Ø     Swallow your pride. In order to get faster your going to have to come to grips with the fact that you need to train with athletes that are faster than you. You may get dusted at first, however you will improve very quickly

Ø    Let's talk about swimming speed. The two most effective things you can do are to join a masters swim group (like the Pabst Blue Ribbons at the YMCA at Pabst Farms) or hire a coach (like me ) for a few private lessons. With the masters group you will receive some technique coaching and importantly, swim structured workouts with others who are at or above your speed. The private coaching will give you a very close, videotaped examination of your stroke and teaching of drills and skills to improve your efficiency, which means more speed with no more effort! If your working out on your own- add some 25 and 50 done very fast with long rest intervals to your workouts- this will build speed!

Ø     Biking at 15 or 16 mph and can't get faster?  In my experience the fastest way to get faster is group riding. Swallow your pride and join a group that will push your comfort zone. Ride near the back, stay out of your aero bars for more control and watch the group for accelerations and decelerations. Once a week schedule some intervals - for example- 5 x 12 seconds accelerating in a moderate gear to as fast as able in this 12 sec. period, then recover for 2 min and 48 sec. - thus on 3 min. Another great strength builder is 3-5 x 3 mile intervals at your race pace goal with a 3 min. ez spin between each.

Ø     Do 10:00 running miles feel fast? As with biking, join a group run. Also have your form evaluated. At FAST we video and coach technique which always results in an increase in efficiency and speed. Also add one interval session a week. For example 6-8 x 400 M on a track run at 4 seconds faster than your race pace goal. So if you want to run an 18:00 - 5k then that is a 6 min. mile pace and divided by 4 equals a 1:30 - 400 or ¼ mile. Jog 200 M between each repeat. Do the same the next week with 800's, then miles etc. Every Tuesday morning at 5:40 a.m. for the past 12 years a group of us have met at the Oconomowoc HS track. We push each other, verbally bash each other and along the way get fast each spring. The fee is simply our effort.

Coach Dwight