My Swim workouts are sometimes flat because I get into the pool at 6AM the morning after a long run, brick or intense ride. I struggle to keep up with the group and many times peform at a lower level than what I’m capable of. To mitigate this I try to get up a little earlier, stretch, do some light core work, take a dump, take in some liquid calories (with caffeine), etc. but lately that stuff hasn’t been working.
Anyone else have this issue? Is this just part of the game or is there something I can do/try to help myself be sharper for my swim workouts?
yeah im super beat up from a long weekend of fri-sat-sun madness on the bike and run. on friday i swam hard 500 warm up, 10 x 200, 200 cool down and then went off for 2 days sat and sun(my pool didnt open til 10 both days and i was out the door on the bike before then, couldnt get myself to go for the evening swim) and now id like to get a swim in today, but im pretty beat. is it still worth splashing around?
depending on you short term goals, you may be better served by taking an easy week across the board. you know your body better than all of us here combined - maybe take a listen to it.
im racing in new orleans on april 5th…going for a clearater spot…im gunning for a top 2 finish in 20-24. i dont think i can afford a slow week. unless im doing this all wrong…?
Personally, I still find it worthwhile in general to swim after a tough weekend of biking and/or running. You’ll definitely feel the beat legs especially coming off the turns, but I just try to focus on some decent pull sets, and also a little bit of easy kicking (particularly breaststroke) helps to loosen up sore legs and help them recover a little better.
If your training is flat because you don’t sleep enough, then sleep more. Never sacrifice sleep for miles.
If you are beaten up from training before, make sure you do some swimming each week where you don’t swim tired. Very important to do some fast swimming without being beaten up, even if this means you do some of your other efforts really easy to prevent you from blowing up in the pool.
Pretty sure I’m sleeping and eating right. I’m getting about as much sleep as I did during IM build last year. Wrapped up a hard couple of weeks yesterday. Spent a lot of time on Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun in mid to high heart rate during workouts.
Recovery week this week and hoping that I can get my edge back on the swimming.
I just discovered the value of the pull buoy. My swim coach doesn’t like them so we never used them. I would often have the same problem on Monday swims. Even though that was my “technique” lesson my legs would always be burnt and I just couldn’t keep up my form for the full hour long lesson. The plan I’m following this season has several workouts throughout the week that have quite a few “pull” sets. If you utilize them in the right place throughout the week they seem (so far at least) to keep your legs fresh for the more focused efforts. I’m not sure how much the help or hinder your form long term though.
im racing in new orleans on april 5th…going for a clearater spot…im gunning for a top 2 finish in 20-24. i dont think i can afford a slow week. unless im doing this all wrong…?
You’re racing in 30+ days, shouldn’t you be about starting a taper?
i think you sort of answered your question yourself with the word “about”… and its not 30+ days, its 34 days, every single day counts…
but as far as tapering yeah im getting close, but i still have another 18 solid days before i taper the last 14 days(the way im planning it at least)…im 22 years old. my body doesnt need the whole month to charge up.
I don’t know if this helps but when I used to do 2 a days in the pool my morning workout was terrible. My body just didn’t like swimming in the morning. I just couldn’t seem to performs as well as others in the morning. Over time I came to realize that I was getting an immense benefit from those morning practices. I decided to not worry about my speed. If I wanted to swim fast it was going to be in the evening.
First step is to accept that you are not performing “at a lower level than what you are capable of” In fact, unless it is an overtraining issue, you are performing at exactly at the level you are capable under those conditions.
You get faster through rest, not grinding yourself into the grind every week. Just sayin’
This sums it up. A big part of our day-to-day fatigue is not the intensity of the preceding workouts, but the lack of adequate rest in between. Getting up by 5:30 for a 6am swim pretty much guarantees that you didn’t get enough sleep - especially after going long on the weekend. I have to hit the pool by 5am, so I’m out the door by 4:45. If I don’t go to bed before 9pm, I feel like complete crap for the first 500 yards. That is to say that I **always **feel like crap for the first 500 yards. But when your options are limited, you have to work around them. I say, keep the intensities the same, but try to get to sleep earlier the nights before you swim. The caffeine and dump can’t hurt either.
