Hello all, I’m very new to triathlon…ard 2 years and was wondering and perhaps would like some advice on my swimming fitness, how would I improve on it, did typically 26mins on OD and 35mins on HIM.
I normally have 3 swim sessions in a week, a 45mins EZ swim, a mixed set like broken IMs, drills and 200s. Lastly, a 400s and 200s intervals.
And a 1 hour swim every 2 weeks or so.
What do you guys think? any inputs? thanks alot!
for 2 years i have been swimming for 30-35 minutes doing 1500-1800 yards each time.when the new school year started (i drop off my son) i decided to start swimming hard, 7:45 was my best 500 scy time. so i did 200 intervals trying to come in at 3 min 300 trying to come in 4:30 and in 4 weeks of these type workouts my time dropped to 7:28. so instead of swimming easy try swimming hard
3 times a week? Swim more. If you don’t have the swimming backgroud it can take a real long time to improve on this kind of routine. I recommend 5 days a week if you have the stomach for the smell of chlorine and straw like hair. But, you will see big gains a lot quicker. Also maybe consider a stroke analysis with someone who can video you on the surface and under the water.
Do you have a goal? You need to know what you want to accomplish before you decide how much time and effort you’re going to invest in your swimming.
Ok… thanks guys, I’ll do just that then… 1 more thing, do i do the intervals everytime i hit the pool or 2-3 times in a week? Yup, think i could swim more days but all on intervals would be a bit too much for me.
anything on kicking?
thanks guys!!!
Ok… thanks guys, I’ll do just that then… 1 more thing, do i do the intervals everytime i hit the pool or 2-3 times in a week? Yup, think i could swim more days but all on intervals would be a bit too much for me.
anything on kicking?
Yes, do intervals every time you’re in the pool. Swimming training is all interval-based. They do not always have to be (nor should they be) intervals that you can barely make… do some sets on faster intervals, do some on intervals that are more forgiving.
This is one way to set up a swim workout:
warmup
kicking, drills, pulling work
main set
cool down
so you might do
400 warmup
4 x <------drills and kicking
4 x 100 pull (ON AN INTERVAL. like 1:30 or something) <-------pulling (grab a pull buoy.)
4 x 50 kick alternate easy/fast by 25 <-----kicking
4 x 500 (ON AN INTERVAL) <-------main set
200 cooldown
Get creative with the main sets. You can try to descend your 500s, for instance, meaning each is faster than the one before it. You can try to negative split them. Other main sets might be pyramids (100,200,300,400,500…you could go back down if you wanted)… you could do repeats on a descending interval (example: 3 x 200 on 3:00, 3 x 200 on 2:50, 3 x 200 on 2:40, 3 x 200 on 2:30… how fast of an interval can you do and still make the set 
) … all kinds of stuff. Oh yeah, you said you do IMs sometimes, swimming other strokes is fun.
If you want to swim distance free faster, get 1600-2200 yds in for main sets. On intervals 
you’ll get much faster than if you just get in the pool and swim back and forth.
PS: in November we’ll start the November Swim Challenge, which is this fun thing where we have a month-long thread with swim goals and workouts and you can log your training… it is fun and it is good for motivation!!! so you should join in
What I am going to do is recommend the following web site for you.
This is a great free web site that has an artificial intelligence program wrapped into it. The program will interpret your parameters that you put in. You can even set your goal race up for OWS and the distance you have set for your goal race. Then you choose the SC Coach feature for all of your workouts and it builds your workouts for you. If you don’t like the one it gives just click the SC Coach again and it gives you a brand new workout.
Does your base work for your, build, peak and taper. Takes all the guess work out of your swimming season. I have been using it and love it. Great results.
Good luck,
Mike
I’m not sure I’d trust my swim training to an artificially-intelligent internet site
.
Since I do read this site pretty regurarly I know you are one of the better swimmer on here. With that said…
The program was written by Sr National level swimmers for swimmers. I had great success with the program and swam a 24 min swim at Eagleman this year as well as Top 3 swim splits at every race I did this season. I am swimming faster right now at this moment than I have since I left college.
