Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Nathan Adrian Sees Swimming in New Light After Recent Years' Events
Nathan Adrian realized he needed a change five or six years ago.
As with many swimmers entering their late 20s, Adrian wasn’t recovering as quickly as he had years before. He began telling his coach, Dave Durden, that he could do the workout as written but that doing so would leave him unable to perform well later in the week.
Durden, who began coaching Adrian in 2007 and who is the U.S. head coach for the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, has listened to his swimmer, letting him tweak sets as needed. Adrian sometimes will descend certain sets or take an extra minute of rest.
“If I actually go 100 rate and rhythm and 100 speed or even faster than that, we go full speed, that’s my ‘turbo’ button, man,” said Adrian, an eight-time Olympic medalist. “In FIFA, if you use your turbo too much, you’re in a hole. We try to do our best to avoid being in a hole.”
Adrian, a native of Bremerton, Washington and former club swimmer for Olympic Aquatic Club and later the Tacoma Swim Club, is now 32 and is navigating one of the biggest challenges for athletes trying to stay at the top of the swimming world in their late 20s and beyond. Recovering from arduous workouts takes longer, especially for sprinters such as Adrian because they must train at the fastest pace they can swim and lift weights close to the maximum amount they can to build strength.
But his being 32 provides him one benefit not available to younger swimmers: the knowledge of how his body responds to training and what he needs to do to perform well, something that takes years of experience and experimenting to develop.
It’s hard to argue with Adrian’s success since his decision to start adapting his workouts.
He won bronze medals in the 50 and 100 freestyle and gold medals in the 4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley relays at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Just months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018 and undergoing two surgeries, Adrian anchored the U.S.’s gold medal–winning 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2019 Pan American Games. Fast forward to this past week at the TYR Pro Swim Series at Mission Viejo, where Adrian won the 100 freestyle for his first TYR Pro Swim Series win in three years.
Recovery weighs so heavily in Adrian’s life that even his shifts for waking up to care of his newborn daughter, Parker Jacquelyn Adrian, revolves around it. He’ll do feedings on Tuesday and Saturday nights with his wife, Hallie Ivester, and his in-laws handling the other nights.
Adrian describes swimming and, by extension, sleeping and recovery as his job and is grateful for the help with raising his and Ivester’s 2-month-old daughter.
“I’m very, very thankful for all of the support that I have,” he said. “Obviously from my wife, that should go without saying, and then my in-laws that are in town just helping. We’re delegating the overnight responsibilities and hoping and praying here that she develops her circadian rhythm and starts getting some sleep.”
As it has with every other swimmer, the coronavirus pandemic has affected Adrian’s training. He said he’s been “dealing with a lot of dysfunction in my shoulder and my core” that is making them not work optimally. Normally, he’d visit a specialist to help him work through his physical ailments. Now, he’s got bigger things on his mind.
“That’s the thing I miss the most,” Adrian said. “I had a pregnant wife at home and now I have a little one at home. Being careful is a top, top priority — I would argue more so than swimming fast. That would be horrible if anyone got COVID. Now that things are settling down and vaccines are rolling out, it’s definitely going to be a priority moving forward to Trials.”
As he enters the final weeks before the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming this June, Adrian knows he isn’t the same swimmer who qualified for his first Olympic team at age 19 or even the one who represented the U.S. again at the ages of 23 and 27. He’s older than the many swimmers, some of them much younger, trying to surpass him.
But he hopes his working smarter will help him make his fourth Olympic team and add to his five gold medals.
“When you’re younger, the objective is to race your teammates and try to win everything you can,” Adrian said. “Whereas now, it’s, like, ‘OK, on aerobic days, it’s heart rate 24 and below [per 10 seconds] and on fast days it’s race them and then on technical days it’s technical stuff. It’s kind of breaking down what success or what my goal is for that particular session, and it can’t just be racing everything anymore, which is a very useful way to go about swimming.”
As with many swimmers entering their late 20s, Adrian wasn’t recovering as quickly as he had years before. He began telling his coach, Dave Durden, that he could do the workout as written but that doing so would leave him unable to perform well later in the week.
Durden, who began coaching Adrian in 2007 and who is the U.S. head coach for the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, has listened to his swimmer, letting him tweak sets as needed. Adrian sometimes will descend certain sets or take an extra minute of rest.
“If I actually go 100 rate and rhythm and 100 speed or even faster than that, we go full speed, that’s my ‘turbo’ button, man,” said Adrian, an eight-time Olympic medalist. “In FIFA, if you use your turbo too much, you’re in a hole. We try to do our best to avoid being in a hole.”
Adrian, a native of Bremerton, Washington and former club swimmer for Olympic Aquatic Club and later the Tacoma Swim Club, is now 32 and is navigating one of the biggest challenges for athletes trying to stay at the top of the swimming world in their late 20s and beyond. Recovering from arduous workouts takes longer, especially for sprinters such as Adrian because they must train at the fastest pace they can swim and lift weights close to the maximum amount they can to build strength.
But his being 32 provides him one benefit not available to younger swimmers: the knowledge of how his body responds to training and what he needs to do to perform well, something that takes years of experience and experimenting to develop.
It’s hard to argue with Adrian’s success since his decision to start adapting his workouts.
He won bronze medals in the 50 and 100 freestyle and gold medals in the 4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley relays at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Just months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018 and undergoing two surgeries, Adrian anchored the U.S.’s gold medal–winning 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2019 Pan American Games. Fast forward to this past week at the TYR Pro Swim Series at Mission Viejo, where Adrian won the 100 freestyle for his first TYR Pro Swim Series win in three years.
Recovery weighs so heavily in Adrian’s life that even his shifts for waking up to care of his newborn daughter, Parker Jacquelyn Adrian, revolves around it. He’ll do feedings on Tuesday and Saturday nights with his wife, Hallie Ivester, and his in-laws handling the other nights.
Adrian describes swimming and, by extension, sleeping and recovery as his job and is grateful for the help with raising his and Ivester’s 2-month-old daughter.
“I’m very, very thankful for all of the support that I have,” he said. “Obviously from my wife, that should go without saying, and then my in-laws that are in town just helping. We’re delegating the overnight responsibilities and hoping and praying here that she develops her circadian rhythm and starts getting some sleep.”
As it has with every other swimmer, the coronavirus pandemic has affected Adrian’s training. He said he’s been “dealing with a lot of dysfunction in my shoulder and my core” that is making them not work optimally. Normally, he’d visit a specialist to help him work through his physical ailments. Now, he’s got bigger things on his mind.
“That’s the thing I miss the most,” Adrian said. “I had a pregnant wife at home and now I have a little one at home. Being careful is a top, top priority — I would argue more so than swimming fast. That would be horrible if anyone got COVID. Now that things are settling down and vaccines are rolling out, it’s definitely going to be a priority moving forward to Trials.”
As he enters the final weeks before the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming this June, Adrian knows he isn’t the same swimmer who qualified for his first Olympic team at age 19 or even the one who represented the U.S. again at the ages of 23 and 27. He’s older than the many swimmers, some of them much younger, trying to surpass him.
But he hopes his working smarter will help him make his fourth Olympic team and add to his five gold medals.
“When you’re younger, the objective is to race your teammates and try to win everything you can,” Adrian said. “Whereas now, it’s, like, ‘OK, on aerobic days, it’s heart rate 24 and below [per 10 seconds] and on fast days it’s race them and then on technical days it’s technical stuff. It’s kind of breaking down what success or what my goal is for that particular session, and it can’t just be racing everything anymore, which is a very useful way to go about swimming.”