I have a question for marathon swimmers...
I've been prepping for a 10k swim that I'll be doing this coming Saturday. I live in coastal southern New England. I really began training in late Feb or Early March by doing longer pool swims. Once the open waters warmed up enough for wetsuits, I moved outside in late May/early June. I completed a full 10k+ with my kayaker today and practiced feeding/drinking him. I feel ready. In the future, I'd like to maintain fitness for doing swims of this long, and longer. But my question is...how do you maintain fitness for doing swims of this distance through winter? I just don't know if I can handle six months of long pool swims.
Dan
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
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
