Hello USMS I'm a new poster here, but have been lurking for some time. I come from a background of Olympic distance triathlons and shorter, but have been swimming for a solid 20 years. Unfortunately none of it was fast paced in nature, but more focused on sitting in a pack drafting with a wetsuit. My swim times for Olympic distance were in the 24 minute range so not horrible, but certainly not at the tip of the spear. I'm done with all that as my body can't take the abuse of running so want to give swimming full time a shot.
I have no desire to swim distance really and would like to see what I can do in the next few years with the 100 free. Does anyone have any resources or ideas on what kinds of workouts I should be doing? I will have a solid 5 days a week to dedicate to swimming, perhaps even 6 on the right week. I am comfortable at with 3k workouts right now at 4 days a week. I will be lucky to swim with my local Masters squad 1 time per week as my hours don't allow me to meet at their time sans Saturday so most training will be on my own.
Thank you for any advice in my training endeavors. Here are some splits from my pathetic sprint efforts in the pool tonight.
An all out 100 off the wall was 1:11. However I did 6 x 50 and managed a 29-30 on the 2nd one, but the rest were 31-32. so apparently I have no ability to hold my all out pace very well. Did a hand full of 25's and had some in the 13 range, but mostly 14. Hard to tell exactly b/c I'm looking at an analog clock.
Thank you USMS
Is Olympic distance a 1.2 mile?
Check out this thread in training for 100's up (and 50's if also doing longer races) forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Swim Faster Faster
www.usms.org/.../showthread.php
Also, Kicking might be a new and mandatory requirement forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Workouts: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Welcome to course swimming, looks like you have plenty of eager muscle fibers ready to be converted to speed:)
My recommendation would be to first get your stroke analyzed in order to evaluate what you need to focus on during your workouts. You'll want to choose an approach that will work best for improving your speed and technique in an efficient manner and without churning out 'junk' yardage. After you become aware of the areas in which you need to improve, it will be easier to design workouts that blend technique and interval sets and correspond to your specific needs. Since you are not swimming with a team too often, this will be of vital importance.
You can get a lot more out of your workouts if you know what you need to work on and you incorporate an appropriate mix of technique work and speed work/interval sets.
Good luck!
Hello USMS I'm a new poster here, but have been lurking for some time. I come from a background of Olympic distance triathlons and shorter, but have been swimming for a solid 20 years. Unfortunately none of it was fast paced in nature, but more focused on sitting in a pack drafting with a wetsuit. My swim times for Olympic distance were in the 24 minute range so not horrible, but certainly not at the tip of the spear. I'm done with all that as my body can't take the abuse of running so want to give swimming full time a shot.
I have no desire to swim distance really and would like to see what I can do in the next few years with the 100 free. Does anyone have any resources or ideas on what kinds of workouts I should be doing? I will have a solid 5 days a week to dedicate to swimming, perhaps even 6 on the right week. I am comfortable at with 3k workouts right now at 4 days a week. I will be lucky to swim with my local Masters squad 1 time per week as my hours don't allow me to meet at their time sans Saturday so most training will be on my own.
Thank you for any advice in my training endeavors. Here are some splits from my pathetic sprint efforts in the pool tonight.
An all out 100 off the wall was 1:11. However I did 6 x 50 and managed a 29-30 on the 2nd one, but the rest were 31-32. so apparently I have no ability to hold my all out pace very well. Did a hand full of 25's and had some in the 13 range, but mostly 14. Hard to tell exactly b/c I'm looking at an analog clock.
Thank you USMS
Your biggest switch might need to be one of mindset. Your biggest gains are likely to be in the technical elements of the swim - your stand and, especially, turns/breakouts. Your conditioning should also be geared towards speed and power, backed by speed endurance. You are coming from a world where a "sprint" means swimming 400m followed by a cycle and a run, and it's all about aerobic endurance.
I've seen quite a few triathletes come to our club (and often go), that couldn't get their heads around the fact that better technical swimmers, who are much less fit, could absolutely murder them over 50/100m....
