Question for Marathon swimmers

Dan, How long did your 10K swim take? That will be part of the determining factor. It is not necessary to do alot of non-stop swims as you lead up to 10K or longer. BUT, you do have to put in the volume. When I was training for 10Ks, most of my regular practices were 5-6,000. I would do a longer practice every other week (20 x 400, 40 x 200, 80 x 100) taking only 15-20 sec rest between repeats. This was more than adequate to have my body ready for the distance. You can also do timed swim sets like 4 x 30 minutes w/ 1 minute rest which mirrors your feeding times as well. Then, 1x per month, I would do a 2 hour non-stop swim (my 10K time was around 2:20 at the time). This worked even for the 15K swim I did back in 2011. If you can find someone to do these with, it will be easier and more enjoyable. Good Luck this next week.

Wind and Fly...thanks for the responses. During the cold weather, I did do several of the type of workouts that Wind suggested...4x2000m, 4x :30 minutes, etc....drinking/eating and resting no more than a minute between. It's just those non-stop 5k+ swims in the pool are more a of mental test than endurance test. My 10k yesterday (7/28) was a bit over 3-hours. Time in the open water seems to fly by. Not so much in the pool. Maybe in the pool (winter) I should just swim intervals of time instead of a specific distance. I guess it's the counting of lengths/laps that is so monotonous. So what if I'm off my a lap or two. Dan

Morning Dan! When I'm training and trying to stay in decent shape for training, I try to get in 4500-5500 on a long weekend swim consistently, just to keep the endurance up. If you're able to do that, you should have shorter ramp-up period for next spring's events. There are a few workout forums that have good distance workouts that help get that mileage in and break it up in good chunks. Or you can piecemeal some together to make it work for you. Good luck on your race next weekend! Let your arms/body relax as much as possible this week. Just keep loose.

Yes, doing some interval training over the winter can help you pick up your speed over distance. Going straight through is good for mental test, but if you're just slogging the miles just to get it done it can be just teaching you to swim at that slower pace. Emily has some great distance workouts (the ones I mentioned in the post above) that you can modify/tweak based on how much mileage you want to get done. I really enjoy her workouts, have saved several that I particularly like, and they really helped while getting ready for Swim the Suck 10m last year. forums.usms.org/forumdisplay.php

I have a similar problem as well. After doing my first marathon swimming this month I'm looking forward to longer races next year (probably at 21 km). However as I live and race in different parts of the world, due to climate reason I will do most of the training in winter when the ocean temperature where I live is only 16°C - 19°C, which is the expected temperature of the race. However, the race in the different part of the world is in August, which I have two problems: 1. I don't have any cold water to swim in starting from April, which I afraid I will lose my acclimation over 5 months. This year in July when I got into 17°C water in my trip I didn't feel very comfortable even after consistent swimming in 18°C - 19°C over the past winter until March. 2. As the water become hotter, I'm afraid that I may even have trouble keeping my swim volume and intensity in the final months before the race because I fatigue and burn out very fast in 30°C water. Speed is not a concern in that race. Is there anyone here who have similar experience racing in other parts of the world with very different climate from where you live?

I've done 17 marathon swims. I guess everybody is different. My winter volume is not that high (3-4k per day with a 7k or so once per week--not this year). When I get within a few months, I'll try to get out for a 5 miler with a kayaker once per week. As far as cold acclimation goes, I find it impossible living in Arizona. For the English Channel, I got 20 lbs of ice and threw it in the tub (I got up to about 2 hours) but didn't find it helped much. I find for both distance and cold, I just suck it up on race day which is probably not that great of a strategy.

Congrats on your swim, Dan. That was rough. You saw how slow I am, so not sure I'm the one to give advice, but can't pass it up. ;) Saturday was my 9th swim of 10k or longer distance, and I'm at 44% DNF rate. And I'm fine with that. I learn a lot from every DNF. But besides that, my personal and professional life is such that I get as much swimming in as I can handle. Some weeks that means 3000 yards total, and some weeks that means 15,000 with 2-3 days of weights. It all depends. Some things, though, are constant for me: I try to swim the same number of minutes I think I'll spend in the marathon in the fourth or third week out from the event. For example, four weeks prior to my Issyk Kul swim, I swam 6 hours and 2 minutes for the week. (I had access only to a 7m long pool, so all my training FOR TWO YEARS was on straps around my ankles.) When the event came, I ended swimming it in, you guessed it, 6:02! I also in general don't taper. I don't swim enough between events to worry about having to decrease volume. If I have had a good couple of weeks leading up to the event, like 8-10 miles for a few weeks in a row, then yes, I'll reduce that a bit prior to the race. But that's rare in my life. Over the winter, I don't do much different. I still aim for 3-4k per swim. One thing I have done differently the past two years is weight-lifting. I found in years back that my lower back was my Achilles heel wrt long swims (~4 hours +) so I set about to strengthen my core. I started in January 2018 and swim season of 2018 I had some great swims. (I lifted 3x a week up to late June then only 2x a week. Started back to 3x a week in October after Swim the Suck.) So over the winter, I put in 3x per week swimming sessions and 3x per week lifting. My swimming sessions anyway are mostly distance tolerance (3 or 4 x 1000 after w/u), that sort of thing. I did start USRPT back in Feb I think, but haven't done that consistently enough to know if it will do anything for me. In the end, I do these because I like the challenge. And as long as there are liberal cut-off times like Saturday's, I'll keep doing them! See ya next time I'm down at McCorrie!

Granted I only do one 10K per year to go along with a handful of 5K's, but during winter, I only train on interval sets and don't do any long swims. For me, the long swim is more mental than physical prep. Even in the heat of open water season, I only do long pool swims of 5K or greater 3 or 4 times. A 5K in a pool is tougher than a 10K in open water mentally, I think. Nothing to do but count laps. Whereas in open water, the scenery changes and I can leave the counting to my Garmin.

Congrats on your swim, Dan. That was rough. You saw how slow I am, so not sure I'm the one to give advice, but can't pass it up. ;) Saturday was my 9th swim of 10k or longer distance, and I'm at 44% DNF rate. And I'm fine with that. I learn a lot from every DNF. But besides that, my personal and professional life is such that I get as much swimming in as I can handle. Some weeks that means 3000 yards total, and some weeks that means 15,000 with 2-3 days of weights. It all depends. 44% DNF rate?! I would have already given up the sport already. As you mentioned on the other forum, cut-offs scare me as well and I don't want getting a DNF after a year of training sacrificing all my social life and entrepreneurial plan.

44% DNF rate?! I would have already given up the sport already. As you mentioned on the other forum, cut-offs scare me as well and I don't want getting a DNF after a year of training sacrificing all my social life and entrepreneurial plan. I learn something from every DNF. Why would I be a quitter? If you love doing something, do it, regardless of your times. Did you win every single orienteering event you entered? If not, why didn't you quit the sport?