Take a year and swim 6 days a week. 3-4000 yds/m per workout. Enjoy your new found swim ability. Mix up the sets. 100's, 200's, 50's. Kick sets. Some drill. Do it all.

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That's what, 1:45/100? I actually dropped my 100 time for OWS from around 2:15 to 1:45/100 by just doing 3x-4x a week of 3000-3500 almost exclusively 50 & 100 repeats on short rest. Usually a main set will look something like:

200 warm up
10x100 on 2:00
20 x 50 on 1:00
200 kick

or

5 x 200 on 3:45
25 x 50 on equal rest - all out
10 x 100 w/ 10 sec rest

Now I have zero swim training or experience and just started swimming back in November, so take it for what it's worth. I need major technique adjustments, but also made major technique adjustments as well, which may account for the speed increase as much as the training. I can tell you that swimming faster (20 x 50 all out on long rests) helped me get a better feel for the water as my body position improved substantially with increased speed and arm turnover. It also helped me shorten my breaths which was a major issue and is a major issue with me getting thrown out of balance, dropping my opposite arm, creating drag and having a shitty pull.

But like the folks above said. Mostly just swim more. Swim faster.

Like the first reply said:

Swim more, swim harder. Don't use 25min as the goal, use 20min. Volume in the 20-25k range, at least, swim 5-6 days a week. Do it all: work on all out sprint speed, threshold, long repeats, everything. There's no magic set, but here's a few to try with some regularity:

20x100 on an interval giving :10-:15 rest, build up to 30x100. May need to start at 15x100
10x400 on an interval giving :20-:30 rest, maybe even more rest if you're really busting them hard
10x100 ALL OUT with 3-5min rest in between (speed!!!!!)
3x400, 4x100 hard, 3x300, 3x100 hard, 3x200, 2x100 hard, 3x100, 100 all out

It can also help to have a test set that you do maybe once a month to check progress. A 1000 TT (yards) or 800 TT (meters) can be good for this. You could also try 10x100 on best average on :10 rest, seeing what you can hold.

More swimming, harder swimming, a variety of things. Kick, pull, swim, drill, do it all! Good luck!

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

thanks for the reply guys. I would be happy with 25. 20 minutes would help me win most of my races as I am usually close to last out of the water! Those sets look great. Thanks again

Join a masters group if you can. Then all you have to do is show up and try to hang on for dear life. Also, watch a lot of YouTube videos on technique so you have things to focus on during your swim. Ask questions of coaches and faster swimmers. Become a student of all things technique.

I'm an adult onset swimmer as well. Masters was the push I needed to get faster. I honestly can't recommend it enough.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I went from 27 min. to 18:xx for 1.5k tri swims. Took me a few years but I did it without swimming 6 days a week or massive yardage.

Instead, I swam with a few good masters teams and got lots and lots of very focused technique help. The secret to doing this is getting your drag way way down.

Greg @ dsw

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It's be a mix of tech and fitness and that window is different for everyone. All I will say is if you have access to a top flight swim coach this is a really great way to make sure you are focusing on the right stuff. Some folks need a lot of technical work, some just need to bust it more and this is where eyes on deck are awesome. Masters is great, local club coaches can be great too.

unfortunately masters is a no go. I am getting some remote coaching via underwater video

x2

Best Oly swim: 21:56.
Taught myself how to swim almost 3 years ago. Prior to that I swam just to not drown. I watched a lot of videos and read books focusing on technique when learning to swim for competition.

For me the breakthrough though was a combination of focusing on technique and swimming with others. The majority of the time I find when athletes swim with others they push more than they would by themselves with their thoughts staring at the black line. Myself included.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

I went from about 2:10 to about a consistent 1:40-1:42 in the last two years. The difference has been coaching and a lot of technique adjustment, mostly in my case to do with timing, body position adjustment, and rotation....so everything, really. Most of my sets top out at 2km so far, although that's now on the rise as I'm in training for my first full IM. I enormously enjoy swimming now; it was a chore before I got coaching. Squad training has been a lot of fun and benefit too.

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I was like you, and adult onset swimmer. At first I was happy when I broke 30 min for 1500m. I set my target at 25 min. By focussing almost exclusively on technique, I got under 25 min. then I got more focussed on going faster still (strength and endurance sessions). My best ever was a 12:30 for 1500m when I was about 45. since then I've relaxed and just enjoyed the swimming and have blown out to a very regular 22:30-ish depending on conditions. I'm 54 now

The only problem with swimming faster is getting passed by all the guys that can ride well.

Like Midas Mufflers used to say "First you get good, THEN you get fast" No use practicing the wrong technique :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Ummm, do you know that the 1500 WRs are 14:31 lcm and 14:10 scm??? So your 12:30 had to be way, way short and/or with a strong current, but please tell me you knew that already:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Typo sorry! I broke my right index finger this past weekend and it's completely buggered my typing. 21:30, not 12:30. Sorry about that. But with a bit more training I reckon...... :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Ah, 21:30, much more believable. JOOC, was that in OW or in a pool??? If OW, what was your best in the pool???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

21:30 was wetsuit in a 59m pool (old 66-2/3 yards pool). It was a saltwater (sea water) pool for our squads Xmas session, done in wetsuits, here in Auckland. 5 of us in my lane did it as a team time trial. Do one lap (118m) at full speed then pull over and let the team go by. Grab the last persons toes and draft for 4 laps before inheriting the lead again. Great fun, great entertainment and faster than I've ever gone on my own.

My fastest solo pool swim for 1500m was 22:10 done in a budgie smuggler (SCM) (when I was about 48 years old)
I haven't done a 1500m OWS in ages. Mostly it's 1/2 IM races where I once managed 29:58 open water (11degC!!!!) in a very accurate 2000m wetsuit swim. Generally I manage 31-32min for 1/2 IM swims and I've done 4 or 5 of my IM swims in 1:02. I always hoped to go under 1:00 but for a 13 hour finisher that would be a tough call. Damn I wish I could run

Unfortunately, I could probably swim a marathon in an ironman faster than I run/wobble/cry/swear/make up excuses

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Hmmm, 1500 m swimming team time trial, well, that is a new one to me but it sounds like it would be fun espec with some guys whose toes you can just barely hold onto. Your 22:10 scm is actually quite good for a 48-yo AO swimmer which you can legit be proud of. Sorry but don't have any suggestions on the run, i think it's one of those things that either you have it or you don't. IIRC, you are a retired pro downhill skier, so obv you had some pretty good genes for that. I think we can't all be good at everything:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I've retired from tri's for a year now. I'm loving it.

re IM marathons. I can swim OK, and ride the right side of terrible. The problem is that 180km gives me a long time to get bored so by the time I get to the marathon I'm well 'over it' and I've lost the will to live.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"