I am currently swimming around 10:30/800m in the pool. My goal is to get down to 18:30/1500m (world cup qualifying time).
Some background info:
Started swimming two years ago with little previous experience (some swimming lessons). Averaged 2:10/100m in my first triathlon.
Never had any stroke correction (other than people giving me some pointers here and there).
Swam with a local tri club over the past two years, and improved a lot. Lately it seems I have hit a plateau.
Swimming approx 20km/week over the past 3 months. Before this I was doing around 10km/week.
Will increasing my swim mileage significantly improve my swimming? My goal is to get to 40km/week. Most people tell me my stroke looks good now, and my coach thinks that increasing my mileage will be enough to get down to 18:30/1500m. Is this realistic?
My kick is fairly strong but my pull not as much. I have always held my breath underwater, and I rapidly exhale and then inhale when I take a breath. I have tried to break this habit but it always feels like I’m running out of oxygen when I blow bubbles underwater. Would holding my breath really affect my speed?
Your best bet is to swim with a real squad some, either a good masters team or another team. 18:30 is pretty fast, actually, and doesn’t leave room for a lot of major stroke problems.
Swimming more will definitely help, as will swimming faster.
Pull is what makes you go in swimming, so that’s where to look.
You shouldn’t panic if you’re breathing out underwater–it just makes for a natural breathing cycle. Are you breathing every second stroke?
I wouldn’t think holding your breath would change your speed, but I would doubt you could inhale enough oxygen while your face is out of the water if you also had to exhale first.
Unfortunately I’m in kind of an awkward spot speed wise. I’m not fast enough to get on my university swim team and the masters team is a bit more recreational. Most likely I will end up doing most of my swimming alone although I’m still trying to find someone to train with.
I breathe every three strokes most of the time, but in harder sets and in races I end up breathing every other stroke.
Have you tried humming underwater to let some air out? It is a neat trick that works for some.
In regards to more volume, it could work if you have the time and can do it without sacrificing form. I am assuming you also do some faster sets as well, like 100s or whatever to work on speed.
If I had to choose, I would add fast sets first, and volume second.
Is your 1km test and 1.5km goal short course meters, long course meters (about 45sec slower than SCM)? Just wondering. For the sake of my response, I’m gonna assume LCM because it’s the best course by far.
40km per week should be all the distance you need to make it to 18:30. At that speed though, you’d be hard pressed to find a masters team with more than 1 or 2 people who can a) keep up, and b) be interested in trying to get to a 18:30 mile. Most teams I’ve seen have very few people training under 1:20/100m LCM or with that as their goal. Most of them are interested in maintaining swim speed and being able to be sub 60 in an iron swim. Finding a team, though, would be a huge help. If not a masters team, maybe an age group team. Most kids in early high school/late middle school that swim 10+ times per week are around 18:30 pace, so look for a group like that if you can’t find people your own age.
As for technique, 18:30 leaves almost no room for non-smooth strokes. You need to cut that breathing nonsense out asap. Breath out under water, hold your face out of the water just long enough to breath in, and repeat this until it’s comfortable. With the olympics next week, tape some freestyle events (400m and 1500m, as well as 10k open water) and watch their stroke. Just try your hardest to mimic their technique. At 18:30, you shouldn’t look too different, just alot slower. Keep in mind, at 18:30, you’re only about 2 minutes slower than people offered college swimming scholarships, so this goal leaves no room for technique issues. Just keep everything smooth, breath every other stroke, reach as far as you can on each stroke, and keep a simple, light two beat kick.
Other than the stroke/breathing fluidity, 40km per week should be fine to get to 18:30. If you’re kick heavy, do alot of pulling. You should rely on your arms to pull you and your legs less to propel you forward than to keep your body position on top of the water in a long swim like that.
Good luck, and at 10:30 for an 800, you’re definitely capable of 18:30 with some technique fixes.
The humming sounds like a good idea, I will give it a try.
Right now I am doing 3 faster sets a week, and the rest just long and easy. Once I get up to my goal mileage I’m not sure how many fast sets I will be doing per week. My coach provides me with all of my workouts so I will talk to him.
Ask yourself this question. How often do you hold your breath while cycling or running? This would serve you well in the pool too;)
Breathing patterns are hard to break and learn, but so worth it. Taking in lots of air isn’t a bad thing, but holding your breath underwater is for sure limiting you. 50 sprint? Sure makes sense. Anything more is just wasting potential output! And breathing every stroke isn’t a bad thing either. I breathe on one side all the way down the pool, other side all the way back to keep the bilateral freaks happy;)
My experience is that a scm pool might give you a time that is 2 seconds per 100 faster…max. That’s a max of 30 seconds for a 1500 and 20 for a 1000. Now that I write it that seems very generous maybe 1-1.5 seconds faster.
Not to discourage you, but you likely are not going to get there by forum advice. 18:30 is 1:14 per 100. You need someone to watch you and coach you at least a couple times a week. Even if the masters program is ‘recreational’ the instruction is likely better than you will get with no one.
1:14 per 100 in any meter pool long or short course is fast. You need to swim with people. It is an eternity away from 10:30 for an 800 doubled.
Same boat on breathing and exhaling but have corrected tf - most often than not, all my swim workouts i will have gas pains after which makes walking painful. i corrected it by making it a concious effort to exhale the moment i put my face in the water again, humming is the right way to go, i normally let the air out slowly and i switched to 2:1 which has done wonders for me.
I think holding your breath has an effect. Exhaling is getting rid of the CO2 in your lungs, not the oxygen (well, there is some). Concentrate on blowing out your nose. Maybe take a week to learn how to do it, just swim super easy until it’s second nature to do it.
To get to 18:30 for 1500 meters you are going to have to increase the intensity and quality of your workouts. 40K/week is plenty, and with the right kind of workouts you could do much less. But going from 20:00 for 1500 m to 18:30 is a big deal.
As Brandon said, the true answer to your question is probably known by very few if anyone on this forum. As someone who started to swim later on life, I can tell you that you have to careful expecting too much from the swim. I’m sure someone will correct me, but I can’t even think of any non-swimmers, who can swim a solo 18:30 LCM in the pool. Kaleb Van Ort is probably the best non-swimmer that I know of. Your best bet would probably be to talk to some elite level coaches and to even see what is possible for someone that started later on in life. Swimming an 18:30 LCM is no joke. But certainly just swimming more yards is not going to get you there unless you are some freak of nature. Best bet is to swim with that master’s group, even if you think it is holding you back.
non swimmer to 10.30 for 800m in 2 years is pretty good.
take paolo’s advice. 10.30 to 18.30 should definitely be achievable at the rate of improvement you’ve shown so far.
took me around 6 months or less to get from one to the other when i swam as a kid, but then kids may show a greater rate of improvement than adults? i have no idea.
Like others have said 18:30 is serious, and already I see your approach is not going to cut it.
You shouldn’t be asking if one thing is enough.
You should instead be searching for every possible way in which you can improve. You will need all of them.