I’m curious to hear the stories of people who have invested a lot in their swimming and what the results have been. Actually, let me narrow that down. While I’d like to hear the happy stories where the return on investment has been great, I’d really like to hear about the failed efforts. And I mean real efforts. No “Yeah, man, I swam three times per week for a month and I never improved at all! Boohoo!!” I mean more like those who gave it a real shot, say 6 months or a year, swimming 6-7x per week, got lots of instruction, spent their vacation weeks doing two-a-day swims, basically made “the” commitment to learn and improve… at a late age (>20yrs old).
Why?
Well, of course because I’m thinking about it. I can’t help but wonder whether those who made the big commitment and improved hugely passed through a filter that some of us simply can’t. And thus that I’d either be plucked out by that filter or still not see worthwhile return on investment.
So… is there anyone out there who didn’t get huge improvement – say dropping down to where you could do 10x100y on 1:20?
If you really swim 6-7 times per week for 6-12 months, then you should see huge improvement. I don’t have the exact experience you talk about, since I swam competitively from age 7-22, but I can assure you the only way to make gains in swimming is to do it A LOT. Gains can be made by running consistently for only 4-5 hours per week, but you are not going to see any real gains until you get into the 8-10 hour per week range.
Make sure that you have a coach who can help you, or else your swim block will not be nearly as productive.
I believe Johnyo did a similar block to improve his swim, and he is now FOP, at least for triathlon. Gordo has seen huge improvements.
The biggest thing that a “huge” swim block will give you is you will develop a really good feel for the water. That takes time. Your form will improve dramatically. Once your form improves, then you can swim up to your aerobic system’s potential. You might not get to where Gordo or Johnyo have gotten, because their aerobic base in the other sports is probably greater than yours, but you can get your swim in line with your bike and run.
i started swimming in nov almost 2 years ago at age 42, no swim team experience as a kid, and having not been in a pool for 28 years. btw i did swim at the pool a fair amount every summer as a youth so the water was familiar to me. first tri was scheduled for end of feb with a 500 meter swim. goal was to just finish the swim. went to 25 scy pool at the y everymorning mon-fri and swam for 25 -35 minutes because that was all i could do at the beginning. after 2 weeks i could do 100 3 weeks 200 and a month i could go 500 and i was not fast but just kept going. did my tri and as it was a college event they kicked the slow ones out @ 10min and i almost finished. finished my event and just kept going everyday nore or less 35-45 minutes as my y started a 100 mile club and i wanted to do that much milage. i just kept going and going and the water became my friend, last month did my first oly and came out of the water in 24 minutes which by swimmers standards is slow but not so bad in tris. the improvements can be made it just takes 4-5 days a week looking and listening and reading and swimming and you can get close to being relaxed and in the middle of the bunch for the bike. BTW now i am trying to do the same thing running so i will le you know in a year, GOOD LUCK
Gains can be made swimming 4 - 5 times a week. I’m married to an Olympic caliber fishie and the 8 hours of which Flan speaks is not really necessary from what I have seen – unless you want to be a 55M IM swimmer. However, your pool sessions need to be high quality. None of this 52 minutes = 1 hour or swimming disorganized sets and kicking 1000. It’s somewhat akin to running, you have to swim hard, fast and long to get better. I’ve dropped 7 minutes from my HIM swim time on a regiment of 4 to 5 x 1:15. I swim once a week long course meters or open water and we spend time hitting sets like 5 x 500 or 3 x 1000 with tempo and builds. There is no reason to show up for a swim session just to get wet. Train hard and your form and position will improve.
That’s not the full story. You need the technique first. Once you have that, you can be very fast (as fast as your technique will allow).
Last year I averaged 6k of swimming per week, as I have averaged for the past few years (over a decade!) and can do a sub 20 min 1500m. But I have consistent swimming over time, hence why I can do that - I’m no freak! So massive volume is not necessarily the cure.
Some pros with swimming backgrounds can do as little as 12k across 3 sessions a week and still stomp out low 17 1500m in races.
The major difficulty I see with doing a massive block is injury due to over-use. You need to build up volume over time in a progressive program, going from swimming every 2nd day to eventually every day, then from averaging (for example) 10k a week to 20k+. Jumping into swimming 10x a week is a recipe for injury and boredom with swimming. You’ll need to be highly motivated, and it is unlikely you will see real results until you taper & race, and your other training will tire you out too.
I’m not saying don’t do it, on the contrary I think improving your swimming is something that will last you for many years. But remember that fitness gains are fleeting, but technique gains become ingrained, and will last you as long as you hit adequate maintainence levels like the above. So sort out a proper program with coaching and progressive loading, then do it. And expect results in the summer, not the winter.
I think that too many people look for instant results from swimming - It’s just my opinion, but I believe that to truly see results in terms of speed in the pool it takes several years. I swam competitively from the age of 5 all the way through college - and the results weren’t a function of 6 or 12 months swimming 5 times a week. Swimmings a totally different animal - you HAVE to be dedicated to see real results. It’s not a matter of months - it’s really a matter of years - and dedication. Again, just my opinion - but there’s no shortcut to swimming.
Some pros with swimming backgrounds can do as little as 12k across 3 sessions a week and still stomp out low 17 1500m in races.
This has got to be the swimmer clueless quote. I never hear it in running or cycling. The reason the can do 12k a week and still swim that is because they have been swimming since they were 4. They have a base built up which allows them to not swim as much and be fine. They don’t swim 17mins just because their technique is fine.
