Bernard said:
Hi topdog,
First thanks to all of them who made time to answer.
It was an open water swim: My time was 34 min for 1.3 km.
At my opinion are my swim workouts very amateuristic : just get to the pool as much as I can and
swim, just swim, that is all. This compared to my running where I am in an athletic club, and
follow my personal schedule. What do I have to do? Do you have training schedules for swimming? I
have 3 to 4 times a week one half an hour time to train swimming, or even a litle more if I leave
biking a bit a side.
Take yourself to a book store and buy a book on swimming - or search the Internet for swimming
workouts. Or, try this:
3/4 of the way through your usual workout, stop, rest, then swim 100 meters at what feels like a
brisk, but not all-out, pace, and take note of the time. If I do the math right, your
above-mentioned swim is at a pace of about 2:36 per 100 meters, so let's guess that you can,
giving a little extra effort, cover 100 meters in 2:10. Do that, then rest until you feel ready to
try it again, and try it a second time. Once you're completed these two 100 meter brisk swims,
resume your workout at your normal pace if you can - if you're too tired, that's OK, just swim a
little to cool down and call it a day.
The next workout at which you feel ready, try the same thing again, and this time take note of the
recovery time. Perhaps, if you start your first 100 meters on an even minute on the clock, then 4:00
after you started the first one, you'll be able to start the second one. Finish your workout as you
did before.
Gradually try to incorporate this speed session into every workout or at least 3x/week, but only
once or twice per week is fine at the start, and gradually try to improve the quality of the workout
by doing any or all of the following: lowering the swim time, lowering the recovery time, increasing
the number of repetitions. You may find, as time passes, that you get bored swimming repeat 100
meters so vary the distance as well - try 50 meters some times, going for faster than half your
regular 100 meter time, or try 75 meters or evern 150 or 200 meters once in a while. Keep the
following guideline in mind - you eventually want to find a pace for these sessions where the
required recovery time is significantly less than the swim time, e.g., if you get the swim time down
to 2:00, try to take only :30 rest before starting the next repetition. If you find you need a long
recovery between each 100 meters, you're probably swimming too fast for this sort of workout. An
all-out effort every once in a while is fun, and educational, too, but work mostly on a pace that
you can do for anywhere from 3-10 repeats with relatively short rest periods. If you attend a swim
team workout, you might find them swimming repeat 100 meters starting every 1:45 or even every 1:30,
with the swimming time being such that only a :10 or so rest is allowed between repeats.
Quoted message said:Sorry for my bad English (I do not have time to train that more).
Your English is sufficient - no need to apologize.
-S-
Quoted message said:Please advice.
Bernard
PS : Why is my mail disapaered from the newsgroep after less than 24 hours???
