why so much swim training?

Of the three sports, swimming puts the least amount of stress on your body (no impact), so it's more feasible to do 100% plus of your race distance. Swimming is also the sport in which it's the highest probability of death in the race, so most training plans will want you to be sure you can cover the distance easily and safely.

I personally think triathletes should swim more than they do, especially after watching people come out of the swim portion of races. It's scary. But then again, I love swimming so it's natural I'd say that

 

What plan are you talking about? BT plan?

I had a few BT friends use the BT HIM plans and would agree they have a lot of swimming in training.  Most adjusted the swims to do fewer and not always the length listed in the plan. I have worked with a coach for all my HIM and IMs and have not swam as much as they do.

D3 the coaching group, made many/most of the BT plans and think that coaching group has a swimming focus more so than other plans/coaches.

Thanks for the answers.  I understand the low impact of swimming, but does one not risk a repetitive stress injury in the shoulders?

I'll be doing the Kansas half...will I see you there?

If you have good form and no previous shoulder issues, then swimming should not cause repetitive stress injuries. But if you swim like most people that have very little actual swim training (from a coach) then you will probably swim with a straight arm (reaching for the bottom of the pool) and that is BAD and will definitely increase the chances that you will have an injury. The best thing you can do for your swimming is to START with a few lessons from a reputable swim coach so that you learn a good stroke and body position.

Also a 1.2 mile swim is not the equivalent of running or HM or biking 56 miles.  It's more like running a 10k.  A 10k training plan might have you running 10-12 mile long runs.  

Hi could you explain this a little more.  i thought the origin of Ironman was to take the three disciplines and race the "equivalent" distance of all three.  1.2 = 56 = 13.1.

But maybe they aren't like that at all. I just used a calorie burning calculator (no idea how inaccurate they are) and for my estimated time 50 min swim, 3 hours cycle and 2 hour run I would burn 586 cal swimming, 3300 cycling and 1500 running....not sure tha is even relevvant...

thoughts?

No,the origin of Ironman was to take three current races - Waikiki roughwater swim, bike around Oahu, and the marathon - and combine them to see who was toughest.

Just a minor thing ... but the Ironman isn't 1.2, 56, 13.1.  The Ironman is 2.4, 112, and 26.2.  Also, the original bike ride was 115.  Like Chris said.  There was no magical formula used for the original distance.  They just used the three existing races that were handy at the time in Hawaii and made those the distance to be raced.

Yup, what they said above.  There are other threads that discuss what would be equivalent if such a thing was possible.  The main point of my post was that it is a more of a middle distance swim compared  to more of a long endurance bike/run so the training is different.  You'd be under prepared if you didn't regularly swim that distance in practice.  

Ok...great, thanks....Masters swim tomorrow night I guess! 

I asked a similar question to my daughters swim coach one day because the older kids do 2 a days and I never did that as a cross country runner in high school.  He responded that well, you practice walking all day and you are used to how that feels.  Most of the time in the water is to get used to the feel of the water and how to glide through it efficiently with the least amount of effort.

Plus personally, knowing that you can swim 2-3x the race distance in the pool will increase the confidence level when you stand on the shore and see how far the buoys actually are in the lake/ocean/river.

For what it's worth since I'm only a Sprint Distancer at this point.

Before I decided to sign up for my first triathlon I was swimming to lose weight.  No drills, coaches, technique etc. just laps.  It had been 23 years since I last swam laps (HS in '84/85) but I still remembered some stroke technique and flip turns.  Got to where I could swim 3,500 yards in sets of 500/1000 with 1-2 min. breaks in between sets.  I even swam a straight 2,000 yds a few times.

My first tri was also my first Open Water Swim, which is not recommended but I had confidence that I could do it with no problem.  Since it was my first tri I held back a little not knowing how I would feel on the bike just after a swim.  The whole swim I felt relaxed and at no point did I feel I was in danger of needing to stop or grab on to anything.  I wasn't exactly taking my time either, swam at 1:46/100yds.

