I have a goal in the next 1-2 years of qualifying for Hawaii. I have 7 IM’s under my belt with PR of 10:50, however since last IM have made significant gains in biking and my PR marathon time (not IM marathon) is under 3:00 so I feel the potential is there. My swim time has been mostly between 1:02-1:10 and right now i’m putting 3 hours/week in the pool. Problem is I generally do not like swimming; I hate getting into the cold water in the morning, hate the inconvenience of getting to the pool and hate that it is my weakest event. I want to improve my IM time significantly but not add more time or focus on swimming, is it possible or am I being ignorant by not emphasizing my swim training?
Not looking for suggestion to start doing duathlons because I do like how swimming complements the training cycle and love the workout it gives me but just hate going through the motions of driving out of my way to the pool at 5:30am to jump in cold water for an hour. Am I alone, any thoughts?
Buy an endless pool, or suck it up princess. 
Why do you think you need to improve your swim? It seems you should be able to qualify if you swim close to an hour. How’s your bike spilt?
Swim in the evening.
I find it’s much easier to fall asleep after swimming as compared to running and biking. Plus it should help to loosen up all the sore muscles from the running and biking you did earlier in the day.
Why do you think you need to improve your swim? It seems you should be able to qualify if you swim close to an hour. How’s your bike spilt?
Because everyone knows that if he’s not working at getting faster in all three disciplines, someone else is. That’s the person that will get the Kona slot.
Are there any local masters clubs in your area? Any others that you could workout with in the mornings? You’ll find that it’s 100 times easier to wake up early and swim if you have a group of other people pushing you, and more importantly, breaking your balls when you don’t show up for scheduled workouts.
You don’t really need to do more. It would help, but if you’re at 1:10, and getting down to 60 is just a matter of making your stoke BETTER and adding power building workouts into your training.
You have a goal of making IMHI in 1-2 years, so you have a year of drills , drills, drills. Make your stroke better, and then work on the power and fitness.
Swimming is a skill sport. It has more in common with golf than it does running. Any shlub can swim as hard as they can or swing a club as hard as they can, but few can do it WELL. Tiger woods easy practice swing is more accurate and will go further than my hardest, come out of my shoes swing. If I took a college swimmer who has been out of the water for 10 years and had them do the same workouts you do, in 4 months, that person would be faster than 95% of triathletes. They have a high skill level, even though the fitness will not be the best. I swam 3 times a week for a month no linger than 2k a swim and I beat half the pros out of the water in the last tri I did. Skill goes a long way in swimming.
Sooooo… Get better swim skills and your swim time will drop… OR you’ll use far less energy than you used to and can save it for the bike or run.
Getting those skills is the hard part. Coaching can get pricy and many coaches dont understand the concept of drilling till your mind is numb to make you better, they focus too much on the set, not the stroke.
TI is OK, but it kind of makes you a robot and depending on your current stroke, may not help at all.
I’m a huge fan on the stroke progressions in Bill Sweetenhams book Championship Swimming. It has served me very well as a coach and an athlete, So I would recommend getting the book, and following the stroke progressions to the T until you think you’re going to off yourself before you do another drill again. Cost effective too.
To me, the key to real swim skill progression is separating the skill sets/drills from the fitness sets. Rebuild the stroke, then build the fitness.
In a skill base sport, whatever it is, the skills should be worked on alone before you advance it to working them into the physical workouts.
You’re right about swimming being skill based sport and how important form is. I do think I need to improve my form to get faster and feel fresher leading into the bike. Coaches can be expensive but i’m sure are the best option. How much can you learn and apply to make you a better swimmer from a book versus having a coach there to direct and correct you when you are doing something incorrect?
In response to earlier question- bike split has been about 5:35-5:40 but think that I should be able to drop at least 20-30min off that next IM based on my bike improvements and testing.
Buy an endless pool, or suck it up princess.
How much can you learn and apply to make you a better swimmer from a book versus having a coach there to direct and correct you when you are doing something incorrect?
You can learn a ton. I did it. I had a swimming background but never swam past age 15. At 20, I got back in the water and over the next 6 years, through a lot of trial and error, developed a great smooth stroke. Very little on deck coaching during that time too.
It’s one of the reasons that I really like the Championship Swimming progressions. If you really work at them and put in an absurd amount of time doing what the book outlines, it’s hard to really F up. The skill progressions make it so that if you do each drill until it becomes super easy and second nature, you’ll build the stroke piece by piece.
