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
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.
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.
