10k swim training

Planning a for a 10k swim next summer. Can any of you big fishes give me some general training guidelines?

Get an experienced coach, build up your swim volume slowly to 6x a week, get a good strength and conditioning program that you can do 3x a week. Don’t try to do your normal bike/run training. Don’t think about training for it like it’s a marathon run.

More details. Give us your swim background and goal for the swim. I would plan a 14-16 week training block with two open water swims a week and 3-4 pool workouts on avg. that’s a long ass swim like a marathon equivalent.

I’ve been swimming 4-5 miles 2-3 times a week, in a pool, for the last year or so, and occasionally (when I have the time) go to 6 miles easily. I’m self taught (youtube “effortless swimming” is my favorite). I just love to swim, and it turns out, that it’s not that big of a deal. Really nothing like a marathon. If I had to compare it to running, maybe closer to a very well trained runner doing an easy 15-18 miles. The secret ingredient is that you have to love it. If it’s a drag, and you get bored easy, then forget it, you’re beat before you even start. I have no idea what the accepted way of doing it is. But I just started going longer every session. It took about a year to build up to swimming for 3 hours. I find it more mental than physical, that’s a lot of time with yourself and nothing but bubbles. For awhile I used a pool radio… but gave up on that, after going through three of them, and endless fights with broken wires and leaky earbuds. Giving up the radio was like being set free, and have never really missed it. I never swim on consecutive days, as my arms would fall off. However, recovery from swimming is amazingly fast compared to running (it’s more like cycling) and I’m always ready to go again every other day. Fuel is also a big deal. I always have a bottle of Hammer Perpeteum and a sleeve of Bloks going at poolside. I don’t race, other then the normal triathlons. That’s probably why it’s still fun for me.

12x IM finisher. Spent alot of time in the pool, but not alot recently.(so previous history is not relevant,I guess) I will have access to OWS next summer. I do have a pool close by.(SCY ugh!!) Just thinking about it in terms of cranking out yards or training for it like a IM but throwing in some longer swims. Right now 86 degrees in the pool feels o.k. but next summer, uck. Never tried something like this before but I have returned to the pool and I’m at 2,000 y for longest w.o. I’m not in a great hurry and know enough to moderate.

Okay so you have a decent amount of experience. I would give the guideline to just add 50% to your previous IM swim prep volume and you should be okay. Probably a little undertrained at that volume. Don’t start cold turkey in the spring and maintain swim fitness over the winter would be fairly important also. So if you can do 3x a week and 3k per workout over winter and you can kick it up to 4-5x a week and 4-5k per workout in the spring. I’d probably take a few weeks or a month off over the holidays as it actually seems like next summer is a long ways away.

12x IM finisher?

You’ll be able to cover the distance comfortably with your normal IM swim training plus a long swim every week or two. Maybe build your long swim progressively to 7 or 8 km, but you wouldn’t have to do more than two swims that long.

It really depends how quickly you want to go on race day and how strongly you want to finish the final mile. More training = faster time. No need to overthink it.

Swimming has always been my weakest leg, but a swam an open water 8 km only a week after my first IM. No special training, not even any squad swimming, though of course it was slower than it would have been had the race been a couple weeks later.

Three years ago I decided to enter a 10km ocean swim. At the time, I hadn’t been doing any regular swim training for many years, even going for a year between IM races without getting in the pool, just doing a couple of shorter tris and a couple of 2km ocean swims as my IM prep.

I had a 4 month lead in to the 10km, so I started swimming about 3 or 4 days/week. Within 3 or 4 weeks, my weekly long swim was 6 km and I headed headed down to the beach for my first swim with a large casual ocean swimming group that heads out every morning. I joined them for 2.5km and after the swim, one guy mentioned they were having their monthly 6km and a 10km the following day. A perfect way to get in my planned 6km swim for that week! Except the following day I ended up continuing on and swimming the 10. Suddenly my 10 km event in 3 months looked eminently achievable.

As I say, don’t overthink it.

Spend some time doing some preventative maintenance on your core and rotator cuffs as you up the swim mileage. And do your longest swim open water each week. I’d work up to at least an 8K OW swim a few weeks before race day.

Which 10K are you signed up for? Sadly there aren’t a whole lot to choose from!

What swim are you signed up for? Is it FINA regulations re clothing? Do you have a paddler with you for nutrition or somewhere you take on nutrition during it?

I am NOT big fish, but I have some experience with swims of that distance and longer. I’ve done a few 10 k swims and a couple of times almost twice that far, 11.75 miles across Mobile Bay in Alabama.

I swim year round with no layoffs. Most weeks about 12,000 yards. I strive to not dip below 10,000. I’m not super fast, typically swim 2.4 miles in 60-65 minutes. My three 10k swims were all done on normal balanced Ironman triathlon training. For context, I’ve done 25 Ironman distance races since 1996. My 10k swim times were all between 2:45-2:50.

Of the two swims across Mobile Bay, neither effort was a sanctioned race just a fun effort with the support of a generous friend with a boat. The first year we had a group of 5 and we swam it relaxed, no sense of urgency. We just covered the distance. Last year me and a buddy swam it fairly aggressively and swam the 11.75 miles in 5:39. He and I are swimming it again on Sunday, it should be a lot of fun.