I think you'll get more replies if you start a new thread. I don't have kids, don't work 60 hours a week and have a girlfriend that completely supports my training and racing so I'm not time limited and have never tried blocks of training like that so I can't help you out. My gut feeling is that it's not the best plan because I think you would lose to much on the sports you're not focusing on. If you do 3 week blocks, you'll have 6 weeks of "maintenance" for each sport and if you're time limited that maintenance will probably be more likely a loss than maintenance. But I could be wrong and maybe others have done something similar with success.

To add to this thread, even though I don't consider myself a "serious" swimmer, I have gone from someone who couldn't swim 25 yards in 2007 to a 23' olympic swimmer (1:04 IM PR although I think I could do an hour right now). It's been a few years of hard work and very frustrating at times. Swimming doesn't come easy to me. I made my biggest gains in the beginning just simply working on form. That got me to the level of a 1:10 IM swimmer. From there, it has taken more hard work in the pool. Form is still important, but at that point I felt like fitness became more important than it previously was because I needed better fitness to hold my form for longer. I made another jump in ability when I spent a winter doing big volume and really focusing on swimming. This year, I've made more gains on less volume, but I've been doing a little more intensity. One thing that helps me out a lot is to have a benchmark workout I do consistently. It gives me motivation and helps me measure my progress. For me, that's a main set of 4x500 with one minute of rest. I add up the total time I spent swimming (so minus the rest breaks) and try to beat that time the next time I do that workout. Seeing progress is motivating, and knowing that workout is coming up motivates me to work hard in my other workouts. I do that workout about once a week, but I can get burned out on it so I'll take a break from it from time to time. This year I went from 28:32 the first time I did that workout to 25:51. Since swimming doesn't come easy to me, I get frustrated with it easily so having a weekly benchmark workout helps a lot, especially if I'm on a roll and setting PRs.

Right now I swim about 8,000-12,000 yards a week. I typically don't swim less than 3000 yards because I don't feel like it's worth driving to the pool unless I'm going to get in at least 3000 yards, which is only about 45 minutes unless I do a workout that has a lot of rest.

The one thing this thread has informed me of is it's a miracle that I'm swimming a blazing 35' HIM on 4-6k/ wk with zero background. Looks like there will be some serious extended time in the pool this winter... And holy $h!t you fish are fast...

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mark

I know it's belated...

But good contribution to the thread with the 4x500 (one minute rest) idea. Sounds like something I might add to build endurance with speed.

Thanks.

I do differ in one thought though. I live close enough to my pool (5ish minutes) so I do sometimes do a short w/o of say 800 to 1,500 just to get in the water and recover from a hard run and/or long ride. Doing this allows me to do "feel" type stuff that keeps me in the water and enhancing my comfort with the water. I know a "real" swimmer wouldn't waste their time, but, I come out of the water with my legs actually feeling less beat up then when I started.

To be fair; it could all be a fantasy. But, for me feeling comfortable in the water is about doing long workouts, fast and hard workouts, and/getting in the pool lotsa days too (again, relative to being a triathlete - and, not a "real" swimmer).

Seems to work for little old me!!! :-)

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

I think the swimming focus training block-without a ton of other exercise is a good idea. Remember a competitive swimmers might do 6 hard interval workouts in a week (and other workouts as well).
I tried doing 4 hard workouts, in addition to running and biking and quickly found myself over trained. Even with the overtrainin
g, my sprint swimming speed got a lot faster. Once I got better, the swim speed stayed with me for the rest of the year. Not that that helped much.

To build on this: I have noticed that during the relative off-season, where my total training load is lower, I can nail some really great swim workouts many times per week. During peak training though my swimming suffers first (even with a swim background). Through my heaviest training I may only get one workout that I would consider good in the pool per week. Some weeks I may not even get one, and only muster 6km of easy swimming (over a week!). Hearing how Pete Jacobs approaches his swimming made me worry a bit less about this. Once rested a bit for a race though the swim is there from the accumulated lifetime training.

So, I would agree that if you really want to make gains in the swim you may have better quality workouts more often if you really drop the bike/run. Plan it properly though... if you are going to drop them understand they may get weaker for a while, so look back at the your training and see how long it takes you to get fit in those disciplines. Work back, and perhaps you focus heavy on swimming until that point. Ex: if it took you 4 months from the start of pre-season training to really get fit on the bike and run, then focus on swimming a lot until 4 months out from your big race, then flip back to a more balanced approach.