I can understand the benefits of being able to swim much longer than race distance.  When I was in HS I remember 2-a-days totalling up to 7,000-8,000 yards per day.

For my first few races I had only trained to do the exact distance and found that when i got to T1 i was wiped. NO fun, now I do much longer swim workouts.

Like another poster said, if you have proper form/technique your risk for injury is lower since swimming is a no impact sport.

And yup, I'll be there!

define, "so much swimming"

IMO, 3*3000 yards per week swimming should be the minimum for a sprint race.  you can even use 3*3000 for IM training if you wish, but 12,000 yards/week during your peak training weeks should be the minimum amount for IM prep.

I have seen multipule people discuss how there is too much swimming in IM and HIM training plans, yet they are swimming 2-3 hours per week.

You are training for an event that will likely take you 5+ hours to complete.  You will likely not come close to training too much in any sport with any plan you use.

take a look at the percentage time spent in the pool...if it is over 25%, than you may have a plan with too much swimming.
Training plans are designed to have you finish the race as fast as you possibly can, not to just get out of the water without drowning. 

Speaking from my experience only.  I thought the same thing as the OP.  I ended up doing far less for the HIM I trained for.  If I had more time to train I would definitely swim more, it is just inconvenient to me and I felt my efforts were better placed biking and running.  That being said, I was confident enough that I could swim the distance and with a wetsuit swim fast enough where it wouldn't ruin my race.  If you have time, I would definitely swim more.  I would also make it a point to do regular swims in open water with your suit on before your race.  I'd say doing that was more important for me than logging a bunch of laps in the pool.  I figured out my stroke that I could go forever with minimal leg use and that was a very different stoke than what I used in the pool.

I agree in principle with the others though, if you have time, follow the plan and breeze through the swim as your warmup in the race...better than being stressed out about it and finishing MOP and already being tired.

I very strongly disagree here.

9K yards a week is way too much for a sprint level athlete.
Mind you, I'm thinking beginner/low experience here.
Thats a lot of time to put in for someone who will be swimming only 10 minutes or less in a sprint level tri.
I'm still working out to compete in sprint levels, since this will by my 2nd year, and my plan is to stick with sprints most of the summer and maybe do an oly as my A race near the end of the season.
I'm currently working on the 0-1 mile swim plan. I'm pretty slow at 2+ min. for 100m, so I wouldn't have time to do 3000m swims for the lap times at my pool.

For someone (newer to tri's, that is) who is working towards sprint distances, 1000-1500m per session is plenty, if they go 2 or 3x a week.

I didn't read all the other responses, but I sort of look at it this way.  The swim is the first portion of the race (obviously) and you have a lot of biking and running ahead of you...

I think that you want to get a LOT of swim time in and over distance swims to be as fresh as you can out of the water.  I personally want to feel like the swim was almost a warmup for the race.  With less swim training, I would be concerned that I could come out of the water a little more fatigued than I would care for.

Yes. It's about being as fresh as possible after a 1.2 mile swim or a 2.4 mile swim. If you can do those distances, a couple times a week, without batting an eye, then a HIM swim will take nothing out of you and you can move on to hammer the bike and run.

On the flip (turn)  side, if you swim the bare minimum or less... a 1.2 mile swim at the beginning of a HIM is going to gas you. You will have less left in your reserves, less fuel in the tank for later.

You want to exit the swim of any triathlon feeling fresh and wet. That's it. Not tired, anaerobic, freaked out, or exhausted.

Get into the pool!

I'm in the people need to swim more camp also..   One other theory  for the length in the swim plans could be that it's a big difference in swimming that distance in a pool vs open water.  I"ve heard people guess that you should be swimming at least 25-30% longer in the pool than the distance of your race just to compensate for the breaks at the walls turning and pushing off.

Even after lots of races I always find it amazing to look at the swim course just to see how much longer it appears on race day.   A course can be 800 yards and people will still be saying how long it actually looks when it's stretched out over the water.