Anyways back to success stories. Last year i was a good 40min open water 1500 swimmer now i’m between 23-25min. I was in the pool almost everyday over last winter and swam between 15k-25k a week. I didn’t have much structure i just went out and swam. I did a ton of pull because i had no upper body strength or endurance to get myself through the pool easy enough. Anyways i still have aways to go before i get to where i want to be but its definitily gettin gthere now.
I started swimming at 20.
3000 yards, 6/week. Little to no instruction. Spent the first year learning to breath on both sides and learning how to flip turn.
Improved to a 25 minute HIM swim at 24.
Even now 10x100y on the 1.20 would be a benchmark set for me, and I don’t think I could do it right now. I’m not sure how many age groupers would be able to pull that off.
This has got to be the swimmer clueless quote. I never hear it in running or cycling. The reason the can do 12k a week and still swim that is because they have been swimming since they were 4. They have a base built up which allows them to not swim as much and be fine. They don’t swim 17mins just because their technique is fine.
Actually, technique is exactly why those of us what are former swimmers can bang out open water 1500s in 17-18 minutes on limited volume. I still have the technique, and I am in great aerobic shape, and that will keep me right in that 17-18 minute range. Hard to get below that, as I have found my biggest limiter in swimming when doing 12000 yards per week is a lack of functional swim strength. Recently I have been doing strength work with resistance bands, and I have felt significantly stronger in the pool each of the last 3 weeks. Strength is not going to be a limiter of the vast majority of people out there; however, it might be a limiter for those of us who do not have the same sport specific strength which we had when doing 60-80k yards per week for years upon years. Resistance bands help develop that specific strength without bulking up or lifting weights.
This has got to be the swimmer clueless quote. I never hear it in running or cycling. The reason the can do 12k a week and still swim that is because they have been swimming since they were 4. They have a base built up which allows them to not swim as much and be fine. They don’t swim 17mins just because their technique is fine.
Actually, technique is exactly why those of us what are former swimmers can bang out open water 1500s in 17-18 minutes on limited volume. I still have the technique, and I am in great aerobic shape, and that will keep me right in that 17-18 minute range. Hard to get below that, as I have found my biggest limiter in swimming when doing 12000 yards per week is a lack of functional swim strength. Recently I have been doing strength work with resistance bands, and I have felt significantly stronger in the pool each of the last 3 weeks. Strength is not going to be a limiter of the vast majority of people out there; however, it might be a limiter for those of us who do not have the same sport specific strength which we had when doing 60-80k yards per week for years upon years. Resistance bands help develop that specific strength without bulking up or lifting weights.
I said “just” because their technique is fine. It also has to do with building up the muscles that are used in swimming.
I for example never used my upper body for any sport. Well kinda hockey but not even close to the extent of swimming. So i spent a lot of time building up the strength/endurance to swim that far over the winter.
Well, here is my N = 1 swimming account. I ran in HS and started doing tris a bit in 2002. From then until 2004 I would swim at the most 3-4 times a week, 8-10k. I made some nice improvements and got to the point where I thought I was pretty good in the water. Then, Paulo started coaching me and decided I needed to swim more. So in the summer of 2005 (when I was 21) I swam a 2k for time and averaged right around 1:20/100y. Since then, I have put in a couple of winters swimming 6 days a week, 25-35k/week. In the summer during the season I swim a little less but still stay over 20k a week as a minimum. I havent done a TT in a while but I could now probably swim 1:10/100y for a 2k. In fact, this morning I swam 20x100y on 1:20 in 1:06-1:07. So the moral of the story is swim a lot and you will get faster. And as Flanagan said, you really get a MUCH better feel for the water by swimming 6 days a week. Good luck!
And for the record qcassidy swam faster than me at Eagleman. Due to the humiliation of being beaten by a skinny runner kid, I decided I needed to get faster in the water again. What have I done, I’ve gone to the pool MORE often and done MORE yards per workout. Pretty simple. JFT
I was a year-round swimmer from 7-18 and started tri’s at 15. One thing I noticed when I was 19 was after I stopped swimming every single section of my race was slower. I determined the problem to be my aerobic abilities had become worse. I was a burn out from swimming and to get back in a pool was very hard. But when I got back in the pool my time began to get a lot quicker. I am not going to say you have to be a good swimmer to be a decent triathlete. But time in a pool will help with your aerobic base more than biking or running. Swimming teaches you how to deal with oxygen debt and to pull back out of it. Now putting to much in swimming is also a bad idea to because starting at age 15 all I did was swim and I had very little power on the run or bike. By seventeen I began to get more comfortable on the bike and was now running on the cross country. I was a natural runner from the start because aerobically I was a lot stronger than any of my teammates.
I guess what I am trying to say is there is great benefits to swimming but you can’t be a swimmer and expect to be a good triathlete.
Same story for me. Never basically swam in my life. Was doing 27 to 28 on Oly swims.
Started a 5 day a week masters program 9 months ago. My oly times have gone down to 22 to 24 which has now put me
as a FOP swimmer at races. And, since seconds now matter in races, I have been able to beat many folks who in the past
would beat me by around 2 minutes.
But, the biggest gain I found is how my running has improved, with only maybe 10 miles per week running. The swimming has given me GREAT
lungs, which helps in the bike, but for me BIG time in the run it seems
Now, I keep getting told by folks at the pool I am getting faster. I keep getting told by the boss I now look a little more like a swimmer.
(She watched my daugher swim for 15 years, so she knows what it is supposed to look like, even though she can not swim at all).
So, I see myself putting swimming as the top exercise I would like to do for the future. Least amount of impact on this old body.
Now, for anyone in the 50-54 AG, the above is just a lie and swimming is a TOTAL waste of time!!!
