i hate swimming because it’s boring and i’m damn slow. i swim about 4-5k a week, follow total immersion techniques with no improvement. if i double or triple my weekly volume to 10-15K a week, will i see faster results? i can’t see any other way to swim faster, but i’m willing to try anything for results…
please don’t recommend masters swimming. tried it and i hate pool swimming/laps even more than open ocean…
thanks all,
c
Last summer I decided that I needed to spend more time running and I took it from my swimming time.
While dropping the swimming volume I decided to make the best use of the swim time that I could.
I took the schedule from the book “Workouts in a Binder” and swam just the short versions of the workouts it prescribed. For the endurance swim I subsituted a 3-4k open water swim for it but kept the rest of them.
I was surprised at the improvement I made with less volume and swimming quality workouts.
My volume changes were from 14k a week to 10k a week, sometimes shorter. I train for the HIM distance, but if I went back to IM training I would do the same thing.
I’m also just a MOP swimmer
jaretj
I’d say up your mileage gradually - but keep up with the drills and skills. There’s lots of people out there that can hammer out big mileage with shitty technique. I’d also recommend masters (sorry). I got a nice big jump from doing masters a few years ago - doing laps does suck, but doing them with others makes it a bit more tolerable.
I swim 3500 4x a week - sometimes add some more distance - yes, I am getting faster - but even better, more efficient.
If not masters, at least try swimming with some other people. I swim once a week with triathlon training class and it is by far my hardest, fastest, best, and most fun workout of the week. I usually lead my intermediate lane, and for me there is nothing like knowing that there is a train of five other swimmers right on my tail to keep me cranking along. My other two swims during the week are on my own, and they are definitely slower.
I am swimming about 7000-7500 yards per week right now in preparation for IMWI. That will incease gradually during the season to a peak of about 10000 in late July/early August. Two years ago, I was a BOP sinker; last year I was MOP/BOP; this year I want to be at the tail end of the FOPs. I feel that my yardage is perfectly sufficient to achieve this goal.
Last year I was only able to swim about 1000-1200 yards at a time, maybe 3000/week. The big breakthrough for me, as it is for most, came when my technique improved, especially my balance. I went from being able to swim only about 200 yards with much struggling to now being able to handle 1000’s and 2000’s very smoothly and efficiently in less than six months. My fitness didn’t improve much, but better technique made it a great deal easier to get across the pool.
The way my technique improved? I went to the pool a lot – 4/5 days a week – and made drills an important part of every workout. I read a lot of books about swimming and committed myself to becoming a “swimmer”, not just a thrasher.
Good luck!
mm
i hate swimming because it’s boring and i’m damn slow. i swim about 4-5k a week, follow total immersion techniques with no improvement. if i double or triple my weekly volume to 10-15K a week, will i see faster results? i can’t see any other way to swim faster, but i’m willing to try anything for results…
please don’t recommend masters swimming. tried it and i hate pool swimming/laps even more than open ocean…
thanks all,
c
Personally, my body seems to respond much better to more frequent swims, than longer swims. So instead of 3-4 longer sessions, I churn out 5-6 shorter swims and feel much better for it.
M~
Most would agree that 4,000 a week is measly while more than 10,000 a week is overkill unless you are doing an IM in 2 months … Most people could improve a lot by improving technique (coaching?) and just trying for 3-4X a week totaling 8,000 yards a week for a couple months. Break it up: Do lots of kicking one day a week (try fins); do drills another; a big set (3,000 yards total) on another.
C,
While more swim time will increase your feel of the water and you will become more at ease swimming, that alone will not appreciably increase your swim speed.
The example is in running…how do we get faster? More, longer runs? Not exclusively! You need to mix in some “speed work” and not stop doing efficiency drills. Do some “build sets” where you do 100’s that build from 75% effort to 90+% effort over the course of the 100. Then, say every fourth one or so…do the whole 100 @ 90+%…teach your body to swim faster. Don’t just rely on your perception to judge your effort; use the clock.
Incorperate this “speed work” into longer swims as well…or do ladders and focus on maintaining your pace per 50 from the 50’s to the 100’s and the 200’s etc…all should work towards more speed.
