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How long should my longest swim be?
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 2007-01-25 1:59 PM |
Expert  1187    Ontario |  Subject: How long should my longest swim be?I am in my first year of tri training, started swimming (with lessons) in Oct. and can now swim 750yards comfortably and with decent form. I plan to increase my longest swim by 50 yards/week, reaching 1950y swim in July. My A race is at the beginning of Aug with a 2000m swim...I also have a oly July 15 with a 1500m swim and a HIM in Sept. How long should my longest swim be prior to attempting the 2K swim in Aug.? And is 50 yard/week increases too conservative? (My training plan includes 3 swims/week most weeks with a few weeks that are 4, a few that are 2) Thanks for any advice, Cathy |
| 2007-01-25 2:11 PM in reply to: #667961 |
| Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? Just for psychological reasons, might be nice to have a 2K under your belt, just so you know in your head you can do it. That said, it's important to swim shorter and faster as well as longer. Work those slow and fast twitch muscles. But you will get greater fitness gains doing more shorter sets than longer slower sets. As for the weekly increase, I think you'll find that increasing by 50 is too little, simply because 50 yards becomes less and less from a percentage of your entire workout. If you can swim 1200, adding 50 is nothing. |
| 2007-01-25 2:12 PM in reply to: #667961 |
| Sydney Australia | Subject: |
| 2007-01-25 3:49 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Master 1670 Harvard, Illinois | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? I would do either a weekly or monthly time trial of the longest distance you plan to swim this summer. Then you can see how well your doing and adjust your swimming accordingly. |
| 2007-01-25 4:38 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Champion 6993 Chicago, Illinois | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? I would swim the 2k if possible before maybe even twice if you built up to it fast enough. Your 2k is probably OWS which means it will most likely longer and harder than just 2k in a pool which I am betting you are doing now. You would be surprised how far you can go. I went from 800 meters to 3850 meters in just 5 months. You do not even have to go that far. Plus HIM is about a 2k swim so it would be good to get used to that distance for that also. Since you want the 2k swim as your A race I would agree you should have fast swim days and slow swim days. The other reason for doing the 2k mark several times is the exhuastion factor. The more you do it the less you feel you need to hold back. Some people like to sprint at the end of a race and I personally do not like that. I feel if you can sprint at the end of a race it means you did not pace yourself well. Plus doing the distance as a Time Trial gives you an idea of your progress also. |
| 2007-01-25 5:36 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Champion 7553 Albuquerque, New Mexico | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? Long enough that you start and end with your feet on solid ground! Are you following a plan? The goal of the training should be to have to prepared (physically and mentally) to be very likely to complete the distance no matter what...Would I be confident that I could swim 2000 meters in a race having never swam that far in practice? (probably not). What if I'd swam 2000 meters once in practice? (more confident, depending on how the practice went). What if I'd swam 2000 yards a dozen times? (probably). What if it is windy/choppy/I-get-kicked-in-the-face? I would be far more confident racing 2000 meters in any condition if I've had some practice swims 20-50% farther, especially if I could practice in the same conditions. (Just so you know, a 1000 yard open-water-swim feels way different than a 1000 yard pool swim. First of all, you don't have that black line to follow. Second, your sense of time and distance are cued from frequently reaching the wall and turning around and you reach walls very infrequently in open water swimming.) |
| 2007-01-25 6:47 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Veteran 123 Lexington, KY | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? I personally feel that you should be able to swim 1.5 times longer than the distance you want to go in a race, so you will be confident that you can do the shorter distances with energy to spare for the 2 other disciplines. I know a lot of people don't put a lot of faith in a "long swim" like they do with a "long bike" or certainly the "long run" , but I tend to disagree. While it is true that swimming is the most form and technique intensive aspect of the tri, I can really see no downside to at least getting your body used to the idea of swimming long distances comfortably, and it may just uncover some technique issues that arise as you fatigue. I don't know how far you are comfortable going eventually, but at least 1 - 2 times monthly I'll do a straight 3000 just to focus and work on distance. As to a plan to get you up from 750, try this workout: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/e/x/exk7/SwimWorkouts.html/Zero... Granted, it is designed for the absolute novice, but from your description, I'd put you at week 3 -4 already. That means that before the end of February you'll already be at 1650y. I personally can vouch for this program, because when I first started, I followed the plan religiously and in the 6 weeks was able to do the straight 1650. Good luck! |
| 2007-01-25 8:36 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Extreme Veteran 362 Security, CO Bronze member | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? If you can swim comfortably longer than your planned race distance you will gain confidence in your abilty to swim harder during your race. I am a big fan of over distance training. |
| 2007-01-26 4:22 AM in reply to: #667961 |
Expert 1068 , District of Columbia | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? Here's another opinion in favor of: 1. Swim your long distance at least once before your race, and 2. Increase your yardage more than 50 yards/week. I cannot tell you how confident you will feel if you know you can swim your race distance. And the earlier you swim it, the more likely you'll swim it again, and the even more confident you'll feel on race day. No one says you have to do it fast -- just do it. You will feel a surge of energy in the last 250 yards as you start counting down the last 10 lengths. It's definitely a great feeling. And during the race, you'll hear a voice in your head (hopefully just one) telling you that this swim is no problem, you've done it in practice, you've done all the training, just get in the groove and get going. At least, that's what mine says, after I've inwardly shrieked as the cold water seeps into the collar of my wetsuit and down along my spine and I've asked the usual "what am I doing here and why am I doing this and how come my mid-life crisis didn't involve a red convertible instead of this" type of things. As for yardage, someone above said it best -- 10 or 15% increase/week is normal. But not every week. Maybe increase for 2 or 3, then hold that yardage for a week, then increase again. If you can swim 750 now -- straight? -- you can swim a mile. Really. And as long as you're swimming one mile, you might as well shoot for 1.2 in practice before your September 1/2 IM. Or heck, make it an even 1.5. Which one are you doing? Have you read any race reports? They're great sources of info. Good luck on your races! |
| 2007-01-26 3:11 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Veteran 132 Montreal | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? I find the swim in a tri much more difficult than swimming in the pool. I feel much more comfortable if I'm capable of swimming at least 25-50% farther than the tri swim distance, but that's just me... I also haven't done that many tris yet so (perhaps the tri swim gets easier with familiarity)... |
| 2007-01-29 1:53 AM in reply to: #667961 |
Expert 1187 Ontario | Subject: Thanks for all the advice I will definately increasing my distances more than 50/week. I've planned to swim 3 times/week, one day is a lesson, one day I do lots of drills, and one I'll do a 'long' swim. I also plan to do open water swims once/week starting in May or June (whenever the water warms up enough). And I agree I'll be more comfortable heading into that 2K race having done a couple 3K swims, so that will be my goal. Thanks everyone for all the advice. |
| 2007-01-29 1:11 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Supersonicus Idioticus 2439 Thunder Bay, ON | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? My answer is that you should be able to 1) do a 3000m workout, broken into intervals AND 2) swim 1500m and hop on your bike immediately at race pace for 15min. Then you'll be fine. |
| 2007-01-29 1:30 PM in reply to: #667961 |
Champion 7036 Sarasota, FL | Subject: RE: How long should my longest swim be? I'd say that you need to be able to do the race distance non-stop in your workouts. If nothing else it's a big confidence-builder, plus you'll get an idea of how to handle your pacing. I try to do a negative split - force myself to go out slow and then pick up the pace the second half as I get comfortable with my tempo. I'd also recommend doing something close to race distance in OW, where you introduce other variables such as navigation, currents, swells, etc. OW conditions can be very disruptive to your rhythm and suck up a lot of energy. Mark |
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