Swim Swam Swum

your time is a decent time for 1000 meters. are you doing just the distance when you are swimming or are you doing drills? just like with running and biking, doing intervals will help you to get faster overall. the distance will build your overall endurance, but to get faster, you have to add in some speedwork. try 25 meters fast, 25 meters recovery swim and do that in sets of 50s or 100s with some rest in between. it also helps break up the monotony of swimming long distances.

also work on kicking and pulling and focusing on your stroke technique.

good luck.

Thanks. I'll try some sprints, and sprint drills like I used to do for track...good idea. I have only been logging straight meters so far...no drills. Should I keep at least one day per week for this? i.e. swim straight time, then drills the other two days?

One day should be straight distance, one should be drills and one should be for speed. If you can hit the pool more, fill those days with drills and technique work.

Being big doesn't hurt so much in the water (as long as you're not 250 of solid muscle). Fat is bouyant.

Doctor has me at 230# for ideal athletic shape with 5~8% body fat. The other 20 pounds are pepperoni pizza and cool ranch Doritos. I now follow a 90%~10% eating healthy rule.

I guess the next question would be: do I crawl out of the pool on drill/speed days dog tired, or approach them about 80%? Same question for the straight swim. Mix things up? 95% one week, then 75%, then 85%???

I am still in the "base building" stage. My first Tri is scheduled for Spring 2007, but I want to win the thing



"If first place is available, and you settle for second, you have a tendancy to do it for the rest of your life"
-J.F.K.

On long swim days it should be steady and easy swim. Drills shouldn't wear you out, just concentrate on form. For speed days, you should be tired, think of doing intervals, with minimal rest.

I'm not sure if it's the proper way of approaching swim work outs, but it makes me feel good.
1 workout per week is race distance or longer @ 80-85%
1 workout per week is 80-85% short distance (usually 100's), medium rest. These are where I try concentrating on form or work on breathing skills (I only breath right and done this for 25 years...tough habbit to break)
1 workout per week is sprints. 90-95% 50's to 125's with short rest. These workouts leave my shoulders screaming for mercy and usually have a tough time shampooing my hair or holding on to the stearing wheel. (I'm crazy, but love that feeling)

Some of my sprint workouts are:

mixing in 25 yards/meters longer than usual. This does a nice job of shocking my system and getting it used to working harder longer.

5 x 50's on .50; 5 x 50's on .45; 5 x 50's on .40

10 sets of:
1 x 75 on 1:00 Sprint
1x 100 on 1:30 Sprint
1 x 25 on 1:00 Medium/recover.

10-20 75's on 1:10

if this is truley your goal, keep in mind that the swim is the shortest portion of the race. busting your azz in the pool for the next 9 months might buy you a few minutes in sprint and oly distance swims, but busting your azz on the bike and on the run for the next 9 months is where you'll reap the greatest time rewards. i'm not saying to forget about swimming, but if you're like me, you have to deal with time contraints and you want to get the "most bang for your buck".

I typically get in the pool only twice a week, so I would do one "speed" day and one "endurance" day.

My endurance usually consisted of a ladder doing 1 x 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 for 2500 yards.

My speed day would be 1 x 500 warm up, 5 x 100 on 2:30 (however quickly I go in the 100 and then rest the remainder of the time until the clock reached the 2:30 mark and repeat), 5 x 50 with :15 rest, and then 10 x 25 with :10 rest.

Of the two workouts I've noticed the most improvement in times with the speed work. For the first three months or so of my swim training I did not really do any speed work, but once I added that workout above I dropped my average 100 yard times within only a few weeks while before it was only slightly creeping down.

With no coach, and only going on the "form" techniques I read about on here and online I was recently able to do a 1:24.80 for a 100 swim (starting in the water and no flip turns). If I did that 100 doing a dive start and added flip turns it would have probably been in the 1:1x range, which to me is absolutely blazing. I attribute that time to the speed workout above.

Thanks to all for your input! It will be a big help and also keep the training from getting boring.


And to think I was going to be in this thing all alone...