I would set the resistance/incline such that your turnover rate on the Vasa roughly matches your rate in the pool, e.g. if you swim at say 60 strokes per minute (spm) in the pool, try to do 60 spm on the trainer. Do sets of say 10 x 100 yd on a 20 sec rest interval, which would be 80 pulls if you are taking 20 strokes per length (spl). If you take 25 spl, then do 100 pulls for each 100 yd. Depending on your upper body conditioning, you may find that 30-35 min is plenty to start with, then work up to an hour workout.

---

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

I used a Vasa erg almost exlusively the 12 months between Ironman Chattanooga '18 (no swim but I was ready to) and same race 2019 and swam 57:56. I don't have another Ironman swim to compare to...

I did 30-45min on the Vasa 3 times a week max.

I didn't follow a plan, but usually alternated swimming straight for time one day and then intervals as mentioned above the next. I swam in water 5 times all year. Two were olympic races. I did not grow up swimming.

I recently finish a training block from 80/20 endurance for a half.

My entire swim training was on my vasa. The plans swim training sessions gave me the structure I needed... i was like you and had no idea what to do on the thing.

My swim endurance went up dramatically through the training block.

Maybe contact 80/20 endurance and see if there are options to purchase just their swim training sessions.

---

80/20 Endurance Ambassador

For what it’s worth when I was training a lot I would pull 1500m continuously 3x per week on the vasa in addition to 4x pool swims. On the vasa I would just gut it out trying to maintain form (high elbow) but not worry about pace. My long swim endurance increased dramatically.

Thanks for the ideas....I will come up with something taking them into consideration!

I think this is the best approach. I've been swimming almost exclusively on the VASA except for lake swims once per month. I just did IM Waco 70.3 and I was very fresh coming out of the water. As others have said, VASA certainly increases endurance. In my case, I'm joining a Masters swim team to work on my form. My form is crap at the moment. Like you, I'll be supplementing with the VASA and have Masters be my primary swim for a while. I too am looking for different workouts since I normally put on netflix and swim for 30-45 minutes at monospeed.

Also looking to increase my wattage output as a result of doing some interval work.

Hi,
Feel free to contact us at Vasa for workout ideas. Also look on the Vasa blog and Training resources for workouts.
We are planning to launch a 12-week training plan soon. Stay tuned!
Thank you!

TricentralPA,
We just published a new blog article that is all about Building Your Own Workouts. I think you will find it useful. Just go to Vasatrainer dot com and click on the Blog link to see it.

Thanks!