Hello, I am looking for some advice on where to start training for a Marathon Swim? I am signed up for Swim around Key West this June. Because of injury, I haven't been in the pool for quite some time, so I am basically starting from square one, with little distance under my belt. I have competed in Ironman triathlons and my average 2.4 time is about 1:05, but I have little to no knowledge of how to train for 11-12 miles in the ocean. I travel a decent amount for work too, so wondering if I can substitute some long swims for long runs? Any/All advice/thoughts is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
At the risk of overgeneralizing, I think most people here are pool swimmers. 1500 meters is "distance" to us.
However, rooting around in my list of swimming links, I found a link to the Marathon Swimmers Forum, which features a collection of threads about Training, including one specifically titled Swim around Key West Training Plan and Feasability (sic).
Hope that helps.
SAKW was my first marathon swim too and it was a blast. If you PM me your email address, I'll send you the training plan I created and worked off of last year. You can also read my blog on the USMS blog site - Road to Key West - to help you see what I went thru on the journey and the race report.
As for substituting long runs for long swims? Would you do the opposite while training for a road marathon? Probably not. There really isn't a substitute for getting the time in the water so you should plan on making it happen. My longest swim was about 14 or 15K and 4 hours and still did fine for the race.
And yes, marathon swimmers forum is a great place to go for information. Just do a search and you'll get several threads about the race and prep for it (sometimes too much info.). :) Feel free to drop me a line for any questions.
Kari
