one of my goals this year will be to break 20min for a 1500 Olympic distance open water swim. ive been 4min shy of that for the last two years.
so far on the plan to get there ive got:
Going from cycling 4+times and running/swimming 3-5x per week to 2 bike sessions only and focusing on training my swimming and running.
Joining Masters and putting in 3-4 workouts a week there.
anyone got any more ideas for tips or mini-goals to help me get there?
$0.02
practice as much OWS as possible. make sure that your sighting and line choices are as efficient as possible. i have wasted a lot of time by swimming 1800 meters on a 1500 meter course.
after that, just get to the front of the start line, take off with the faster swimmers, hold on as long as you can, and draft the fastest feet you can hang on to
2x that thought. Also have a video done of your stroke and have someone look at it. I have been coming over center with oneside causing me to veer one way . Iin OW with no lane line it is magnified greatly . I zigzagged twice from one side to the other in NYC. Putting 2-3 minutes on my time
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Are you a dude or dudette? Significantly easier goal if you’re a dude. Dudes have better shoulder design for swimming. And you’ve got a good plan, so you just get the pep talk to put the effort into it all.
How long is masters practice? I’d want at least an hour and a half in a program that isn’t too sprint specific. Don’t ditch the IM sets. The discipline from them is a Good Thing. And put a good amount of effort into you. Not like you have much need for those upper body muscles as long as you can still steer a bike properly. It should take a surprising amount of effort to get your arms above your head to wash any hair after practice.
No answers from me (just yet), but a few questions:
It is an awesome goal that you are setting out on, I would like to hear more about it,
r.b.
practice as much OWS as possible.
x3. Also practice with someone faster than you, and don’t focus so much on yardage, but quality of the workouts. At 41 last year I was as fast as I ever was swimming about 12,000 OW yds./wk. with two training partners that pushed me (both women that I was faster than, but there was no way I was every going to get chicked in a set).
There is a difference between training to make the distance at a decent clip and training to go fast. Going fast (whatever that means to you) is built on high effort shorter swims to build strength. Fla Jill’s comment about not being able to wash your hair after practice is right on. You need to make your arms hurt.
The basic answer is that 1500m @ 20 min = about 1:06 per 100 yd pace. So, you’re training to be able to swim 1:06’s for 20 minutes straight. Just time every single repeat you do in practice with that pace in mind. You can’t go a 20 min 1500 until it is very easy to knock of 1:06 100’s.
As a general rule, a nice test set would be 10 fairly short rest (10 - 20 sec) 100 repeats. You need to be able to at least hold your race pace and hopefully go a couple seconds faster since you are planning on biking and running after the swim so really you need to train to go about 18-19 minutes in a pure 1500m race. When you do sets of longer swims (eg 500’s) you need to get so it is not go out and drink champagne if you do a couple in a row under 5:30. That’s all there is to it. And yes, it helps alot to actually only go 1500m so work on navigation and swimming straight.
Is knocking 4:00 off the swim the #1 issue or are you trying to knock 4:00 off your overall Olympic time? It is nice to see that you want to improve your swim and don’t have the attitude of “it is what it is” - there is always room to improve but is this goal realistic? You might be able to shave some time off in your transitions and better pace yourself on the bike and run to shave some time off there as well.
Improve swim by 1:30
Improve T1 by :15
Improve Bike by 1:00
Improve T2 by :15
Improve Run by 1:00
Total 4:00
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1500m @ 20 min is 1:20 per 100m or about 1:13 per 100 yd.
I’m going to go a little against the grain here. Swim open water only enough to know that you can sight well and are comfortable in a lake or whatever. You will get your fitness in the pool, and it is too easy to dork around in open water.
If you can’t do a set of 15x100m holding 1:20s or on about the 1:25 interval, you’ll likely have a tough time breaking 20 minutes for a 1500m open water swim unless you are one of the rare swimmers who swim better in open water than you do in a pool or are really good at finding and staying on the right feet. If your Master’s program does not do sets like this, then you’ll need to swim on your own some. You should also swim faster than your goal pace some as well.
I won’t say it can’t be done, but 4 minutes off of a 24 minute swim time is almost 20%, and that’s a lot.
Cutting 4 minutes on the swim is a lot…
Especially when you get closer to 20mins.
My best advice… the one I’ve been giving for a year to the swimming group I coach -------RELAX. Concentrate on your technique.
