Runner Wants To Become An Aquathlete | Ask The Coach

Coach Ani de Leon is a Certified Level 2 Triathlon Coach by the International Triathlon Union and has completed coaching, camp requirements and attended coaching courses such as Endurance Performance Systems Camp in Melbourne, Australia under Tony Benson, Noosa Triathlon Camp in Sunshine Coast, Australia under Nick Croft, High Performance Training Camp in Goldcoast, Australia under Col Stewart, and the Timex Multisport Team Camp, Coach Ani’s other significant highlights include : The first Filipina Ironman World Championships Qualifier and First Female Multisport Coach in the Philippines, Founder/Coach SuperTriKids Triathlon Youth Dev’t Program, Founder/ Coach of First All Womens Running Clinics (Pinay in Action) in the Philippines, Founding Member of First All Womens Cycling Team in the Philippines (Team Davids Salon), and lastly, perhaps the most important of all (for us at least!), she’s our first In[FOCUS] Athlete too!

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We got a letter from Dickson Chng, a runner who’s looking for tips as he’s going to join an aquathlon in 3 months time.  He loves to workout in the gym and doesn’t want his training to interfere with his weight sessions. See what Coach Ani has to say!

From Dickson

Hi, I wish to train for an event of aquathlon of 400m swim and 4km run  afterwards. I’m a beyond average runner, but not so fast swimmer. I have about 3 months to my race. However I do not wish the training to affect my gym sessions of weight lifting, what types of training should I do?

From Coach Ani

Dear Dickson:

Good job on keeping a strengthening program going! While this will no doubt help you with your swimming power later on, I am afraid there is still no substitute for actual pool time.

Swimming is one of those sports wherein you need to be well versed, technique wise. Invest in a swim coach to look at your stroke once or twice a week. Aim to swim 3x a week. Since you are a newbie swimmer focus on developing your technique half the time and developing your swim endurance in the other half.

You can do 2-3x a week of swimming, 3x a week of running and 2x a week of strengthening in the gym.

I would suggest swimming around 800m to 1.2k for one session. If you need ideas on what drills to do on your own, check out www.swimsmooth.com

All the best,
Coach Ani