I do not know what is good or not good about my stroke or technique. I do not do any other drills (like kick board, pull buoy, one-arm, etc.) because I do not know what I should be concentrating on for improvement. So, I just do freestyle intervals and cruising. //

Well if you are not going to do anything about any of this stuff, then you can just go over to the fishes thread and pick up all the workouts you want. A lot of variation, and a bunch of guys just mainly do freestyle. You will have to adjust to your interval send offs, but that should be easy, as you already do 100's and 50's. You must be able to turn off your brain when swimming, doing the same thing over, and over and over..Dont expect much of a gain though, just making what your are doing now a little bit stronger, is only going to gain a second or two per 100. To make real break throughs, you will have to do something organized, with someone watching you and helping you not do so much wrong stuff...

If you have a place like SwimLabs near where you live, you can probably make a lot more gains my taking a lesson once or twice a week for the next six weeks than just swimming an extra three days a week. They will also hook you up with specific drills to do.

I like to steal workouts from the mission viejo masters facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/86728936785/

they do a good amount of other stroke work which I like

You can scroll down and there are lots of workouts I copy and paste them onto a page and bring it to the pool

Definitely suggest finding a local coach to help with technique.

What's your typical 10x100 looking like?

Send off interval?
Average time?
Do you see a large variation in 100 times in a set?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

if it was me I may do a few TTs to start to baseline. A 400 or 800, 200, 50 and/or 100

think like a swimmer then condense a season into the 6 weeks. I'd find someone to help with my stroke & spend the first 10d doing a lot of drills & stroke work (fly, back, breast) w/ some short faster stuff. Something like 20x75 as odd k/stk/b evens k/drill/fast :10. Also lots of pulling steady with some fast. something like 4x400 as 75cruise/25fast :20

then I'd spend 2.5 weeks doing a lot of threshold swimming then the last 1.5 weeks sharpening up.

At the end I'd repeat the TTs and see where I ended at.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Hey man — Sorry to heat about the broken foot. That’s a real bummer.

I’ll be honest, while your plan sounds good in theory, I’m somewhat skeptical that it’s truly a good idea for you. Given it sounds like you haven’t had much swim instruction and likely don’t have perfect form (or you’d be faster), I think simply doubling the amount you’re likely just setting yourself up for a nasty case of swimmer shoulder and reinforcing bad habits.

I did something similar about two years ago (due to knee injury), never had shoulder problems before that, and it’s been swimmer shoulder wack a mole since, though finally seems to be mostly under control thanks to 3 months of diligent PT this summer.

I starting making some real progress with private instruction. This spring I did a 30 minute lesson every other week, barely increased me swim yardage (still 2-3x week, 6-8K yd/wk) and went from 17 min 1k to 13:30 and still improving slowly (no more low hanging fruit).

Swimming is like golf. You don’t get better at golf simply by whacking more balls.

My suggestion is find a good swim coach. Do a lesson every week plus 2, maybe 3 swims. You’ll build a real swim foundation and not injure yourself. I assume you’re season is done, so stop being so OCD and be okay with loosing a bit of fitness these next 6 weeks and emerge truly stronger (rather than nursing a different injury).

I would keep it simple- test 400/100.

Each workout needs a singular focus. Some great set suggestions. 75s are underutilized by most triathletes.



Conger doing a 100 Fly focused session ^^

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Yup, keep it simple. Even better than a TT (IMO) is a simple test set. Something that’s designed so you’ll eventually fail, but lets you track progress.

A good one is 100’s on a gradually descending sendoff. Reduce by 1 sec each repeat, and start at the point that you think you’ll fail after 15 to 20. So if you think you’ll fail at about 1:20, then start at 1:35, next one will be 1:34, then 1:33, etc.

It’s a little more complex than a 400 TT, but has the advantage that it’s less prone to pacing errors.

