In the 26 weeks before this years Ironman, I swam 58 times , giving me an average of 2.2 swims per week.
I normally just swam laps for normally between 30 to 50 mins, average length of swim was 39 mins, average distance
was 1950 metres, no drills, no reps of 100 metres or 400 metres just swam up and down. I did one full IM distance swim in around 75 mins, just to show my self I could swim entire distance.
Im my IM race I got out of the water in 1 hour 13 mins, what should I change next year in my swim training, or should I just do the same and work on my running and cycling. If the answer is swim 3000 metres 7 times a week then I think I will pass.
Simply, would I be better off swimming faster reps of shorter distances or should I just swim up and down for entire workout?
I assume that you do structured bike and run sets already?
Well, it’s the same with swimming: you need to train with a specific purpose to improve more quickly. In your case, you are yet too quick, so any swimming will make you faster. This works up to a point. But structured training will make you faster for less effort & training.
Can you join a swimming club, or get coached swimming lessons. Or even a tri coach to point you in the right direction.
For your speed, I would suspect that you need to examine your technique first, speed training will be more effective once that is in place.
Buy the book “Workouts in a binder” Swim workouts for triathletes.
Follow the schedule, do the short sets if you don’t want to swim a lot.
jaretj
Simply, would I be better off swimming faster reps of shorter distances or should I just swim up and down for entire workout?
Swimming is an interval-based sport.
Do intervals. They’re fun, I promise!!! especially if you’ve got some other strokes to play with.
warmup, pre-set, main set, cool down. If you don’t know how to come up with your own workout, could you join a local masters team?
So I need to be doing intervals then. The workouts in a binder souns like a plan. I dont think my local pool hasa masters group, but will ask. Thanks for input.
-add in intervals, ladders, 500m sets
-swim with a masters team to keep you on your toes and not slack off in workouts
-swim LOTS for at least a month or so straight, knocked a few min off my 1500 this year by swimming about 6 weeks of high volume
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great question for karlyn pipes neilsen at www.aquaticedge.org
she’s the best!
It’s free and it builds structured workouts for you. Base/Build/Peak/Taper You need to enter in some information, general parameters and then your date of your goal race. Distance, pool swim vs OWS… Program is better than any thing I have seen and it’s free. Printable workouts…
Also 2 times per week is not going to cut it. I hate to say it but you should be swimming more like 3-5 times a week. Three if you are already a solid swimmer and just looking to maintain and 5 if you really want to improve your swimming and general aerobic fitness.
Good luck.
Did you work with this book and if so, what improvements did you see from following the 12 wk plan? It is the best thing I have right now as there are no Masters teams within driving distance and no non-Total Immersion coaches in the area. If you saw results from this, that would really boost my confidence going into the upcoming 3 months.
I ask because I have the book and am going to start the plan this upcoming Monday. I have added an extra workout per week to give me 5 x’s/wk with around 14,500-15,000 yds per. My 1.5k in the pool is currently at 27:30 and it is costing me big time (obviously).
Add intervals as others have said. Besides basic improvements in speed, interval training has a special benefit for triathletes.
Even if you are not too concerned at this point in improving your overall swim time, your swim will be infinitely easier if you have the abilty to accelerate for 10-30 yards then settle back into your pace and recover. This will make it dramatically easier to do an open water swim in traffic. Interval training will give you this ability. Most of the time you are crashing into people or getting crashed into, there is open water just a few yards away. If you have the ability to get some seperation between you and your tormentors, you will have a much calmer swim even if your overall time is still 75 minutes.
No stuctured run or cycle training. Running has been very light this year, about 350 miles this year so far normally run 1000-1200 per year. Cycling has me doing one long ride per week plus what other bits and pieces i can fit in. Guess i need to be more focussed.
Easy, only way to get better swimming is to swim, at least 5 days a week.
And unless it is masters, even I do not have the ability to push myself on my own, day in and day out.
Dave
Guess i need to be more focussed.
No necessarily, but you get more from training if it is more specific. If you enjoy and are satisfied with unstructured sessions, then go ahead. But if getting faster is your aim, then you’d have to start thinking about doing applying sessions to target your weaknesses. It just depends on your priorities.
I feel your pain!
Just finished IMMOO and got clobbered on the swim. I thought I could go close to an hour, and finished 1:07. I think the day was a tad slow for all, but still I was way off the mark. I don’t think it’s as much fitness as being able to get clear in the first 600 meters before the first turn. I felt like I hardly had clean water, so no extension in my stroke, never that relaxed, long feeling (as long as a 5’ 7" person can expect!), when you’re rolling nice and steady. Anywho, I managed to make up for it and finish top 10 in AG, but it sure would be nice to keep from going through that abuse plus come out 5-6 minutes faster. I think what everyone is talking about in terms of intervals makes sense in that if you can keep up with the first 150 swimmers at the start, then go through a recovery once you get on the backside of the first loop, you’re going to finish 4-5 minutes faster with the same effort, but the ability to swim at a high effort level for 10 minutes then settle in is key. This takes intervals followed by recovery sets. I’m going to do our local masters workout 3 days a week and swim on my own 1-2 days a week over the winter to see if I can get some improvement. Will gladly let you know how it’s going.
Likewise, send over any suggestions you come up with, as I’m badly in need of some help in the pool!
Good luck!