Last year I decided I wanted to get faster swimming. After a year of swimming three to four times a week, I seem to have platued at 1:35/100.
Right now I’m swimming three times a week, 10k per week. I’m learning flip turns, and 20% of every swim is kicking (hoping to get a powerful efficient kick). Today I swam 3800, with 800 of it kicking. I get my workouts from Bernhart’s Swim Workouts for Triathletes, so I’m not just going out and swimming 3500 straight. I do intervals, easy swims, hard swims, and drills.
What can I do to break through the 1:35? For the majority of the year I was swimming Masters, but I recently moved and there is no Masters in my new town. So that is out of the question.
Get a capable coach who can watch you swim and provide feedback and enforcement through some good drills. I was in the same predicament as yourself swimming repeatable hundreds at 1:35 - 1:38. After swimming only 3 times since the end of September (all 3 in FLA for IMFL) I started with a coached group 6 weeks ago. On Saturday I did 15x100m in the 1:24-1:27 range. Most of the advice relates to balance, rotation and a more efficient kick (ie. from the hips).
Seriously, you are getting to the point where every one of your actions in the water needs to be as efficient as possible. That means that every action should be minimizing drag or providing maximum propulsion. There are theories galore about both. But, you will have to find what works for you at your designated race distances. For me, my stroke is different for 500m sprint race than for a 1500m Oly. race and different again for a 1.2mi 1/2IM. (I’m a 1:28 100m average kind of guy)
The easiest way I have found to cut my 100m time is to swim in a 50m pool. Going from 3 turns to 1 really helps your time.
Other than that, I would say a coach or some experimenting is in order.
This is from limited experience but I know the reason that I am a descent swimmer today is because I was a swimmer in high school. I personally think that the fastest way to breakthrough would be to spend a year being a swimmer. To me that would mean swimming about 7-8 times and around 30k a week. I dont know if it is worth doing that in order to cut 10 or 20 seconds per hundred. The nice thing is that that speed will in general stay with you. People who were serious swimmers in their youth are almost always faster swimmers than the average person, even when they are out of shape. Spending that much time in the water just makes your body learn how to move in the water. That, to me, is where the speed comes from. Unfortunately you have to spend almost 3 hours a day in the pool to get that.
As I said, this is from limited experience so I could be totally wrong. Recently more and more coaches have been pushing quality instead of quantity in regards to swimming. But I think in those cases they are talking quantity in the 50k or more a week range as being too much.
swim 6 or 7 days a week for the next three years then post the results.
it aint your stroke, its your swim fitness.
I think that’s B.S. It sounds like his fitness is good enough to turn faster times than that (see the post directly above yours as well – speed tends to stick with you, former swimmers tend to be faster even when out of shape).
If it were fitness, and not his stroke, he’d say “I can swim a sub-1:00 100 yard, but then I’m toast.” If you ain’t under a minute for a 100, the IT IS your (and my) stroke.
Now, the prescription is probably still the same… swim a ton.
swim stroke is grossly overrated. how many ‘pretty’, efficient stroke are really out there? ever watch an ironman video and watch the pros swim strokes? for many of them theyre down right god awful. youll see some of the fastest swim strokes that clearly have deficiencies…i swim with three people, all of whom go under 56 min for an ironman and their strokes suck.
im not saying with a nice stroke it wouldnt be easier or require less energy. and im certainly not saying that a stroke improvement wouldnt result in better times. what i am saying is that triathletes piss and moan constantly about their stroke and how they need help, then they admit they are swimming 3 days a week…its just typical over and over and over on this board. people think theyre doing more than they really are and have no idea what it takes to be fast. theyd rather just whine about it and continue doing the same thing. (not referring to the OP by the way.)
Sounds like your limiter is technique, not your fitness. I would invest in some one on one coaching, and make each session more productive from a technique improvement standpoint – more drills, slower stuff – until you really master the catch and pull phase of the stroke. It is February, now is the time to work on this stuff and put yourself in a position to lay some good training during the season.
