So my daily life schedule limits me to one trip to the pool per week, so aside from “swimming more than once a week”, what would you do with that one workout? I know just one workout/week is ridiculously little and won’t magically turn me from a MOP to FOP swimmer, but would like to know how I can be more efficient with my swim time. Background: Doing Sprints and (mostly) Olys this season, and up till now have been spending each session just swimming 2km.
if I could just swim once a week, id do this:
-skip it.
really? i would have thought just that one swim keeps that “feel” for the water.
man, if I went less than 3 times a week I seem to lose my feel…thats just me though.
I swim about once a week.
I just swim for 30 minutes because that’s about as much as I can do without dying of boredom.
I’m a swimmer though so I’ll still be a FOP swimmer.
I only swim once per week and I still come out of the water at the front, but I’ve been swimming my whole life. Anyway, here’s what a typical workout looks like (I only put in about 1500 on average):
400 w/u
8x50 drill/swim
5x100 on 1:15 best average (usually around 1:03-1:05)
c/d
Drills to keep form and feel. Reasonably hard 100s to limit the suck.
A bunch of hard 200’s with a lot of rest (:45)
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A bunch of hard 200’s with a lot of rest (:45)
This is precisely what I was going to recommend.
I’d aim for ~30min of threshold during your main set, so something like 10x200 on 3:00, or equivalent for your current paces. Start with a longish warmup, say 800~1000 and finish with a short cooldown/drills and there’s your < 1 hr workout. Every few weeks throw in a continuous 1500/2000m swim where you descend by 500’s to help you keep the feeling of longer continuous swimming.
This is about what I’ve been doing, on average, since Jan with some weeks 0 swims, some 1-2 swims, and a couple weeks leading up to race with 2-3 swims. This keeps me in the top ~5% for olympic tris, but like others I have a swim background.
Duathlons
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I just hope that you’re in my age group. I need to gain as much time on as many people as possible in the swim before I get on that silly bike.
I do alternate weeks:
- 500, 6x100IM and 1x100 on 20s rest, 5x50 on 10s rest, 500
The first and last 500 should be time trial effort, and within 10s of each other. - 300 warmup your choice stroke, 5x200 on 30s rest, 5x100 on 20s rest OR 5x100IM, 5x50 on 10s
The effort level is always hard, no lollygagging…
I’ve maintained/slightly improved swim speed over the last 11 years (from 40 to 51) doing this… but it does help to have been a competitive swimmer in a previous century…
Beat me to it. Glad I checked first.
I’d be thankful that I have a good excuse to only swim once a week ;-).
If I am able to get in one swim a week, I consider it a lucky week. I also dont belong to a pool, so my swims are open water. When I swim, I just swim as long as I have time for, concentrating on technique, while still going as fast as I can. I wind up doing about a mile or so (which is usually all I have time for). I am not from a swimming background, but I am still able to finish in the top 10% with only a handful of swims per year. I figure that with the limited amount of time that I have, the gains to be had from swimming could be more than made up for by putting that time into something else; plus I eat up more time getting to a place to swim. What really helped me was having my wife fix my horrible technique and taking a video of my stroke. After that I was able to get sub 1hr ironman swims with just 6 swims a year (granted, it was in placid).
Stephen J
1000 wu
10 x 50 (drill 25, swim 25)
*Vary set
200 cd
Alternate by week (5 x 100 on hard interval, 500 TT, 3 x 200 fast, etc)
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I am still able to finish in the top 10% with only a handful of swims per year… I was able to get sub 1hr ironman swims with just 6 swims a year (granted, it was in placid).
Stephen J
I’m sorry, what?!
I am still able to finish in the top 10% with only a handful of swims per year… I was able to get sub 1hr ironman swims with just 6 swims a year (granted, it was in placid).
Stephen J
I’m sorry, what?!
My n=1 example shows what some good instruction can do. I dont have much in the way of natural ability, but I am able to learn fairly well. I just need enough to get the breathing down starting out the new year, and that gets the job done. More training would be an improvement…Im not saying that it wouldnt; but if you dont have a schedule that allows for more, then figuring out how to do it right (if you can do it quickly) provides a very nice return on investment. You dont need to hire a coach indefinately, just long enough to fix any stroke problems; provided you can learn what they have to teach…and they are teaching it right.
Stephen J
Well said.
As a swim coach, I would say alternate weeks
Week 1: 500-1000 warm up, drills, whatever. Get some speed in there like 8 x 50 descend 1-4, 5-8.
then swim straight for as long as you have time for. Solid steady pace. Just like Stephen J said, hold your form and swim as hard as that form allows. Just get r done.
Week 2: Sets like the 200’s that others have said. Nice and hard with a solid amount of rest (20-30seconds) Whatever that pace is, make it as EVEN as possible. Example: 10x200 on 3:00 where you come in @2:30. Every 200 should be around 2:30. If you fall off toward the end, move it to 2:35 until you can make all of them in the same pace. Then try and work harder to get each one faster. If you can bust out a 2:15 at the end, maybe swim 2:25 next time. If the set is long enough and the rest is consistent, you don’t have to worry about what zone you’re in, it’ll take care of itself. Swimming these sets is not about “making the interval” it’s about swimming the BEST POSSIBLE PACE for the entire set. If you’re not failing every once in a while. you’re not swimming hard enough.
10x 200
20x100
2x(100,200,300,200,100)
whatever keeps your mind in it, just as long as you can get times and make them count.
Hope that helps!
Simple…
…Become a DUATHLETE!
Join a masters class.