I’m not doing that either TBH.
I suspect he must have done some serious aerobic training at some point prior to him joining MAtt Dixon but that doesn’t sell any books or coaching plans does it?
I had a video done once, and looked at it during the session but never bothered afterwards. I have since had a couple of 1-1 sessions where video is taken to show me what I am doing but I don’t get a copy to take away. This is the most valuable thing to me, because what I think I’m doing and what I’m actually doing are not always the same, and it’s much easier to see in pictures than try to have it explained.
You’ll be telling me you don’t clean your own car or do your own windows and gutters next 
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Of course not! I would have replied earlier but the help needed supervision 
My wife always asks why I do ours myself…Maybe that’s why I’ve never been sub10 
IIRC, Pete Jacobs ;old triathlete; was a landscape Gardener for his main income and raced pro in his spare time.
I can’t swim 200m after digging our borders, let alone pop out the water in 45 minutes 
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Can I ask what you’re doing (or did) to get under the hour?
I’m feeling confident with a 69 with no coaching and relatively low volume 6-8K per week, and would like to get to a 59 eventually.
Hey Joex
So couple years back I picked up an Achilles problem and couldn’t run for a few months. Decided to drop into the pool and start focussing on my weakness. I was pretty much the same as you. 1:05-1:10 IM off maybe 3-5k week, unstructured.
I got some swim smooth video analysis with Fiona ford and thankfully my stroke wasn’t totally shite, just a few tweaks. She introduced me to CSS test and CSS type training. But I never really had a plan as such, kinda turned up at the pool with 40 mins, made it up as I went along, 20x100, 200x10 etc. I definitely started to get faster with more swim volume, but also with longer endurance sets, so something like 4x500 upto 4x1000 trying to hold CSS. I’d then start doing 60 min non stop swims and try and hold the same pace as my previous 1k efforts. Those are tough mentally but once you get in a rhythm and switch off, the time goes quickly. Another big help has been buoyancy shorts which I use 80% of the time. Some will criticise, but they’ve definitely helped me with body position and streamlining.
Now it’s OW season I’ll start doing 60 min swims at IM race pace to dial it in. I’ve found sighting a big speed staller, so I only sight every 8-9 strokes, and don’t bring head up too high in water. I keep ankles together as tight as I can, toes pointy.
I threw in a couple of back to back 10k pool swims over a couple days in January just cos I’m a dick, but also to spice things up, keep it ‘fun.’ After doing these, 60 min training swims feel like a piece of piss.
Hope this helps, totally unscientific approach, but it’s helped me
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That’s ace 
Would you say the time spent in the pool for ten minutes time (on the surface) was worth it?
Or, do you think that your 56 min swim was “easy” and enabled you to execute the rest of the day better?
I think frequency of going to the pool as opposed to just volume is a win. If you can get to the pool 4 days a week doing 2-4K, you’ll reap rewards. 2-3 times a week doesn’t quite cut it for me, in fact I’ll start to see a dip
In swim strength/speed.
Yeah, 56 mins didn’t seem too crazy, fresh on the bike. But Copenhagen is a fast swim course. I think it’s probably accurate in distance, buoyant brine water, not too many turns, easy to get clean water and easy sighting.
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Great post, love it. 
Can I imply that volume increased? It seems like you went from 2k per sessions to 4K , but no detail on weekly volume or if that was important.
Chickenboy = The sub10 Messiah.
Also, speaking simple uncomplicated sense.
Which a tonne of IM plans miss.
An Ironman isn’t fast.
You just need to be able to tough it out.
And maintain that pace all day long.
Who’s the pro triathlete that says this?
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Great plan, and great result, that’s a tough weekend. I am now at the point where the kids are pretty much off our hands so more free time, but I don’t recover so quickly these days. Having just fell apart on the run at Lanza I definitely know I need to increase run distance and also be able to do it off the bike. I got to 8 miles on a decent pace (8.45 min miles) then fell away to a 4.30 ish total time.
Next outing is Wales so hilly terrain to add in the mix.
Yee ha
My wife tells me this sometimes, but it hasn’t helped my swimming.
Yeah but @chickenboy is a dentist, so it comes easy for him 
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Ah right, so all his speed is bought right? 
zzzzackly!!
If you’re on Strava mate, just tag me (dave mantle), and have a look through my training log. Its pretty erratic from a swim perspective, but you’ll get an idea.
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hahaha, mudder fudders!! 
I’m harking back to the good old days of 2013 where I did 9:59:55 at Ironman UK in Bolton. This was made up of Swim 1:00:15, Bike: 5:27:50 and a 3:26:30 run. I did a 10:10 at Roth three years before (on a road bike) but that’s a quick (and the bike I think was a touch short) course.
I had no idea that I was on for a sub-10 (I wasn’t looking at my watch towards the end, was just giving it everything) until I got onto the red carpet and saw the clock at the finish line. I slowed down and milked the finish. I could have been 5-10 seconds quicker.
Other than a swim squad session once a week for about 3 or 4 months before hand I got mighty good on the bike by commuting 3-4 days a week into central london on an old mountain bike (13 miles each way) and a long ride at the weekend. There was absolutely no structure to any of my training other than increasing distance in my long bikes and runs as the race got nearer. Run speed training was pretty much Saturday parkruns.
I think that three goods (good swim/bike/run) delivered the result. I know of many people who are great at one or two disciplines. I think you need to put three ‘goods’ together to make a ‘great’.
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My problem is that historically I’ve been good-respectable-good; but that my solid run has been hampered by either over-egging the bike, or starting the run too quick. Or, maybe I just need to run more…
Trouble with Ironman is you can’t just keep trying out new ideas; it’s not Parkrun!