Swim Plan - Your comments please

I don't think you can swim with proper form with a pull buoy.  I would add a few laps of swimming with closed fists.

How do you keep track of all those different exercises during your swim?

I would add a few sets repeats on a time. This wil help you build speed and recovery.  i.e. 

4 x 50 m (yrd) on 1:00  or 10 sec rest.
5 x 100m ( yrds) on 20 sec rest.

I print the workout and put it in a plastic slip.  I am noticing that the workouts go by much faster when I have a plan to follow.

Ah, the fist drill.  I did that one recently and meant to add it.  Thanks for the reminder.

Goal:  To swim my next race without stopping:  tri with 400 yard swim

History:  Started swimming about Feb.  My logs have all my training sessions.  I have done 2 tris.  1st one, the swim was terrible although, I had the fitness to do the distance.  2nd was better but lost my rythym about 200 yards and it was a 600yrd swim.

My training pace is about 2:15 per 100.  My race pace is probably about 2:00 per 100 assuming I can swim without stopping.  Need to get more comfortable in open water and getting into a steady pace. 

I admire your commitment, planning and patience with your swim trainining. You workouts contain a wide variety of drills. Might I suggest that simplify things and slightly change the focus of your workouts.

First  You are doing 2000 yards in a workout which is plenty at this point but you are struggling to cover 400 yards without stopping. Without seeing your stroke, my guess is that you are having problems relaxing in the water and finding a breathing rhythm.

 If that is the case I would focus my skill drills to highlight that. I think you could drop the use of a pull buoy and paddles at this time, but others may differ. Despite the unanimous agreement that these are useful in a complete workout, I do not use them. But then again I'm not a NCAA swimmer. Frankly I'd probably do the remaining  other skill drills one workout and the other half the following workout.

 What I would suggest is introducing slow and easy longer swims for the next 2 weeks. Relax, breathe and focus on your body position. Can you breathe comfortably with your face in the water, or is you head to high. Are you breathing every stroke? I think you should at this point in your learning, and strongly recommend that you do during the race. Breathing every other stroke should be considered a skill drill for you at this point. Ultimately swimming longer distances is a question of stamina and efficiency. Stamina can be increased though progressively longer (non stop) swims in your workouts, and efficiency through the use of stroke drills and focus on body position and technique.

 These are just some suggestions, I am sure others may have better ones, but give these a try.

Thanks for the help.

A little more info.  I can definately do 400 or more without stopping in the pool but lately I have just focused more on the drills to help with balance, strength, feel, etc in the water.  Earlier in the year, I did 800yrds straight but I advanced too quickly to that distance and ended up hurting my shoulders, so I have been hesitant to ramp up too quickly after getting back in the pool more consistently the last few months.

I did do 300 today, just to bump up the long swim and see how it felt.  I could have done another 100 without any issue and probably more.  I am going to do a 600yrd open water swim on Sat and probably again next week.  Mostly, just because I need to practice getting into a rythym that does not include walls and a turn every 25yrds. 

I will add too for the newbies, the 2 drills that have helped the most is the side swim and the "touch head".  This is where on recovery, you touch your head.  I am not even sure what it is supposed to accomplish (it was part of some lessons I did earlier in the year) but everytime I do it, I feel the stroke gets smoother afterward.  Everyone says to do the side swim but I never liked it at all.  I finally started doing it regulary and it is getting easier and easier and I think it has helped alot.

Well, I did 500yrds today straight and could have kept going. 

My average lap time was 1:13 over the 500 yards.  That is better than I thought it would be  but still slow. 

What is strange is that I really thought that I would be getting faster since I am starting to feel much more comfortable in the water and feel like I am gliding through better but maybe my fitness is just improving and my form has not so much????

Here is a simplified plan that includes some intervals.   Thanks for you input and help.

