Comrades,
This is my first post, thought I have been a Masters swimmer for about 11 years now.
My question has to do with endurance training. I am primarily an open water swimmer, on lakes (smooth water). My speed is around 24-25 min/mile. I have what most people consider a very smooth, long stroke (~13 s/25yd). What I want is to increase my speed in the 1, 2 and 3 mile distances. I am self-coached, and seldom train with anyone else.
Normally, my usual training is to just get in and swim. I used to go 3500 yds (2 mi) at a time (3 times/week), but I have pushed that up to 5300 (3 mi, 3 times/week) this spring. (I also run quite a bit).
My new plan is to mix this up somewhat. I have been experimenting with what I call a "fartlek-pyramid". I warm up (~1000 yds), then do an continuous, ascending set of hard-easys, like this: 25h, 25e, 50h, 50e, 75h, 75e, ... up to 200, then descend the pyramid, 200h/e, 175h/e, 150h/e, and so on. (The hard laps are done at a speed just below stroke breakup). So, yesterday this gave me 1000 yd at medium speed (the warmup), plus 1600 hard and 1600 moderate/easy yards.
So, anyone out there feel confident to tell me what they think of this? I feel pretty tired afterwards, which I interpret as a good sign that I am pushing myself. I don't like to stop and look at the clock, and I get bored looking for workouts on the web. This one is simple, and can be easily lengthened (just keep climbing the pyramid). It allows me to concentrate on my technique at various speeds.
Any thoughts?
Former Member
Welcome Paularchibald,
It sounds like you are on the right tract in that you realize that just swimming a mile or so or more doesn't give you the added speed; it makes those miles very comfortable but not very fast.
I am a open water distance swimmer training for a 19 mile swim in August of 2008. Although I add one extra mile per month to my training, I have certain days I do distance and certain days I do speed and drill work. It will be imperative to be able to change gears when the elements (currents) change during the swim and I have to be more than prepared.
You've already figured out by swimming hard/fast does add that stamina. What I do are these: I pick a distance, say 1/2 mile, and I swim that half mile doing 20 strokes ez, 20 strokes fast and the fast IS fast. Then I rest and repeat this. Something else I do is take that same half-mile and swim it first ez, then swim it at 80%, then swim it ez again. Another thing to do is to take a one or two mile swim and every 500 yds or so, swim a very fast 100 or 200 yards then go back to your race pace for the next 500 yards and repeat this process til the swim is ended. All of these types of speed endurance drills create great stamina and in addition to that stamina, your times will fall because you can cover that distance faster without suffering.
Cheers,
Donna
Paularchibald, I think you are definitely training correctly doing the fartlek sets! That will increase both your speed and your endurance. I used to do sets like that all the time back when I swam AAU (USS). It really helped my longer distance swims and actually converted me from a drop dead sprinter to doing a decent 1650.
It is nice to get these positive comments. Thanks.
I did a variation today in that I did 50,100,150,200,250,200,150,100,50. I didn't have enough time for the full pyramid. And I did stop at the top of the pyramid for a minute or so to talk to my wife.
Normally, I don't stop, and I increase by 25 yds each time. I think I will plot out how many yards I can get in doing the 50 yd increments. I would like to get this pyramid to about 3500-4500 yds, to leave a little warmup-down at the ends.
I just want to emphasise that one of my goals is to keep my stroke together at all times. The hardest part is the first 25 following a hard interval. When I slow down, my stroke kind of breaks for about 25-50 yd before I can catch my breath.
Part of what convinced me I needed to try some fast swimming was a cooment I heard years ago: "if you want to learn to swim fast, you have to swim fast". Duh.
Part of what convinced me I needed to try some fast swimming was a cooment I heard years ago: "if you want to learn to swim fast, you have to swim fast". Duh.
SOOOO True. It seems like that would be a no brainer but a lot of swimmers think you get faster by doing quantity ("garbage yardage") not quality.
