Need help with swim training

Triathlon Forum
1

I do a few sprint triathlons each season with serpentine pool swims & time trial starts. So, while each race is different due to having to make your way through the crowd, these races do give a pretty good indication of your swim improvement (or, lack thereof in my case) from year to year.

Up until this point, I haven’t really given a whole lot of thought to my swim training. I swim 3 or 4 times per week, but do very little in the way of hard intervals. I’ve mainly been concerned about trying to improve my technique & build endurance. And, unfortunately, my swim times show that lack of focus. While they have improved somewhat over the 3 seasons that I’ve been racing triathlons and swimming with any sort of regularity, they haven’t improved nearly as much as my cycling or running. So, I would like to fix that.

Two of the pool swim races that I do each season are 500LCM (these are done in the same pool - once in June, once in October) and one is 300SCY. Last season my times were 8:07 and 8:18 for the 500LCM and 4:21 for the 300SCY. (I did 4:11 for the 300SCY race the previous year.)

Pretty much all of my swim training is in a 25M pool. And, keep in mind that the above race times are for serpentine swims. So, the true distances are actually slightly longer than stated.

This morning I did 2 sets of 5 x 100M. I finished each in just under 1:25 and left on the 1:45 to keep the math easy. So, I was getting ~20s rest. I did drills between the 2 sets. These felt fine, and I certainly could have done a few more.

So, knowing all of the above, how would you set up a plan to improve my swim times? I typically swim Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings before work. Each session is about 1hr. I try to get another day, too. But, it doesn’t always work out.

Please be specific about # of reps, interval length(s), interval time(s) and rest time(s). And, please keep the swim speak to a minimum. I don’t understand all of the shorthand!

Thanks.

Steve

2

I’m new to swimming but the two sites below might be helpful for you. You prob need to do different workouts on different days (i.e speed, endurance, and drills). Play around with the two sites and hopefully you can build a decent workout schedule. The swimming community site has a virtual coach (just input your focus and training days and it will spit out a schedule). I prefer the other site because it has a ton of workouts. Hope it helps. Cheers

http://ruthkazez.com/50swimworkouts.html

http://www.swimmingcommunity.com/

3

The minimalist answer is: Have a swim coach look at your form.

To a degree exponentially higher than either running or cycling, good form in swimming is critical for maximizing speed (anaerobic) or maintaining good speed (aerobic). More/Harder is a waste of time if your form sucks (well, you’ll develop a good set of lungs, but it won’t help your swim times much).

Triathlon swimming is all about swimming as fast as possible with as little energy expenditure as possible. Yes, you need to have some degree of Top-End speed, especially for the crush at the start, so you can squirt out to the front of the pack, but if you can’t stay there, you might as well just hang back and let the pack go before starting to swim.

Working with a swim coach who understands Tris is, in my humble opinion, critical for someone who wants to move up to FOP on the swim. A “High School” swim coach (no offense intended to anyone) would probably be able to give you some good pointers, but if what they know is how to train for a really fast 200M, then you’re probably not going to have optimal results in a Tri. Some improvement, maybe, but not as much as someone who knows what it’s like - and how to train - to redline off the start for 2 mins & then settle into a comfortable cruise mode for the next 10 to 50+ mins, and still have plenty of energy in the tank when you jump onto the bike.

My $0.02. Hope this helps!

Brian

4

send me a PM this weekend. I am too busy with school right now to write out a nice long answer for you, but will do it later. I’m good with swim training :wink:

5

alright, had time to get back to you, check your PMs
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