Why Swim Training is Important for Triathletes

The other day I'm sitting on the side of the pool with my feet in the water contemplating the workout I'm about to start, knowing just how much parts of the next 65 minutes will suck. This is a common occurrence, as I rarely just jump in the water and get 'er done. I am not a swimmer. Prior to joining a masters swim program when I was 32 years old, the extent of my swimming was confined to jumping around in the ocean when I was a kid and my grandfather's 16x32 backyard pool.

Yes, I did take swimming lessons in Lake Carasaljo when I was a kid, but I was not a swimmer. I didn't swim laps when I was 4 years old, nor did I swim for my high school team (because we didn't have a pool, let alone a swim team). I started to swim as a way to cross-train for my marathon training, not because I was planning on doing an Ironman (well,  it might have been in the back of my mind ...).

I can honestly say I will never be a great swimmer. I like to refer to myself as a "great" non-swimmer, as I have put in enough quality pool time to have reasonable swim splits at all triathlon race distances. It's taken quite a few years - and a whole lot of work - but I have found it to be worth the effort. And, not sugarcoating it, becoming a competent swimmer does take effort.

Not surprisingly there are many a triathlete who would prefer to only put in just enough pool time to make it through the swim and get to the glamour of the bike and the grind of the run. In a way I cannot blame them. Swimming sucks. If you have been swimming most of your life you are probably burned out from all the time you put in during your school years. And if you are not a swimmer, you don't have the technique and, without the technique, swimming is a huge challenge. Doesn't matter how much run fitness you have or how much power you can produce on the bike, poor technique = slow swim. To get the technique it takes time ... lots of time. Making the argument further, the swim is such a short portion of a triathlon relative to the bike and the run.

I'm here to say putting in the pool time is hugely beneficial.

For all distances of triathlon.

Seriously.

For racing short - Sprint or Olympic Distance - you can "get by" with little swim training and finish the race. If that's your plan, you are fine. If, however, you want to be competitive, do you really want to give your competition a 3 to 10 minute (or more) head start out of the water? Maybe you are that bad-ass of a biker and/or runner, but even on a local level you are putting yourself at a big disadvatntage at best. Same goes for the 70.3 distance.

For the Full Ironman Distance, swim training is so much more important. If you have ever gone the distance you are fully aware that 140.6 miles is a completely different beast than other, shorter distances. Long course racing is about your fitness level and not fatiguing over the course of the day. Sure, the swim is the shortest portion of your day ... almost like a warm up to the bike and run. But, in order to really treat it like a warm up, you need swim fitness in you so as not to burn energy on the swim.

See, the energy you burn in the water has a direct effect on your bike and your run. You may not know it. You may not believe it. You may even deny it. Truth is, if you burn a few matches as you make your way around the swim course you will pay for it later in the day. In the worse case, you go into the event undertrained and the swim kicks your ass. And nothing says fun times like being drained before you even get on your bike ...

From a training perspective, smart swim training has a nice spillover effect on your bike and run. If you ever watched "real" swimmers train you may notice the amount of training they actually do, and the intensity level they hit for some sets. From a triathlete's perspective, integrating high intensity intervals in the pool allows you to work your anaerobic engine without putting stress on your body. Think about the stress you put on the body running short intervals around the track vs. a set of hard 50s or 100s in the pool. Both suck; Both stress your upper levels of fitness. But only the running places a high level pounding on your body.

From a racing perspective, swim training helps condition the mind to deal with the physical and mental exhaustion that comes from racing all day. Don't believe me? I don't care how fit you are, do a set of 3-4 x 1000 on 30 sec. RI and tell me you aren't at least a bit drained by that set. Kudos if you aren't talking to the black line by the beginning of the fourth set.

The moral of the story? STFU, apply ample doses of Rule #5, and Get. In. The. Pool.

