I'm training for my first 10K swim, in October. I have planned and am sticking to monthly yardage increases and a couple of longer "long swims" each month. In May my "long swims" were 3.5 miles, this month I'll bump that up to 4.0
Here's my question. I'm trying to see which of my training habits from other sports translate well to swim training. Specifically, I also do ultra-distance trail running, and when I am comfortable doing a "50K weekend" (30K Saturday, 20K Sunday) then I know I'm ready for a 50K race.
Will the same be roughly true for my swimming? If I'm comfortable doing a 3 mile swim one day and another 3 the next day, am I ready for 6?
I agree with this general thought, although I'd say that time-wise a 10K swim is more like a 16-mile run than like a full marathon. It's a distance that you can and should (IMO) work up to completing or exceeding in pre-race workouts, whereas many pretty decent marathoners rarely if ever do long workout runs more than 75-80% of the marathon distance.
Having done both, I also will say that a 10K swim is far less traumatic on the body than a 26.2-mile run. Recovering from a 10K swim is easy enough that you can do that distance or more in training, albeit perhaps at a more modest pace than you would in a race, without totally ruining subsequent workouts.
This is my sense of it too; I got to the point that I could do a 10K pool swim continuously week after week (for me I think it was equivalent to more like an 18-22-mile training run in terms of time, but more like a 12-15-miler in terms of stress on the body)... but moving out past that was a little more challenging--12K (7.5 miles) seemed like a torture in the pool. Now that I know I have the endurance for a 10-miler (potentially; I hope that 75% thing works), I'm spending some time getting re-accustomed to swimming in the lake w/o lane lines, clear water, etc.... that's another mental adjustment!
Any advice from folks who have trained for a 10-miler?
I agree with this general thought, although I'd say that time-wise a 10K swim is more like a 16-mile run than like a full marathon. It's a distance that you can and should (IMO) work up to completing or exceeding in pre-race workouts, whereas many pretty decent marathoners rarely if ever do long workout runs more than 75-80% of the marathon distance.
Having done both, I also will say that a 10K swim is far less traumatic on the body than a 26.2-mile run. Recovering from a 10K swim is easy enough that you can do that distance or more in training, albeit perhaps at a more modest pace than you would in a race, without totally ruining subsequent workouts.
This is my sense of it too; I got to the point that I could do a 10K pool swim continuously week after week (for me I think it was equivalent to more like an 18-22-mile training run in terms of time, but more like a 12-15-miler in terms of stress on the body)... but moving out past that was a little more challenging--12K (7.5 miles) seemed like a torture in the pool. Now that I know I have the endurance for a 10-miler (potentially; I hope that 75% thing works), I'm spending some time getting re-accustomed to swimming in the lake w/o lane lines, clear water, etc.... that's another mental adjustment!
Any advice from folks who have trained for a 10-miler?
