I know I'm not the only one who took up open water swimming this year, due to pools being closed. So a weird thing happened to me. I don't prefer it, but I see a lot of value in it. Getting in and maintaining a pace for over 3000 yards without stopping I think will help with stamina. Also since I can't make regular Masters practice, I'm finding a nice social group. So much so that I'm now thinking about doing a 10K in September.
Alright, so here is what I have been able to do:
Once per week, swim with group, upriver for about 30 minutes, then downriver. Current has gone from obscene to managable. I'm generally with the "lead" group, or the "long distance" group, however you want to describe those who go farther. Right now, we've been hitting 1600 yards upstream, and then returning. About 30 minutes up, 22 minutes back. In addition, I go do point to point swims, roughly 500 yards apart, once, maybe twice per week. Total distance average 2000 yards. A second distance swim per week is not coming into play, Saturday night it was 3500 yards.
In addition, I've been running 1-2x per week. Up to 4.5 miles on flat land, 3.5 on courses that require hard climbs. Try to get in a 13 mile single track mountain bike ride once per week, but that is weather dependent.
Anyway, I still like the regular workouts, and I still follow the ones that Swimdogs (how do you "tag" people so they see they are mentioned - I'd like his input) used to post a few years ago (okay......well I did until early March). I may be able to gain access to a pool in the next couple of weeks.
So....anyone else trying to mix both open water and regular workouts? If so, how do you balance? I'd like to displace my running
Side note....there is a 100M pool I will be able to swim in occasionally. So, if I'm tracking my workouts, is that a "pool" swim, or an "open water" swim :) Really only half kidding.......
Again, for thsoe who like both, how do you balance the two? Should I be punting on conventional workouts for now and try to focus on open water workouts to prepare for the 10K?
Hey King! Great to hear from you. It sounds like you have a well-rounded, cross-training program going on, taking advantage of what you can do during the pool shutdown.
For the balance between the two swimming functions, I'd suggest using your pool time for managing pace and getting the feel for a solid pace. In open water, something you can do to work on speed is do some fartleks like you do with running by building in some sprints by x strokes. For instance, once you get warmed up, you can do 20 strokes at a sprint pace, and 20 at recovery. Then do 30 strokes fast, 30 recovery, etc. Or even 10 fast, 50 slow, 20 fast, 40 slow, 30 fast, 30 slow, etc. This can break up the monotony of a long distance. Or you could also do some speed work on your 500yd point to point swims.
Hey King! Great to hear from you. It sounds like you have a well-rounded, cross-training program going on, taking advantage of what you can do during the pool shutdown.
For the balance between the two swimming functions, I'd suggest using your pool time for managing pace and getting the feel for a solid pace. In open water, something you can do to work on speed is do some fartleks like you do with running by building in some sprints by x strokes. For instance, once you get warmed up, you can do 20 strokes at a sprint pace, and 20 at recovery. Then do 30 strokes fast, 30 recovery, etc. Or even 10 fast, 50 slow, 20 fast, 40 slow, 30 fast, 30 slow, etc. This can break up the monotony of a long distance. Or you could also do some speed work on your 500yd point to point swims.
