Qs about interval training for open water races

Thanks for the reply. I left my answers above. Yes, I get what you're saying about paddle work and shoulder stress. I'll give it a shot to see how much is enough for a good workout.This is all good. I'll definitely second flystorms' recommendation on doing long swims and increasing those over time, as well as checking out the USMS workouts. A few thoughts based upon your answers: I would work on gradually increasing your weekly volume of yardage/meterage. You have plently of time, so you could do it in 500m increments per week. I've found that about 15K per week is a great volume that allows me to swim almost any pool event and comfortably race up to 5K open water. If you're starting now around 8K, you could reasonably be at that 15K weekly volume by the end of the year to early January. I would say you could even then hold that volume all the way to race-time, or do something like this: Hold the 15K weekly volume through March Take April through May and experiment with laddering up your volume in 4 week cycles like 15k, 16k, 17k ... then a rest week of maybe 12k 15.5k, 16.5, 17.5k ... 12K rest week 16k, 17k, 18k ... 12k rest week ... then, depending upon when in July your race is map out the right mix of volume and taper Given that you're going to race a long-distance, I'd think about aiming for 4 workouts a week, with three of them very oriented around hitting that target pace and one longer swim (as per flystorms). As you start into the pace work, you're probably going to have to gravitate to shorter distances to hit the pace. So, you might need to do 40 x 50 on 1:15 to hit your goal of 0:55 per 50. As you increase your endurance and speed, you can then move up to 20 x 100 on, say, 2:15, to try to hit 1:50. I tend to prefer doing short-rest sets at target pace versus longer swims. As an example, when I train for a 1500 meter pool swim, my 'go-to' race training set is 3 rounds of 3 x 50, 2 x 100, 1 x 150 on intervals that gave me about 10-15 seconds rest. I know that if I hit my race pace on that set, I would hit it in the pool. When I trained for 5K open water swims, the longest I'd try to go at pace was a 500. If you want a really brutal 6K workout, try this - forums.usms.org/entry.php It might have already been said, but see if you can get some technique coaching as becoming a more efficient swimmer will help you go faster longer. I'm a big fan of Total Immersion (www.totalimmersion.net/) and it looks like there might be a certified TI coach in Romania (www.facebook.com/.../) If you have access to a 50M pool, train there as much as possible vs 25M as you will just swim more. I don't know what the open water scene is like in Romania, but will you have an opportunity to do some open water racing, even if shorter distances, in May or June, as 'trial runs' to see how your pace in the pool is translating to the open water?

Thanks for the reply. I left my answers above. Yes, I get what you're saying about paddle work and shoulder stress. I'll give it a shot to see how much is enough for a good workout.This is all good. I'll definitely second flystorms' recommendation on doing long swims and increasing those over time, as well as checking out the USMS workouts. A few thoughts based upon your answers: I would work on gradually increasing your weekly volume of yardage/meterage. You have plently of time, so you could do it in 500m increments per week. I've found that about 15K per week is a great volume that allows me to swim almost any pool event and comfortably race up to 5K open water. If you're starting now around 8K, you could reasonably be at that 15K weekly volume by the end of the year to early January. I would say you could even then hold that volume all the way to race-time, or do something like this: Hold the 15K weekly volume through March Take April through May and experiment with laddering up your volume in 4 week cycles like 15k, 16k, 17k ... then a rest week of maybe 12k 15.5k, 16.5, 17.5k ... 12K rest week 16k, 17k, 18k ... 12k rest week ... then, depending upon when in July your race is map out the right mix of volume and taper Given that you're going to race a long-distance, I'd think about aiming for 4 workouts a week, with three of them very oriented around hitting that target pace and one longer swim (as per flystorms). As you start into the pace work, you're probably going to have to gravitate to shorter distances to hit the pace. So, you might need to do 40 x 50 on 1:15 to hit your goal of 0:55 per 50. As you increase your endurance and speed, you can then move up to 20 x 100 on, say, 2:15, to try to hit 1:50. I tend to prefer doing short-rest sets at target pace versus longer swims. As an example, when I train for a 1500 meter pool swim, my 'go-to' race training set is 3 rounds of 3 x 50, 2 x 100, 1 x 150 on intervals that gave me about 10-15 seconds rest. I know that if I hit my race pace on that set, I would hit it in the pool. When I trained for 5K open water swims, the longest I'd try to go at pace was a 500. If you want a really brutal 6K workout, try this - forums.usms.org/entry.php It might have already been said, but see if you can get some technique coaching as becoming a more efficient swimmer will help you go faster longer. I'm a big fan of Total Immersion (www.totalimmersion.net/) and it looks like there might be a certified TI coach in Romania (www.facebook.com/.../) If you have access to a 50M pool, train there as much as possible vs 25M as you will just swim more. I don't know what the open water scene is like in Romania, but will you have an opportunity to do some open water racing, even if shorter distances, in May or June, as 'trial runs' to see how your pace in the pool is translating to the open water?