I can swim, so why should I swim so much to prep for IM?
I want to pose a sincere question here. I'm not trying to start some dick waving contest or brag about times. I'm a 65-70 min IM swimmer (done 3 IMs). My T-Pace is about 1:20-1:23 per 100 yards in the pool. I get it that I need to build up to a 4500 straight and do several 90 min swims in prep for IMCDA. Other than that, why bother with swimming 3X per week? How about 2X? I suspect part of the answer will be: "Well, if you don't rack up a lot of swim time your bike and run in the IM will suffer"...meaning you need to have all that fitness with the swim so it feels "easy" and you can then roll onto the bike and run without *as much* fatigue.
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3x is the minimum to see an improvement. 2x is more like maintenance swimming, you "might" get a little faster. 1x is a waste of time.
In the end, it's all a function of your race day goals, how expensive/valuable swim time is for you, etc. That said, one of the changes I made to the swims in the IM plan was to keep you swimming long and hard right up until race week and I think I added an optional 4th swim per week in the last ~3wks. Which is to say, the taper creates an opportunity swim more and keep working on your swim fitness right up until late in race week.
R - So can I get away with an occasional 2x during IM prep say for weeks 10-15? Not attempting a Kona slot. Just want to do well.
I'm swimming 2x week but doing 4500 yds each time so I'm getting the same yardage as 3x swimmers but I need my Mondays off so I'm swimming Tu/Fr. Trying to do 1 open water swim weekly until race.Nothing like 75-90 minutes of continuous swimming in a lake to prep for IM I say.
In 2010, I swam 1:14 at IMWI. That year I did ZERO Mater's classes. It was 3x/week all EN protocol OWS. My RR swims were 1:17, so not far off. That big of a difference made me think the 2008 race was not properly marked.
Now as we close in on IMSG, swimming 2x/ week, probably 1/3 has been Master's and the rest has been EN protocol, but in the pool. My pool RR was 1:19, I admit to being incredibly bored and losing focus.
Out of personal necessity, I swam 2x/ week for the majority of IM prep. If life allowed the 3rd, I took it, but that was only 2 weeks so far.
My point is that my swim time is slower, but I am not looking to KQ. So less swimming has been a life requirement this year, but is not going to torpedo my race day.
All frequency, swim bike and run, is good. Of the three, running is probably the most valuable and easy to get. A 30' run can be done straight from your door with maybe a total of 45' of total cost from door to shower and done. In fact, I often kick myself for debating to do a 30' run because in the time it took me to motivate me to do it...I could have friggin' run already.
Bike frequency is limited by logistics (ie, more time to gear up, might take you more time to get to where you can actually "ride," even though you may be riding straight from your door) and the fact that these combine to make the minimum time required to make a ride "worth it" much longer than the 30' run.
Anyway, so 3x swims per week is ideal but frequency is limited by the logistics. For this reason it's usually better to add time/distance to existing swims. If you add 15' of swimming to your existing 1hr swim, that's almost adding another swim's worth of volume, if not frequency. And as I said you can keep the swim volume and intensity rolling right up into race week so a good idea to add swim frequency in the last 3-4wks of an IM build up. It's also a good way to keep the calories burning and hold onto your body composition gains, work on your tan before the big event, stuff like that