Want to swim faster?

When I was younger, my grandfather would take my cousin and I to watch greyhound races. It's okay, we're from the South and that's just one of the things you do when you're 10 and spend the summer with your grandfather.

If you've never been (to the dog races...not the South), it's very similar to horse racing except there are no jockeys. My grandfather told me the dogs go so fast that no one could ever hang on. The other big difference is that there is a "rabbit" that travels along the inside rail of the loop and is the carrot for the dogs to chase. I'm pretty sure it's just a pillow though with some kind of yummy liver and bacon flavor because the dogs just maul it once they cross the finish line.

This is the time when you're asking yourself "Wow, what a great story, but what does this have to do with making me swim faster?" and the answer is...What's your rabbit? In the pool this could be the feet of your lane partner in front of you or swimmers in neighboring lanes. At today's swim practice, I was in one of the faster lanes that I don't usually swim in and was surrounded by fast swimmers on both sides. Lo and behold, I was able to keep up with the shorter intervals and probably had the best swim practice of my aquatic career.

I'm pretty sure there's some anthropologic predator-prey theory that could explain this, but chasing stuff is fun and it'll push you to go harder more than any yelling the coach on deck can muster.

Finding a rabbit isn't just for swimming. It works the same for cycling and running, too. Find someone 100 yards ahead of you, track them down...and then maul them at the finish line.