At what volume levels do you see improvement?

Since you are a triathlete, volume actually does matter to you. My 50 free has been steadily improving since I started swimming again. I think I am technically a better swimmer than I was 2 years ago. On the other hand, I would say my 200 free was probably better a year ago than it is now. A year ago, I trained 5 days a week, 4-5k yards a day, mixed stroke in about 75 minutes. My conditioning was much better than it is now. For the last year I have been training 3x/week at 3k mostly free, 1x/week at 2k sprint free and 1x/week 4-5k aerobic free. My recommendation to you is to try to increase your time in the water to between 60 and 75 minutes 3x a week. Even though you are a triathlete first, I think you should train mixed stroke and kick without fins on the shorter kick sets. Do IM sets but substitute one armed drill for the fly. Breaststroke and backstroke are both valuable tools during an open water swim and a strong 200 yard kick will get you up and out of the water with your legs pumped full of blood ready for your transition. In addition, training mixed stroke will make it easier to keep your heart rate up the entire practice, since you are mainly concerned with the aerobic side of swimming, while providing you with variety and a break from the shoulder stress that can come from all free. On the freestyle sets, really work to keep your rest short and keep dropping the interval you train on. Track your performance on your free sets and try to improve week over week. I think over time this will allow you to add yardage and get to 4k/75 minute workouts, which should give you a good base for your swim leg, and then you can start discuss more specific strategies to get faster.

My biggest break throughs came when I increase my swimming frequency from 3X to 4-5X a week and with the interval training ( I wasn't doing enough or enough on harder intervals).

Adding stress effectively can be done different ways but how to do it effectively can be difficult without baseline training records. Adding yardage, decreasing rest intervals, increasing intensity are the most common ways to add stress to your workouts (adding yardage may or may not be the best method). The adaptation to the stress will create your opportunity to drop some time. If you've developed a training regime revolving around baseline times you can begin to understand what kind of methods you want to use to help drop your times. Speed, endurance, pain tolerance, stroke efficiency, flexibility, and so on, should be measured if you're serious about dropping times. Please email me at tomtopo@netzero.com and I'll send you an article about baseline training that will help you and your coach (I'm not trying to sell you anything). Good luck, Coach T.

I'm reading this thread with interest--I've been wondering the same things. I started seeing a lot of big improvement when I added strength training to my regimen. If you don't already do weights, I recommend it! Also, I increased my volume from about 10K per week to at least 15K. My times dropped a lot (not that I was all that fast to start with). I seem to have hit a plateau, though, so I'm looking at what I need to do to keep moving forward.

The theory goes, 1. you need to either increase training volume at your current speed or 2. you need to increase training speed. 1. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 9x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 2. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:14 #2 is easier to do in a coached practice, and if you are not a clock watcher it means you are trying to move up in lane order, trying to lead the lane, trying to move up to the next fastest lane. Eventually you need to become a clock watcher. How much of this kind of workout improvement can translate to improvement in sprint races? Over the past year I have brought my intervals down considerably and as such my times in 200+ yards are much better. Yet my 50s and 100s have only improved by tenths. I would like to be able to bring those times down just by ramping things up and working harder (going from 3x a week of 2000 yards) to 4x a week of more yardage. And I am talking more everything including sprint training.

Swimming is the shortest time in a tri. Time should be spent in training in proportion to each segment, IMHO Well, that depends..... - - - - - The first thing we are doing is just upping my volume. I'm going to start putting in 12 - 15k each week. 12-15k done in 3-4 workouts is a decent volume for a triathlete. Unless you have solid reasons, it may become counter productive to try to go over it. But how old are you? And what are your goals? How are you performing on bike/run? I know I can translate this into running - when I hit 50 miles a week I can feel the difference in my running. And from there it is usually in 10's for me. 60 miles a week and 70 miles a week. can you really afford volumes in excess of 60 miles per week? As a comparison, for a triathlete that is holding 4:30/kilo as an easy mileage pace and 20min per kilo in the pool, 60 miles equals roughly little over 20k per week in the pool. That is little less than 7hr engaged per week per sport. That is excluding the bike. That said, 20min per kilo is little slow. A triathlete that can afford to run 60miles per week will hopefully swim faster than 3kph. Assuming a velocity of 4kph in average, you're up to around 27k per week of swimming. You don't need to visit this sort of mileage unless you want to race as an elite. If it's the case then you may need to even go over this in order to exit with the front pack to be able to stay with these guys on the bike. I have a client in this situation. He'll be busting 30k per week this year, in order to get closer to 19min flat over 1500, which is what it takes to compete with the front pack.

I seem to have hit a plateau, though, so I'm looking at what I need to do to keep moving forward. The theory goes, 1. you need to either increase training volume at your current speed or 2. you need to increase training speed. 1. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 9x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 2. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:14 #2 is easier to do in a coached practice, and if you are not a clock watcher it means you are trying to move up in lane order, trying to lead the lane, trying to move up to the next fastest lane. Eventually you need to become a clock watcher.

To the OP--what distance triathlon are you training for? Pool swims or open water? I swim mostly with triathletes. One thing that I like that our coach does is a variety of swims geared for longer distance; a timed 60 min, timed 20 min, 2000 or 1000 for time. Then he'll also assign sets such as 10 x 100 w 30 sec rest at your race pace (whatever distance that is), as well as that 10 x 100 on something like 5 sec rest. Of course the goal is to get those long swims down. From personal experience, for open water I like having a strong breaststroke. It can be handy if you start cramping or going numb. It is also useful for sighting. And I also find a strong *** kick handy when someone gets too close (those persistant folks who follow me and swim at/poke at me). There are some good tips so far, but I think much really depends on the swim distance. I know several Ironman finishers who push the limits completing the swim on time and focus more time on bike, a lesser extent on run (but certainly not 60 miles/week more like 30-35).

The theory goes, 1. you need to either increase training volume at your current speed or 2. you need to increase training speed. 1. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 9x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 2. 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:15 becomes 8x100 on 1:20 holding 1:14 #2 is easier to do in a coached practice, and if you are not a clock watcher it means you are trying to move up in lane order, trying to lead the lane, trying to move up to the next fastest lane. Eventually you need to become a clock watcher. Thank you qbrain!! You always have the answers I need. I work out alone, and am a dedicated clock watcher, so I have both options available to me. During January/Feb I was doing the second one, and things were going very well, but lately I just can't hold anything faster, can't GET there at 1:14. So I guess I need to try option #1.

How much of this kind of workout improvement can translate to improvement in sprint races? Over the past year I have brought my intervals down considerably and as such my times in 200+ yards are much better. Yet my 50s and 100s have only improved by tenths. I would like to be able to bring those times down just by ramping things up and working harder (going from 3x a week of 2000 yards) to 4x a week of more yardage. And I am talking more everything including sprint training. Herb, the theory is the same, but the sets would be different. You would focus on 12.5s, 25s, 50s ... up to 200s, with more focus on the lower end. Short rest helps longer events, so you want to work with generous intervals on the shorter stuff and really hammer out some max speed work. The goal isn't really to drop your training interval but your times. You can stick with 1:20s all season, but you may start the season holding 1:15s and finish the season holding 1:05s. As a sprinter, dropping down to 1:15 intervals and only holding 1:09s will be less beneficial than 1:20s holding 1:05s. Again, the 100s are just an example, you really want to focus on shorter stuff.