Ironman swim help

Thanks Lizzie. I am only able to do 3 workouts a week due to the fact I must also fit in my bike/run workouts. 4,000-5,000 yards are fine for me to fit in. I am presently doing 3,000-3,500 but increasing every week. My event is in Florida on November 8th in the Gulf of Mexico (Panama City). FYI I have do 2 workouts similar to what you suggested but without your helpful hints to make them better. Presently I do 20x100 on 1:30 (5-10 secs. rest it gives me). Will increase this to 40x100 (3 weeks before. This was suggested from a Mark Allen article and I do it every 3 weeks. Also every 2nd Monday I am doing a continous swim of 30 minutes (presently) and will build to 60? minutes.

Let us know a little bit more... Are you able to do workouts of 4000-5000 yards? How many times a week do you want to swim? Where is the swim? 2.4 miles will not be that difficult if you are able to do a 4000 yard workout three times a week. I actually suggest doing less yards (under 3000) five times a week. Even doing short workouts every day rather than longer workouts a few times a week makes you get in really good swimming shape. It is really good to practice in open water - but if you swim in a pool, here are two things that I like to do to prepare for some longer open water swims. I like to do a long swim about 3000 yards straight once every other week where I start slowly and then build to a strong steady pace by about 400 yards and speeding up for the last 400 yards. This is quite boring -so you have to find ways to entertain yourself. I usually do this during a lap swim time where I find new ways to pass people. Our team has been doing a set of 100's on a relatively fast interval (Pace plus about 7 seconds). This weekend we did 17 X 100 broken as follows. 1 X 100 fast - our coach always says - let's face it - the first part of any race you will be going fast due to adrenaline, etc. so you may as well practice doing this in practice and get used to it before your race. 3 X 100 moderate 6 X 100 - pace 4 X 100 - every third length fast - this is supposed to get you to mimic or practice the increased speed when passing someone 3 X 100 starting at pace and building to sprint by 100. Most swimmers tend to use their legs more when they sprint - you will want to work on sprinting without over-using your legs since you have then ride your bike, followed by the run. Then you do an easy 100 or 150 to cool down. It is really important to watch the clock and make sure you are going the same pace for all of the 100's. It will get you to pace yourself correctly. There are plenty of really good workouts in the workout section of this discussion forum. You should make sure to check them out as well.