There are a few other tricks that I’ve come across that help too that aren’t in the book. Get one of these stretchcords http://www.swim2000.com/product.php?pd_id=S11875
and do a week swimming on it ONLY. breath every three and do your sets by stroke count (15 strokes per 25, 5X200 = 5X120 strokes) it will force quite a few adjustments that will pay off huge in the end. If you think its crazy or silly, tell that to the DeBooms. They did it once a week for years. When doing these, pay attention to the kick timing. use the kick to switch the body from side to side and time it properly. When the right foot kicks, it pushes the right hip up and switches it over to the left side as the left hand enters the water to glide and catch. left kick switches it over to the right side. Watch this for the timing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8egC7PbOME&feature=related watch his right side only and see how that kick switches the body over/ pushes the hip up.
When you go back to swimming regular your feel the water like you’ve never felt it before. Pay attention, and it’ll tell you where your problems are.
Also, a great body position drill that Dara Torres used when she rebuilt her stroke is the Kickboard balance drill. Grab a stack of 10 kickboards and get your own lane. Start with one kickboard and work up to as many as you can without falling off.
Place the kickboard on your belly, curved end just above the hips. Lay face down in the water pointing towards the other end, and spread your arms and legs in a starfish position. Take a breath and lower your face in the water. Fronm there balance on the board and draw you belly up, like your thrusting you pelvis slightly. Bring your arms and legs slowly into a streamlined position and hold that balance for a few seconds. Roll of the kickboard and swim a strong, long 50 using that same balanced body position. Repeat with 2 kickboards, then 3 and so on until you can’t balance n the stack. I got to about 12, Dara used like 15 of something crazy. I really need so do a video of this for people.
You can build your stroke on your own if you do the work. You have to really listen to your body, and do an absurd amount of skill sets.
How much faster would you get if you focused only on swimming every day? What could you hope to turn in (properly pacing for the rest of the race)? 0:55:00? Why kill yourself over a 15 minute improvement in a 10 hour race?
Continue what you’re doing and bike/run more.
It’s not so much the saving of 10-15 minutes here and there. It’s the ability to go 55 without really having to work for it on race day and coming out of the water fresh as a daisy with essentially all of your energy in place for the bike and run.
How much faster would you get if you focused only on swimming every day? What could you hope to turn in (properly pacing for the rest of the race)? 0:55:00? Why kill yourself over a 15 minute improvement in a 10 hour race?
Continue what you’re doing and bike/run more.
I agree entirely! FLA Jill’s point is valid too. There is something to be said for being able to come out of the swim relaxed and comfortable. That’s a very different swim workout though than absolute speed.
I bet you could make up 10-15 minutes on the bike and run in a lot less time/effort than you could on the swim. And I like to swim!
It’s not so much the saving of 10-15 minutes here and there. It’s the ability to go 55 without really having to work for it on race day and coming out of the water fresh as a daisy with essentially all of your energy in place for the bike and run.
Jill, I’ll grant you that, but at what cost in terms of training time and overall volume?
If he stole 4 hours per week from both cycling and running to add extra swimming time could we expect him to gain ‘free’ time on the swim? (swim faster without going slower in the other two)?
Since the swim only comprises < 20% of a given triathlon the only reason it would make sense to devote extra training to it is if that focus could gain you 3 times the improvement that you’d get in cycling if that time were given to the sport of cycling (which is true for many strong cyclists who are weak swimmers BTW).
I think the key to this conversation is that the OP is wondering if there is something he/she can do during the already assigned swim training time to get a better result than 1:10. I say there is.
The easy way to get better at swimming is to swim more and hire a coach, but the easier way to be a faster triathlete is to optimize the already set training time to achieve the fastest triathlon result.
Given the 3 days a week training that the OP is doing, what can he/she do during those workouts to be faster without adding more time in the pool?
I don’t hate swimming but I kind of hate having to go to the pool, fight for a lane, be around people and all that related stuff.
Does that make me agoraphobic? I don’t go out to eat or to movies for similar reasons.
I hate getting into the cold water in the morning
wahhhhh…
I don’t hate swimming but I kind of hate having to go to the pool, fight for a lane, be around people and all that related stuff.
Does that make me agoraphobic? I don’t go out to eat or to movies for similar reasons.
Same here.
Read DrDubs posts. If you improve your technique your times will get faster.
