Master's Swimming During IM Prep
I've had great success working with a one on one coach for the last few months and really working on my technique and form. For the last 4 months I have been swimming mostly drills with only a few hard interval sets thrown in.
The coach has now said my form is pretty good and there will be only very small gains to be made from this point on. He also noticed that I still pretty much have one speed and my all out 100s are not all that much faster than my HIM pace. His suggestion was that I start to do more hard 100s with longer rest to try to bump up my top speed a little. Plus this will help me be able to get on the right feet in races. The problem is I suck at pushing myself in the pool and just don't go fast, but when I did masters for a little while having other people around helped a ton as I am slightly competitive 
So, what does the haus think I should do for the next 11 weeks before my A-race:
- Stick with what has been working and continue to focus on drills and technique while adding a little volume
- Follow the EN swim workouts in the plan only
- I found a different masters program by my house that meets Tue and Thu evenings. I could do one or two of those workouts and mix that with either option 1 or 2 above, if so which option?
Don't worry, I will not be doing kick sets or wearing fins this time around!
Comments
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I ended up sticking with masters but still wonder if I'm going to be adequately prepared for a full IM distance OWS, am planning on trading out one masters swim a week for an OWS workout (on Fridays) from here out til WI.
http://www.tri247.com/article_6886.html
swim masters. Being that you are slightly competitive I am willing to bet you will get faster having someone to chase. It will also be more fun. I find the time goes by much faster swimming with a group.
Your coach is right of course. Given your time at Racine, you have little to gain from continued focus on drills and form. But your technique gains are probably still fragile, so you should spend 5-10 minutes at the start and/or end of each session doing drills and 1-200 meters swimming with "perfect form". At the end is a good trick, as you are tired, and if you can hold form then while going slower it will help cement the technique gains you have.
My 2¢: I would do one workout each week at a higher intensity level, master's type stuff. One workout with repeats at 6-12 minutes in length, 30-40 seconds rest between, at HIM or IM speed/intensity. And one in open water, without a wetsuit if the lakes there are warm enough. But if the Big Lake is choppy enough, better to swim there with a wetsuit then finding a placid one which is warm. Kailua Bay is "calm" as far as ocean swimming goes, but it still will seem choppy full of swells compared to inland waters. Breathing and body rotations patterns will be different for you there.
I obviously was leaning towards the masters but am nervous because of my past experience with masters and Al hite the nail on the head as I was also worried about messing up the new technique since it is still pretty new.
@Al - I like your suggestion about adding some WU/CD with perfect form and drills. Chris is right that once I get in the pool with someone else it will be all about catching them so starting and finishing with drills and good form makes a lot of sense. I have very little ocean swimming experience so I will look for opportunities to swim in open water and rough conditions as well.
After I posted this I thought about it a little more. I set a goal this year of being able to swim 1000 M TT in 15:33 and I have acheived it with only technique work. I guess the question really was, do I risk messing something up trying to get faster or should I be pleased that I met my goal and stick with what has worked? In hindsight I'm not even sure why I asked as I don't know how to just be pleased as I'm obviously already trying to figure out how to get to next years goal of 1000 M in 15:00.
Assuming you maintain your form as you change paces, if you wanna swim fast you gotta swim fast...much faster.
I know you guys got tired of this set but it's still about the best, most efficient, make-me-faster work you can do:
10, 15, or 20 x 100m/yds as 50 Sprint, 50 Easy. Take 15-20" rest after every 100.
When I'm fit, I can do 100 repeats at maybe 1:08-10 pace, leaving on the 1:20. When I do that set, I can do 28-30" for every hard 50. That's racking up 500-1000yds at ~1:00 pace.
Yes, swimming masters will have you swimming faster due to the competition. Swimming with other fast people is probably worth about 3"/100 for me, compared to what I would do on my own. But when I'm solo I can usually motivate myself to kick my ass for 50m at a time, hence the set above. It works.
At this stage in your training cycle (12 weeks to go
) it's kinda like putting far on your fast, except what you really want to do is consolidate your speed into strength for this specific race. So, no point in trying to get faster per se, but to be able to hold that speed in longer quality workouts at short distances (100s/200s - Masters) and build endurance at longer ones (400-600 and OWS).Then start all over again to your next goal next cycle - but then, it will be more about what Rich is talking about than technique drills.
It will be awesome to see you working your way down to sub 60 min in the IM swim, which is possible if you want it. My own dream is to swim an IM in my age in minutes. I've either gotta get older, or not slow down!
This reminds me of a story from one of my tri friends. He had always thought that his swim was slow because of technique. He went to his pool and asked one of the lifeguards to watch his technique and criticize it. The lifeguard swam for some big school, so he had street cred. After watching my friend swim for for a good number of laps, my friend asked him what he needed to change to go faster. The lifeguard point blank said "swim harder." "No, no, really, what should I change in my stroke," asked my friend. "Nothing," replied the lifeguard. "Your technique is pretty good, you just need to swim harder." Thought this story was humorous and worth sharing. Even funnier if you met my friend who thinks gadgets and gizmos are what make you fast.