Home› General Training Discussions

How "late" to restart swimming before IM?

Michael JohnsonMichael Johnson
in General Training Discussions

Wonder what would happen if the EN Koolaid was taken to the extreme....waiting until relatively last minute to restart swimming. I've contemplated this....I NEED to be a faster biker and runner IMLOU 6:16 >5:10

I've swam last at IMLOU 1:04

I've swam year round since 2000 before this year.

How "late" would be too late to restart swim training....# of weeks?

Anybody taken this to the extreme and what did they find out?

Just wonderin'

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott
    Who knows what the right answer is, but I've often heard of "good" swimmers about your speed (64 minutes sans wetsuit is a good IM swimmer, I think) who have no drop off in swim times with as little as 5-10 sessions in the water in the months before a race. Too bad it doesn't work for biking. It wouldn't hurt to pop in the pool once a week for some easy stroke work just to keep the muscle memory fresh.
  • dougianndougiann

    I'm too am around your time in an IM Swim (1:00 and 1:04 IM Cozumel)...the 1:04 this year was with about 10 sessions in the pool total from mid-summer (my gym's pool was closed for the month of Oct. leading up to my Nov. race)....so, as I review my past season, I too need to work on bike and RUN, so I'm gonna try to get to the pool 1X a week to do the following: 10x100's starting on 1:50's and deleting a second each session (i.e. 1:50, 1:49, 1:48 etc.) followed by some stroke mechanics (for about 15mins or so concentrating on 1 thought)...that's it. We'll see how this works out as I'm scheduled for IMTexas in May - I'll probably ramp up the sessions starting May 1 to about 3x week - after all, breaking an hour in an IM swim is dang cool

  • jburbattjburbatt

    Well....I didn't purposely take it to the extreme, but last year I ended up doing about 4 swims of about a mile each in preparation for IMWI. (And yes, that's total for the year.) Because of other life stuff this is just how it ended up. My perfect situation goal was to swim a 1:30 or under and I ended up swimming a 1:28. I'm super-comfortable in the water, and knew that my form was good enough that the limited swim time would likely not be a problem. That being said, I'm sure this could be pretty individual. But to me, the gains were to be made on the bike and run, and I could pick up plenty of time in those legs and in transition way easier than picking up time in the water (easier = training time and admin time accounted for in the swim). BUT, I went into it knowing that I could be coming out of the water pushing the cutoff since I'd never swum 2.4 miles before. Now that I know I can, I'd be comfortable sacrificing swim time for something else if necessary. Sounds like your a pretty good swimmer, I'd doubt that reducing your swims would have that adverse of an effect, as long as you kept up with your form.

  • gilliattgilliatt
    my WAG.........Independence Day.
  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    @ Michael and Doug - I hate you both!!! I would gladly swim 4 times a week year-in and year-out to get under 65 mins. Maybe I'm just too old and inflexible.
Sign In or Register to comment.