Hi all. I am about 8 weeks out from a 5K Lake Swim. I am a strong pool swimmer but never done this distance in "open" water - pretty new here. I am convinced I can muscle though it if need be, but would like to make a competitive age group showing.
I am training almost exclusively in pool, so looking for advice, links, or books on workouts, distances, pace, taper (?), etc. Thanks for any advice.
Parents
Former Member
I'm no expert on weight training so I'm not the best source. That being said, I always did weights after my swim workout. I can't tell you why other than to say I enjoyed my swim workouts and if I did weights first I felt all tied up. Maybe I just didn't stretch enough. Intellectually, I thought doing weights last would give me a chance to target specific muscles and overload them. The following day I always made sure I did a lot of stretching and a LONG warm up swim.
I still think though, that you might go with swim specific resistance training instead of weights, and even those I would back off with 3 weeks to go. Olympic swimmers have so fine tuned their bodies the same rules don't necessarily apply. They also have 24 hour coaching to help prevent overtraining or other training mistakes.
But in the end, no one is paying us to do this, and there is no Olympics in sight, so do what gets you most excited about swimming.
I'm no expert on weight training so I'm not the best source. That being said, I always did weights after my swim workout. I can't tell you why other than to say I enjoyed my swim workouts and if I did weights first I felt all tied up. Maybe I just didn't stretch enough. Intellectually, I thought doing weights last would give me a chance to target specific muscles and overload them. The following day I always made sure I did a lot of stretching and a LONG warm up swim.
I still think though, that you might go with swim specific resistance training instead of weights, and even those I would back off with 3 weeks to go. Olympic swimmers have so fine tuned their bodies the same rules don't necessarily apply. They also have 24 hour coaching to help prevent overtraining or other training mistakes.
But in the end, no one is paying us to do this, and there is no Olympics in sight, so do what gets you most excited about swimming.
