I am registered for IMWI 2014, which will be my first IM. Swimming is by far my weakest discipline (35 min for an Oly swim, compared to 1:10 for 40k bike and 44min for 10k run…) but, having never done an IM, I’d also benefit from some overall guidance beyond previous training for past Olympics and half-IM’s and various marathons and centuries. I’m in a local tri group which has one swim, bike and run available per week, but I’m wondering what the best bang for my buck would be to take the next step for my first IM, and in particular to keep me motivated through the long, cold upcoming Minnesota winter:
Join a local Master’s swimming group for ~$80/month
Get budget coaching through my tri group for ~$80/month
Cancel my Y membership (generally only use pool for solo swimming sessions) and get both 1 and 2.
The obvious answer is to get the coaching first before considering anything else, but over the last 2 months, I’ve struggled to get my butt in the pool on a consistent basis (especially in the mornings) and to feel like I’m getting much out of the sessions, which makes me tempted to go the Masters route. Thoughts and experiences appreciated!
As you mentioned, coaching is your obvious priority. Make sure that it’s “good” coaching and this may or may not be available through your local Masters program. I’m guessing that “good” coaching isn’t available through your triathlon group.
For motivation, you may find it helpful to be part of a group (Masters or triathlon group).
100% Option 3
Masters first, then coaching, will change your swimming life!
I started Masters here in Austin 8-9 weeks before Cozumel, never swam much before, came out of water top 100, better than i could have imagined.
Swimming with others makes it so much more enjoyable, i toiled away at the Y by myself avg of one a week for over a year and never got any better.
Good luck!
both. as long as it’s a knowledgeable coach. Doesn’t have to know swim stroke etc, if you can get that from masters. There should be a mix of masters and other swimworkouts if possible. Especially as you get closer to the IM. Your masters group isn’t likely to be training for the same thing.
Keep in mind however that the focus of masters is ALL 4 strokes, and race distances primarily <400M. Meaning that it will lack specifity for ultra distance. However, if you can get in maybe 1 open water swim a month the last 3-4 months leading up to Sept. then it probably won’t matter. A 70.3 race would count as one of the OW swims too.
Doing all 4 strokes is great in the Base phase early in the season, but at some point you need more specifity.
Personally, I have fairly restrictive time blocks to get all my training in and still have plenty of family time in the evenings, so I just use the pre-canned TrainingPeaks workouts. They seem adequately challenging and have plenty of drills. However, swimming is not my weakness… though not a really a strength either.
Go to masters until spring to work on your stroke and then go with a good coach to make you fit for an Ironman swim. A masters group isn’t going todo anything like 40x100, 20x200, or 10x400 and you need those big swims to come out of the water and not be out of gas.
I coach a masters team of almost exclusively triathletes. Our main focus is how to get faster at open water swimming. I would agree with some of the comments that a lot of the tri coaches don’t know how to coach swimming. If swimming is your weakness, then swimming with a masters group is going to be your best bet for getting better.
Also, if you are just getting started with swimming and even if you are close to your IM don’t swim 10x400s or even 20x200. There are a lot better ways to get you ready and fit for an IM swim and without getting you injured than doing sets like those.
If you want to see what we do, I post our workouts here:
Question for the coach: are 10x400s and 20x200s common for IM pool training? My masters class never comes close to this. But I could do this on my personal swim time. Thanks.
They are a popular swim set for triathletes. 10x400 is more common than 20x200. For most triathletes, it’s overkill and actually counterproductive. You can get better results with less likelihood of injury with shorter repeats with higher intensity. Efficiency of stroke is paramount. Those sets are just popular in the tri community because they are close to the distance of an IM swim (4200 yards) without any purpose beyond that.
Most masters team are going to train for the masters meet program so 400IMs(not Ironman - Individual Medley), 200fly, 50 free, etc. The program I run is a little different. We train for open water swimming, so we are a distance freestyle program with a couple tweaks.
I recently trained an athlete that started as 1:10 IM swimmer to his most recent race he went 56 and change. We never did anything over 400 yards and it certainly wasn’t 10 repeats of 400. Actually, I haven’t had him go over 4000 yards in a workout yet. But he’ll be the first to tell you that it was a lot of hard work.
He just earned his pro card so the workouts are going to change a little. He’s coming down to train with the team for a week and we’ll do a bunch of doubles while he is here and get his yardage a little north of 40,000. He’s got to half the amount of time that the first place pro comes out of the water ahead of him.
You can see the type of workouts we do if you follow the link in the earlier post.
GENERALLY speaking, master’s coaches are/were typically swimmers who are knowledgeable about stroke technique and what it takes to develop good technique and help improve conditioning and getting someone faster in the water. Continuous supervision of your stroke during a workout will go a long way in helping you maintain solid technique while you’re tired and trying to go fast. Also, swimming with other people helps make swimming a little more fun.
Tri coaches I have found do not have a firm grasp on what it takes to develop a fast swimmer.
I speak in generalities (I’m sure there are terrible masters coaches and great tri coaches for swimming but I have yet to hear of one). Good luck.
Go with #1. Having competed in tris for 10 years I finally went and learned how to swim correctly. Never had that from a tri coach. Swim crawl (‘freestyle) even on some of the stroke work, especially if a bit slower than others. The stroke work will save your shoulders and the more freestyle will provide what you need. Make sure your Masters’ group includes a few other triathletes, this helps getting a supportive environment. Learn form. Gain some speed. Endurance, strength and speed will come from the intervals more than any LSD swims. Compete in early season shorter races in open water to transition from the painted black line found on the pool to the haze of a lake at worse or sandy bottom without lines at worse.
Option #4: Private swim lessons AND THEN Masters swimming. If you can get individual attention for your stroke at Masters then it’s worth it. If not, invest in the private lessons before thrashing about in the water.
If you are a mid-level age grouper, I wouldn’t do 10x400 ever.*
*Disclaimer: making a lot of assumptions as to what you mean by “mid-level age grouper.”
I agree. Quality over quantity, last year - for my Challenge race I rarely swam over 2500m in a session. The thing that was important was making the meters count.