Swim Block

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve decided to take the plunge and do a swim block. I usually swim twice a week, rarely 3 times. I have never swum more than 10k in a week.

Last week we did an 800m LCM TT, I swam 13:30 which is decent for me, but a minute too slow for getting me out of the water with the people i want to get out with.

So I will start to swim 6 days a week for a while and see if and how much I improve.

I usually swim in a coached group twice a week. When I swim alone I swim something like 400m warm up, 5x5x100 with different swim aids (pull, pull+band, snorkel, paddles), then a few hundred meters of kicking to do between 3000-3500m.

Any tips? How quickly should I expect to see improvements? Is knocking 10s/100m unrealistic in a month or 2?

2

I’m interested to see responses from this. I’m at a similar speed to you with similar training and looking to increase swim training during off season (I live in southern hemisphere).

3

I swam 13:30 for 1k yards TT in January (1:20/100y).

Ramped up my swimming from 2x per week to 5-6x per week (4x Tower 26 workouts + 1-2 more from desert dude) for a couple months then just the 4x Tower 26 workouts. (Was recovering from ITBS).

Anyway, a couple weeks ago I swam 12:53 for 1k meters, which is 1:10/100y pace.

So yes it’s possible, but probably will take a little longer than 1-2 months. And just swimming more will help, but you’ll get more out of it from the right prescription too.

Edit: I should have noted that 2 of the Tower 26 workouts a week are 5-6k each, and even with only 4 swims a week I was still at nearly 20k yards a week.

4

I would say that a swim focus for 2 months, adding a bunch of hard pull sets, might get you enough time that you make the 10 second per 100 pack possible. Remember that you really don’t have to get 10 seconds faster in the pool, just a bunch faster so you can hold that better group. So at your speed now(which is pretty good by triathlete standards) you probably do have some low hanging fruit. And swimming with the squad and asking the coach to pay a little more attention to your stroke might do it…

5

couple of things to think about

what’s your 100, 200 and 400 speed like?

what’s your ability to maintain pace over the next km after going extremely hard for those distances?

Once you answer those questions you can figure what to do in your swim block.

6

There are a million questions to ask like your swim background, of course your speed at a range of swim distances, your aerobic base in bike and run, your bike and run backgrounds, how much other non-swim training you are right now doing, how taxing your job is, your age, and maybe most important how good or bad is your stroke?

Because just piling yards/meters on to a bad stroke is useless, or sometimes worse than useless.

7

There are a million questions to ask like your swim background, of course your speed at a range of swim distances, your aerobic base in bike and run, your bike and run backgrounds, how much other non-swim training you are right now doing, how taxing your job is, your age, and maybe most important how good or bad is your stroke?

Because just piling yards/meters on to a bad stroke is useless, or sometimes worse than useless.

I have little swim background. In my first tri I did head above water crawl for 24 minutes for 750m! I have got a bit better over the years, last year I swam 1:08 in Roth.

My aerobic base is decent. I ran a 36min 10k this spring. I have lots of lifetime cycling miles in my legs. After messing up a marathon build in spring (overtrained or ill, not sure) I am not training as much as I have in other years, still 12-14h per week though.

My job isn’t taxing, I am sat down a lot of the time. I am 35. I think that my stroke is okay. I used to have a cross over, which I have tried to eliminate, but apparently my right arm is now possible too wide. My body lies deeper in the water than it should. I feel like my pull is much stronger when I use a Pull Buoy or swim in a wetsuit. I also feel like I’m weak. I can’t pull as hard as I would like to for a longer interval or race as my arms (triceps for some reason) get tired.

what’s your 100, 200 and 400 speed like?
what’s your ability to maintain pace over the next km after going extremely hard for those distances?

I am an absolute non-sprinter (in all sports) so my pace doesn’t increase much over shorter distances. I don’t know my race times for the 100, 200, 400. I only sprint 50s in the pool, and 35s would be a full on sprint 50m for me.

Even after we do a TT, I feel like I can continue on swimming at an okay pace. Like I say, I am not fast but more of a diesel.

I did 15km last week over 4.5 swims. I have a few T26 workouts, so will be doing some of them over the netx weeks, but I have neer swum more than 3.8km in a day, so the 90min 4500m+ workouts look quite scary!

8

Hows your open water drafting skills?

9

When I swim alone I swim something like 400m warm up, 5x5x100 with different swim aids (pull, pull+band, snorkel, paddles), then a few hundred meters of kicking to do between 3000-3500m.

I think you’re in the ball park here, but need to concentrate the effort. 20x100 is my go-to set for optimizing 1000y/800m performance. But ditch the toys (for the main set; use them for warmup/cool down/between set active recovery, if you like) and just swim. I would start with a 2 minute interval, and aim to hold 1:39 on every repeat. If you can’t make that interval, rest an extra minute, then resume. If you can make all 20, or can get to at least 16 before you miss a target, and can make rest, drop a second off your target time the next time.

1:37 is a “crossover” target. When you successfully complete that on a 2 min interval, your next move is to do it on a 1:55 interval before moving to a 1:36 target. 1:32 is a crossover target between a 1:55 and 1:50 interval.

Is your current training location short course or long course? I think you might benefit from some sprint work 25’s. For pure sprint training, I’ll do 30x25 structured similar to what I described above as a main set, but to work on general speed while in a distance race training block, I’ll throw in a set of 12x25 as a secondary set.

On a side note, if you’re going from 2 days a week to 6, expect your pace to go backwards before it goes forwards. And once you’re at 6 days a week, you’re probably not gonna see optimal performance without unloading, especially if you are training at high intensity. Even on 5 days and 12.5k yards/week, I’ve had some big drops in race pace (2-4 seconds/100) in long distance events after a taper.

10

couple of things to think about

what’s your 100, 200 and 400 speed like?

what’s your ability to maintain pace over the next km after going extremely hard for those distances?

Once you answer those questions you can figure what to do in your swim block.

I never thought about like quite like this. This is probably the second best thing I have read from you.

#1 = If you want to go faster, go faster.(or something along those lines)