#413 : How I qualified for the Nationals (at 38 years old) with Brenton Ford

Brenton Ford· Host0:00

Two weeks out from the event, I ended up injuring my rib. So I was playing with my kids in the surf at home, and I threw one of them and threw my rib out, where it was quite difficult to breathe and I couldn't rotate t- to the side. And I couldn't swim for a couple of days, but what it meant was I couldn't really push hard or train as much as I normally would.

Speaker 20:21

[upbeat music] Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.

Brenton Ford· Host0:31

When I was 20 years old, I missed out on qualifying for the National Championships by three one-hundredths of a second in the 50 backstroke. This year, at 38 years of age, I managed to qualify in the five-kilometer open water event for the National Championships. And in this video, I'm gonna share with you how I did it in my late 30s, training mostly three times a week. I'm also gonna share with you the one thing I learned from an Olympic gold medalist that helped me increase my power but use less effort, why getting injured before the race actually worked to my benefit, how five minutes with one coach helped change my technique in the two months leading up to the event, and the one workout we did every single week that I feel like helped increase my endurance and my ability to finish fast. If you're new here, my name's Brenton Ford. I'm a swim coach based in Australia, and we work with thousands of different athletes all over the world to help them increase their speed and efficiency for their triathlons and open water swimming. So in my late teenage years and early 20s,