Since you’re talking about Ironman so I wouldn’t do any speed work. I would spend the entire session doing relaxed swimming working on technique. You’ll find that you can only swim relaxed with good technique for a certain distance, say 200m, before it falls apart. If that’s the case, try swimming 250 freestyle followed by 50 backstroke (the backstroke will loosen you up). Stop for 10-15 seconds and repeat. You can gradually build up the distance but I wouldn’t bother going much beyond 4-500m at a time. People underestimate how fit and fast you can get just by swimming slowly and getting technique correct. Especially if you’re only swimming 3hrs a week, you want to spend as much time as possible swimming, not hanging onto the wall.
The 3 major things that I would think about as I swim my relaxed 300’s…
Head position: It’s natural to want to look forward so you can see where you’re going but this is WRONG. It forces your hips down in the water which increases your drag. Your head should basically be in the same position as when you are walking - so you should be looking straight down at the bottom of the pool. You can easily demonstrate the benefits of this by kicking on your front with your hands by your side. If you look forward your hips sink, if you look down you hips pop up (also, remember to turn to breath, don’t lift to breath).
Admittedly if you’re doing wetsuit swims, some of the effects of a bad head position are reduced by the added flotation. Nevertheless, head position is important. At the very least, if your head is down you will find it easier to bring your arms over in the recovery phase of the stroke. This is important, especially for poeple who don’t have a “swimmers” flexibility, and will help conserve energy.
Kick: People can waste a lot of energy trying to kick too hard. Unless you’re tyring to be world class, kicking hard is likely to tire you out for minimal benefit. All you need to do is remember to point your toes and for your kick to be small and consistent. Pointing your toes streamlines your legs and a small / consitent kick will help keep your body position firm while keeping your hips up. Also, thinking small will generally prevent over-bending of the knees which will result in you wallowing from side to side.
most importantly in my opinion
Catch: The major problem you see with most people’s catch is that they try to keep their arms too straight or they start the catch too late. A straight arm is weak and trying to catch this way will (a) put a lot of pressure on your shoulders (b) inevitably lead to you dropping your elbows. Look at any serious swimmer and you’re notice that they have a “high elbow catch”. The way this works… When you start your catch the first action should be your hand, wrist and forearm moving down and “catching” the water while your elbow and upper arm should remain pointing straight in front of you, basically along the surface of the water. This is sometimes explained as like putting your arm over a barrel. Once you’ve “popped” your elbow like this (or placed your arm over the barrel) you can proceed with the rest of your stroke. If you get the catch right you can swim super relaxed, yet pretty fast and without putting much presure on your shoulders.
A good catch is much easier to show than it is to explain. If you swim at a pool with a good coach, maybe ask them to demonstrate. I wouldn’t recommend just watching what other people do (even reasonably good swimmers) because most people don’t get it 100% right and if it’s not 100% right it might confuse you. I used to swim next to a group of masters who swam 5-6km over about 90 minutes 4x a week (which is pretty good going). I wouldn’t have used any of them as an example of getting the catch right. They were pretty good, definitely better than most swimmers out there, but IMO they all, to varying degrees, missed the first part of the catch.
Couple of drills to help with your catch… As posted above, swimming attached to a cord tied to the blocks can be great for your catch. At the very least, if you’re tied to a cord and you think about catching like described above, if you’re doing it correctly you’ll feel some pressure in your lats. Always nice to get feed back that you’re on the right track. In general when using a cord, get your head in the right position (ie. looking down) and then swim out steadily (not hard). When you’ve stretched the cord out, pick a point on the bottom of the pool and try to hold your position. If you don’t have a high catch you won’t get far (and you won’t feel it in your lats), and if you don’t have what my coach used to call a “continuous circle of power” (eg. when one hand has exited and is no longer propelling you the other hand should have started propelling you) you will bounce back and forth against the cord. If you’re holding still, at least you know your stroke is even.
Another ok drill is simply swimming water polo style with your head up. If you can swim with your head up facing straight forward, chances are, you’re catching correctly. If your head is sinking into the water or you’re not moving forward, chances are, you’re not catching correctly.
If you spend your 3 hrs a week improving your catch, kick and head position though lots of moderate paced swimming (with only short rests), you will get the most out of your time.
Disclaimer: All that was wirtten in a hurry so I hope it makes sense.
Very good post and I think DrDubs nailed it too.
When you swim more easily with better technique swimming becomes much more fun.