On a side note, I see a huge correlation between my swim times and my swim yardage. My fastest swims time come from 15,000 yards a week.
swim stroke is grossly overrated. how many ‘pretty’, efficient stroke are really out there? ever watch an ironman video and watch the pros swim strokes? for many of them theyre down right god awful. youll see some of the fastest swim strokes that clearly have deficiencies…i swim with three people, all of whom go under 56 min for an ironman and their strokes suck.
im not saying with a nice stroke it wouldnt be easier or require less energy. and im certainly not saying that a stroke improvement wouldnt result in better times. what i am saying is that triathletes piss and moan constantly about their stroke and how they need help, then they admit they are swimming 3 days a week…its just typical over and over and over on this board. people think theyre doing more than they really are and have no idea what it takes to be fast. theyd rather just whine about it and continue doing the same thing. (not referring to the OP by the way.)
Totally agreed on the whining thing. I’m the first to say that 10k, 15k, etc., per week is a joke. That’s the equiv of running 15 miles/week (or whatever). Good luck getting fast on that.
I disagree on the stroke part, though. Those strokes may look ugly, but they are getting a grip on the water somehow, so what happens at the most important times is still “good”.
Here’s the test. If someone can swim a fast 50 – a distance that clearly doesn’t require aerobic fitness – and then churns sluggish 1:35 10x100s, I’m with you. Dude (or chick) needs fitness. But if not, like say the dude above swims a :35 50y, then it IS his stroke.
I think you know the answer. You are going to have to swim alot more and work on both form and fitness. If your goal is to swim faster, no doubt, that is what you will have to do. If your goal is to go faster in an IM or whatever, maybe you would be better off trading your swimming for more time running or biking and then add swimming back in a couple of months prior to your A race. It’s a return on investment thing. Sure, you could swim 6 days per week and drop what…5 minutes…from your IM swim. What could you do if you added 4 run workouts and 2 bike workouts instead? Or traded those swims for SAUs (spousal approval units). Really…it all depends on your goals.
If you approach this as a return on investment question, I think you will come up with the right answer. By the way, I would love to be stuck at 1:35 per 100…
i see your point but the ‘test’ im not sure i totally agree with…i dont necessarily disagree but i think comparing a fast all out 50 to a set of 10x100s is apples and oranges. its all about specificity and what youre training for. if you train to swim a fast 50, then swim a good set of 10x100s isnt the same thing…i did a set of 10x100 this weekend and averaged 1:19-1:23 pace. (which is a good day for me) .but ill bet i couldnt swim a 50 faster than 35 or 40. but thats cause i never do sprints…hell, maybe im answering my own question as to how to get faster in my mind
one of the guys who swims under 56 does about 25 strokes per length (25 yds)…now that aint efficient. he just turns his damn arms over like a hummingbird…ill have to look at the two others for stroke count…
i notice a big difference in my swimming times when i start to consistently hit around 15k week. i’ve been increasing the yardage a little bit each week and my times are getting faster. swimming more will improve your swim fitness and swim technique. technique is important, but i don’t think you need great technique to be a fast triathlete swimmer. i try to keep my technique pretty simple, early catch, hip rotation and a consistent kick which helps with my tempo.
Swim more and quit wasting so much of your time on a kick! It is wasted time for a triathlete, and simply provides “filler” for your workout log. A bit of kicking is ok, but the time your spending is worthless. Add a few more swims/week, and do a faster tempo, longer set, such as ladders from 200-600 and down.
Totally agreed on the whining thing. I’m the first to say that 10k, 15k, etc., per week is a joke. That’s the equiv of running 15 miles/week (or whatever). Good luck getting fast on that.
Damn, looks like I really need to swim more!!
Last week I swam 10,600
Biked - 146
Ran - 35
Sounds like I should be up around 20K a week in the pool
Totally agreed on the whining thing. I’m the first to say that 10k, 15k, etc., per week is a joke. That’s the equiv of running 15 miles/week (or whatever). Good luck getting fast on that.
I’m curious as 10k is basically 2.5x the ironman swim distance but for swimmers roughly equates to 15mile weeks. Do you need to swim so much more than your desired race distance for swimming fitness to help? In swimming is it quantity over quality? I’m not a swimmer at all and I’m trying to gather as much training information(free coaching) to get faster. This sounds like the approach the OP is trying as well.
You might be better off running and biking more instead. Doubling your time in the pool may not pay as big a dividend as spending the same amount of time doing extra running and biking. At least not this year. If you have a 4-5 year approach to getting faster, then maybe it makes sense.
