I’m training for Oly and sprint distances. Want to swim total of 2 hours a week. Over a 1000 yd time trial my avg 100 time is 1:40 per 100. Everything else being equal am I better off doing 4 x 30 minute swims a week or 2 x 45 and 1 x 30. Assume same mix of steady stuff and intervals, etc is the 4th day of swimming beneficial even if my total weekly time is the same regardless?
Thanks
If you are content with 2hrs a week swimming, do what workouts will give you the most yards in those 2 hrs… Personally, I can probably get more yardage in 4x30 minutes, but I’ll do those 30 minutes pretty fast with no break.
I’d encourage you to go the 4 x 30 minutes route. Being that swimming takes place in a “foreign” environment (prone and buoyant instead of upright with feet on the ground), and is largely technique governed, I think that it’s important to develop and maintain a feel for the water by being in it as often as possible.
What you do with those 30 minutes is important too of course. Without knowing more about your particular situation, I’d suggest including some drill and kick work in each session, then use one session for extra drill work, one session for long aerobic work, and two sessions for intervals and pace work.
Good luck!
I am trying to write an essay. I have two pens: a black pen and a blue pen. Will my essay be better using the blue pen or the black pen?
I am trying to write an essay. I have two pens: a black pen and a blue pen. Will my essay be better using the blue pen or the black pen?
SH, are you being cantankerous again? 
Joe maybe you could alternate weeks–do a 3x/week then a 4x/week schedul–to allow for longer sessions and higher yardage/session on your 3x/week weeks but still have the benefit of more days in the water on the 4x/week days. .
I am trying to write an essay. I have two pens: a black pen and a blue pen. Will my essay be better using the blue pen or the black pen?
In that case, why not just use a sharpie for your essay and swim once per week?
I would do 4x30 and I would swim straight(no intervals with rests). I would swim easy one lap and the next lap swim as hard as you can and keep repeating till you get to 30 mins. But I am not a pro swimmer or anything but this works for me.
I am trying to write an essay. I have two pens: a black pen and a blue pen. Will my essay be better using the blue pen or the black pen?
Spend money on a fancy CPU. This way your hand won’t get tired and you’ll have more energy for other tasks.
30min is a warm up for the swimmers I coach. 4x30min will do little to nothing, it takes you way more time to drive, dress and shower. Since you only have 2hrs, 2x1hr of very hard swimming may do something for you. Still way below what is needed to see any significant improvements. Certainly, you can disregard this post too if you want.
We swim about the same speed. I am a mop guy. This last season I generally swam 2x per week for 45 mins. In the past I would swim 3x per week for 30 mins or 2x per week for an hour. There really was no difference in my opinion. If you want to just maintain your current swim times and have two hours to spend on swimming I would do 2x60 min per week and spend the time you save on traveling to do extra run and bike.
Joe-
Couple of things to think about.
Do you have the time to drive to the pool, get changed, swim, shower, get dressed, etc 4x per week. You have to add at least 20-30 minutes of time to every swim workout for all of the ‘logistics’. To me, that is wasted time.
With that said, swimming twice a week is not going to help you improve. 2x per week is at best a maintenance approach to swimming but more then likely potential declines(unless your starting from a really low point). The only way to swim better is to swim more and swim frequently. I would aim for 3-4x per week in the pool at a minimum and forego all of the driving around 
The more days you are in the pool the more ‘feel’ you will have/get for the water. Have you ever taken an extended break from swimming and then came back and felt ‘off’. That’s what you would be doing to yourself(on a smaller level) every week if you only swam twice.
Swim more my friend…enjoy the water.
You will get exponential returns on your swims for everyone you do more than 3. You will get exponentially better results for each workout for every minute after 30.
So this is an unsolvable puzzle. The answer is 4 x 40. Come on, what’s 10 minutes!
First, sounds like you are a decent swimmer so if you are ok with just keeping that speed/fitness, 2 hrs may be enough. If this is correct, I would do 2 swims a week at 1 hr a piece - you may also be able to do 2x45 min swims and an easy 30 min swim, but those 2 45 min swims better be very high quality. 30 min seems very short unless you can get properly warmed up really quickly…like 5 min. Most people don’t fall into that category so 30 min swims are most of the time not enough time to get a quality workout in. If you are in the very small subset of people that can warm up in 5 min or less, 30 min swims may work, but I would not suggest it. I come from years of swimming competitively and I have raced on little to no swim training (less or equal to 2 hrs/week), but just be prepared not to make huge gains in training or racing in the swim leg. If you are ok with staying the same as you are (if you are focusing on running or biking right now) then 2 hrs sounds good to me.
Like most have already stated, to make improvements you must swim more…more than 2 hrs/week. If you want to swim faster than you are right now, I would say that you need somewhere in the vicinity of 3-4x60 min swims per week of quality work in all of those workouts…so 3-4 hrs/week. This is the minimum that I would say you need to improve. If you want to see bigger improvements, swimming 5x’s a week with a master’s or high school team is probably the best bet.
Hope this helps and hope you get what you want out of your swimming.
If i had only 2 hours a week i would do 3 workouts, 2x45m and 1x30min. I would use a super abbreviated warm up each time like 5x100 on an interval of around 10 to 15 sec rest, and descend to a really fast last 100. I would then do sets of 100’s or 200’s on short rest at race pace and above. The only drilling would be hard and fast pulling. If i kicked at all, it would be no more than 300, and that would be super fast on short rest. That would get me about 8500+ yards a week, and since all of it would be done hard, at the very least i could maintain, and possibly even improve a little bit…That is what i would do with my 2 hours to get the max value out of it, others might need something different.
I agree. I just played the numbers he gave. I would not even bother going to the pool for 30min workout. I drive 15min to the pool+ 15min back+ 20min for dressing and showering. 30min is a waste of time. Only if you are 8 and under, developmental swimmer, you may see some benefits from stroke work 4x30min. Others have wasted their time. Now, given, a lot of adult triathletes are about at that level.
Thanks for all the feedback.
To clarify just a little–I swim at lunch at a YMCA this is literally a 1 minute drive from work and I will combine my swim w/ a 30 minute weights or treadmill run.
I’d likely do 1 hour workouts. Do my swim for an hour and then do my run for an hour the next day and alternate. I find, with a warm up and cool down an hour session is about the minimum for me to get my workout in. But I’m old and fat so this may not apply to you. :).
I am trying to write an essay. I have two pens: a black pen and a blue pen. Will my essay be better using the blue pen or the black pen?
Crayon.
Why not mix it up. What about something like. 30min sprints, 30min tempo, 1hr endurance. Sprints = power, tempo = lungs, endurance = form. As you get closer to the event spend more time on sprints and tempo.
I think you make some really good points.