So next time you run into me at the pool and I'm sitting on the deck, staring at the water and I tell you I'm trying to decide on what I'm going to do ... now you know what's really going on.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Rule #4: The 20-Minute Rule

Ever have one of those days. Maybe you didn't sleep real well, or just had a stressful day at work. Whatever it is, you just don't feel like working out. Sure, you have a 3,000M swim workout on the schedule but man, hitting the couch and watching some tv sounds like a great option.

Then you remember reading somewhere about overtraining. Not so sure exactly what the advice was, but "everyone" knows overtraining is bad. So you head straight home, convinced that you are in a state of overtraining and need "rest" to avoid digging a deeper hole.

But is this the right thing to do? Maybe. Maybe not. If you are deep into a training cycle, pushing your personal limits, it is a real possibility you may have pushed beyond your recovery capabilities. A few days of active recovery or even straight up rest could be the right course of action. A seasoned endurance athlete will know exactly what this feels like. It is different than your normal heavy legs or dragging at the end of the day. And true overtraining and adrenal fatigue are a completely different beast that can happen. You can read more about that here.

Source: 

So, assuming you haven't been beating down your body for weeks/months without adequate rest and recovery, my experience tells me that lack of desire to train is more of a mental thing than a physical one. Thus, the 20-Minute Rule.

When you are having THAT day, go and start the workout. Using the 3k swim workout as an example, get to the pool, stretch out, and get in the water. If you're anything like me, not so hard getting in the water, a challenge to actually get your head under water and push off for the first length.

Suck. It. Up.

After warming up, give yourself a minute and start your main set, whatever it may be. One of two things will happen - you will either start the main set, hit your expected times and start to feel better, or you won't. After a few reps in the main set - about 20 minutes into the workout - you will know where you're at, and you will know what to do.

Still feel like crap, not performing well? Get out of the pool, shower up, call it a day.

Hit your times? Continue on. Finish the workout as planned.

I've been here more than I care to admit with all three sports. Of those, I can count on one hand the number of times I called it a day. Every other workout, once I got moving I started to feel better, sometimes even great, and was able to get the scheduled work done.

Properly training for your "A" race is a process that takes months of hard work. Over that time you won't always feel great, and you won't always have that gung-ho attitude every time you swim, bike or run. Give it a go for 20 minutes and see what happens.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

You can find the first three rules here, here, and here.

December Swim Challenge

December has traditionally been a transition month for me. It is the time when I start to get back into a semi-regular training schedule, but at low intensity and duration. Over the month training will get more regular ... less semi ... and motivation to start racing again starts to come around. There is only  one December rule - never run in a cold rain.

This year I have decided to change things up a bit. Back in February I helped Steve with a big swim month. 24/7 Fitness runs a swim challenge every year and he wanted to get in 100k. While I didn't swim it all with him, he reached his goal and then some.

The past few years I have used the off season to work on my swim. Before dedicating a part of my winter to swim fitness I was very much a middle of the pack swimmer. At masters swim I was a slow lane swimmer. When I said "I swim enough to get onto my bike" it was the truth. But putting it the time, learning some technique, moving into a faster lane, doing some sets where I saw stars, has paid off.

In 2012 I was always in the main pack or front pack of the swim. Just as important, when I came out of the swim I was fresh and ready to go. All the training really paid off in September when, at Augusta 70.3, I swam over my head and had one of the best swim splits of the day. Honestly don't know how that happened, but I know it would have been an impossibility without the early season swim focus.

For December, I have committed to getting some focus in the pool with a big month. The challenge is to swim 65,000 yards this month. The plan is to swim 4x/week for a total of 17 swim sessions during the month (4 weeks + new years eve). I will have to average 3830 yards per swim. The yardage will build over the month due to a few months of much lower swim volume. I expect to build on this in January and February.

The December Swim Challenge should help me get better in the pool, which should translate into faster triathlon swim times. I feel I can get to another level, with no expectation to ever keep up with the best "real" swimmers. Reality is what it is. Sure, I learned how to swim when I was five, but I never was a swimmer. The lessons I received at Lake Carasaljo were about knowing how to swim, not swim fast or even particularly straight.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon