How often do you swim long distance non-stop, say 1500m or more? How often is good? I try to plan for myself :)
(Also, when doing that, do you swim only freestyle or sometimes change to different strokes?)
Former Member
Quite often. I enjoy longer swims much more than interval training. I usually do math problems or computer algorithms in my head during the first part, while I'm fresh, and then later my mind ranges all over the place.
e.g. last Saturday: 6200 yards in 1:30 - steady pace.
Sunday: 1 hour (4100 yards) with 100 yard "sprints" thrown in every 5 minutes.
Monday: easy 2000 yards for recovery. Work technique.
Tuesday: Harder hour (~4200 yards)
Wednesday: Intervals with one set that was a continuous 2000 done as 4x{400 hard, 100 easy}
Thursday: easy 2000 yards recovery, work technique.
Favorite workout is a steady 2 hours to gauge my fitness.
-LBJ
Former Member
Sometimes I've got a song in my head QUOTE]
as long as its not "hey jude" or "the edmund fitzgerald"
Former Member
Interesting question. . .
Last year (LCM) when I was training for a 25K I did up to 1500 meter repeats once or twice a week for a few months. And on occasion I did some straight swims (greater than 1500) if I couldn't make the interval. . .
The fear of dying on the 25K OW competition (and coming in DFL) gave me motivation to swim in the distance lane.
This year I came to my senses and I can't say I've done more than 1500 meters straight this season. The good news is that now, everything seems like a sprint!
Former Member
From the replies here it seems that in order to swim OW long distance, most of you don't really practice long distance in the pool? Just practice the 400m or 800m and then confident enough to go straight to 5km or 10km OW? Very curious to know!
Former Member
From the replies here it seems that in order to swim OW long distance, most of you don't really practice long distance in the pool? Just practice the 400m or 800m and then confident enough to go straight to 5km or 10km OW? Very curious to know!
i think you would find that most of the people that responded wouldn't claim to train for a 5k or 10k or more... though they might participate in said events.
Former Member
Chaos,
I blogged earlier in the year about the worst songs to have running through your head on a long swim.
My absolute worst was "We're all alone" by Boz Scaggs (for a 10k and I take more than 3 hours to swim that!!!)
At MIMS it was 100 Years by Five for Fighting. That's pretty bad so it was probably merciful that I got pulled
Former Member
currently, it's my cycling season. But I am still swimming in preparation for next autumn when my regiment will be mostly made of swimming.
In preparation for this, my target for the end of the summer is 3x1000 Butterfly off 20min (for what it's worth). That will leave me no more than 15-30sec between each rep (emptying the goggles , replacing bathing cap which tend to get off when swimming long bf sets).
So in reality, this may be considered as a 3000 bf long steady swim test.
My current regiment is limited to 5x200 bf slow pace. No warm up no warm down. 1kilo and go home.
That answers one of your (important too me) question, and that is since I want to greatly improve fuel efficiency at butterfly, I do base mileage at this stroke.
As for link between LSD and openwater preparation for a 25k, my info may be outdated. I used to be involved at a fairly high level of competition back in the '90s (best result being a 2nd place on a 22mile world cup event). Back then, sets of 10k or more were done on a regular basis, any occasion to swim a full 25k was also prioritized (talking about fund raising marathons, B-races etc).
From the replies here it seems that in order to swim OW long distance, most of you don't really practice long distance in the pool? Just practice the 400m or 800m and then confident enough to go straight to 5km or 10km OW? Very curious to know!
Before my first 3K and 5K OWS, I did work in full swims of those lengths in practice prior, though I think much of the need for that was mental. I still practice at those lengths. In high school I was allergic to anything over 200 yards. Who'd a thunk that I now rarely swim anything less than a 500 in practice sets.
Former Member
I went through a phase were I just wanted to get through my yards and get out of the pool-and swimming 1500-2000 at a time got me done faster. But I found that my technique went to utter cr.. after about 1000, so I switched to shorter sets with more focus on form.
It was also really boring!Sets of 500-1000 allow me to switch from kick to stroke work more frequently and I can include sprints without loosing form.
The thing that baffles me is that I used to swim only breaststroke and since I added back stroke a year ago I have not been able to complete a 2000 ***.