I have been doing open water for almost lucky number 13 years, and I think I have finally exhausted every possible way to go back and forth across a stupid pool! I get out in the open as much as I can, but the bulk of my training is still in the pool.
I train alone and am self coached. I have done most of the various Masters and other published workouts, modified them to better suit distance training, called to mind old "favorite" workouts, made stuff up...But I am getting really bored! My typical workout is 6000 yards consisting of 1000yd warm up, 500yd kicking interspersed, and 3 1500s of whatever I choose (varying strokes, paces, ladders, pyramids, odd number lengths to finish on opposite sides of the pool for variety...).
On the one hand this works for me in the sense that I cover alot of distance, am able to do plenty of open water swims, I stay injury free (shouldn't have said that out loud), manage my weight...On the other hand...I don't want to get stuck in the "garbage yardage" thing, sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, and I feel like I am missing opportunities to get better.
Any suggestions for what kind of workouts to do in the pool when my main goals are maintaining fitness and doing open water events in the 2-4 mile (and maybe beyond) range.
I do 99.9% of my training in a pool. I find it time efficient (no added travel time), and allows me to structure my workouts better for the distances I am going to swim. I don't recommend it to people because I don't know how they transition from the pool to open water. Between my Catalina Channel crossing (9/11) and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (6/12) I swam only once in open water - 2 days before MIMS. I would have liked to swim more OW but the opportunity wasn't there. I have decades of experience in open water so I can get away with this.
Having the clock available in a pool is very helpful for doing interval and pace training. What type of workout you do is based on the distance you are training for. 800m open water or the English Channel. If you are swimming a mile in OW, then train like you would for a 1650 yd race. You just need to add a couple of things if you can: water polo drills, swim shoulder to shoulder with a couple of friends, practice speeding up and slowing down, train at a strong pace and then use the end to sprint (eg swim 100s and sprint all out the last 25). You can also do just the opposite: sprint all out and then drop into a strong pace. I've also been seen turning around an imaginary turn buoy during rec swim when there are no lane lines in. I've also been seen flipping over on my back then kicking as hard as I can as I drink from an imaginary bottle (hand and arm out of the water). This has the added benefit of convincing people that I am insane so they stay out of my lane.
I do 99.9% of my training in a pool. I find it time efficient (no added travel time), and allows me to structure my workouts better for the distances I am going to swim. I don't recommend it to people because I don't know how they transition from the pool to open water. Between my Catalina Channel crossing (9/11) and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (6/12) I swam only once in open water - 2 days before MIMS. I would have liked to swim more OW but the opportunity wasn't there. I have decades of experience in open water so I can get away with this.
Having the clock available in a pool is very helpful for doing interval and pace training. What type of workout you do is based on the distance you are training for. 800m open water or the English Channel. If you are swimming a mile in OW, then train like you would for a 1650 yd race. You just need to add a couple of things if you can: water polo drills, swim shoulder to shoulder with a couple of friends, practice speeding up and slowing down, train at a strong pace and then use the end to sprint (eg swim 100s and sprint all out the last 25). You can also do just the opposite: sprint all out and then drop into a strong pace. I've also been seen turning around an imaginary turn buoy during rec swim when there are no lane lines in. I've also been seen flipping over on my back then kicking as hard as I can as I drink from an imaginary bottle (hand and arm out of the water). This has the added benefit of convincing people that I am insane so they stay out of my lane.
