I’m starting my swim workouts by doing easy laps for 15min non-stop. I never feel tired or taxed in any way. After the easy laps, I try to go beastmode on swimming sets for 10-min.
So, I see benefits in sometimes doing long / easy runs.
What about long / easy swims? Am I just wasting 15-min?
It’s a fine warm up, but take the “beast mode” mentality and switch it from 10 minutes to about 15x100s in “beast mode” and we’ll be talking.
How many watts are you swimming?
I’m starting my swim workouts by doing easy laps for 15min non-stop. I never feel tired or taxed in any way. After the easy laps, I try to go beastmode on swimming sets for 10-min.
So, I see benefits in sometimes doing long / easy runs.
What about long / easy swims? Am I just wasting 15-min?
I never go beastmode in any training swims and seem to do okay at races. Just never understand for MOST racers, the issue is not intensity, it is just getting ones
butt in the pool enough to do anything!
How many watts are you swimming?
not sure. My only thought during “beast mode” (right now) is cadence, cadence, cadence. I’m not swimmer strong yet. yeah. I’m a gurly man.
Because I get winded, during a set, my speed degrades until I’m just limping home. After the entire workout, my abs, chest, shoulder are tapped-out. Those muscles feel so strained. I should eventually get strong.
I’m starting my swim workouts by doing easy laps for 15min non-stop. I never feel tired or taxed in any way. After the easy laps, I try to go beast mode on swimming sets for 10-min.
So, I see benefits in sometimes doing long / easy runs.
What about long / easy swims? Am I just wasting 15-min?
Your 15 min easy swim is not a “long swim” per se but rather just a minimal warm-up. Experienced swimmers often warm up with a gradual increase in intensity for 30-45 min before trying to do any hard sets which might then be another 30-45 min, followed by a 5-10 min cool-down. In sum, your 15 min easy plus 10 min hard is prob about the right ratio for someone just starting, and gradually perhaps you can work up to an hour or longer swim workout.
I never go beastmode in any training swims and seem to do okay at races. Just never understand for MOST racers, the issue is not intensity, it is just getting ones
butt in the pool enough to do anything!
Having had the benefit of a master’s swim coach for the last 5 months I’d have to respectfully disagree. I’ve always been pretty good about working hard on my own but the master’s workouts have taken it to another level in intensity, and combined with the stroke feedback, the result has been a real breakthrough in my swimming. All of which is predictable based on swimming best practices.
As for the problem of most racers having trouble just getting in the pool, that’s why for triathletes as a general group, swimming is by far the weakest discipline from a skill standpoint.
I’m going to assume that “beast mode” means something like “all out for 25 meters, flip and return at an easy to moderate pace” rest 15 seconds, then repeat 8 times as a warm up prior to the real set. If that is true then I agree that it has a place in a swim workout as a finish to the warm up. If it is your actual work out then I don’t see much advantage.
When I do my main work out (100 by 20 on 1:50) I am only taxed and out of breath for the last 4 or 5 intervals. That is after a 600 meter warm up and the 400 meter hard efforts described above.
I never go beastmode in any training swims and seem to do okay at races. Just never understand for MOST racers, the issue is not intensity, it is just getting ones
butt in the pool enough to do anything!
Having had the benefit of a master’s swim coach for the last 5 months I’d have to respectfully disagree. I’ve always been pretty good about working hard on my own but the master’s workouts have taken it to another level in intensity, and combined with the stroke feedback, the result has been a real breakthrough in my swimming. All of which is predictable based on swimming best practices.
As for the problem of most racers having trouble just getting in the pool, that’s why for triathletes as a general group, swimming is by far the weakest discipline from a skill standpoint.
It depends what you mean by benefit, and it depends on what you mean by easy.
Should you intentionally incorporate long swim into your workouts? No. There are far better uses of time in the pool. But if you like doing it and approach swimming as a pass/fail then yes, it will help you pass. But only if by easy you mean steady.
I’m starting my swim workouts by doing easy laps for 15min non-stop. I never feel tired or taxed in any way. After the easy laps, I try to go beastmode on swimming sets for 10-min.
