Welcome to WinBikeRun.com.
We are Alex McLaren and Olivier Poirier-Leroy, and we are a couple guys who love swimming and love sharing our knowledge and experience with those who want to take their swimming to the next level.
Our mission is to simplify improvement in the swimming portion of triathlon. Although we come from a combined 50+ years of experience in the sport, we are constantly researching new ways to improve, refine and make swimming improvement easier.
Whether it’s inspired from the habits of a world class professional ironman triathlete or from drills intended for young competitive swimmers, our content is designed to help you improve.
Our aim is to close the gap between elite-level swimming triathletes and those motivated to get to the front of the pack.
About Alex McLaren
Alex McLaren has been involved with swimming for most of his life. Starting off in a collapsing outdoor 25 – ish yard pool in Salt Spring Island, Canada, he quickly moved up the ladder as an age grouper breaking his first provincial record at age 10.
Since then Alex has competed for Island Swimming (under the tutelage of the late Randy Bennett) and has had stints with Team British Columbia, the Canadian Junior National Team and finished as an All Big East Conference Athletic Team Member for the University of Pittsburgh and multiple-time Senior National Finalist in Canada.
Alex has a coaching pedigree, starting on deck when he was 15. He has coached athletes ranging from LSC Age-Group champions, to former Olympians and NCAA qualifiers at the college level. One of his athletes even broke Michael Phelps’ 100 fly Age-Group record! Oh snap!
Always thirsting for new cutting edge information on training and racing, some of the coaches he had most of his inspiration from are Sergio Lopez, Matt Kredich and John Rodgers. When it comes to swimming training styles, Alex is a big fan of quality work, and developing habits that translate to proper racing. Efficient technique and muscle memory is the key to reaching your potential in the pool or in open water.
Away from the pool, Alex can be found training for ultramarathons on beautiful BC trails, playing with his dog Bubbles, and hunting down the best places to find locally grown food.
Fun Fact.. Alex’s top 5 favorite pools he has swum in are:
- Barcelona ‘92 Olympic Pool (Barcelona, Spain)
- Zwemcentrum de Tongelreep (Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
- London Aquatics Centre (London, England)
- Kihea Aquatic Centre (Maui, Hawaii, USA)
- International Swimming Hall of Fame Pool (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
About Olivier Poirier-Leroy
Olivier has been swimming on and off since he was five years old. A former provincial, national record holder and national finalist, he swam at McMaster University where they won the OUA Championships in 2003.
Since 2013 he has been writing for SwimSwam, USA Swimming, STACK, and others on all topics related to high-performance swimming, from technique to mental training.
He also owns the website YourSwimLog.com, where he has published two books for competitive swimmers: YourSwimBook, a training journal and goal setting guide, and Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a High Performance Mindset.
When Olivier is not writing you will find him at one of the local pools crushing laps.