I usually swim 4x45' per week, allows me to put in +/- 2700m per session. What are your swimming times?

Yes it's feasible. I think have a warm up is good, but potentially doing some band work just prior so that you can maybe cut the actual swim warm slightly so you can have a main set.

What I generally would focus on is having 2 "repetative 100's" type of work. Drill specifics / swim, just focusing on body position (this set I usually like to add "toys" w/ specific targets). 1 "endurance" set like 3 x 500 type (or 2 x 800) to build some endurance...Obviously start with where you are currrently, IE 5 x 300, then 400's then 600's etc. 1 "super quality" day. Hell in your instance it could be swimming 1200yds but the quality is super high so the rest is high as well. That's 4 days of good swimming.

And then if you are swimming a 5th day, go "play" in the water. Not every set has to be structured and just getting in the water and focusing on your streamline or flip turns will in turn make you a better swimmer. Unstructured just go swim, what you want.

That's what I would suggest.

Obviously the less often you can swim the more "structure" it will have to be just off demands of training.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

My pool has been 45 minute sessions since they reopened early summer. I shortened my warm-up so I can just get in lots of intervals. I swim 2,300 yards in 45 minutes. I am actually swimming faster than any time in my life, so the hurried sessions may have worked for me.

I get from 2500-2700 in 45' as well.

With a time slot that short, I show up ready to go!

If there's a line for entry, I get there early enough to be in the front of the line. You can lose like 5 minutes of swim time if you're one of the last to get in for my pool.

All gear is ready to go as mch as possible. Jammers are on, goggles around the neck and defogged, clothes stripped down as much as possible (outdoor winter pool so I still wear some clothes), pool toys out and ready for poolside if I'm going to use them, and don't hesitate when I get to the lane - straight into the easier initial yards. No slow stripdown of clothes or self-motivation talk - you can do that once you're moving in the water!

I often get in over 150 yards by the time the folks who are more slow and casual about getting into the water have even started moving!

I also swim until the bitter end, I don't stop until AFTER they blow the final whistle, and then I make it to the wall and call it a day.

I also swim until the bitter end, I don't stop until AFTER they blow the final whistle, and then I make it to the wall and call it a day.

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Just dont be *that guy* who comes to the wall and then flips for 1 more 50 because you "gotta finish my set". Not that you are saying that's what you do, but you athletes do it, *you* know who you are.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Drill, drill, drill. And then drill some more. You'll still get the fitness, but working on your technique, your catch, eliminating drag, and improving your stroke rate will pay pay great dividends versus pounding out long repeats.

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Live long and surf!

There's another solution- do both. Have purpose in every swim set, and longer endurance swims even *only* 45 mins can be great gains and race applicable.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Desert Dude gave some good advice in this thread: https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

Run 15 minute laps around parking lot including some sprints before your 15 min slot. Then you swing your arms around a bit and you're ready to hammer from the gun. Then it is 45 minutes of pure quality. Then jog after your swim for cooldown.

Same for me: 45 min sessions at the local YMCA and only 3 sessions a week max. Computer will lock you out if you try to grab a 4th session.

At first I was trying to pack in everything into the 45 minute session. Now, I treat it like a 45 min session and not a shrunken down 1 hour 10 minute session. I too can get in at most 2600-2700 yards, but I still do a warm up (shortened) and a quick pre-set to get the heart rate up.

Then the main set and not much of a cool down but I think for swimming it isn’t such a big deal.

I’m not making massive improvements at all but sort of maintaining w marginal improvements but it’s the best I can do right now.

Some hints;
1) come dressed in your suit
2) get to the pool early as sometimes you can get in 3-10 min early.
3) swim right until the end of the time or until the lifeguards give you dirty looks.
4) the solo lane is sort of nice even though its short. Take advantage of it. Don’t talk to anyone else and have the workout written down and just get it and do it.

Hope this helps.

I'm not as fast as many folks in here, but I can bang out a solid 2k in 45 min with drills and rest, Closer to 2400 if I'm swimming straight through with no breaks. I did that the other day. My god is 45 minutes straight in a pool boring.

Never just 35 straight for me. Even minimal variety like mixing in z2 and Z3 efforts without stopping makes it a lot more interesting

Yah totally. In complete honesty, if I'm doing 45 minutes of straight swimming work I'm intending on it being boring- I use those sessions to work out a tough situation at work or home as I can kinda just put my body on autopilot and go. 99% of the time I make progress on whatever got me to that state anyways. It's certainly not the highest ROI on 45 min of work, but it has its place every now and again.

