I spent a good amount of time working in the pool (I had to) in preparation for my first B race, an olympic event in Kona. I got up to 5000+ yards a week and am a stronger swimmer. Now I’m back and working towards my first A race of the season, the Pole, Pedal, Paddle. I have four weeks and need to spend my time skate skiing, paddling a kayak, bike to run combos, etc. There is no swimming in this event so here is my question: Do I skip swimming for a month? Will I lose much that I have gained? My next big tri is six weeks after the PPP, I’m wondering if this is enough time to tune my swim back up.
Depends on your ability to get “back in the swim groove”. As a long time runner, I can take time off from running and pop back in quickly (this winter I had an injury and didn’t run for 7 weeks and still was able to race ok in a 10k my second week back running). However, if I take 7 weeks off swimming and go to the pool it takes me a month before I’m swimming anything near to the pace times I was hitting prior to the layoff. I would need to do at least 1 or 2 short, hard swims to keep my feel for the water.