Tower 26’s Gerry Rodrigues continues to work his magic with professional triathletes and beginner swimmers. His latest prodigy is Chris Foster who has skyrocketed up the ranks of professional triathletes, largely based on his willingness to learn new methods on how to draft, position and pace himself among other professional triathletes on the swim leg of world-class triathlons.

Once down by 6 minutes (in 1.5k Olympic distance) on any given swim leg, Chris had no opportunity to use his cycling and running prowess to be in the medal hunt. Now, due to his improved open water swimming skills and tactics, he is (in closer contact)right with the top pros after the swim.

Gerry came up with the professional ‘ITU Mile’ workout for Chris – a non-swimmer only a few years ago. Chris and Gerry, and a few others, who train together in Santa Monica do this ITU Mile not only as a monster of an interval training workout, but also for its mental preparation for world-class competitions. The set that can be done in a 25-yard or 50-meter pool with variable intervals based on each athlete’s ability remarkably replicates triathlon swim or short open water race conditions.

The ITU Mile emerges an athlete into the competition mindset and forces them to feel the various speed changes that occur in every race. The intervals generate significant heart rate spikes and requires changes in arm stroke tempo, but most importantly, it requires mental alertness and a focused toughness. This set is ideal for simulating race conditions because it has specific output requirements as seen in every competitive open water race and triathlon swim leg.

The ITU Mile in a 25-yard short-course pool with world-class triathletes comprises of the following sub-sets:

Dive in or jump in to start
1 x 200 @ 2:10 @ 90% effort
2 x 100 @ 1:10 @ 90% effort
1 x 400 @ 1:10 pace or 75% swimming as relaxed as can be. The 400 ends with an immediate deck-up.
1 x 100 FAST broken up into 4 x 25 deck-ups at each 25 (additional heart rate spike)
1 x 300 @ 1:10 pace or a 75-80% effort
4 x 100 @ 1:10 @ 90% effort
Deck-up at conclusion

The 1600-yard set has no breaks between each of these swims and is a gutsy, gut-busting mile.

Typical of the Tower 26 workouts, a renowned intense training program in Santa Monica, California.

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