I really thought I was improving on the form but maybe not.  I don't think I am rotating enough.  I still have to think so much on form.  If I had not spent $160 on massage for ITB & hamstring issues this month already, I might just go get taped.  Maybe I will do it myself from above and it might help a little.

(swimplan2.jpg)

Looks like a fun workout.

 Just a comment
For the interval sets you do either:

REST BASED
swim 50m and take 15 sec (or what ever you choose)  rest and then go again 
or
INTERVAL BASED
leave the wall at a set time like every 1:15.  You swim the 50 m and lets say it take you 1:00 min.  then you get 15 sec rest.  If it takes you 1:05 then you get 10 sec rest.  The trick is to find a interval time that give you enough time to recover but is not too easy.  As you get faster you can decrease the interval time and still keep an adequate rest time.

I use my watch and hit the lap button everytime I start, then  I hit the lap button and leave again once  the counter hits the interval time.  No brainer.  I do use the pace clock at the pool too but this required a little more math.

The second method gets you working against the clock. You will find yourself trying to  beat you last time in order to get more rest.  It is also a good way to judge your improvement in your swim time for that perticular distance.

 Mike

thanks Mike.  So the way I set those up, they would be called rest based?  Is one better than the other? 

I tried to set these based on what I know of my current abilities and the rest I normally take.  I think those intervals will push me a little but I will just have to wait and see.  I am going to try it out tomorrow.

Drills without focus and understanding of why to do them = bad form.  Did you have your stroke evaluated and someone give you that many drills to work on things?

Too many drills usually do not result in getting faster or better if they do not serve a purpose.

It is my non-swimmer's opinion that you should really start incorporating short/fast sets.  Do a few hundred yards fo drills as part of your warm up and then hit it hard trying to remember what you worked on in the drills.  Something like 10 - 20 x 50 on :10 - :20 rest.  As soon as you times start to fade significantly, stop that set because it means you are getting tired and your form will go to pot.

The only way to swim faster is to swim faster (properly).  Doing all the drills in the world will not result in faster times if they do not effectively reinforce the right thing.  The drills that I do were very specific from my swim coach to work on the obvious flaws in my technique.  It made a huge difference.

Thanks Darmeo

The drills I do were recommended by my coach.  I took 3 lessons earlier in the year and these are what he recommended.  I find that when I do the drills, I feel smoother in the water, especially the side swim, head touch and kick.  I have a tendency to flail my legs a bit and doing he kick sets helps provide muscle memory for proper kick form. 

As a general rule, drills should be only 10% of your workout. Keep your workouts basic, pick a few drills and focus on quality not quantity. Typically your main set will follow the drills so that you can duplicate the effects of the drill while regular swimming. These are some workouts that you should consider.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1221

 This is an excellent suggestion and one that I frequently include in my workouts. It is very adaptable to the level of conditioning you have.

So I swam this morning and included some interval sets.  They were challenging and definately pushed me harder aerobicly than I have been pushed since I started swimming when every 25 yds was a struggle.

I did 650 yrds of warmup and drills then went into the intervals I had planned.

1st set of 10x50 @ 1:05 w/ 15sec rest

I can definately see how this will help.  It pushed my aerobic system and I definately need that.  Got to love that sick feeling in the stomach when you start running out of oxygen. 

I planned to do some 100 sets and another set of 50's but I had enough.  I started this session quite sore and noticed my form (what form I have) starting to fall off. 

Awesome, congrats on the effort!

My swim coach had said that she will do like 20 x 25 with only like :10 rest and count strokes and time and when either her stroke counts gets higher, or her time starts to get slower she will stop and re-focus.  She said that even after all these years even she sometimes has trouble getting through the sets as designed!

Great Job, your are starting to train like a pro in the pool.

You just discovered one of the key issues. Keeping your form when getting tired. 

 When I swim slow at a steady pace I can maintain a low stroke count, 16 to 17 strokes per 25 meters over a 1000m swim.  When I try to go faster, my speed increased but also my stroke count and at about 400m my form start to fall apart.

Mike