Dont go too hard. Swimming is a feeling sport. Learn to relax in the water. There is no shortcut… so you have to enjoy swimming…
Good luck, keep us updated!
I swam 18:22 in a pool with 2-3x a week of quality and technique stuff…
(ohh yeah i’m not mentionning the 10 years swimming 7-9times a week before…)
Learn to relax and be patient! 
David
Don’t forget the “free speed” - Get a good wetsuit. I believe the water rover really helps - but may be illegal soon (not positive on that)
A 20 minute long course meters 1500 converts to a 19:18 short course yards 1650 using a popular online conversion calculator (http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/results/conversions.asp). So the short course yards pace is about 1:10 per 100.
The best way to break 20 minutes in an open water swim is to be able to find and stay with someone who will swim it in 19:58.
David K
Be a decent swimmer in junior high and high school.
A sub 55-sec. 100 yard free PR helps a lot. Sub-50 sec. 100 pretty much guarantees it.
It also helps when the course is short and the chop is at your back …
How 'bout a short course? Half seriously, just enter lots of races and it’ll only be a matter of time before you hit a short enough course and Presto!.. sub-20, without even having to swim any harder.
OW distance measurements are such a crapshoot, at one series of Olys put on in the same lake by the same RD, I swam a 24, a 20, and a 17 all while my 1650 time checks in the pool were consistently in the 22-23 range (first guy out of the water when I did my 17 was 13-something, which would whup Grant Hackett if it were even close to legit).
Apples and Oranges.
To Begin, If I swim a 500 open-salt-water I can swim it in 5:30. Put on a wet-suit and I can brake 5:00 or 4:55.
Swimming in the pool is less buoyant so it will make you swim harder. But you have lines and lanes and if you work the wall you can swim 15% less per 25 with a decent turn.
My recommendation: Do you live near the beach or can you get to the beach regularly in the warmer seasons? Swim with a good beach patrol. They train in open water and they train fast! I win a lot of swims in triathlons. I am the captain of a beach patrol and I have 16 year old girls who can swim 19’s on the 1500 with no wetsuit. I have kids who swim circles around me and then get out and run. You really have to train with faster people year after year to achieve such goals. I don’t know if I can help you out but I live in Southern Delaware. I know plenty of guards you can train with throughout the summer, up and down the eastern seaboard.
And; if your goal is still 4 minutes off of 20, why don’t you swim…lets say…“a minute faster this year?”
Cutting 4 minutes on the swim is a lot…
Especially when you get closer to 20mins.
David
Absolutely.
My advice from experience: Do practice OWS. And do find a venue that lets you swim from a fixed point to another fixed point in 3-7 minutes. Fixed points you can see and measure in Google Earth.
This lets you practice your sighting, it gives you brutal feedback since you time every interval, and it will teach you what matters in order to go fast enough for long enough.
You’ll find out real fast that going harder alone will not cut it…
Thanks for all the replies and advice! I’m very motivated to become a well-rounded triathlete as opposed to a cyclist-triathlete that i’ve been in the past.
some answers to questions posted:
Im a dude. I live in Long beach/Newport beach, CA (school/parents house). my normal swim volume has been about 10k per week with big weeks of 15k in 3-4 sessions per week. the only “benchmarks” that ive done in the past are either 500yd tts in the pool or 3x300 w 1min rest between 300’s (taken from “swim workouts for triathletes” book). typical # of strokes per lap 20+/-1.
after a lot of frustration and reading im starting a different approach to swimming that includes a longer easier warmup focusing on form and relaxing with drills incorporated into the first 1000yds. im going to be patient and avoid the anaerobic sets that id always end up doing all the time chasing faster times that only left me frustrated. More aerobic, more feel for the water, more days per week in the water, then more yardage per day. more satisfaction by progressing patiently. and more motivation by training with a group of people faster than me.
I will definitely incorporate open water practices weekly staring next month. i have to take advantage of the beaches in OC and bay in long beach.
I’ll definitely keep anyone interested up to date. plans for a blog are in place and will be put into action this week. i best be off to bed to make it to the workout tomorrow morning.
o and i did have a little trouble with the shampoing after my swim last night 
gettin there!
thanks everyone.
Wow. First off, I just have to notice how similar athletes we are… (not knowing your age, but Im assuming you are teen’s/early twenties) So cal, same goal time, and more or less same strokes per lap…
Secondly, There is a lot of good advice on this thread, so use it!
And finally, Yes, you can take 4min off in one year. I did.
If you put in the time and effort, you will do it.