I will do an USRPT set. Just intervals. No additional warm up and cool down.

I’ve trained athletes on 3x1 hour swims a week who wanted to be very competitive and had limited time. You can do it, but the athlete usually won’t be able to mentally tolerate the work for longer than about 4-6 months.

My suggestion is don’t worry about ROI or focus on how many yards you do in a week. Swim. Enjoy it. Focus on swimming fast with good technique especially when you get fatigued. Work on your focus.

Hope this helps,

Tim

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1: Yes, quite feasible. You just need to be efficient, and each swim needs a purpose. Don't try to make something up during warmup. Come in with a workout. Remember that AOS swimming is more about frequency than volume. Better to swim 4-5 times for 45 minutes, than twice for an 1.5-1.75 hours.

2: At least 4x, 5 would be good. You will get faster just feeling and being in the water more. If you swim 5x per week, you could take one session per week, call it a recovery swim, and work on technique. I'm not a big fan of exclusively drilling, except during warm up for a few minutes. It can be helpful for AOS', because sometimes it's just physically hard to swim. However, once your body position is good, I'm huge fan of focusing on your technique when you're swimming your actual workout. Why? Simple - if you can't hold it together when you are working hard and swimming your IM goal pace, there's no point in drilling. Zero.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Be ready to get in as soon as your session starts. Have your workout memorized and do everything on an interval. No standing at the wall between sets. I focus on technique always but never do drills. The only equipment I use are short fins and a kick board on kick sets, which I do infrequently and always as a final set. And flip turns at every wall.

Our pool has 30 minute and 45 minute sessions depending on the time of day.

Show up a bit early if you can. Spend very little time at the wall. Mostly free with a bit of fly.

Swim hard the whole time.

33 minutes (3 minutes early) and you should get in a mile. With 45 is should be a mile and a half if you push yourself.

Again. That’s coming from someone who is not a fast swimmer.

In the nicest possible way I can say this, if you swam 15k per week last year & you can only get 1600 yards done in a 45min session, I'd be spending the next year on your stroke. Are you allowed to bring a swim coach to the pool?

Are you allowed to bring a swim coach to the pool?

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I'm guessing with most pools/gyms that "covid restrictions" wont allow coach or anyone else on deck that's not there by appt. They could probaly "swim with them" if they have the shared lane reservation thingy, but I highly doubt other people can be on deck at this point.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

GoPro.

Also, 15K per week before COVID is a lot.
But if you are anything like me (AOS, similar 'before COIVD mileage', and having been beached for 4+ months), I don't think jumping straight into all USRPT workouts is good use of your time.

Building up some endurance is paramount to get some benefit from USRPT.
If you don't have decent endurance and technique for 45min straight, it's a sure way to get stuck with bad technique and top out on your intervals quickly.

I’d do a light warm-up (maybe 500 progressively increasing pace each 100 building from an easy to moderate pace) or within that 500 doing every 4th 25 at 75%. Then maybe 2 x (4x100 (with increasing 25-50–75-100 of that as fly). 200 kick. Then 8x50 sprint for time IM order. Cool down easy focused on stroke technique. That would tucker me out in 45 mins.

There's no way I can get 2700m in a session unless I'm doing 500s.

Nevertheless, I'm a 30:00/34:00 HIM swimmer (wetsuit/nonwetsuit).

I average 1:30/100 yard pretty easily, so factoring in rests, I should be able to get a solid 2500 yards in (2500 yards at 2:00/100 yard = 45:00). I really want to utilize swimming with a band this year to improve my body position, which results in a slower pace.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Do you have a spouse, significant other, or friend who also has a gym/pool membership? If it was me, I would book a lane and then have my husband book the time slot afterward giving us a total of 90 minutes. Could you do this?

45 minutes is tough. It takes me a good 20 minutes just to warm up and not feel like crap. My masters (small safe group before regular members) has 55 minutes but it's really 50-52 minutes since you have to include time to undress, grab the workout, read it briefly, put goggles/swim cap on, jump into the pool.....(I'm one of the first in the water too lol). Yeah I really like 75 to 80 minutes to swim but in a covid world, I'm lucky to have this 3x week. I like doing masters practices since it's always a good hard quality workout in little time.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.