Disclaimer: I am a MOP swimmer but have been working with a great coach (using some of the workouts above) who has moved my 100 times from 1:45 to 1:27 in the span of one winter…YMMV
Paul
I dropped 27 seconds off my 500 time after really starting to swim intensely. Used to swim 10k a week, average is 40k now.
Swimming more can help, if your technique is decent. If it’s not, you’ll be more swimming-fit and might improve a little, but not a ton.
40k a week? Jesus, I swam 5k a week training for Ironman and went about 1:10 in the swim, I need to hit the pool more often I guess.
a swim clinic might help. I dropped 12 secs/100yd after a few clinics last year. I had followed the total immersion techniques for about a year and half up to that point but was self teaching and was stuck at the same speed. there’s no substitute for someone standing on deck telling you what you’re doing wrong.
I’m a college swimmer, sort of – not on the team this year, just swimming their workouts on my own 
but I’m on it next year 
Also, have had 2 sfx and a bunch of running injuries, so the pool has been my little piece of heaven for the past four months since I can’t run.
Everyone forgot the first rule of triathlon, the swim doesn’t count!
Seriously, I wouldn’t kill myself to take a few seconds to minutes off my swim time, when I could focus my training instead on running or biking and make much bigger gains. However, to actually get to your question, I concur with others in that I started out a slow swimmer, got some good coaching to improve my technique, and now do about 3 sessions per week, two speed/drill related, and one long (3,000m+) swim. The long swim really helps with endurance to make sure I don’t feel wiped after finishing the swim and have nothing left for the bike/run.
The above combination has helped me get to the point where I’m not super speedy, but I’m happy enough with my swim times that I now focus limited training hours on the bike and run.
Chris
Until you have good-excellent technique, forget about yardage and work on figuring out how to swim better. Do nothing but swim slowly and work on drills. But you need to do this right for it to work, so you may need a good coach. ANd BTW, that means someone who knows how to teach technique and actually cares, not someone who just shouts out sets.
If you can’t swim 25 yds in 7 stroke cycles or less, you need to figure out how. I am amazed at people who run pretty well and bike pretty well but swim 800 yds at a 1:45-2min / 100 pace. That is clearly not a fitness issue. They’re not doing the same sport as better swimmers. They are sink-thrashing, not swimming. I think anyone who is fit enough to do tris at the MOP level should be able to swim at about 1:30 per 100 yds all day long. If not, then it’s not your fitness/conditioning that’s the problem, hence more yds won’t help much.
Fix your technique at all costs. TI is great for figuring out your balance and body position. That is absolutely the foundation of swimming. But you then need to be able to grab the water efficiently and for this front-qudrant is the way to go.
Everyone forgot the first rule of triathlon, the swim doesn’t count!
I must have missed that one… the second rule of triathlon is what, the run doesn’t count?
If you can’t swim 25 yds in 7 stroke cycles or less, you need to figure out how. I am amazed at people who run pretty well and bike pretty well but swim 800 yds at a 1:45-2min / 100 pace.
I take about 9-10 stroke cycles per 25 yds, and I can hold ~1:12/100yds for an 800. Generalization is not to be used lightly.
Everyone forgot the first rule of triathlon, the swim doesn’t count!
I must have missed that one… the second rule of triathlon is what, the run doesn’t count?
Not on this board :)!
Become a duathlete! Problem solved. Why do something you don’t like that isn’t fun? That’s the whole point of this sport isn’t it?
I was referring to strokes/length during easy swimming, not during a time-trial. If 9-10 is what you do while swimming easily, then you can get faster by lowering that (i.e., becoming more efficient). 9-10 at 1:12 isn’t bad however.
There is a lot more to getting faster than just dumping in extra yeardage. You can swim all the yards you like but if you don’t work on your efficiency & technique it will not add up to much. Same w/any sport. If you want to run faster, which was a goal of mine last year, I added tempo runs & intervals to my w/o’s, & you can do this w/swimming (I got FASTER!). If you ran long, slow, distance runs every day you’re only going to get so much faster.
You should get that binder of workouts for triathletes (I forgot the name). I think Velo Press has it. You have to focus on everything not just the amount of yds your swimming. Add in some technique drills, some 50 yd. sprints & anything that is going to have you swimming faster than you normally would.
Maybe you should take up tennis since you hate swimming so much.