Swim Training
I would suggest that you get a swim coach or at least look into some swim programs. The only way to get faster is to train fast. By that I mean doing sprints at 100%. It can be made as simple as doing a 50m sprint every 200m or so.
Don't worry too much about the swim though if you have already done an olympic distance as it is only 400m further for the HIM!
Just like biking, intervals are going to make you faster and stronger.
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-Matt
Not fast enough.
Swimming is all technique if you wanna be fast you have to learn right...
I have been training with my brother-in-law, who is a swim coach. It helps a lot. I recommend you get help from or train with someone who is either a swim coach or knows a lot about swimming.
I disagree that the only way to get fast is to swim fast. In swimming, technique accounts for far more than conditioning. I'd try to find a good swim coach who can look at your technique and make sure you don't have anything that is really holding you back there before piling on the yards. Also, since water incurs so much more drag than air, any poor technique can quickly lead to injuries, especially with higher yardage workouts.
Generally, if you're in the top 10% of a triathlon pack, you can probably benefit from intervals, sprint work, etc. If you're farther back than that, I'd bet that technique is a bigger limiter than swim conditioning.
If you're ready for intervals, for half-IM or longer races, I tend to focus on distance-based intervals, 300 yards and longer. So 10 x 300 or 8 x 500, or 3 x 1,000 yard intervals, generally trying to get faster with each repetition (with the longer ones, like 1000's) or get faster in groups of 3 -4 with shorter intervals. So 10x300 would look like:
slow, med, fast, slow-med, med-fast, faster, med, med-fast, fastest, slow (to cool down).
Here's another good main set, from my coach this week:
800, 7x100, 600, 5x100, 400, 3x100, 200, 100 (you can either work the long sets, or work the 100's, depending on what you're aiming at with this workout.)
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
Swimming is by and away the hardest to learn element of this sport. Unfortunately, the returns on getting faster are only marginal when compared to biking and running. But five minutes is five minutes, especially when the rate of return decreases as you get faster.
If you can make it through an olympic you can swim 1.2 no problem. I would still get a coach or get in a masters program though and slow down, focus on technique at least one of the four days a week.




I have signed up for my first half-Ironman towards the end of the summer.(August to be exact).
I know I am plenty ready for the bike and run, but I am fairly worried about the swim. I have little to no past experience with proper swim training. Right now i just go to the pool or lake and swim as much as I can 4 days a week. This method has got me through plenty of sprints and Olympics but I know I need to develop a solid training plan.
If anyone can post some suggestions on what you do to prepare for the swim it would be greatly appreciated.
(if it helps my race results are usually towards the middle/back of the swim, top 5 on the bike and usually fairly high on the run.)
Thanks in advance!
"If your not going to win, make the fellow in front of you break a record."
http://www.peak.com/kevinb421/blog/