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?
Parents
Former Member
If I had 24/7 access to open water, I'd swim entirely in OW.
But I don't. Theoretically, pre-COVID, yes, I guess I do, but a) I'm not yet acclimated to very cold (sub-50F for me) water and b) access on work days is troublesome.
I have been in situations where I'd had no access at all. Two years in Kyrgyzstan the only time I swam in open water was when I attempted (2015) and succeeded (2016) in my crossing. Not only that, the pool I had was about 20 feet long, so it was two years of swimming on tethers.
But if I could swim OW all the time, I'd do it. Most of my OW sessions are divvied up like this: warm up of 5-10 minutes; series of "intervals" like Kari mentioned above. I really like doing 100 fast, 100 pace, 90 fast, 90 pace...10/10, then back up. Nice cool down of 5-10 minutes. Intermingled in these swims I'll throw in lots of sighting. And if there's lots of waves, I'll change directions a lot to practice breathing into and out of waves.
Now, all this is to say: I've never been one who needed to worry about being in the running for top finishes. If I were that fast, I would for sure do a lot of pool training, too. Pre-COVID and for reasons I stated above, I did lots of pool training, and most of that was pace training and intervals.
But seriously, I'd swim OW 100% of the time if I could.
Sorry, but I get slower by only doing OW even if I keep my training amount. Therefore I'm very concerned when the pools are closed again. My aim is to race 10 - 25 km OW. I need a fixed block and pace clock for me to do USRPT and it's the only set which has brought speed improvement to me week by week.
If I had 24/7 access to open water, I'd swim entirely in OW.
But I don't. Theoretically, pre-COVID, yes, I guess I do, but a) I'm not yet acclimated to very cold (sub-50F for me) water and b) access on work days is troublesome.
I have been in situations where I'd had no access at all. Two years in Kyrgyzstan the only time I swam in open water was when I attempted (2015) and succeeded (2016) in my crossing. Not only that, the pool I had was about 20 feet long, so it was two years of swimming on tethers.
But if I could swim OW all the time, I'd do it. Most of my OW sessions are divvied up like this: warm up of 5-10 minutes; series of "intervals" like Kari mentioned above. I really like doing 100 fast, 100 pace, 90 fast, 90 pace...10/10, then back up. Nice cool down of 5-10 minutes. Intermingled in these swims I'll throw in lots of sighting. And if there's lots of waves, I'll change directions a lot to practice breathing into and out of waves.
Now, all this is to say: I've never been one who needed to worry about being in the running for top finishes. If I were that fast, I would for sure do a lot of pool training, too. Pre-COVID and for reasons I stated above, I did lots of pool training, and most of that was pace training and intervals.
But seriously, I'd swim OW 100% of the time if I could.
Sorry, but I get slower by only doing OW even if I keep my training amount. Therefore I'm very concerned when the pools are closed again. My aim is to race 10 - 25 km OW. I need a fixed block and pace clock for me to do USRPT and it's the only set which has brought speed improvement to me week by week.