So, I see benefits in sometimes doing long / easy runs.
What about long / easy swims? Am I just wasting 15-min?
A total waste? No. Just like an easy spin for 15’ ins’t a totla waste on the bike. But time is better spent doing other things. You should only need 5-8 minutes for the initial warm-up. Then you can work into drills, kicking, pulling, paddles or something more productive.
Even greater concern is 10’ of “beast mode”. Again, there’s a lot better ways to structure a workout. Better to do intervals on a short rest and you’ll swim faster when you swimming and be better able to improve technique. I find 10-15" rest is a sweet spot where I can swim just a little faster than threshold and really engage myself on mechanics. So you focus on 100M chunks.
Sure, there is absolutely a benefit to your 15 min. warm up.
It will make for a better swim workout.
But, in terms of what will affect your overall speed as a triathlete, what makes more of a difference is what you do after your 15 min. warm up.
It depends what you mean by benefit, and it depends on what you mean by easy.
x2
So true.
There are some benefits to swimming easy that you don’t really get from running or cycling easy as it is a decent way to focus on technique and the whole “feel for the water” thing so it is not that there is not some benefit. But, the real question is the cost/benefit analysis. If you are only swimming for 25 minutes, spending 60% of that diddling around is a big waste of precious time. If you do 15 minutes easy to start off a 2 hour workout, its another story.
Real swimmers spend 3-4 hours a day in the pool. Thus there have been developed a whole host of ways to fill that time in addition to the basic work such as stroke drills, kick sets, slow swim recovery time, etc, etc etc. But, anyone doing a 30 minute workout has no business doing any of that stuff. Get in, get going, keep the pedal to the medal, puke, get out and get on with your day.
This is one of those questions that’s begging to ask way more questions, and is best answered with an “it depends.”
15 minutes of easy swimming to start any length swim workout is probably a good idea.
15 minutes of easy swimming in a 25 minute workout is probably benefiting you, especially if you’re a newer swimmer.
15 minutes of easy swimming in a 25 minute workout, though, is probably not your best use of time.
I used to only have 30 minutes to swim over lunch breaks(10 minute very brisk walk, it was .6 miles I think; 30 minute swim; 5 minute shower, change, 10 minute brisk walk back). I usually only warmed up for 5-8 minutes of easy consistent swimming and then jumped in to a set. 25/50/100 repeats is a better way to spend your time getting better at swimming but obviously you want to warm up enough to stay healthy and feel good when you start swimming hard.
Yes, one should incorporate long swims into workouts just like one incorporates longer rides and longer runs. Long swim sets serve a variety of purposes. Once again, this is why triathletes in general struggle in the water. They’re looking for the easy way out regarding pool and open water time.
Nothing wrong with a 15 minute warmup, but I’d say that’s too long for a continuous swim. Even in college, the longest continuous swim in warmup that we’d normally do was about 1000y, then we’d switch to some,thing else to gradually increase intensity to get ready to do the main set.
That said, how you structure “beast mode” is more important. “beast mode” doesn’t actually tell me much about what you are actually doing, how intense it truly is, etc.
Yes, one should incorporate long swims into workouts just like one incorporates longer rides and longer runs. Long swim sets serve a variety of purposes. Once again, this is why triathletes in general struggle in the water. They’re looking for the easy way out regarding pool and open water time.
I am happy to disagree with you and have a debate about the merits of long straight swims but if you are going to suggest that hard intervals are “the easy way out,” I might suggest that you simply do not know what hard work looks like. I have done plenty of 8,000Y + workouts in my life and I have done plenty of sets of long sets. In fact, I’ve possibly done more 5,000M workouts than anyone you know. But this afternoon I am doing:
12 x 25s on :30, go under :14 on all of them
12 x 50’s on :50 Alternate hard easy, go under :28 on the hard
8 x 75s on 1:15 Alternate hard easy, go under :43 on the hard
I am sorry, but I would MUCH rather do a 3,000 in 39:00 than THAT set! But THAT is what is going to make me faster. We can debate that, I suppose. But what is NOT up for debate is your asinine suggestion that this is the “easy way out.”