50 Miles of Swimming by MAY 1 (Page 6)

You're doing fine! More than a few just in this group would love to have that time, let alone on the forum.

2700 yds down bringing the total to 24,000.

Is there a limit?  Relatively speaking swimming is extremely low impact.  I'm willing to wager that for most triathletes the limit is their own willingness to get into the pool.

*Standard Rant Incoming!*

For me, there is literally no room for weight training if I want to get faster in triathlon.  There is some benefit to lifting that is applicable towards tri, but none of it compares to the specificity of S/B/R.  You want to gain strength in the swim?  Do pull sets.  Strength on the Bike? Do high gear work and/or hills.  

I'm trying to fit in a 4th session and build up my yardage for my current swims.  I'd much rather do that than add a weight training session.

2,300 yds down today to make my total 26,300.

Are you doing any sets of 50's and 100's?  That will help with your 100 time and with your distance pacing.

Strength training I use cords for swimming specific.  There's lots of ways to use.  I can't see videos at work but if you are interested I can find some later on what I typically do.  Not that it's necessarily right

http://www.usmsswimmer.com/201201/swimbagdrylandcordsjan-feb2012.pdf

I hear ya on the time thing.  I have two little ones so my spare time = nothing.  The cord stuff however I can do at home when I find room.  For example I tend to be a night owl so I will do them while watching TV.

Thinking largely the same. The limited amount of time that triathletes tend to swim is pretty much the answer to why they should spend that time swimming. They generally aren't building up enough aerobically here to make anything make anything else a limiter. I've done some other things in the past, but believe that there is work that could be done in the pool that does at least as much or more. So not doubting some may see a little gain by adding a little lifting or pliates (for examples) as I saw a little bit right away, but rather saying that more could be had by learning more about swimming. Learning more about the other strokes and getting a much better idea of doing different kicks in the pool has taken things farther. Those other things leveled out rather fast.

ETA: If there is some type of balance issue going on, by all means fix it. Old shoulder injury, get it taken care of. I was writing of work more along the lines of lifting to directly pull harder type thinking.

I agree a 100% which is why I would never advocate taking time away from the pool.  However if you have limited time to get the pool or just cannot add another session using tubes will be beneficial.  I will add if your technique is off it probably will not help or at least not as much.  Someone like Hot Runner who has a background in swimming I would be pretty confident will benefit from fitting in 30 - 60 mins a week in her spare time.  If she has any spare time!

Oh come now.  How much does Michael Phelps swim in comparison?  How much time does he have to train in comparison to those of us that have jobs?  If I had 40 hrs a week to train, I'd probably get some weights in too at some point.

I agree, as I'm building back up my swim as well, but not spending time in the pool isn't going to make your swim any better.

I agree with everything here.  I don't see an issue with doing a pull set at least once a week or at least incorporating pull in some of your main set in one workout.

I stated that weight training has some benefit, but not the same degree as swimming itself.  Swimming is a very technique oriented sport and the best way to work on it is to actually practice the motion.  If form is the issue, then do drills.  It will be easier work, so you can swim more yards.  If you want strength, then a DPS (distance per stroke) set or a pull set helps with that.  

The main issue with weight training for AG athletes isn't that it doesn't help as much as there isn't enough time to do everything you want, so you need to go for your biggest bang for your buck. 

Take this schedule for instance

For the average triathlete, that's already considered a lot of training.  What do you drop to make room for weight lifting?  

Yeah--like me!  I would be happy to be there :)

HR, I know when you've been faster that it is hard to see times you're not pumped about, but in the tri world--and certainly in the aquathlon world (which sounds absofreakinlutely miserable, btw)--I'm guessing you're extraordinarily competeitive.  You are a fish and a runner, and though I know you say your bike is a weak link, I think I remember reading at some point that you're putting up 21mph for an oly on a suboptimal setup.  That's not too shabby either :)

As for lifting, my limiter is time in the pool.  I have over 20 years of lifting, but I'm just starting my second year of any real swimming training.  Maybe it's another one of those "depends" things.  I had significantly backed off weights to try to lose some mass for tris (well, running, really), but I have brought some specific things back for injury prevention, and for that it seems to really help. 

I, too,  have a set of cords though and have been using those ala Sheila T's recommendations.  I think they're specific enough to be worth the time.

Well clearly you are not doing enough because I see nothing listed at night (If I knew how to make this pink it would come off better)

I was waiting for someone to say "what about Friday afternoon?".

The plan was generic by design to avoid a "too much of X" debate. Otherwise I agree with what you're saying in this paragraph.  None of this really disagrees with what I've said.

That's all well and good, but Hot Runner brought up weightlifting.  A 30 minute weight training session at a gym is a different animal than 10 minutes of core exercises you can do at home.

 If you can fit in weights without

1) affecting the quality of your workouts 

2) affecting your job, relationship, etc.

then more power to you.

Harder sets usually involve more rest.  I can do 10 x 50 drill/swim with far less rest than 10x 50 sprinting.  That's the logic I'm using for saying that drills give you more yards.  

This part confuses me.  This is the core of our discussion, and you seem to agree with me.  Everything else we're discussing involves how we're spending time doing specific workouts, which is a different topic altogether.  I've had the feeling in your posts that you actually agree with my main point, but you don't realize it perhaps.

Up over 50000 for me after this week.  Have been frustrated with times since starting up Masters again in Jan--didn't swim from Aug-Nov due to shoulder injury.   Finally starting to see some 100m times closer to where I was at last year.  No where near some of you speedy fishies, but 10x100 coming in at 1:56.