If you come from a non-swimming back-ground, as is typical with all endurance sports, there is a tendency to grossly under estimate how much volume and for ho long really big improvements take.

Many new triathletes get into the sport. Get a coach, or track down some form of training program. It's all nicely balanced for time, with 2 - 3 workouts per week in each sport. All good. They get going. Make some modest gains in the early going, but then things to flatten out, and improvements stop. The problem, at it's simplest, is not enough stimulus in each of the individual sports to get really big gains and improvements going, and to really take you places.

At this juncture, you have to, for blocks of time, NOT think like a triathlete. Think like a runner, a cyclist or a swimmer. Choose one, in this case swimming and for a number of months or as long as you can, completely immerse yourself in that sport, doing it, 5 - 7 days/week. THIS is when the real gains start to come. Strangely, few triathlon coaches or programs will suggest this!!

I apologize for bringing up the "good old days", but it's illustrative of how this works. In the early days of triathlon in the mid to late 80's, we swam with the swimmers, we cycled with the cyclists, and we ran with the runners. We knew no better. It was a bit crazy. We were probably over-trained, but in the new sports for me ( I came from running), swimming and cycling, I made rapid gains, wherein, after a couple of years of swimming and cycling, coming from zero back-ground in those sports, I was holding my own with the best local, single sport athletes.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Makes sense

How much volume and type of swim training do you think is needed to make significant gains?

Welcome to ST, the land of mediocre back door brags....

Obviously I realize that swimming is my weakest point which is why I was suggesting possibly focusing on it to the OP. and I wanted to answer the questions he asked. If I wanted to brag I would tell you about my glory days running back at my old college. but thanks for also making this land of the giant douchebags. :)

Agreed.... I'm listening to you :-) Which is exactly why the wife and I are a couple of weeks into a 6-8 week swim focus where we're swimming every day. 4 times a week with masters (rest on our own) letting go of the other sports for a while. Hope to be able to build to 10 swims/wk by the end of the block. Will extend the focus if required through the end of the year... stay tuned for results.

MOP swimmer here.

I was Adult Onset at 38, couldn't swim to the end of the pool. Literally couldnt get there. Now, a 1:30 pace is very reasonable for anything less than 1000m.

My advice would be to get a good coach, and join a good master's team. You'll be up against faster swimmers who'll point out your errors and work with you on form. A quality 3000m workout is better than a 5000m grind in poor form. The coach will work by showing things you won't have seen and by pushing you hard in workouts. The Masters Teams will help by giving examples of good swimmers, and someone to compete against.

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Punching cockroaches from day 1.

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http://www.tri-junkie.com/

http://magnoliamasters.com/...ure-and-Training.pdf

Read this.. Very good summary for swimmers without a strong swim background

I was doing 3x5000 as race season approached, unless I found it caused me to be too tired to do the rest of my training. Went up to 7000, and that was too much.

I did my first triathlon after my freshman year of college. It was the first time I really swam. Two years later I was hooked and training for triathlon. I got a program and was swimming 4X/week, doing short, long, drills-all of it. I swam a 36+ in my first 1/2 IM, got it down to 33+ a few years later. The next three years I swam 1:04, 1:02 and 1:01 at IMLP and IMC. The following year I joined a masters group that was freestyle (and triathlon) focused. I swam 2x per week, on average. But I was coached. I busted out a 56:57 at IMCdA on 1/2 the training. It was quality stuff, it was short stuff, 3000 yds max (too many people in a SCY pool!).

I was a division 1 collegiate swimmer. Not a back door, front door or even side door brag, just my history.
Did not swim for 15 years, swore I would never do it again, then had to for triathlon.

I do not swim 6 mos of the year. Then I re-introduce my body to it in February, and ease back into in. 2x per week 1200-2500yds per session and max 3500-5000yds/week. 30-45mins per session and 90mins max per week.
No fluff. Warm up, do my thing. Cool down. Get out.

It takes me little time to get swimming back and to get times to race pace. But I have a swimming background.

Feel free to add yourself to the list of people who "hate" me for this. :)