Building Swimming Endurance

Welcome to triathlon and BT.

I think everyone can relate to the doubt you are experiencing now (unless they have been swimming all their lives).

The best advice I got in a moment of frustration was:  Dont get frustrated, get lessons, keep swimming, and get lessons!

Every lap you swim tell yourself, make yourself, swim one more... repeat

More exp swimmers will post for sure but I can tell you most will say you need to slow down (swim slower) and you are prob fighting the water (your body position isnt correct). A swim coach is the one to consult cuz nobody on the net will be able to see you swim.

I am a terrible swimmer myself so take this for what it is worth. 

Slow down.  Like waaaaay down.  Like you, I was unable to go more than 50 yards or so as recently as last month.  I was kicking like crazy and panicking because I thought I was not getting enough oxygen.  Easing off on the kick and slowing my stroke helped to calm me down.  The breathing slowly began to feel more natural and I was able to increase distances.  I have a long way to go but I can currently do 500 yards plus without stopping.

Once you can do 100 yards I'd look into the 0-1650 plan.  The workouts are designed to build swimming endurance up to a mile in 6 weeks.  When I started I could not complete the first workout so I did my own thing until I could. http://ruthkazez.com/SwimWorkouts/ZeroTo1mile.html/>
I am sure my form is poor and there is no substitue for quality lessons.  The advise offered above is meant strictly for the meantime if it is of any use to begin with!

slow down....way way down....

first do a 200 wu.  very slow.  your motion should be very exaggerated....the stroke.  especially the first 100.  then do a quick stretch.  30 sec - 1 min and then start. 

if you swim 800-1000 yrds then i would say maybe wu 100 yrds then start and do 1 day of smaller speed sets then 1 day of longer distance. 

without being able to look at your logs,  I am just going to guess. 

You said "It seems I can go about 50 yards and then I feel like I just sprinted across the pool and I have to catch my breath."  but you also say you are doing 800 to 1000 yards 2-3 times a week. 

What do your workout look like.  are you doing 16- 20  X 50's  per session? and you feel out of breath every 50? 

Well,  SLOW DOWN !  and rest less. Do your 50's slower focusing on form and rest the same amount of time after each 50.  Over time,  decrease the rest time. once you are resting 5-10 secs, you can start doing 100's and resting 30-45 secs and decrease the rest time over time. 

You have two months to build endurance so it is doable.

good luck

Question 1 is a bit off-track but seriously... is 1650 really a "swimmers mile?"  I'm basing my time off of 1750 yds in training.  When my OLY states 1 mile, do they really mean 1650? 

Back on topic,  I started my training a few weeks ago with a tether in my backyard pool.  I picked up the Total Immersion book and worked on drills while I did in-place swims.  I joined a gym just 2 weeks ago and I have found that just concentrating on a swim like they teach you in the TI book, I can complete a mile swim with no problem.  I'm going to venture to say that given the time, I could do two.  I'm just at the point where I'm trying to concentrate on form and it works like a champ.  It must be efficient in order to get up to a mile without being too tired in such a short period of time. 

Take that for what it's worth though.. I'm slow.  Just saying that I have zero fear of "completing" the swim now.  I will have to work on some things to get faster though.

1650 yards is almost exactly 1500 meters.  For whatever reason, the 1650 yard became known as the swimmer's mile and a standard distance in meets.  An Olympic distance race is 1500m = 1640 yards = .932 miles.  A full mile is 1760 yards = 1609.34 meters.

That's cool.. I thought I knew it all since I am well versed in understanding English / Metric conversions.  I didn't know about this little curve ball.  LOL  I feel a little better about my time since I based it off of 1750 yds.  ha!  I'm still slow.

As a swimmer I'd say it will be hard to say what you may be doing wrong, without actually seeing you swim.  One big thing to concentrate on however, is making sure you are taking long strokes.  While training you actually want to practice some drills where you exaggerate how long your strokes really are.  The more you can stretch out, the more you will conserve your energy. 

If you can, try to search youtube or something similar of different swim races.  You'll see a big difference in stroke lengths going from a 50 or 100 to a 500, and then a mile.

"Bigfuzzydoug's Ten Points to Swimming" - Bigfuzzydoug compiled this awesome list of great swim technique pointers and suggested exercises.

It's posted in this forum, under the title above. As I found it just now (3:29p Korea time which is probably around 2:39a - 5:39a your time) it was on page 9, so depending on when you check this it might be on page 10 or 11.

Anyway, I've been practicing these techniques for the past week and a half and have seen a HUGE difference in my swimming - most noteably in the amount of effort I am using to swim the same speed as I had been before - legit my HR is 20-40 bpm lower going the same speed. The first week was really tough and working on really basic things, but honestly - if you are looking to expend less energy and still be efficient, check this out (you will be actually much MORE efficient if you start practicing these drills).

Also, I ordered the book "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy" by Terry Laughlin, which talks about a lot of the same ideas, but is much more in depth (and coming from a guy who was less than average swimmer until college and at about age 50 started using these techniques and now holds national records).

Sorry to go so much into this, but you should really check it out. I don't want to re-post because it is really long, but if you can't find the post send me a personal message and I can forward it to you. :D