Im about to start my swim focus and I am just curious how others lay this out … how many bike and run sessions do you do per week? how many swims per week? Do you do doubles - am and pm swims? Just curious … I think mine will look something like this:
2 days of doubles and 3 days single swim workouts, 2 bike workouts, 3 run workouts and 1 rest day
My swim focus, is basically along the lines of Slowman’s “Picklehead” article (search his articles under “Picklehead”). Whereby, you basically just think of yourself as a swimmer and nothing else for a while, sure I go ride, maybe once or twice a week. I would probably do a couple easy and short runs too, if I were not currently nursing an injury. But the rest of the time, I’m thinking about “Pickling”. Five swims a week minimum, three or four of those Masters workouts. Trying to double my normal average weekly yardage, and maintain that for a period of weeks. If I say to myself, “I’ve got to do X number of workouts”, or X number of yards, I think I’ll burnout, instead, I keep a running total in my mind (and logbook) and just keep trying to press the envelope of what I can do within the condfines of not making it another stress in my life. Loose structure to the week, but swim focused.
I’m trying to swim 6X-week (4 at the pool and 2 on a Vasa Ergometer). I’m cycling 2X and going for lots of short runs 4-5X.
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Swim 6-10 times a week.
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Drop the rest day.
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Keep the running frequency up, min 5xweek.
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Do this for 2-3 months, not 2-3 weeks.
I have it scheduled for 10 weeks … why so much running during the swim focus? I have a few weeks of run focus in my plan after the 10 weeks of swimming. I figured I would need the rest day to save my shoulders … no?
The days when you swim just once are for resting your shoulders.
join the swim challenge!
I am way behind!
I will catch up soon, we hope…
Thanks for the clarification Paulo! I guess I should have just left my bike sit in the box for a bit longer so I could have conserved my energy for all the swimming & running thats to come 
well I guess so … I only have 6,300 and I still have a week of recovery from IMFL so I think I will be the loser of the challenge
Sergio’s bike is still in the box and he raced Hawaii
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For real? 15 workouts a week during the Fall? Wow. For those of us with jobs…
Try the following:
Swim - 4/week. Don’t worry about yards in two of them. Pick a specific stroke focus. even on the 2 workouts with sig. yardage, keep it moderately paced and keep the stroke technique perfect. Lots of shoulder stretching on off days.
Bike - 2/week
Run - 2/week
Do this through Dec. and then pick up the frequency and intensity as the calendar moves to 2007.
6-10 swims per week will crush your will to live.
K
Probably my fault, but you got it wrong.
I was giving advice to “2fast4u”, not the vast audience that reads us. There isn’t a formula that fits everyone. Hopefully yours fits you.
more is MORE!
that’s why the 15 workouts a week!
Probably my fault, but you got it wrong.
I was giving advice to “2fast4u”, not the vast audience that reads us. There isn’t a formula that fits everyone. Hopefully yours fits you.
Yes, as many on here would blow their shoulders up (in a bad, not bodybuilding, way) with a load like that.
you’re right, some could even die due to chlorine poisoning.
Just swim man! More is MORE. Join the challenge and try beating Baldric:
more is MORE!
that’s why the 15 workouts a week!
I’ll trust you were being facetious, but more really isn’t more with swimming. That would be akin to a golfer saying to just swing harder in order to get more distance on a drive.
Swimming is so heavily technique based vs. running or cycling that more truly isn’t more. I’d be disheartened if a majority of Slowtwitchers felt that loading up massive yardage on the swim was the road to improvement.
True, for some 15 workouts/week with 10 swims is a great way to spend November, but as was pointed out, for many masters aged racers, that kind of training load is a sure fire way to end up with an injury.
Or chlorine poisoning.
Or divorced.
K
I’ll trust you were being facetious
sort of. But more time in the water really will help.
Got to go with Paulo on this one. While that many swims is a challenge (certainly if you’re prone to eye infections at the moent as I seem to be), there’s no special reason for a full-time worker to be training so little. What you do now has more to do with what you can fit in, what you’ve done before, what you respond best to and when/what your next target race is.
I work full-time and do freelance writing and coaching, and I STILL have time for:
5 runs per week (4x45-60 and 1x20 off the long ride)
5 bikes per week (4x60 and 1x4hrs)
3 swims (I would swim more but for the eye thing!)
And I commute 80 miles per week to/from work on the bike.
Be careful about doing any sort of focus week this soon after completing an Ironman. It is a common scenario where your body starts to feel good again, your motivation is through the roof, and there is still a tremendous amount of deep fatigue. I have had it happen to me on multiple occasions.
Especially after my first few finishes, I tried to do something along the lines of what you describe with swimming everyday, multiple swims on many days and LOTS of yardage. I started 2 weeks after the race finish, my body felt better than expected plus I figured that I was still resting my legs from the bike and run. After a couple of weeks of maintaining the swim focus I was suddenly hit by a lot of fatigue. Hit me like a load of bricks.
I am sure that others could chime in on this as well. It is very easy to do after being in a mindset of training for an Ironman and not knowing what to do with the blocks of time used for training combined with the euphoric feeling of accomplishment that generally comes after an Ironman.
Have fun with your training as you get back into it, but proceed cautiously with any sort of focus period this soon after such a stressful event to the body.