Request for LONG distance training (?)

When I swim at lunch unfortunately there is some time pressure so a workout I like for a lunchtime workout is 2,000 yd swim aerobic pace, then 10 X 50 on a minute, a little cool down swim and stretch. A good workout in 45 minutes counting changing time can be in and out in under an hour.

Send me some of your lunch workouts. That sounds pretty awesome. I never can figure out good workouts to do.

When I swim, which is mostly in the public length time, there is a swimmer who swims continuously around and around for an hour plus. I too am mainly a long distance swimmer, but I do train all energy systems. I will do LSD sets, increasing in distance as I get closer to my open water season. these will still be pace sets, working on holding an even pace in different distances. The swimmer who swims continuously has demonstrated clearly what happens when this is your main workout. 5 years ago we were very close in time held for 50's. Our times in open water were quite close as well. Now I am a good 10-13 seconds per 50 faster, and several minutes faster in the 5km event. I have seen this pattern many times over especially when the triathletes hit the water. Swimming training is different from biking and running as it is so highly technical. If we don't keep working to be the most efficient we can be in the water then our progress will grind to a halt. We need to challenge all energy systems and as distance swimmers, we must wake up those fast twitch fibers by including speed in every workout. Seems to work for me. My times are getting faster each year, despite aging ;)

2go + h20 I am jealous as your lake swimming sounds great. I like to zone and I will start many workouts with an hour swim maybe stopping to refuel once or twice. But I check the pace clock every 500 yds so I know what I am doing if you know your pace you don't even need to count laps. Different strokes for different folks, to me a set with over 20 of anything is torture. From my reading and studying it seems continuous swimming is the most efficient way to build that aerobic base if it is done right.

No question that distance swimmers need to do a lot of basic endurance (maybe this is what you mean by long slow distance; it depends on your definition of slow). But to get faster and stronger, you also need to apply the principles of overload and progression, which is where the intervals come in. If you don't overload a physiological system, you won't see improvement. When adaptation occurs, it's time to progressively increase the load.

I think James is referring to fartlek training, which from what I've read is probably underused by middle and long distance swimmers in particular and can incorporate different speeds to train different systems. It's easier for me to adjust my pace doing intervals, and it's also less boring than long continuous swims. My dad alternates workouts, swimming intervals one day and a continuous swim the next. He posted two scm top ten times for his age group last year, so maybe he's on to something. I imagine it would be difficult to coach using a large percentage of fartlek swims.

All swimmers need to have a good aerobic base from competitve sprinters to fitness swimmers and most of the mileage should be done at an aerobic pace...heart rate 120 or so depending upon age. I am not saying there is no need for interval training I am just saying that most swimmers are obsessed by it and should look at continuous swimming as it has certain advantages as part of their training program. When I suggest continuous swimming as part of a training program all the responses talk about the need for interval training and overload training. I am not disputing that just suggesting that probably more than half of the mileage could be done by continuous swimming

The stuff I read and the people I talk to would agree that most of your mileage should be of the low lactate level variety think of it as "glycogen sparing". A good source of information is the "Swim Fastest" book here Maglischo puts the figure at around 60% but this includes warming up and warming down. That's the good news. The bad news is some of the interval training should be very intense, very painful. In fact this is one of the reasons why the easy stuff is easy, you are saving your muscles especially the glycogen in your muscles, because the hard stuff is so hard and you need to be able to swim all out.

An example of one of my many LSD workouts is 180x50m on 50. (the goal to hold 43 secs continuously) I break these into 3x60 as I need to stop every 45 mins to refuel. (I refuel every 45 mins during a marathon swim). By doing this type of a set, I can stay focused on technique and pace. If I do very long, say 3km-5km sets I can get into the 'zone' and not concentrate as much on technique. My goal is to hold my technique over the distance. Usually my LSD workouts are outside the master's time as there are not many who 'like' longer distances. ;) We do do timed 30 mins swims, timed 1, 2 3 and 5km swims during our season ( mid September- early August for indoor, July-late September outdoor) I do my longer distances in the lake as soon as the ice melts !! The lakes I swim in, one has a wonderful 1km loop, with certain markers, (like an overhanging tree, a submerged log etc) so I can do 'on the way' swims. I will do 12.6kms a workout sailing up and down the crystal clear and quite warm lake. And build up to 5 hour workouts, tapering back depending on what race is coming up. I get my 'intervals' in the river when I swim up the current, while still doing longer distance sets. For me, doing overloading and interval sets keeps my stroke stronger and is also necessary to hold body balance in waves.

Hey James, So just a thought in regards to interval training. Depending on where you set the interval and how hard you swim depends on the type of work (aerobic or anaerobic). I can set a steady pace interval where I get 5 seconds rest between repeats and my heart rate will not vary that much, so would have the same benefit as a long slow swim (I also admit that I am more of a sprinter or maybe I might be ADD so I can't stay focused on a long swim of 1000 - 3000, I need that constant change.). Another thought is that even when doing hard interval sets (lactic tolerance, etc.) there is aerobic conditioning happening. Interval training can even be aerobic based. One of the sets we do is a series of 5 to 10 100's where at the end of each 100 the swimmer does a 10 second pulse check, if their pulse is below their anaerobic / aerobic threshold then they swim the next 100, but if there pulse is above then they rest 10 seonds and then recheck for 10 seconds (like a 20 second penalty) once their pulse is back down then they can start their next 100. This set is fun because it's not necessarily the fastest swimmers that finish first (they tend to go too hard and after a few 100's end up having to do extra pulse checks).