Other thing with a swim block is to make sure he varies the paces (not sure if that was mentioned already) most triathetes are one speed wonders, need to do some work that’s substantially faster on a longer rest interval. Like 1:1 rest:work or even more.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I agree with less test sets on the whole. Good suggestions guys.

After pondering this more he probably needs to benchmark the things that are important to triathlon.

Opening speed (50 or 100), sustained speed over the first 300 - 400 then ability to swim fast for the whole race (1500 -1900).

In triathlon having a fast 50 or 100 isn't that important if you can maintain your opening pace for the first 3-5 minutes. Those excitable types who blast off the line will come back to you by the 150m mark then slip off your feet if you can swim a really good opening 400.

If you can't then that opening pace becomes more important to help you get into a group you can stick with.

Based upon what type of a swimmer you are OP I may do a 100 to test opening speed or a 300/400 for that initial part and then maybe 1000 or 1200.

personally I know I'm not a great get off the line sprinter. I mean I can't break :34 from a push for a 50 but can close a nearly all out 300 with a sub 1:15.

Hey triathletes if you're reading to this points there is no need to sprint off the line. You're only hurting yourself and the less swim fit you are the more you're hurting yourself.

The rolling starts reduces that need for the ability to open with a really fast 50 or 100. Although if you race local/regional (and you should) races or national level events outside of WTC then it's more important.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Why not find a Swim Smooth coach? Just sayin'

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

Finding a coach has been on my mind, but that is something I would need to plan around. This six weeks is unexpected, and my constraint is that I only have a 0500 - 0600 window each morning to get in the pool. I cannot even swim with the masters group that starts at 6 on MWF. So, I was hoping for some wise insights into how I might use the additional pool days better than my same routine 5 days instead of just 2. Eventually I will get there, but based on most of the feedback above, there probably is not a quick and easy set of workouts for a 6-week pool focus for a commoner.

Some thoughts on basics -

- It doesn't sound like you are doing pull sets. I would get some paddles and a pull buoy and get comfortable with that. Not only does it focus the effort ( and take care with the paddles, don't get the biggest ones right away!) but I think the pull buoy also helps you learn body positioning.

Also consider doing some pool running. I like this quite a bit for recovery and it should help you maintain your running tone a bit more while you are off your feet. When I do a good hard 30 minutes, my legs feel the same as if I had gone for an actual run later in the day. I use a waist belt.

As long as you are at the pool toys section, also get a swim band ( iirc the name correctly) . This is a big rubber band that goes around your ankles and turns your legs to dead weight. You have to swim like crazy to keep your hips up with no propulsion from your kick, so also good to train balance and positioning. I like to use them on 50m intervals - obviously with a time adjustment.

To tie together a couple of the comments from the very good advice here - I like my drill routine which I stole from someone back in the mists of time. It is interesting enough that I enjoy it even if i generally don't like drills! I do 75's with the first lap being a drill ( I rotate Fist, Right Arm, Left Arm and then either fingertip or catch-up) after the drill lap i go straight into a 50 build where I start at my warm up pace, build to interval pace and finish at a dead sprint.

Good luck in your recovery!

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" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978

3rd place rolls up in a power wheel chair and drops a 1:05. - The lesson body position matters.

I'll disagree in part with Desert Dude on the point that you do need to develop some speed. Josh White makes a good point about distance swimming here. - If you want to get faster you have to get faster. If your goal for a 1500 open water is to break 20 minutes and you have never swam a single 100 under 1:20 you have to hit those shorter milestones first.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I'm not saying develop not to develop speed. I'd do lots of 25's 50's 75's all out or near there to develop some of that. It's just not as important for a triathlete as it is for a competitive pool swimmer. Where as the triathlete needs to be able to hold a high percentage of their threshold pace for longer than most pool swim races. Pool swimmers need to be able to go all out for 2-5 min & triathletes need to go at 90% for 20-30 minutes for both groups to be successful at their respective events.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Bo - That Para Oly video is just awesome, so cool to watch these girls swim fast despite their disabilities. Thanks for posting. :)

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