For IM; 40x100 10sec RI or 10x400 20sec RI or 4x1000 30sec RI
.
4200 SCY straight and if I come in under 1:02 I’m in good shape.
what if you don’t? Do you not show up for the race?
4200 SCY straight and if I come in under 1:02 I’m in good shape.
what if you don’t? Do you not show up for the race?
That’s right. I consider it a $600 donation.
you sir are a man of integrity, with high standards.
chappeau
So you do not have a run course where you know if you run at a certain effort and time you are in a certain shape. Or bike course. There is nothig you do that you have a history of that tells you a cetain benchmark of where your at…Sure…There is no " whenever I run x course at x time, or bike, I always am close to my best ect…
no, I do not do any workouts prior to races to “test” how I’m going to do. I already know. The workouts I do prior to a race are done to prepare me for the race.
however if I were to do so, the difference is, with biking and running, I can do something with that information with regard to pacing on race day. Swimming is pointless. Your time will be what your time will be.
The purpose of training is to get faster, not to see how slow you are. If you want to know where you are at, go sign up for a race.
Swimming is pointless. Your time will be what your time will be Your vast years of tri’s is showing…I’l stick with someone like Monty, He’s been racing tri’s for what 30 years.
You can do whats best for you. You should be a coach since you know whats best for others
You’re quoting me out of context…
But what did Monty SAY?
Listen, it is just semantics. I test myself just about every swim workout. It is called doing hard sets. And i use them as benchmarks for my fitness, pretty easy since i have 40+ years of swimming to compare to. They are not to predict any race times, because i don’t know how long the course is going to be, or which way the wind or current is going, will i get the perfect person to draft of, ect. What it does tell me is that i should try to hang with the leaders, or maybe i better settle for 2nd pack today. Of course out there on race day it is by feel, intuition, and experience. Time is of no real concern, placing in the pack is.
The OP wanted a set to measure fitness with, 20x100 on short rest of 5 seconds is a good one for distance stuff. There are many more, and in my routines, i do something like that every swim. You are right, it is called training, but it can also be a yardstick of where you are at.
I’m not a coach by any means, but my IM swim training for an hour swim goal was 1x 2.4 miles and get out of the pool.
Seriously I’d jump in the water, do about a 400yd warm up (or none at all) and get to swimming for 1 hr with no rest. If for no better reason than I got really really comfortable with the effort I could give for 1 hr. As it turns out I only had to do it for 55min 
The problem for me with a set like that is there is a very high chance I will lose count of the laps, which means at the end I can’t be sure if my test time is valid.
For me 20x100 as a main set with a short rest interval is pretty good indicator of where I am at with my long distance swim fitness. Also 200 and 400TTs as indicators of how fit I am for starting a race hard.
look, you’re an awesome athlete, and you have years of experience, but the answer (for you) to the OPs question of “am I in shape” is, for you, either always, or we’re about to find out, as I try to make the lead pack, in other words, racing.
Especially in the context of triathlon, where you can’t win much on the swim, and where there are very few valuable decisions to make. You’re totally blind to any feedback other than RPE, bubbles, and if you recognize any of your competitors around you. As you said, feel and experience.
But say you do do a “test”. There’s just not a lot you can do with that information. Knowing your swim time in advance is only useful to your wife and kids to help them know when to see you in T1 and take pictures.
It’s not just swimming… there are those on this board that will go out and run 26.2 to “test” if they can run 26.2 in an IM. There are those who, completely framing the problem correctly, will go out and ride 112 to “test” themselves if they can ride 112. Often, these are self defeating, making one slower instead of faster.
All I’m saying is that there’s plenty of time for that on race day… time is short, you have to make the most of it in training. Better to say, “do 12 weeks of 20x100 on 10” as one of your weekly workouts and watch your progress from week to week".
I know I’m in pretty good shape for a 1/2 iron when I can easily go 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 on an 85 basis (scy) or 1:40 basis (lcm). I’ve never done an IM but did a 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-5-5-4-3-2-1 (4000 yds) last year on a 85 basis, just to see. It got surprisingly tough at the end.
I also live altitude, so know I will get a little pop at lower elevations.
Swimming is pointless. Your time will be what your time will be.
I agree that trying to swim more to have a faster swim split is pointless. The point is to make the swim as easy as possible and I found this out the hard way at my 2011 IM. I’m an OK swimmer for a triathlete with no swimming background and I knew after training for my first IM that I would have a good split no matter what I did. I focused on the bike and run and swam less than I did in 2010. On race day, with no additional effort, I beat my previous time on the same course by almost 4 minutes. I have no idea how or why. But, for the first time in my life my legs cramped on the bike at around mile 80 and I continued to ward off cramps through the entire run. I have finally admitted that the swim took more out of me than I cared to admit and I won’t let that happen again in 2012.
And I do show up even if I’m not hitting my marks. I was kidding.
really people…is there a bike and run test set too?
I do 40 x 100 on 5" rest faster than race pace. but racing a Half will give you a good idea if distance is on and conditions are similar. Just train!
I agree that trying to swim more to have a faster swim split is pointless. The point is to make the swim as easy as possible…
I disagree. It’s a race. The point is to swim faster, bike faster and run faster.
Unfortunately using the race as your test set costs you $80-$600 for thest depending on your chosen race!
this thread is hilarious.
everyone’s saying “no, there has to be a test!”
there is, but it’s called racing.
I think it’s fairly common in competitive swim training to have test set days - my teams all did growing up.
however if I were to do so, the difference is, with biking and running, I can do something with that information with regard to pacing on race day. Swimming is pointless. Your time will be what your time will be.
Yeah, I don’t know why I agonize over swim splits. Doesn’t help your tri time at all to be a FOP swimmer. How silly of me.
The problem for me with a set like that is there is a very high chance I will lose count of the laps, which means at the end I can’t be sure if my test time is valid.
Do you ever use a watch when you run or ride? There’s this thing on the wall when you swim … we call it “pace clock” …
look, you’re an awesome athlete, and you have years of experience, but the answer (for you) to the OPs question of “am I in shape” is, for you, either always, or we’re about to find out, as I try to make the lead pack, in other words, racing.
Especially in the context of triathlon, where you can’t win much on the swim, and where there are very few valuable decisions to make. You’re totally blind to any feedback other than RPE, bubbles, and if you recognize any of your competitors around you. As you said, feel and experience.
But say you do do a “test”. There’s just not a lot you can do with that information. Knowing your swim time in advance is only useful to your wife and kids to help them know when to see you in T1 and take pictures.
It’s not just swimming… there are those on this board that will go out and run 26.2 to “test” if they can run 26.2 in an IM. There are those who, completely framing the problem correctly, will go out and ride 112 to “test” themselves if they can ride 112. Often, these are self defeating, making one slower instead of faster.
All I’m saying is that there’s plenty of time for that on race day… time is short, you have to make the most of it in training. Better to say, “do 12 weeks of 20x100 on 10” as one of your weekly workouts and watch your progress from week to week".
So how do you actually know what you are doing in training IS working, do you leave all to just “see what happens on race day”
Risky, but I like it…LOL