I’m 24 and a complete beginner at swimming. I started swimming in October with the goal of competing in a 70.3 this summer. Up to now I’ve been swimming 3, sometimes 4 times a week, doing a mix of Master’s swim classes (I get my own workout), a stroke class (lots of 25s and 50s with drills), and some swims on my own, where I do 20-30 minutes of drills and kicking followed by some longer pulls. I’ve gotten good feedback on my stroke, and while it’s far from perfect, I’m at the point where I can feel when it’s good, and when it falls apart. I find that I am able to do sets of 25s very well, 50s pretty good, but after 50m, it starts deteriorating. I feel like my muscular endurance is lacking (aerobically I feel fine), but like my arms, shoulders and lats just die.
Do you think it would be more beneficial for me to start on the short end, focusing on speedier sets of 25s and 50s, then progressing up to 75s and 100s, or should I do long, steady swims and pulls to improve, and work up to speed? Or, a mix of both? I enjoy the shorter sets more because they are challenging but I can work at them; with the longer stuff, my focus gets zapped alongside my form.
Keep up a little of the short stuff, but focus more/most of practice on slowing it down so you can comfortably do repeats of 200s and 300s with about 30 seconds of rest. (which is where you start to put together the technique/muscular endurance for tri swimming)
One of my favourite sets are Easy, Build, Easy Hards (EBEH).
For example…pick 5-10 x 200 EBEH which would be 200 easy, 200 build, 200 easy, 200 hard. On a 1-10 effort level, easy is 2, build is 6, and hard is 7-8. You can also change both the number of repeats or the length (do 100s, or 400s). Take anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds rest between or even try to do continuously.
If you are doing a 70.3 this summer, I would reduce the focus on 25s and 50s to 1 session per week, except for maybe warm up and cool down sections and try to focus your main sets on continuous and/or longer sets. This might result in some workouts with reduced yardage (say if you just do 1x750 as a main set) but you need to get your mind trained as well to swim non-stop at a relaxed pace to match what you will expect to do on race day.
I’ve been swimming for a few years and would certainly not be mistaken for a fishy.
One thing I was told when I first started swimming was to only swim as far as I could maintain good form. At first this lasted about 3 strokes and took a lot of restraint because I wanted to go farther and faster right away. I am still no picture of grace in the pool but am light years ahead of where I started.
My vote would be to keep doing 25’s and 50’s but to do them well and then gradually extend your distance as your endurance improves.
Rob
The best money that you could spend would be to get a personal tri coach. You need workouts that are sufficiently challenging without being overwhelming. You need someone that sets up the program and reviews your progress over the phone each week. I did this and in 3 short weeks I have made amazing progress with swimming. I am using Vision Quest Coaching in Chicago.
Short repeats are great but, longer swims are important too. If you looked at the workouts done by elite swimmers, they have a mix of speed work and longer repeats. Granted, their speed work might be 100’s or 200s and the longer stuff might be mind numbingly long sets but the theory applies to all swimmers. You have to mix it up.
Keep doing the 25s and 50s you are doing now. They will be a big help to you in building up your strength if you work them. But also add in some sets of 200s. That’s a good longer distance repeat for a newbie. You’ll have to go slower to make them but that is OK. On the longer swims, you will still get to the point where your stroke will start to deteriorate if you are working them but it won’t be as sudden or as drastic as it is in the sprints so you can work over a longer period of time on holding it together.
Also do some long continuous swims. 500s would be a good place to start on the long swims but since you are training for a half, at some point down the road you should also start doing some 1000 - 2000 yrd swims to work on pacing. If you are short on time, I would suggest for now cutting back on the pulling and kicking. These can be vaulable tools but they are not the most efficient way to spend your time so if something has to give, I would drop this stuff for now so you can swim more.
Thanks for the input. I like the reasons fitforlife and STP gave for doing short stuff, so I’ll keep doing a little of that, but it sounds like I should concentrate in the 100-300 range, so I’ll put my energy there. I have done a few 500 pulls, it’s hard and I definitely see my 100 times fall of very fast after the first and second. Hopefully some steady sets in the 100-200 range will help me extend.
Once you have a functional technique, get in a good base first. Speedwork doesn’t mean much for a 1.2 mile swim to start off your 70.3 race. Get your endurance first, and the speed will come later.
I’ve been swimming for a few years and would certainly not be mistaken for a fishy.
One thing I was told when I first started swimming was to only swim as far as I could maintain good form.
I’m no fish either, but this is the approach I’ve taken and it worked out okay.
The secret for me was to do a nice long warmup with a lot of drill focus. I’d follow that with some type of set that mixed short intervals with longer stuff. Broken 500’s, Broken 200’s, 500 ladders, whatever. As soon as i got tired and felt my form start to slip, I stop the main set and start back with really easy paced drill work, focusing on keeping the form up. 90% of what you need now is muscle memory and one of the best times to work on this is when you are fatigued.