I have a limited amount of energy. On a good week, I’m getting in about 12 hours of S/B/R. However, most of that is bike and run, and when all is said and done I have enough energy left for about 6,000 yards of swimming per week (about 1.5 hours for me).
The question I’m going to pose is an age-old one and could apply to any of the sports but the swimming example is the one that originally occurred to me.
Here it is: If you’re going to swim 6,000 yards a week, what will give you the most benefit?
1 session of 6,000 yards (unlikely anyone would do this)
2 sessions of 3,000 yds each
3 sessions of 2,000 yds each
4 sessions of 1,500 yds each
1x3000 + 1x2000 + 1X1000 etc etc etc
I know you really need to do a lot more than 6K a week to see an improvement in fitness. For me that volume it’s basically maintenance mode. But you could substitute a higher volume in there and the question would still be the same. I’m just wondering if more shorter sessions are preferable to fewer longer ones or vice versa. If time isn’t a limiter, what is optimal? … in terms of recovery, fitness gains, etc??
I’m sure the same question has been asked about running as well… (i.e. If you’re going to do 40mpw is it better to do 4x10miles vs 8x5miles etc??).
What’s your goal? To complete an olympic or an 1/2 Iron Man?
Or, - just for fitness?
If it’s just for fitness sake, I’d pick two of the three sports for variety sake and split up your time between those two, - doing one, mostly for variety.
If you’re trying to complete a short triathlon in the back of the pack; then I’d stay out of the pool and find yourself a decent lake or place to swim out in the water, - the benefits that you’d derive from a brief time in the open water will be much more applicable than any of your valuable swimming time spent in a pool, - where the conditions are very dissimilar to the open water…
I’m asking the question as kind of larger than it applies to just me or just swimming. It’s a general question.
For what it’s worth, I’m generally MOP in swimming and running and fast on the bike. I’m in my 3rd season of tris and 2nd season of HIM … no real desire to go longer for a while. Like I said, 6,000 for me is what it takes to maintain where I’m at, when the offseason rolls around I’ll ramp up the volume.
The question is more like, if you are going to do X volume, is it better to spread it out into lots of little sessions, or to do a few big sessions?
I would think 4 sessions a week would be best to maintain a feel for the water. That is assuming you have convenient, close access to a pool. I swim at lunch at a Y that is five minutes from work and found that I am swimming as fast doing shorter, more frequent sessions (4 x 1000 to 1500 yards) as when I used to do two 3000 yard sessions per week. It probably doesn’t make that much difference at 6000 yards per week.
I have been bike/run focusing for the last few months so my swims have been limited to twice a week about 3,000 yds each week. That allows me to still keep a feel for the water without losing too much fitness. I think once a week would be too far apart and you would lose that ‘feel’. BUt then again I come from more of a swimming background then cycling or running, so my swimming needs the least amount of work.
I get by on 4k a week (former swimmer here), and not racing anything longer than half IM in the near future - when doing IM in April I will make an effort to bump up to 6k a week for a couple months.
I’d go with 2 swims per week. One workout, do a good distance set, with short rest. The other, mix it up, throw in some strokes, and shorter distance repeats, with longer rests, varying paces. I think you can get more benefit out of the two swims per week, than three. Pushing your total distance in the two workouts, will push you to really work on maintaining good technique, especially the last half of the workout, whereas, in a shorter workout, you might not even get very tired before its time to get out.
A) The biggest issue will come down to what fits with your schedule. Most people don’t live close to their pool and the travel time factors a huge amount of additional training “overhead”.
B) You can/should mix workouts from week to week. You definitely need a few long days. But also frequency is a good thing too.
My best answer to that question is to agree with the other swimming based folks that it’s probably best to do 2 sessions per week, - almost because it’s not worth putting on the suit and going to the pool for anything less than 3,000 yards… With limited amounts of time for all 3 things, - I would try to focus on the area that I’m weakest at: for me, - running; and quit the other sports for a time until I improved that aspect. But, the swim is such a trivial part of triathlons, - the goal is almost to not get tired in the swim so as to be strong in the important parts of the event…
I am another former swimmer getting by on a low amount of pool time because of time limitations.
I would suggest either two or three sessions a week, and use them wisely. Always be cognizant of technique and each workout should have a goal or purpose. If you are training for races and want to get faster, then junk yards are useless as you are getting enough cardiovascular base with your 10+ hrs of biking and running–instead use the swim time for quality work and intervals. Periodically do a long continuous swim for the mental aspect.
