The Raleigh Area Master’s Swim team occasionally offers free swim stroke clinics. I’ve been wanting to go to one, so I periodically check their website; they have one coming up on Saturday, January 12, 2008. I’m planning to go to it.
I don’t write much about swimming because nothing exciting (good or bad) happens in that aspect of my triathlon life.
I swim for an hour a couple of times a week to maintain my current skill level. I never get faster, even tho I do some “speedwork”. I put that in quotes because my speedwork is not speedy even tho I am trying to go fast! I do TI drills and other drills according to whatever weakness I feel I need to correct. I’m sure my efficiency, balance, and primarly endurance have improved over time; and that helps me in my races. But my speed has remained constant. When I first started swimming 3 years ago, I could do a 100 meter swim in 1:50. That’s about where I am now.
Last time I went swimming, a woman was swimming several lanes away. She was fast. I was doing sets of 300’s, negative split. When I sped up during the second 150 of one set, I tried to keep up with her. Didn’t happen – she was just too fast. So, I resigned myself to just not let her “lap” me during the 150. Crud, she lapped me. 
Later, when I got out of the pool, she was doing pilates V-sits in rapid succession. Have you ever tried a V sit? Incredibly difficult! Then I saw that she was young – must have been a high school or college swimmer – she was amazing!
“BTW, just remember – no one wins a triathlon in the swim.”
This is the reason I don’t put too much effort into my swimming! It’s a much better use of my time to focus on my run. (I began my “career” by focusing on the bike because that is where the greatest amount of time is spent in a race.)
“Now, I was also going to say that you should try mixing up things in your swim.”
I pick a different workout from my swim workout book each time I go swimming, and it does vary the sets. Today I actually did a pyramid of 400s, 300s, then 200s. The speed workouts are generally 100s or 50s, and I don’t do any of those in the winter cuz I hate them. And, yes, my stroke breaks down when I try to swim faster, which is why I don’t actually succeed in swimming much faster. It just ends up blowing a bunch of energy. I do speed workouts only when necessary in season as my training plan dictates.
The swim workout book I use is Gale Bernhardts Swim Workouts in a Binder. I couldn’t go swimming without a written workout plan, because I get too bored and then end up throwing in the towel early.
I have read the TI book, and watched the DVD. I haven’t seen the triathlon swimming book. Does it have anything new that the other stuff doesn’t have? While I agree with the TI principles, I have never gotten the breakthrough in speed that the book promises. I have never had a breakthrough anything. Improvements always come in tiny bits after much hard work for me. š
Hi Carol – yeah, but can that college/high school swimmer then bike for 56 miles and then run for 13.1? Just something to keep in mind when you see fast swimmers. (though I do envy youth at times) BTW, just remember – no one wins a triathlon in the swim. Though I had a relatively slow swim, I often passed many faster swimmers on the bike and a few more on the run to finish ahead of them last season. Now, I was also going to say that you should try mixing up things in your swim. I’m still a bit new to this myself, but I’m trying a few different things this season. I like ladders where you do a 100-200-300-400-400-300-200-100 and make it a negative split on the way down, plus makes you adapt to different distances as well as pace. Then another session doing 50s or 100s intervals. You can do them with a prescribed amount of recovery or say do a 50 in a minute. If you finish in 45 sec, the rest is recovery. Maybe also do a session of 100s instead of 300s. The point is that with any routine, you can’t get faster without training your nervous system/stress your body to what it’s like to go faster. Now, swimming is a bit different in that your stroke will tend to break down the more you try to go faster. You have to back off when that happens and get your form back. Like with anything, no shortcuts. Terry in TI talks a bit about this in his Triathlon Swimming book. Also, check out “The Triathlete’s Guide to Swim Training”. Chapter 6 and beyond discuss this more as well. Cheers!
I have seen some amazing swimmers at the Y. The most impressive was when I saw one women swim without using her arms. She created a fish like movement in the water–rippling her body from head to toe–and she was fast doing this.
Bob