commence swim training

The thing with swimming is that you don't get much bang for your buck, especially in triathlon where the swim is typically the shortest leg. For example, swimming 5 times per week won't make you a whole lot faster than swimming 3 times per week. You'll be a little faster, but it might not be worth your time, especially if you consider alternatively devoting that time to biking or running. Some pretty fast short-course triathletes don't train for the swim at all for just that reason (although that's a little extreme in my opinion).

So, my opinion is to just add it in, giving it equal attention. Focus on proper form first, and make sure the workouts are good, and the speed will come.

You said you used to swim competitively. If your oly tri is in the next 4 weeks and you have done very little swimming in the last 7 years, I recommend 2-3x week for the first 2 weeks, 2x week for the 3rd week and once the last week. If it was 8 weeks I'd go with 3x a week for 2 weeks and 2x week for the next 5 weeks and once the last week. The primary goal of the first 2 weeks in either program is to work on stroke technique.

Edited by E=H2O 2008-09-06 12:18 PM