What is generally recommended for someone in their first year or triathlon who REALLY needs to improve their swim?

Develop, or better yet, find someone who can help correct your technique. Bad technique + lots of volume and intensity= still a slow swimmer. Good technique + some volume and some intensity = big time drops over where your currently at. I've seen 7-9 min improvements in two weeks with improved technique over 1.5k.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I thought about getting a coach, but after hearing about the punishment for missing a desert dude workout I figured I am better off struggling along by myself.

I usually swim 3x per week. Once in Lake Erie (1 1/3 miles or so) and twice in the pool (2000-2500 yds). Training for olympic distance.

I'm a challenged swimmer :), so I usually swim 3-4x a week, anywhere from 2500-3200 yards. I pretty much never miss a swim workout as it seems to be the first to go for me. I miss a couple days in a row and I always feel like crap when I get back in. :(

3x for me - usually 2500-3500 each time - one session is open water

2 or 3 x a week, 2500-3500.

3 mornings a week, MWF, 5000 SCM. Earlier in the year, I would try to get in a nother workout on the weekend before riding.

4*For me 2000 - 4000 also miss a couple of days and my stroke seems to go, can anybody swim 14 strokes pre 25 mtr the best i can do is 19 but seem able to hold 21 more often, i read the coaching books and they advocate 14

3 x per week ( 2 x 4000m & 1x2000m)

Check this old thread here on the subject of strokes per length.

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

With Children, start up company and training, I swim only about 2 times per week 2000M. Just swam the Lake Placid course this past weekend...what an amzingly fun place to swim...much more fun than the local YMCA pool!

currently doing 3 swims per week at 1500-2500yds per swim.

would like to do more when my schedule allows.

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70.3 is the cousin to OD........ Ironman has no relatives! -Simon Lessing

Usually 2-3 times per week. My current IM training schedule only has me put in two swims per week. Typically 1500-3500yds; more emphasis on the longer workouts right now, as I'll be doing my first 5K swim in less than two weeks. The swim is definitely my weakest event.

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

LMFAO!

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

3- 4 x master @ 3000-4000 yrds, open water on week end when the freaking red tide goes away finally

Training for sprints. Swim 1-2 times per week, on a really odd week 3, 1600-2000m at a time.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

7-9 min improvement? Starting from what time? My half-IM is ~40 mins, so I'd guess myself to be around 31:30 for 1500 in open water. I would sell your soul to trim 7-9 mins off of that with only technique :-). My stroke looks fundamentally OK, obviously needs work on the finer points (per pro swim coach), so I am growingly convinced that pulling harder is what gets you there from here.

As to the original Q... 3x per week, mostly 2000-3000scy. Slowly increasing to 4x per week, 2000-4000+scy.

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

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

Used to be 1-2x/week, not very far (1,500m).
IM swim: 1:44
HIM swim: 42-43:00

Now, 3-4x/week, average is 2-3,000m. 2-3 sessions with a squad and one longer straight swim in a 50m pool.
IM swim: 1:14
HIM swim: sub-36:00

Goal is to drop those times even further.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

2-3x per week, usually 2000-3000 meters. Ugh. In about 4 weeks will jack that up in preparation for IM. Ugh. Will do a 5k swim about 3-4 weeks out from race day for the mental prep.

I've had seasons where I've really really ramped up and focused on my swimming, putting in a LOT more volume and concentrated stroke/technique work, and how much of a difference did it make? Let's see: First IM swim time: 1:12:xx. IM swim PR: 1:10:32.

Hmmm....

Ugh. Not worth it for me! But don't anybody follow my example, I'm a confirmed swim-hater. I guess it might help to try swimming with a Masters group, but there's just no way to make my training schedule work around the local Masters schedule. Too bad.

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TriBaby
"The rule is, jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but NEVER jam today." ---The White Queen

3x's per week...around 1500m - 2000m

I'm just re-learning how to swim...I still look like a robot in the water but I have gotten my balance and breathing down (and there's so much more to work on). Joining a masters swim team helped a lot - I've been with a group for 2 months now and have dropped about 2 min off my 750m swim sprint time. I went from 17:29 to 15:32.

So, I'm still REALLY slow but I'm very determined to get better because my bike and run times are so much better in my AG compared to my swim time. I'll place like 23rd for the swim and 9th for both the bike and the run.

disclaimer: first sprint race was a calm ocean with a wetsuit and the second was in a shallow lake (no wetsuit).

LB

5x per week 2000 yards per workout and 6000 on the Friday AM blowout

I just took 8 min of my 1/2IM swim time by improving my stroke technique. Not by swimming "harder" or "faster" in the pool.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

A-Pants,

Yeah, but again, from what to what? If it went from 50 mins down to 42, then I get it. If it went from 34 to 26, then yikes, I am going to put even more work into technique!

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

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

Usually swim once a week, between 3500 and 4500 yards, often doing one main set of between 2500 and 3500 yards. This takes me 60 to 75 minutes depending upon how much time I spend warming up and warming down and whether I do any stroke work or just swim freestyle.

Sometimes I swim a second time a week for around 2000 yards. This takes about 35 to 40 minutes, and my main set is usually 1200 yards long.

20 years ago I used to swim more than this every day, sometimes a lot more than this every day, at least 5 days a week, for months on end, so that might not make me an average swimmer.