I’ve been doing 2 sessions of 3,000 each. I’m a decent swimmer and no desire to improve during the season (definitely ramp up volume in the offseason and hopefully get a tad faster then). So I fit in pool time when I can.
So last week the two sessions I fit in just happened to be on consecutive days. I noticed the second day I felt really fast and moved really easily through the water.
This week I swam on Monday and Friday … three days off in between, and my swim today felt so sluggish! Which started me wondering, and prompted this thread.
It made me wonder if only swimming twice a week you can lose your feel for the water? I can’t imagine running would feel too pleasant if you only ran twice a week. And if you were only going to run 16 miles a week, I think most people would advocate 4x4 miles than 2x8 miles…
over the past season/off season (this is my 2nd year of this) i am doing well when i can get in 6000yrds a week due to school/work/etc. my times have been coming down though, as i just started really swimming last year. while my 1500m is not great by any means (somewhere in the lower 23min range), i am still seeing improvments in that until my swimming drops under about 3500-4000 yrds a week.
it’s not worth putting on the suit and going to the pool for anything less than 3,000
I hope that’s not true! I bike commute to work and shower at the YMCA across the street. 90% of my swimming is done in chunks of 500 - 2000 yds since I’m right there anyway. While longer swimming sessions would probably be “optimal”, I think the frequency has helped. I swam 22:32 at USAT Nationals (1.5k) on the following swimming schedule:
Get a vasa ergometer. Its not cheap, but it saves a ton of time and you can “swim” much more frequently and get a really decent workout in 10-20 minutes plus you can do some creative indoor bricks. I hardly ever get to the pool, but my swim is just as good (maybe even a few seconds per 100 faster) than when I was swimming 10,000 yards per week preparing for IM.
Toenail, I think your comment on it not being worth getting into the pool for less than 3000y session is misleading.
Technique work on low volume can provide a strong basis for the speed work that will follow, later in the season or later in the week. For Lisa, she is limited in the volume she can do, and thus maintaining an emphasis on technique her would allow he maximise her progression. She might be only able to fit in one proper aerobic session per week, but if she plans her swimming and training around this session, it could provide adequate effect to at least maintain her current standard. Although technique sessions may be short’n’sweet, swimming correctly for the entire session does provide the opportunity to improve.
Lisa, I would suggest 3x a week, given you are aiming for HIM, based on 2 technique sessions and one session that has a demanding aerobic element. So you might have 2 swims hitting 1,500y focusing on technique, with some sprints at the end of one, and then a session that includes an aerobic main set of 50s/100s/200s at just above your HIM pace. Are you doing any OW swimming?
A different opinion (kind of), do 3 swims, 2x2500 during the week, then a third ~1000m run/swim/run, or bike/swim/bike, etc. on the weekend, or end of week after work, depending upon how convenient your pool is to home/work.
I’m not doing much more swimming than you (~6-8k/wk), and benefit greatly from the brick. I try to do a bike/run/swim/run every other weekend, where I bike, then run to the pool, swim, then run home. You’re already a bit tired from running/biking so the ~1000m is more than a warmup, and the last 1/3 of workout is wonderful for fighing off fatigue and multi-sport specificity for race day.
FWIW, I’m a former swimmer, usually top 5% overall in sprints and olympic, don’t do the longer stuff, though I imagine this w/o would help for longer races.
I am a former ranked sprinter that swam up to 16 hours a week, plus 6 hours of weight training and another 4-6 hours of dryland work(and all I got out of it was a free college education)…I get by now on 3(Sometimes 2, sometimes 1, sometimes 0) workouts a week of about 4500 yards.
A simple answer to your question. If you are only doing 6,000 a week, go for 2 practices of 3,000. Mix it up with 100’s, 200’s, 300’s…1500’s…some kick…some pull…
IF that is all you can do, then do it in 2 workouts, one 4k, the other 2k. Do the 4k early in the week, and focus on middle distance sets(150 to 400’s). Do the 2k later in the week, and do sprints(25 to 100’s). If you count kicking, then skip it, and don’t do any drills if you count that yardage also… One weight workout a week would be worth another 6k swimming…It takes so much time and energy to just get to and from the pool, I believe you waste too much time doing any more frequent workouts, unless of course you have a lap pool in your back yard like I do… I would still just do the two workouts though… Little to no warmups, and all medium to high intensity on everything. Make sure your stroke is in order, since that is the #1 factor is swimming fast…