How Little Swimming Before IM if Good Swimming?
I have turned the corner from doing lots and lots of swim volume (and having my slowest race ever in the water) to cutting back to 2 swims a week that are between 1500 and 2000 but are all on great form. I am 95% sure I have "fixed" my right arm catch and am enjoying some great speed...but there is that pesky endurance question. I have time over the next 5-6 weeks to add more swimming, just wondering how aggressive you think I should be. Goals are to have a good race but really testing the minimalist thing....thanks!
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If I relate it to run training....I think you need one more swim per week focused strictly on endurance/distance...of up to 75% of race volume...2700m or so...focusing on form as you are doing......and continue with the lower volume/strict form focus ...alternative...i think you could keep 2 workouts/per week...one short 1500...the other alternating 2000 and a longer version...progressing up to 2700-3000 .....just ideas..
Dec 3, 2011 - 2700 yds (pool)
March (forget the date), 2012 - 2700 yds (pool)
May 27, 2012 - ~2.4 miles (open water)
June 10, 2012 - ~2.4 miles (open water)
July 7, 2012 - ~2.4 miles (open water)
July 20, 2012 - ~1.2 miles (EN swim)
Ok, so that requires two hands. My point is this - I focused on nothing but form when swimming over the past two years, with the idea of setting mechanics into muscle memory, then being able to back-burner swim training to work on the bike and run, and then during the last few weeks swim the full 2.4 miles more as mental training to get used to swimming for over an hour. My swim time was 1:15 @ IMLP - so not fantastic, but not bad either. I don't believe anything I would have done in the two months prior to the event would have made any difference - especially when you consider the variables inherent of a mass swim start. Since it sounds like form, and not fitness, has been your focus as of late - you could probably scale back to just a handful of swims from now until then and be fine.
My two cents... The more you swim, the easier it is on race say. I'd add a good 800-1000 warm up on each of your 2 current weekly swim session, and focus specifically during the WU on dps. Meaning pick a number 1-2 stokes/length fewer than your "good form" #, and swim until you cant hit it anymore, say 200yds. Rest 30 s or so, then go again. My thought is this will build the swim specific arm strength at the end of the pull to get you through the swell in the bay. I used to do this up until about4-5 years ago, and as I aged, I saw my IM swim get stronger.
Full disclosure ... I'm not doing that now ... I'm just following the plan you wrote!
Interesting post looking for some more team feedback on this one.
@ Ryan... wow
I usually pick and choose or combine one of the EN swim workouts per week to do in the pool and the longer ones OWS.
I've worked pretty hard on my swim this year starting in OS with 2 swims per week(45min sessions) 1 being the short hard intervals(anaerobic) and the other being the 500's-1000's 7-16min FTP like sessions. Then adding alot of volume and distance in the OWS during the season. Did it work? Yes but not by much. My swims are only slightly faster than last year BUT they are taking less out of me for the bike and the run. So ROI is fairly low which we all know already BUT its still ROI and hard to really measure.
Coach P, at your swimming speed and swimming ability, I'd be surprised if you needed anything more than 1 swim a week lasting ~1hr in total (including W/U, drills, some technique stuff, 30 mins of hard sets and a short cool down). If you do this then move to 2x of this per week during your 2.5 weeks of taper, you'll be fine. I'll bet with this minimalist approach, your swim time will be within 90 seconds of your "normal" swim time (maybe faster, maybe slower) and you will have forgotten about the swim by mile 3 of the bike...