My Swim Still Sucks

Post a video here and we can be pseudo coaches.

At 2:45 you have some significant technique problems that you will need to address before you can progress much.  You are being smart by watching the videos and reading the books.  Unfortunately with swimming you often think you are doing one thing but are really doing something else.  Seeing it on video can really help.

Yep. I'm getting out of that "I suck" groove. Similar background to you. I come from a strong running background however and then got into mountain biking. My last OWS was 800m and I was at something like 2:45/100. Ouch. My swim is getting better though. On my workouts, I'll average 1:50-2:10/100 for 100 or 200s and over 900 yds I averaged right around 2:00. 

I did SwimSmooth's SwimTypes site. I can't afford a swim coach, but I also knew that I probably wasn't going to get any better without spending a little money. So I bought a SwimType (swimtypes.com) guide and some pool "toys" (pull buoy, fins, paddles) and got to work. I drilled lots and lots and lots (which I hadn't done before). 

So far it's working for me. I might be getting to another plateau though and I would have to enlist the help of a real person... Anyway, good luck! Hope this helps!

1x / week to improve swimming is not going to cut it.  

I'll make you a deal (and not sure if you're training for anything specific, so this might not even be practical) - get to the pool 4x / week for the next two weeks.   Either cut out a day or two of running / cycling or combine the workouts into a single day.  Spend half the time focusing technique drills and the other half just swimming.    

Come back and post your times and I'm pretty confident you'll not only see improved times but also feel better in the water since you won't feel like you 'suck' as much.   

A coach would be great, sure, but like you said it's not ideal right now.  

Instead, I say get to the pool more, swim more, and then let us know how you're going!

I agree with this.  I started swimming Jan 2nd this year and I have no swim/bike/run background at all.  I've been swimming 3X a week with very few missed days (including 37 OWS which were great!).  My times are slowly coming down especially as I get stronger. 

I swim with a "Swim Fit" group (kind of a Master's Class for dummies) and having someone coach us makes a huge difference and so does a video of yourself.  With a video you can see a lot of your own problems and someone who knows how to swim can see more than you can.  For myself, video showed all my weaknesses and it was kind of frustrating but it gave me some things to work on. 

FWIW - I've found that improvements don't come in steady gradual improvements but instead come in sudden leaps forward (if you swim often enough). 

Get comfortable in the water, get consistent practice, get stronger and get some coaching and you will get faster.  Without coaching you may be learning bad habits which will be hard to correct down the road. 

Get a coach is always a good idea, but also for perspective - you'll take forever to improve at 1.5 swims per week, probably at low volume at that. If you actually plan on improving on swimming, shoot for minimum 2 swims per week, and preferably 3+. Even at your speed.

It took me an entire year to break out of that slow molasses swimmer group, and I wasn't lazy about it. It takes the nontalented folks a good amount of time to get the technique - at least a year for me. 

It took another year and  a half on top of that to get decent arm strength/endurance on top of basic swim form.

It takes awhile, but it does improve.

Yeah...if you were to post a question about why your running or biking isn't improving because you only run 6x a month, or bike 6x a month...I think you would already know the answer.

But for some reason we always like to blame our slow swim speeds on something other than our own training.  Myself included.

Getting a coach, or go to a master class at least once a week is the best advice. And be patient, it doesn't come overnight. 

Spare that upgrade on your bike and you should find money for a master class. And I'm convinced that the improvement you can get, time-wise and fun-wise, becoming a better swimmer compared to buying fancy wheels or aero helmet is money much better spent.

How much time do you spend in the pool? Swim 2-3 times per week, about 1hr (in the pool) each time.

How much time do you spend resting at the wall? You should not spend more than 15-30sec. rest between each interval and up to 1min. between sets. 10-15% of your workout may be rest. If you don't push yourself you won't improve. 

Are you a quitter?

BR, Erik

Mission accepted.  I don't know if I can do 4 times/week but 3 times/week is possible.  I will aim for 3-4x/week and see if that helps.  I know the drills and will work on them.

I wish there was a way I could learn to "like" swimming!  Maybe that will come with time.

BTW I generally spend approx 45 minutes in the pool when I swim.  I spend pretty much the entire time swimming (either drills with a pull buoy, swimming freestyle, and occasionally use a kickboard).  No resting at the wall (well, no more than 5 seconds every few hundred meters).

They have a masters group at the Y where I swim, but those guys (and gals) clearly are swimming much faster than me, and it looks like its almost self-coached.  I can inquire.

Also, speaking as an ex-pure runner who was nearly exactly your stats (in my first year I was slightly faster than you on B/R and about the same on swim), just another reminder that it will improve, but it can be really slow going. You just have to keep at it. 

My 2 cents from having lurked here for over a year and half before feeling confident enough to post/contribute - don't feel like you're doing something wrong when you hear all these folks saying they're dropping like 20sec/100 in a matter of weeks, or starting out from scratch at sub2:00/100m, or saying that you're doing something totally wrong at your slow speed. There's a bell curve of performance gain, only the very point end can pull off stats like that.

Getting below 2:00/100 for distance for me in the pool was much, much harder than I expected based on how loosely the good swimmers here throw that number around. It took me a lot of work and perserverance. And I'm no stranger to HTFU with big mile run or bike training with heavy intervals. 

I don't really think in "zones" when in the pool, I try to relax and just swim.  I mentioned zones since I am a longstanding cyclist and wanted to compare bike/swim/run times at same RPE.

When I first started out swimming I went to the pool 5 days a week. Sometime it was only 20 to 30 minutes. You can still get a good workout in a short session. They more you do something the better you get at it. You could do it as a warm up or a cool down after a run.