USPRT Workouts?

Well if you're aiming for a 15k swim, you need to get used to boring. Going those distances is as much about the mental as it is the physical part of it. As I've said before, you need to get your body and mind trained for those hours in the pool to prep you for OW. You need to do the work in the pool to get consistency and pacing down in order to be successful in OW. Go dig into training that the competitive OW swimmers are doing and I guarantee there are a lot who train mostly in the pool. If you can't hang, you need to just go back to orienteering. And to continue the insight that many of the others have given, I started swimming Master's about 6 years ago. Entered my first OW race a year later just to see what i could do. Each race, I learned something new to make the next one better and more efficient. I've had several coaches and each one has given a different perspective and that's training with them 3-5x per week all year around. I work on my stroke ALL THE TIME; constantly checking in on form, technique and efficiency. And it's 6 years of gradual improvements for me to finish competitively in many of the races I'm in. As others have said, swimming has a ton of nuance and you have to make tweaks over time. If you're unwilling to put in the time or listen to what people have been telling you for three pages of forum, then I just don't know what to tell you. Maybe Orienteering is your sport. The weeks after I have signed up for the 5 km seems already forever to me. I am very bored in my life and no one seems to understand my frustration. I just don't want to do another boring sport. Doing marathon running in my city is not boring and all my friends do it, but whenever I run 10+ km my feet get pain so I am trying to go for marathon swimming instead. However, none of my friends are doing it at all, and I can't join the very few who are doing it in my city because they are too fast for me to join. Also, the lack of races make my wait for a race seems forever, and the cut-offs seem scary for me. In the U.S. and Europe, there are many 2:00+ / 100 m pace swimmers doing marathon swimming, and there are many events which cater for those "recreational" swimmers. However, what I feel in my city is that everyone only f**king cares those fast swimmers under 1:50 / 100 m. The 5 km race has 1 hour and 45 minutes cut-off, the squads here requires under 2:10 / 100 m to join, beginner classes are not offered year-round (suspended in winter), the open water groups require 2:10 / 100 m to join, etc. I don't know how many bad practice I have got in my previous 3 - 4 years in order to force myself to the level of 2:10 / 100 m without access to any squads / coaches. I didn't start off as a beginner, but instead accumulated 3 - 4 years of (mal)practice before I joined a team. I just want to catch up 3 - 4 years of lost progress without wasting any more years! and I'm setting goals as if those 3 - 4 years weren't wasted. I started open water swimming because I love the sea and love the freedom without a wall every 50 m, however those 3 years were very sad for me and I want to get over it ASAP. As I have already set my ambitious goal for next year, I will still try my best to train for it. If I make it I continue, if I don't I give up as there is no one willing to support me and no local races which I can make the cut-off if I can't get to 1:45 / 100 m level. I don't really want to waste another 3 years on top of the 3 - 4 years already wasted. P.S. I cannot swim for 2 days already because of thunderstorm, and typing this when it is lightning outside.

miklcct, Something to think about - for whatever you attempt. There is a theory that it takes 10,000 hrs to become successful in whatever field you are attempting. That is 20 hrs/week for 10 years. Longer if you cannot devote that much time per week. I believe this concept is true of any endeavor and swimming is even harder because it is not a "natural" activity for our species. So think about it. You have been at this about 3 years and at an age which is past the prime time when learning new skills comes easy and usually under frequent feedback. You have, at most, 1200 hours of repetition towards that 10,000. It takes time. Long, boring time. Can't speak for the others - I have been at this, seriously, for 53 years and have accumulated about 30,000 practice hours. How can you expect to be as accomplished as Jeff or Kari or me given the amount of time you have invested so far? Short answer - you can't and shouldn't. Your knowledge/experience level is just not there. You are trying, researching, and experimenting, but it is without guidance or direction which leads to the frustration you feel. So, you have a challenge - how do I improve my technique if I don't have access to a club/coach? I suggest you talk to the coaches and see if they will allow you to do some kind of modified training, so you don't get in the way of the faster swimmers and can get feedback. To improve you need a structured practice with a coach to guide you. And, don't fight them - just listen and do what they ask. What you are doing now is the definition of insanity.... Paul

My concern for miklcct is you are doing too much volume without proper technique. This is literally everyone who has interacted with him on this forum's concern for him. If you have limited access to coaching buy a camera you can put underwater and film yourself. He insists that it is illegal in his country for him to film himself underwater swimming.

A great quote by John Leonard, American Swimming Coaches Association Executive Director, sums it up: “A swimmer with good technique has NO LIMITS. A swimmer with poor technique has nothing BUT limits.”

My concern for miklcct is you are doing too much volume without proper technique. This is a big risk for injury. For your age and fitness it is clear your technique needs a lot of improvement. As others have said you can't just throw volume at swimming to get better like you can with running and biking. There is ~800x more drag in water than air so reducing drag is more important than pretty much anything else. Swimming is also not intuitive for almost everyone. If you have limited access to coaching buy a camera you can put underwater and film yourself. You can post here, the swimming subreddit, or find one of many online coaches you can pay to work on your technique. You need to focus almost 100% on improving your stroke. Another thing you can do is watch videos online. Olympic races are usually good as they have underwater views. You can slow down playback speed in settings. "Mr. Smooth" is also a good visualization for technique: www.swimsmooth.com/.../mr-smooth-free-app

(which others think it isn't possible to do it in a single year). Yes, going from 1:50/100 pace to elite in a single year is incredibly unlikely.

He insists that it is illegal in his country for him to film himself underwater swimming. I'm not saying illegal in my country, just saying not allowed in the pools I use (confirmed by asking). Also, I've got a coach now, and he thinks my body position and my catch have improved when compared to 2 weeks ago, but I still have a lot of things to work on for my ambitious goal (which others think it isn't possible to do it in a single year).

Yes, going from 1:50/100 pace to elite in a single year is incredibly unlikely. My goal is to just do a 14 km open water race in 16°C rough ocean with time limit 6 hours, and my pace now is around CSS 1:58 / 100 m. Do you think it is still too ambitious?

I mean, I don't know what "CSS" is, but if I'm doing the dimensional analysis right, 14k over 6 hours is like 2:30/100, which seems doable... if so, I commend you on adjusting your goals to more realistic things.

I mean, I don't know what "CSS" is, but if I'm doing the dimensional analysis right, 14k over 6 hours is like 2:30/100, which seems doable... if so, I commend you on adjusting your goals to more realistic things. Hey, Jeff! CSS = Critical Swim Speed and defined as the theoretical swimming speed that can be maintained without exhaustion. There was a test designed in the early 90s to determine the slope of the regression line related to distance and time. It started as a "time trial" of a 50, 100, 200, and 400M. It was later simplified with two test swims of a 50M (D1) and a 400M (D2). The formula to determine a CSS (with this example) is: CSS in Meter Per Second: (D2 - D1) / (Time 2 - Time 1) Studies showed that the CSS was equivalent to 80-85% of the maximum 100M speed and 90-95% of the 400M speed. There are a few variations. CSS was shown to correlate with the swimming velocity corresponding to the onset of blood lactate accumulation. It can be used as a pretty descent predictor of events longer than 400M.