another exceptional athlete, has accepted our proposal to lead this great team as our Running Coach. Like our swim coach, Coach K, Womack has been competing professionally at the international level for many years. Many of you might remember the infamous Runners World magazine article a few years back in which his incredible performance in the Country Music Half Marathon was featured. As with Coach K, Womack will be posting running tips from time to time. Please join me in welcoming this world-renowned athlete as part of our coaching staff and team.

Tuesday's Swim Tip - "S-Squared" Lead

First, let me thank all of you for your nomination, your support and your faith in me for Team Clementine's swim coach. It's been a tough journey (the last two weeks have just killed me!) to get to this position, but well worth it. I was told by one of our executive assistants that representatives from each of Sports Illustrated and Triathlete Magazine showed up our Ernst & Young office to interview me, but due to our client confidentiality (aka, bullshit) rules, they were turned away. I'm just hoping they didn't find a copy of that picture of me and Phelps smoking the bushazay (pronounced "boo' shaw zway").

On a less serious note, welcome to 'Tuesday's Swim Tip' with Coach K. My goal is to provide a weekly tip to help improve your swimming and efficiency of your stroke. Let me disclaim that you will not turn into Michael Phelps or Natalie Coughlin nor Amanda Beard (or hell, Jonathan Minton), but if you picture these tips in your swimming and drills, I do think it will help you become a better swimmer.

This week's mental tip...the shoulder shrug lead, or what I've named it, "S-Squared" Lead. I call it the Lead because it begins the recovery phase of your stroke.

The other day I was swimming with the Excel Triathlete group and Coach Ashley Whitney (I wonder if Sports Illustrated has showed up at her door yet?) yelled out to me, "Brett! Shrug your shoulder." Huh? Shrug my shoulder?

The S-Squared Lead happens during the recovery phase of your stroke (after the pull). Some of you may have practiced the "zipper drill", which is the recovery phase of your stroke before your hand enters the water. You practice the zipper drill to stay in a streamlined body position. If you prefer the "wave your hands in the air...and wave like you just don't care!" stroke, then by all means, go for it. But a streamlined recovery will make you more efficient in the water.

I like to picture "shrugging" my shoulder to my ear to start my recovery (i.e., start the zipper) rather than picturing myself "zipping" my side.

Practice set:

Go to the pool and swim 25 (or 50) meters with the mental picture of using your "hand" to zip your side during your recovery. DO NOT THINK ABOUT YOUR SHOULDER. Rest 30 seconds. Then swim the same distance with the mental picture of shrugging your shoulder and letting your hand and elbow follow the shrug up the side of your body during the the recovery. This is not a weight-lifting shrug, but rather a continuous fluid motion. This mental picture has really helped me during our swim workouts.

Try it out and let me know your comments.

- Coach K

Team Clementine Names Head Swim Coach

Today, Brett Kennedy was named Team Clementine’s official swimming coach. Coach Brett will be leading Team Clementine in many open water swims and pool drills throughout the season. Reach out to Brett with any of your aquatic questions and concerns and check back for his weekly (or whenever he feels) swim tips.

Earlier today, after about an hour of swim drills, a couple teammates got together in Belle Meade for yet another great long run… ended up completing about 8 miles at a 7:46 pace. This marks the 13th day in a row of training sessions. These unseasonably warm weekends (last Sunday and yet again tomorrow) make it hard not to take off Sundays for rest. I hope it’s cold next Sunday because the Fangtastic 5k next Saturday will mark exactly 20 days without a full rest day.

Our team’s graphic artist has completed the design of our new race shirts for 2009 and is in the process of working with the screen printers. A sample shirt was delivered yesterday and Kristin is working to make some final tweaks. We should have some price quotes for sweat wicking shirts sometime early next week. We’ll post everything and make final decisions next week and get the shirts ordered soon thereafter.

Other items:
Nashville, TN – Fangtastic 5k on Saturday, February 14, 2009
Portland, OR – HTC details are getting ironed out, we’ll know more soon
Memphis, TN – RB’s Ride into Spring, April 4
Memphis in May Olympic Tri – Sunday May 17

Breakthrough Run

Last Saturday, Womack and I got in our first GREAT long run and we still have 12 weeks until the CMM Half Marathon. It was an unseasonably warm 62 degree day out on the Smyrna Greenway in late January. Being that we’re both on a “comeback” from weeks of PT for I.T. band issues and it was our first outside run in many weeks, 9 miles wasn’t too bad… especially at about an 8:10 pace and following an entire week of training. We both finished the training session not feeling overly tired or worn out. As of now, it appears that the 1:35 goal is very achievable; surely we can drop 55 seconds off our pace and add 4 measly miles by race day right?

The Predators Fangtastic 5k is coming up on Saturday, February 14. A few members of Team Clementine will be running the race and then going to the game that night. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than running a race and then going to a hockey game.