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Re: Go slow to go fast-Swimming? [dunno]
dunno wrote:
Dean T wrote:
I do a lot of long slow swimming. But because I love it. Not because it makes me fast... I'll be the first to admit it doesn't. I swim up to 30K a week, sometimes up to 3 hours at a time, 90% continuous. Keeps me feeling and looking good, calorie burn, and I can eat anything and as much as I want. But it doesn't make me any faster in races, than I average in the pool, which is about a 1:40 - 1:45 pace. When I was swimming half as far, with speed sessions, I was racing at sub 1:30 paces. I know, nothing compared to the natural fish here, but a good example of the difference between long slow swimming, and lots of intervals type swimming.


Interesting, thanks. I wonder why this is and why its so different to running or even cycling?


Here's my take on it. A lot of folks disagree with my take on the swimming part, but the run/cycling part is straightforward.

Swimming fast requires both technique and power, and triathletes who haven't swum a ton usually vastly underestimate the importance of the power in going fast. It is true that as a raw beginner if you have major stroke errors, you SHOULD practice slowly to fix them before speeding it up and going hard.

But once you're pretty flat in the water, power >> technique for AG triathlete swimming. And triathletes continue to underestimate the training required to swim well/fast (Measly 2-3 swims a week is pretty typical for even 'advanced' book training tri plans.)

If you think technique is so dominant, a competitive swimmer with their arm tied behind their back should come in near-last in a triathlon swim. You all know that in reality, they will likely beat 80-90% of the AGers despite that arm tied back there. Yeah, technique, right.

As for cycling - not much technique needed on the power generation part, you're pedaling in circles. If tri bike courses were more technical or drafting was allowed, you'd see a technical cycling rise greatly in importance. As it stands, it doesn't.

As for running, humans are evolutionarily developed to optimize run form for body type and fitness. Yes, it is a singularly special ability we have, and this has been intensely studied by scientists who confirm this in many ways and trace is evolutionarily. As opposed to skiing, swimming, and other sports, we don't have to learn technique really at all - you just have to do it and you'll naturally optimize your technique to YOUR ability/body type. A lot of swim coaches make the big mistake of thinking run training should mimic swim training, so heavy emphasis on identifying technical running flaws and then focusing on drills to fix them, where in reality, these technical errors will self-correct very quickly as you get faster. And in fact, if you force technical correction on someone who's physiology doesn't prefer it (like Ryan Hall 2:05 marathoner's low arm swing) they will almost certainly run slower/worse.
Last edited by: lightheir: Nov 18, 20 16:29

Edit Log:

  • Post edited by lightheir (Dawson Saddle) on Nov 18, 20 16:26
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  • Post edited by lightheir (Dawson Saddle) on Nov 18, 20 16:28
  • Post edited by lightheir (Dawson Saddle) on Nov 18, 20 16:29