My swim progress has stuck for the past few years while seeing many people (not former competitive swimmers), both in real life and on this forum, getting their swim times down to e.g. 25 minutes for 1.5 km or 32 minutes for 1.9 km in their triathlon swim legs or below just a year or even months of getting into swimming. However, I'm now still at a firm 31 - 32 minutes for 1.5 km OW (my best effort was just under 31 in an extremely calm bay and drafted most of the way but it killed my run leg afterwards) despite after 2 years of serious swim training (swimming 4 - 5 times a week except in the off season about 2 months per year), and another few years of swimming at the so-called "typical AG level" (about 2 - 3 times a week without much structure) before that, with minimal improvement.

I have basically done everything I can think of and afford:

• watching videos
• doing drills in the pool
• doing a beginner course
• doing intervals in the pool
• do long swims in open water
• getting into a squad and train there 2x week (in addition to my OW swim weekend and another session in the pool doing intervals or drills)
• getting 1-1 video lesson

The people I know who swim much faster than me are mostly those who are nearly double my age and started in their adulthood. If they can swim 1:25 or less 5K after a few years of training I can't think of a possible reason unless I am dumb.

On Slowtwitch training methodology is hotly debated - some think that technique is everything and it won't help if you are thrashing for 15 km / week and some think that just put in 15 km a week for a few months and you will get improvement because most AGers only swim maybe 2 - 3 times per week for about 7 km.

Let me conclude what I did in short for my previous few seasons:

• 2014 - 2015 winter: wanted to join a group of OW swimmers in the city, but couldn't catch up, then looked into the university I was studying in but their beginner programme did not operate in the winter (they have a triathlon swim squad but I couldn't meet the 2:20 / 100 m interval entry requirement). I just swam occasionally on my own.
• 2015 summer: the beginner programme moved away from the university and I was busy doing summer internship, so didn't swim much that year, and occasionally afterwards.
• 2016 summer: I tried again in April but still not up to squad standard. I then did a beginner course (designed for people who can swim 100 m but don't have training experience and / or can't sustain longer distance). Some got to the standard by the end of the course but not me. I was still not to the squad standard. In the same season I did my first aquathon (500 m swim and 4 km run, 0:14:01 + 0:0:46 + 0:20:41), and my first OW swimming race (claimed to be 1.5 km and I took 0:50:12 - however the course was likely to be much longer because the geometry was wrong, someone thought it was nearly 2 km and the winning time was 0:28:45)
• 2016 - 2017 winter: I started my first job after graduation. I intended to join the squad at the university but I still couldn't get to the standard. At that season I was on 3' interval returning 2'10" for 10 x 100 m. As a result I only swam for about 2 times per week on my own without much structure. Also the commute was hell and my health deteriorated over the year and I quit the job 1 year afterwards (autumn 2017) to have a complete rest.
• 2018 summer: I decided to get some structured training done despite I still couldn't join the squad. I started in April getting to the pool about 3 times per week, mainly 100 m intervals, on some days 400 m or 1500 m continuous swims. In summer I believed that I could catch up the group of OW swimmers mentioned on the top and I returned. In autumn I finally reached the squad standard. I also started to have an idea of doing a working holiday in 2021 so I arranged a contract job, for 1 year renewable at maturity, starting at October 2018 at the university so I could join the squad and also use the pool there for free. I joined the squad since the same moment. I started timing my 1500 in the pool and started at 35 minutes in May, and ended at 32 minutes by October I started joining the squad.
• 2018 - 2019 winter: I was doing progressively longer swims in the season. I signed up for my first 3.7 km race in November, and my first nearly 5 km race in April. Also I made myself a goal to complete my first marathon swimming before March 2020. I did a video lesson and some 1-1 in that season, but my 1500 pool time plateaued at 31 minutes.
• 2019 summer: I got no improvement in speed that season despite swimming on average 13.5 km / week and also 1-1 lessons for the first half of 2019, however I completed a 12.5 km swim as my first marathon swim, while in the previous year my longest was only 3 km.
• 2019 - 2020 winter: I finally found a total immersion coach (Chung Ho) in my city, took a lesson, he taught me to do the 2-beat kick which brought me immediate improvement. In November to January I put in even more training to about 17 km / week in order to prepare for my next A race - a 14 km marathon swimming race in January. My 1500 pool time dropped to 29 minutes by December, down from 31 minutes from September. I thought I could have finally have a breakthrough. I saw hope at that time, planning to have further lesson from the total immersion coach from February onward because he brought me magic. I signed up for a 21 km OW race in 2020 summer.
• 2020 summer: We all know what happened. The world was shut by mid-March while the pools in my area were shut most of the time since February. I initially kept swimming open water for about 13 km / week in February to April but when racing in August was no longer a possibility, I lost all motivation and stopped training almost completely, with only 1 swim with my friends per week in August. I originally wanted to use that off-season for pure technique drills, but the pandemic situation shut the pools in July again. Also the TI coach Chung Ho was not teaching this season so I couldn't have any lessons. I tried a few other coaches but none gave me improvement like him. The progress I made last year was completely lost by September when the pool reopened when I wanted to start again.

I'm so tired seeing little progress over years and the hope I saw last winter did not realise as well. I really want to give up but I have some challenges and races booked before COVID which will happen next year and can't be postponed, and I am still at a better position compared to other challengers.

I have left my job at contract maturity. I didn't renew it because I will emigrate half a year later (April 2021) and I won't get a new job in between. So I am now giving myself one last chance in swimming in this half a year without the constraint of a 9-6 job and put in some really serious effort in it, at least 4 - 5 times of swimming a week, starting from 15 km / week and maybe up to 25 or even 30 by the end of the season with a variety of sessions, and have lessons with my local TI coach running a triathlon club in my city who has just resumed teaching in October. I hope I can really take off in this season. If not I will admit I am dumb in swimming and give up in 2021 after the challenges I have booked already.

TL;DR - I have little progress in swimming in the past years and giving myself a last chance to improve in the coming half a year.

Question: How much does talent matter in swimming for AOS? Am I clearly lacking it? Also, I currently don't bike and last year I ran my fastest standalone half marathon at 1:42, does it matter in terms of fitness?