Take a look at the site and I think you would be surprised. But don’t write the web site off becuase it’s computer based. I think that’s a big mistake. I would be willing to bet that a lager protion of the masters teams use computer based programs for their workouts. In addition I would also be willing to bet that most USS teams and college team also use computer based programs for their season planning. Do you really think a coach is sitting around dreaming up workouts…
Do you really think a coach is sitting around dreaming up workouts…
Well, yes. ???
I did look at it… for fun, I created a profile and then had it give me some workouts for different events. I started with a 1650 and the first main set it gave me was 3 x 750 w/ pull buoy and paddles on 10:00. That’s alright (well, I’d make them 800s (on 10:30 or 11 maybe, and I’d swim rather than pull them). With a 500 it told me 3 x 400 on 5:20. That’s within the realm of what I might come up with for me too, though I’d be more likely to do 4-5 of them and descend them… distance sets are more fun when you can play with your splits and make the last repeats really hurt oops, there we go, me changing the workouts again… I’m not supposed to do that…
I will tell you that I’m pretty un-trusting by nature… to quote Molly Weasley, “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” I would have a really hard time trusting a website to plan my swim season, and would be more comfortable trying to do it myself (I am lucky to have some swim-training know-how, and even luckier to know some people who will answer questions for me about swim training). That said, I’m swimming with a masters team right now that has a good coach, so all I have to do is show up at the pool, swim as well as I can, and not get mad when he tells me that there are flaws in my freestyle
All very good points and I completely agree with you. There are a few things that I like about the program. 1st its free. 2nd as you said there are things that you like that the program dosn’t offer. The cool thing is that if you don’t like the particular set or you think it’s too easy/hard then you can go ahead and customize it to meet your needs.
For me getting up an hour earlier to swim with the masters guys is not worth it when I can get the same quality workout in over an hour later. For people who don’t have the luxry of a masters team the program will provide some structure that is going to help them in the long run. Obbviously in a real world I do agree that having a coach on deck is the best approach.
Just dosn’t fit my schedule.
Thanks for taking a look though…
I would be interested to see the algorithms it uses to come up with the workouts. It seems to kind of know what it’s doing so I am curious how it works! I have a chart that shows different types of training, describes them, tells you how often and when in the season to do them, examples of sets, percieved effort and % effort, heart rate, and training effect. Cool stuff. I wonder if the site uses something like that to create workouts for you.
You should join the November swim challenge in a couple weeks
I’ll see if I can’t get the guy who wrote the program to give up the goods. I would be interested to see how it works too as I work in IT and have a development and database background.
If I get the info I will be sure to pass it along.
I will consider joining in to the Nov challenge but I am going to be taking a break right after Clearwater 70.3. A much needed break…so my numbers may look a little weak.
I’m not sure I’d trust my swim training to an artificially-intelligent internet site
Why not? Lots of people trust their triathlon training to one.
…thanks for the advice! i’ll go do it… got alot to look forward to now… thanks again!
you may want to search the archives for swim workouts as well. There are several threads where people have written workouts. The workouts in a binder book, IMO as a former swim coach, is lacking. There are some other books out there with better designed workouts. Agina just my opinion.
I’m not sure I’d trust my swim training to an artificially-intelligent internet site
Why not? Lots of people trust their triathlon training to one.
I don’t think I could trust it becuase I don’t know how or why it works. Explain that to me, maybe I’d like it a little better.
I have fun torturing myself in the pool, you know
**** 400 warmup
4 x <------drills and kicking
4 x 100 pull (ON AN INTERVAL. like 1:30 or something) <-------pulling (grab a pull buoy.)
4 x 50 kick alternate easy/fast by 25 <-----kicking
4 x 500 (ON AN INTERVAL) <-------main set
200 cooldown
Just a word on this - Tigerchik wrote good, typical swim set - but she probably is faster and has better technique than you so you'd need to prioritise working on your own weaknesses. If you are new to swim, this would mean doing a lot more technique and stroke work: in effect that would be your main set rather than the interval work, as there's no point doing that unless you have a good stroke with which to apply it.
With your “EZ” swim set and others you can fit in drills no problems as they take virtually nothing out of you. In addition, doing interval work might leave you tired for other training sessions, so it’s best to incorporate that into your schedule.