I actually feel quite fresh. I just can't make it go any faster

I found a guy I would like to talk to about coaching but reading his CV he was a 100, 200 specialist in college. Does this make a difference, do I need someone who was better at longer distance to help me out. I am slightly faster than the OP, but I am still slow. I finished 1:36 for IMWIS this year, but that was on four days of training because of some tendinitis issues that kept me out of the pool and from swimming for 8 weeks until race week. My fastest 1500M in a race is 26:00. I have no swimming background and am self taught.

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Mike

200 specialist's can still pull together pretty fast longer distances, plus they have all the right techniques and such since he did swim in college... I swim 200's in highschool and I could drop and IM swim in under an hour and I'm 17. It truly is about technique, feel and then get the rhythm.

What events someone specialized in during college isn't nearly as relevant as what they've done once they've stuck on the pool deck. Heck, some of the best coaches I've known were never swimmers themselves.

Give him a call, and talk with him about how he sets up a distance practice. (Technique isn't all that different with a 200 and a 1500. It's just a matter of turnover and breathing patterns) What you're looking for is a solid background in stroke mechanics, a willingness to help you adapt your stroke to your physiology, and a plan for lowering your aerobic threshold pace (or however he wants to phrase increasing pace/endurance) on a faily limited number of yards.

Ever consider the duathlon? I'm a firm believer of not trying to pound square pegs into round holes.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

I disagree that some people aren't natural swimmers. You can take a group of 150 people who don't "swim", meaning on a regular basis, and some of them will just be faster. It's all about awareness, how it feels to move economically in the water. It's really hard to explain that to someone who is not a natural swimmer. If this was a swimming forum and not "I suck at swimming" forum I think you'd hear more of this. Not that anyone should take offense at the "I suck at swimming" label, it's just a recurring theme.

However, this does not mean that people can't reach the level of a natural swimmer- it will just take them a lot more work.

Agreed. I'm probably one of the least athletic people on the forum, and if even I can manage to break 20 minutes in a 1650, with a lot of hard work and zero talent, any reasonably healthy person can with appropriate training.

Hey curvy boy

Only speaking for myself and my experience is pretty new (3 months). I would say you can see some dramatic changes to your form (especially at the level of you me and the OP in terms of swim times) with a swim coach 1 on 1 in just a few sessions. Then follow up with lots of drilling that re-inforces. The problem here is your drilling may begin to reinforce 50% of what you learned.

Ultimately I think you need to define what you want to achieve before talking to a coach and then communicate that to them. Anyone who is being paid to do something is going to feel the need to produce "results" and if they don't have your expectations understood they will assume their own timeline (ie. I have to improve this guy in 4 sessions or less). In my case my coach understands I will be in the pool 2X per month every month until we make me into a "serious" swimmer across all distance Oly-IM. She then knows she has the ability to focus on one flaw for an entire hour (if necessary) and give me homework for the next two weeks on this flaw and we will stay at it until my change in technique backed up by lots of repitition correctly has fixed the problem. This way it is not "about the money" for us either it is about the challenge of taking a guy who's form sucks and turning him into a real swimmer. And I may be fooling myself but I think with the right coaching and volume, even this late in life (40!!) I can become a real swimmer over time.

Hope that helps
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[reply]It's really not about the money . . . well, it is in the sense that I don't want to waste it (or too much of it.) I am about in the same boat as original poster . . . almost that fast in the other two, but swimming is proportionally just as bad. How soon should I expect results before moving on?

This is good info, thanks. It's giving me some ideas.[/reply]

Until you decide to get into the weight room and start bench pressing, doing LAT pull downs, some arm curls, straight arm pull downs, and tricep isolation, reverse curls... you're not really going to see the improvement that you're looking to achieve.......

Preacher curls. Don't forget preacher curls.

If you want to swim as fast as Janet Evans, you'd better have arms and shoulders like Janet Evans. Goes without saying.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Its called Duathlon. Sounds like you're a perfect candidate.

Agreed. When I was in the distance lane, a lot of what we'd do was 100s, 200, 300s and 400s. Outside of long slow warmups, we'd do sets of 500s maybe a half dozen times all season, and maybe one day every year where we'd go 3x1000 or 4x1000.

But what did my coach know? He was only coaching guys who went sub-16 for 1500M/1650yds and the odd woman who swam in the 17s.

No chance. You must have meant 30 minutes. That I would agree with.

Take me as an example. I started late, have put in 2 years, at an obsession level of effort (at times), and swimming as much as I can. Pfff. I'll probably never break 1:20 in a 100y, and if I do, it won't be by much. And I *am* athletic. I'll keep pushing it as far as I can, but after all this instruction and work, it's pretty clear that I have a low ceiling. I have lots of friends who are in the same boat, on ~5 years of swimming. They swim 34-38 min half-IMs, despite some pretty solid efforts (and they qualify for Kona now and then).

Some of us have limits, and it has little to do with athletic ability. There are swimmers and there are... well, whatever I/we are!

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

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Okay i'll try that one friday. I'm not against short stuff but it seems like all the masters stuff i hear about is about really short distances. At least when i look at the board at my pool it is.


Grant

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Grant
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I've achieved results in duathlon that I am happy with. But, I'm not giving in. I will learn to swim. But it's taking longer than I thought. I have no problem swimming in the lane with guys/girls whose oxygen consumption is half mine. I have had several different coaches look at my stroke. Bobby Patton, Jim Montgomery. I'm certain that they just shake their head while I'm under water. Bobby has told me "just pretend you're on your bike".

Like most have said, it is not your engine.

There have been many athletes who came to triathlon with basically none to very little swimming ability.

Tinley was a runner. Through dedication and one-on-one swim coaching (coach on deck), he became very good.

Chuckie V was a cyclist. He learned to swim as an adult.

Gordo I believe could swim some, but then learned to swim very good.

Siri Lindley came from a lacrosse and ice hockey background. She learned to swim through masters and then put in heavy training down under with the heavy hitters of Australian triathlon. She became world champion.

The point is don't lose hope. Learn the corect technique then swimming becomes fun.

Now I am not a very good swimmer. But I am getting better. I try to work on technique every single time I swim. If the greatest swimmers in the world, like Phelps and Popov, work on their strokes every time they swim, then I should too.

good luck