Making the best of 4x/week in the pool

Triathlon Forum
1

The swim is my weakest sport by a fair margin. I’ve decided to make an actual effort this winter to improve it as much as possible.

The problem is that I also have a family to keep happy and I can only realistically make it to the pool for 4 swims a week. Twice during the week and Saturday and Sunday.

Time is limited to about an hour during the week but I can spend as much time as needed at the pool on the weekends. Unfortunately coaching isn’t in the budget for this winter.

Current swim benchmarks are 12:53 for a Sprint and 28:56 for an Oly. Current swim volume is 1-2x/week for 2500-3500m.

2

I’m not a swimmer (yet), so I can’t comment specifically, but Slowman’s program seems pretty popular:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5221658;search_string=tarpon;#5221658
.

3

If you want bang for the buck, no time wasted workouts, take a look at Ken Lehner’s swim workouts.

4

I know you’re looking for workouts, but if you want, try fitting in some drills and technique work into practices to hopefully improve speed easier. http://www.theraceclub.com/videos/secret-tip-how-to-pull-in-freestyle/

5

I would read Swim Speed Secrets by Shiela Taormina and then get Swim Speed Workouts. Great info and workouts!

http://swimspeedsecrets.com/

Info from her bio:

“Sheila Taormina has competed in four Olympic games and is the only woman in the world to have competed in three different sports on the Olympic stage—swimming, triathlon, and modern pentathlon. At just 5’ 2” tall, Taormina refined her exceptional freestyle swim technique to win a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and the 2004 ITU triathlon world championship.”

6

Thanks for the link. It looks like some good workouts and good reading there.