A big issue I see with many triathletes is that they don't swim fast enough. "It's not my fault I can't swim fast," you may say. "I'm not a professional at this." I'm not talking about fast in an absolute sense but rather a relative one. Whatever is fast for you is fast. To put it another way- most triathletes don't swim HARD often enough. Now, I don't like using the word "hard" to describe any form of swimming because swimming harder doesn't necessarily mean swimming faster. BUT, to get better at swimming you do need to swim hard. And fast. And figure out how to swim hard quickly and fast easily. Makes sense right?
The problem with swimming fast is that it's more painful than swimming slow. The problem with swimming slow is that you swim slow if you swim slow. Most triathletes get in the pool 2 or 3 times a week. They'll do a nice long warm up, some kicking with fins, plenty of catch up, finger tip drag and fist drill work then maybe slap on a pair of huge, oversized paddles and knock out 5x200 of pulling. Don't be ashamed if this is you. It's me as well. Now, drills and paddles have their place but they are not a replacement for hard work. The beauty (and curse) of swimming is that it's non-impact and so we can push ourselves much harder without the danger of breaking down. If you are swimming four times a week or less I'd argue that EVERY time you swim you should have some sort of fast swimming involved. It may look different every time but it should be there. Your stroke will improve and you will swim faster for it.
Yes, you need some endurance work to swim an Ironman or even a half. But for most people it's not the endurance that is their limiting factor, it's their speed.
Ways to swim fast
1) Join a masters group
I'm a huge fan of swimming in a group. Having a coach on deck screaming at you and hurling pull buoys is a phenomenal way to get motivated. Swimming with other people is much more fun and you will automatically work harder without thinking about it. You usually spend all your time trying to catch the feet in front of you that you forget your heart is pounding and your lungs feel like they may explode. If your masters group does mainly sprint work don't utterly neglect the aerobic stuff. You can easily get that in on a weekend or an extra swim on your own. San Antonio has a great masters group led by a very knowledgeable coach, Susan Ingraham. A good coach knows when to break down your stroke and work on technique, and when to give you the evil eye and make you shut up and swim. Susan can do both of these + own you in a straight up 100 free.
2) Swim with fins
And no, I don't mean just for kick sets. I mean do some swim sets occasionally with fins. If 1:30 pace is your normal race pace and you slap a pair of fins on, all of a sudden 1:20's feel just as easy. This will teach you how to feel and pull the water while moving at a greater velocity so that when you go back to swimming 1:25's or 1:28's it feels much slower and more comfortable.
3) Sprint as hard as you can
Whether it be a 50, 100 or a 200. Test yourself occasionally and see how fast you can go if you go all out. One set we did with masters last year that was a lot of fun (and a lot of lactic acid) was 6x100 on a 6 minute send off. Sounds like a sissy set doesn't it? Well each 100 was an all out sprint and let me tell you- by the time we were starting #3, 6 minutes was nowhere near a long enough interval. It was pain. Fortunately, I'd only drank 8 oz of chocolate milk before the workout instead of my normal pint so there weren't too many chunks floating in the pool when I was done. Yes, you may feel like you're going to throw up. Yes, your whole body will start to tie up like your swimming through a bowl of jello. Yes, you may taste pennies in your mouth but those are all good signs that you're going as hard as you absolutely can.
Remember,
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
This is hard swimming. The legendary "Auburn puke session"
Watch more video of 2008 - Top 10 Floswimming Videos on www.floswimming.org
Completely unrelated video I made of some cyclocross racing I did last weekend in Fredericksburg.
Toughcross2013 from Mark Saroni on Vimeo.
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