It is absolutely no secret that I don't think triathletes generally swim enough. I have posted it long and hard on here before. Given my rather strong view on the topic I thought it made sense to write a 1%er post about it.
In my general experience triathlete's don't like swimming. Of course there are exceptions to this, but on the whole it is the least popular leg. From both racing and coaching I have regularly come across athletes who view the swim leg as a horrible ordeal that one must simply 'survive'.
The other reason that people deride the swim leg is because there is a perception that it is not worth getting good at. In an Ironman the difference between a top swimmer and a simply okay swimmer is 10 minutes, perhaps 15. In a half Ironman the difference is obviously smaller. Why spend all that effort in the pool for such little reward.
All these reasons mean that triathletes simply don't swim enough. So the topic of this 1%er is this: Swim More.
How much is enough? Well assuming your training is good quality (I will get to that in a minute) I think that most triathletes should be aiming to be in the water at least 3 times per week. With two swims a week you will maintain status quo, perhaps improve very small amounts. This is okay if you can already swim, but if you are starting from a low swimming base, two swims a week won't do much for you. With three swims you will start to improve at a reasonable rate. With four swims a week you will start to see significant improvements, however, for a lot of athletes the reality of life start to get in the way at that point.
What was that I said earlier about quality? Well the paragraph above makes the assumption that your swim training is good quality. The stand thing I see from triathletes who don't have much experience or guidance with swimming is that they go to the pool twice a week and do between 1500m and 2000m of unfocused, aimless laps. This sort of training doesn't do much other than get you wet.
When I say good quality swimming I mean informed, guided sessions. Sessions that have a point. Swims that are either with a squad or put together by a knowledgeable coach are best. These sessions will involve some technique, but will also include targeted efforts that will help you get quicker, threshold efforts, long tempo swims, that sort of thing. These sessions will also be an appropriate length, often around 3000m, sometimes even more. Often longer than triathletes realise they need to do. If .you are training for Ironman some of these sessions may stretch to 5000m or more which is important if you are training for a 4000m event, but strangely is something that many people don't do. In fact, my opinion is that at least one of these longer swims should be part of every triathlete's week, whether they are Ironmen or not. These long swims help train your mind as well as your body to be comfortable in the water and get used to swimming long distances continuously at a sustainable pace.
For me the perfect set up for swim training is a threshold session, a long tempo session, a recovery technique session and an open water session every week. For those that can only manage three I remove the dedicated recovery/technique session and cover those elements elsewhere. I think that is the minimum that triathletes should be aiming for.
So now that I have covered the what, how about some brief words about the why?
Why bother if it only going to gain me 5 or 10 minutes?
Well I guess it depends a bit on what you want out of a race. If you want to go to Kona or the 70.3 World Champs, then 5 or 10 minutes can be worth an awful lot. Additionally, if you want to be at the pointy end of your event, it is much easier to do if you can actually see the pointy end after the swim. Playing catch up on an entire field after a slow swim can be hard work.
However, there is more to this than race tactics and results.
Next time you watch an age group race watch the looks on people's faces at the front of the swim pack vs the back as they exit the water. Everyone is tired, no doubt, but the confident swimmers still look confident, the less confident swimmers just look happy to be alive. That lack of ability and confidence in the water means that the person at the back of the pack has just expended more energy in the swim leg than the confident swimmer, and they have gone slower. They now have to catch up the 5 minutes that they lost in the water, having already expended more to get there.
On top of all that, watch a nervous swimmer before a race compared to a confident swimmer. The amount of nervous energy and stress a nervous swimmer expends before the race starts is much greater and that is before the event even begins. They are behind the eight ball before the gun even goes.
In short, people think that not swimming well may only cost them 5 or 10 minutes, but in the bigger picture of a race it actually costs much more than that.
So there you go. If you want to improve your overall result by 1% or more, spend some more time in the water.
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