Swim improvement after 1st Tri

KSH - 2009-08-13 1:27 PM 4. Work one-on-one with a coach for a few lessons. Learn the proper form and then work on distance. Really, if you do not have proper form and your body is dragging, swimming MORE with bad form really isn't going to make you any faster. Good luck!

hornsfan - 2009-08-13 2:30 PM I was afraid you were going to say that.  Okay gotta find a coach.

8 weeks ago I went from scratch to tri's and I'll say this, this sport aint cheap!

hornsfan - 2009-08-13 1:30 PM

I was afraid you were going to say that.  Okay gotta find a coach.

8 weeks ago I went from scratch to tri's and I'll say this, this sport aint cheap!

hornsfan - 2009-08-13 11:24 AM Okay so I just got my first tri out of the way and my swim was really slow, but thats okay cause up until a week before the tri I had never swam more then 200 yards non-stop, and then I had a breakthrough and was swimming 1000+ yards non-stop but it was REALLY slow.

So now I have some confidence in my ability to prevent from drowning.  I want to improve on how fast I swim.

1) Do I just continue to swim 1000 - 1500 yards sessions and over time I just get naturally faster?

2) Do I need to start working on drills to get faster?

3) Do I just swim faster forgoing my ability to go longer distances, but over time I am able to go longer distances?

Another issue is that I'm pretty sure that even though I'm capable of swimming these longer distances, i'm still pretty much dragging my body (not balanced).

tkd.teacher - 2009-08-13 3:43 PM

Ok, assuming that you have a fairly decent stroke and that you don't have any huge glaring flaws that need to be corrected, there are two terms you need to know to swim faster.

Threshold and Interval.

Threshold swimming consists of swimming short (50-300m) distance close to your top speed, with short (10-30 second) rest intervals.

Interval swimming consists of swimming short (50-300m) distance at or above your top speed, with long rest intervals.

So, lets say you have a drop dead, can't go any faster without a motor pace of 2:00/100 for 300m. That probably means that you have a 100% pace of maybe 1:50 for 100m.

A threshold set would be something like 10x100 on 2:05, :15 RI. (10 100's, each 100 swum at or under 2:05, and 15 seconds rest in between each one). An interval set would be something like 10x100 hold 1:55, 1:00 RI. (10 100's, each one at or faster than 1:55, 1:00 rest interval).

A threshold set is designed to increase the amount of time you can spend at a given speed before you die. An interval set is designed to make your top speed faster. When you can make all your sets at your written pace comfortably, it's time to do another threshold test and reassess your goal times.

If you truly want to get faster at swimming, you've gotta hurt in the pool, and you've got to have the yardage. swimming 4000m in a week is the swimming equivalent of running 10mpw or so. Ain't gonna cut it if you want to get faster.

John