Need to get faster

If your home pool is 33m then you are probably not swimming organized/coached workouts with other swimmers. IF you want to get faster, that is step 1. AND there is NO step 2 until you make that leap.

I have an experience similar to yourself. I am trying to get faster. Specificaly i am trying to get under 60 secs for the 100m free and under 2:25 for the 200m free. I stopped swimming at Club at age 14, a choice between swimming and Captain of the school Rugby club. In 1995 I started rebuilding my strokes and used the TI method for the first 3 years. Then I found a club and an excellent " National level " coach. I was lucky in that he wanted to focus on technique. He used a lot of drills that I later found out had come from an Australian video series by Bill Sweetenham. Eventually my times came down from 1:35 for the 100m free to 1:10 for the 100m free SC. Lately they have stayed level. Now I use swim info from a wide variety of sources and i am making steady improvement. The one result of years of TI drills at slow tempo is that my Stroke rate has become very slow. I am now working to increase that by short 25m swims at max tempo which for me is 42 cycles/min. Check your stroke rate , is it slow ? If you can raise it and hold your technique together then you will go faster.

Actually, a GREAT USMS Team in Fort Worth, Texas (coached by Chuck Burr who is an excellent swim coach and a very fine man) work out in a 33 yard pool each morning. A beautiful older Country Club pool....

In order to swim faster in competition, you have to swim faster in practice. Except for warmup, warmdown, or for relaxation, there is not much to be gained by swimming "junk yardage". For me, zoomers really help. I often alternate 50 or 100 yards with fins, then the same distance without the fins. Quality times, not yardage, is the point here. Or pick a goal time for a 100, then divide by half. See how many 25's or 50's you can swim at or near that race pace with the fins with, say, a minute rest between 50's. Over time decrease the interval/rest between 50's. This is also helpful when trying to break a plateau. Try to get in about 500 yards total in these sets. I don't try to do more than 2-3 hard sprint sets per week; seems counter productive in this 50 year old body;)

Don't worry about it. I use to swim in a 33 yard pool for meets way back iun 1969. 33 meter pools are kind of rarely since they are more likely an older pool. I have poor times in freestyle in practice, a 1:42 time and I one did a 1:48 *** in a 100 yards. I swam a race 100 meter *** at 1:53.10 last year in long course. As a kid I swam a 1:30 and a 100 meter freestyle one at 1:11. Being middle age and weighting a lot more with larger breasts means I have more water resistant and my conditioning isn't what it use to be.

DEC, Hmm...how do I put this? Your current time for the 100m is 1:40. Your goal time for the 400m is 6:00. Just as an exercise, multiply 1:40 times 4, and see what you get. There is nothing wrong with ambitious goals, and people do surprise the day-lights out of everyone (including themselves) by actually making those goals in a most dramatic fashion. My point is to ensure you realize how high you are aiming. Since you are talking about triathlons, let's review the bidding. Your goal is to finish the swim quickly, yes, but also going easier than an all out 400m swim because you have to save most of the gas in your tank for the bike and run, which do tend to be longer (measured by time to complete) than the swim. So, what should you be working on? The two components that will help you complete a faster, easier swim are aerobic conditioning and improving the efficiency of your stroke. I also use (and shamelessly plug at the slightest provocation) TI techniques. Do not underestimate the power of the drills to give you effortless speed, even if they seem to be a low intesity waste of a conditioning opportunity. In the past 4 years I have loped 1:20 off of my best 1500m/1650y time with TI methods (and if anything, less aerobic conditioning). So, you want to keep working the TI drills, and looking for longer strokes. Remember, this is not just another 400m swim; this is the first 6-7 minutes of a race that will take you about an hour to complete. The other part that will benefit you is lots of long aerobic sets. Swim sets with longer distances, and set the intervals shorter, so you have a high work:rest ratio. As a triathlete, you are probably used to this kind training. Do some more of it in the pool. As an exercise, you might want to check your stroke count to ensure you are keeping your nice long strokes as you make the interval more challenging. It will probably slip some from the drill sets. The idea is to keep it at a reasonable number, instead of turning into an egg beater. Go ahead and experiment with any suggestion that catches your fancy. There is something to be said for changing up your workout to keep mentally sharp. Just remember your core is good mechanics and aerobic conditioning. Good luck. Matt