For instance, if you are focusing on the 5k is your base workout 5,000 M?
How much of the distance comes from the main set?
I've pretty much settled in on the 2000-2500 distance three times a week during the pool season and then switch to longer sets for the summer.
Yesterday I got up to a 2800 yard set consisting of 2x200 on 3:20 and 1x 400 on 6:40, repeat, trying to maintain my goal 1:30/100 pace for a mile. I'm curious how far I away I am from the training I need for a 2 mile or even 5k. Obviously, I'm not trying to win or anything. I'm thinking I could possibly even do it now if I relaxed and went easy, but I don't know. I've never been able to get myself to just do a straight swim, unless I am in a lake (which I haven't been able to do yet this year).
A little background: I'm more a SCY swimmer than anything but have gotten increasingly into open water swimming over the past five years. I've participated in numerous races from 1 mile to a 25K. I just competed in the 10K National Championship last Saturday in Indiana; our team hosted the event and we had 10 swimmers complete the 10K.
Although each of our training varied somewhat, we generally trained about 20K or so each week spread out over 4 practices usually spending 1 day each weekend completing the 5K course (with some stops along the way). The rest was in a 50m pool. I never exceeded 6500m in a day but routinely swam 5-6K in a 2 hour practice. A lot of the pool practices varied with descending intervals and or distances. We rarely swam anything longer than 500m at a time. I was happy with my performance finishing seconds under 2:30.
Two years ago while training for the 25K (which we also hosted), I swam six days each week slowly building my yardage between short course pools, a long course pool, and open water training. The last month of training I was over 30K each week peaking at 43K two weeks out from the event. That race was more mind over matter and I was simply out to finish the event which I was able to do but my body felt like I was in a car wreck. Should I have trained more? Perhaps, but I was in the water 8-12 hours per week as it was. I'm not sure when I would have found more time to train.
A little background: I'm more a SCY swimmer than anything but have gotten increasingly into open water swimming over the past five years. I've participated in numerous races from 1 mile to a 25K. I just competed in the 10K National Championship last Saturday in Indiana; our team hosted the event and we had 10 swimmers complete the 10K.
Although each of our training varied somewhat, we generally trained about 20K or so each week spread out over 4 practices usually spending 1 day each weekend completing the 5K course (with some stops along the way). The rest was in a 50m pool. I never exceeded 6500m in a day but routinely swam 5-6K in a 2 hour practice. A lot of the pool practices varied with descending intervals and or distances. We rarely swam anything longer than 500m at a time. I was happy with my performance finishing seconds under 2:30.
Two years ago while training for the 25K (which we also hosted), I swam six days each week slowly building my yardage between short course pools, a long course pool, and open water training. The last month of training I was over 30K each week peaking at 43K two weeks out from the event. That race was more mind over matter and I was simply out to finish the event which I was able to do but my body felt like I was in a car wreck. Should I have trained more? Perhaps, but I was in the water 8-12 hours per week as it was. I'm not sure when I would have found more time to train.
