Swim build up question

Triathlon Forum
1

i’m getting back to swimming and am unsure how to build up.

right now anything more than a 300 straight set is hard since i’ve been out of the water for months, but i should build up quickly provided i swim consistently.

so, what is a good forumula to build up without hurting my shoulders?

right now i’m planning on 3 swims a week with 2000 or 3000 meters per session (which would put me at about an hour per swim practice). i want to build up some swim base in order to swim well once open water season starts.

2

Your plan sounds good to me, if your shoulders start bothering you cut back a bit. Also, I’ve given some friends a technique primer session everyonce and awhile when there shoulder start bothering them and after they work technique and drill for a while their shoulder issues are alieveated.

3

thanks! what drill is that?

my first swim was only a 1000. planning on another 1000 or 1500 today. i can’t just jump right in and swim 3000 three times a week, can i?

4

I’m far from an expert, but I’d guess you could if you structure it correctly. I wouldn’t do 500 or 1000 repeats off the bat, but if you broke it up into manageable intervals (50’s, 100’s, 150’s, 200’s, that sort of thing, maybe even lay off the 150’s and 200’s), I don’t see a problem.

5

A good technique drill that’s pretty easy on the shoulders is swimming with your hands in a fist while concentrating on good form.

6

Probably not best to jump in and push to 3K right off the bat. You have lots of time to get to 3K as your base level swim before open water/race season starts. I am in the same situation as you and am building up my distances as well. I do two workouts a week. One is generally a bit more speed work focused, the other is longer race pace reps. So the base starting week workouts for me are as follows

Speed workout

300 m warm up
6 x 50 drill (whatever you think needs work - for me it is some leg work and bilateral breathing work - YMMV)
6 x 50 speed reps ( depending on your fitness determine your rest between reps - I start at 30 sec and work that down to 10 sec)
200 cool down

Endurance workout

300 m warm up
4 x 50 drill
4 x 200 pace (usually 30 sec rest to start)
300 cool down

Each week will increase - so for the speed work I will work up to 8 x 50 at 10 sec rest - warm up and cool down will also increase

Endurance - i will tend to work it so the 4 x 200 goes to 4 x 300 and then 4 x 400 - you may wish to only increase by 50 m.

Every 4th week is a light recovery week, with at least one swim that I do a 500 m TT - race pace to set a baseline/progress

The following months I will increase the distance for the speed work (6 x 75, 6 x 100 - I usually won’t go over 100) - similarly I will increase the number of distance reps - so 6 x 200, 300, 400 up to 8x if time allows (8 x 400 starts to really add up the time - I often don’t have that much)

So we are talking about a solid progression to the beginning of March - You still have gobs of time prior to race date.

Anyhow - good luck

7

There’s no formula that will keep you from hurting your shoulders. Good technique is what helps with that but you’re swimming, so there is no cure all for shoulder problems.

First, if you have existing shoulder problems, see a doc who is familiar with swimmers and their shoulders and can help you with the proper PT.

For building up, swimming is not at all like running or cycling where you can just suffer it out and get in the miles. You can, but you don’t want to. Now’s the time to DECREASE the distance and speed, and work on FORM.

The way I feel about it, you never want to take a bad stroke. Never swim longer than your stroke can handle before falling apart. Push the limit, hang onto it like a MoFo but know when to get out. Right now I’m only swimming about 1500 a workout and going to 2000 this week.

The way I like to build is to drop the meters to where it almost doesn’t feel like a workout. (I’m starting @ 1000 this year because I haven’t swam in a few years) Do a ton of drills but most of all do steady-effort sets where I never let my stroke slip, even in the slightest. Count strokes, focus, and get it right. Each week, if I was able to complete all the workouts without problems, I add a few meters (200-500). By the time your get back to regular volume you’ll be swimming WAY better and will be going faster with less effort.

Once I get to full volume, I’m still going fairly easy with just a few efforts of race pace in there. Then I start to add the harder sets and swimming. First they are shorter, maybe 3-5x200. They grow in length from there. The key is to get a better stroke and be able to HOLD it for the hardest set of the season (something like 20x200).

The first component of Bill Sweetenham and John Atkinson program is: maintain correct stroke technique throughout the training session”
#5 Concentrate at all times while doing stroke drills
#6 Execute perfection in all stroke drills, concentrating on taking fewer strokes, but gaining maximum propulsion on all pulls
#21 To get an efficiency rating, add the # of strokes it takes to do a certain repeat to the time required for that repeat. For example 30seconds for 50M done in 30 strokes produces a rating of 60. The lower the rating, the better the repeat.
#22 Concentrate on hand speed at the back end of each stroke without slipping.
#28 Count strokes down and back in pools to check maintenance of stroke efficiency.

Yep, he likes you to hold a good stroke and KEEP IT!

In the beginning, you’ll not be doing much but by the time it really matters (race day) you’ll be a far BETTER swimmer and be able to produce faster times.

Hope that helps!

8

thanks! what drill is that?

my first swim was only a 1000. planning on another 1000 or 1500 today. i can’t just jump right in and swim 3000 three times a week, can i?

Sorry for the confusion, I meant drills rather than a single drill. My main point was that if your shoulders are bothering you finding a coach to give you a little technique work can help.

As far your build up if you’re starting from 1000/session I’d give your self a couple of weeks to get comfortable with 1500-2000 yd sessions, then another couple weeks to get to 2000-3000yds. Also like others have mentioned unless you want to die of bordem don’t do all your sessions as straight swims.

Hope this helps

9

thanks everyone, this is good stuff!
i remember swim workouts from high school, and even from adult master’s. but i thank you for these workouts as well, it’s important to have ALOT to keep boredom away.

i’ll take the advice, build up as suggested, maintain good form, and go from there. :slight_smile:

10

Frequency is more important than volume. Better to do 5-6 swims a week of like 1500-2000 yds. so that you are swimming almost every day. Swimming regularly will get you back into it faster, and the lower daily volume will protect your shoulders.

11

ok, that makes sense. thanks rappstar!

12

And don’t neglect your warm up. You should be going at least 400M/500yds super easy- low stress ordinary swimming to get your muscles ready to do the heavier/harder work. Even if you’re cutting down the rest of the workout down, keep the warm up at least that long.

I’ve found that as long as I ease into a practice at the beginning each time, it’s pretty easy to up the yardage over the course of a few practices.