I ain’t doing no 320km bike ride!
I’m essentially doing an iM swim on Saturday with a 20/25 km run and a 180km bike on the Sunday followed by a short brick. Then an easier week
I swam the distance on Saturday. Last km was horrible, as @Doonhamer commented, pacing was shite, went out too hard and paid the price. Would have been in 1hr9 minute sort of time. I’m ok with that as a solo effort but I was definitely guilty of mentally switching off too
Over many years…
In fairness, there’s a bit of strength in his programs, and I had one through ithlete which had more intensity than I’d expected. I do like the long term nature of it, but I do wonder a bit about whether there is a self-selection basis to coaching Kona quals with his program - if you’re not going to devote that amount of time to do it his way, you might not have the headspace to go anyway.
I think though that those who are good enough, find what works for them and they do it.
Without wishing to rerail this thread I will have a mini-rant about Alan Couzens. I preface this by saying I like a lot of what he puts out there and he does give away a lot of info for free that he doesn’t have to. Lessons from Gordo Byrn there IMHO. But this constant banging on about how easy it all as to be in terms of instensity. “Popov used to swim slowly almost all the time.” Sure, he was doing his FC at 1:55/100m was he? No he was doing 1:10 at -3ml of lactate. Well I can barely run that fast so that information is of no use is it. Also, wasn’t he a sprinter? Because sprinters are known for banging out long reps at threshold aren’t they?
(Despite this moan I had a great weekend, away from exercise & injury, as my daughter and I had a great time watching The Killers at OT on Saturday).
Sorry back to Chris and Matt going fast.
Okay - so what’s the plan for this?
Have you done any 4km sets this year?
I think you need to get in the lake and do 4km as a moderate TT.
That’ll be your race day swim time but not effort.
So take that time, apply it to 3.8km and that’ll be your pace 
So, say you swim 4km in 75 minutes, your race day swim pace would be 1:53/100m 
You also need to practice swimming straight.
(Not just you, but everyone. All the time)
I swam an extra 300m at IMUK 
Absolutely screwed up my sighting on the second lap.
EDIT: I swam 64-5minutes at Outlaw and IMUK, Top 50 out of the water at both. I was swimming <1:30/100m in the pool for that, which shows how valuable sighting is 
Interesting about the OW swimming. I didn’t do any OW training for Roth, just followed the footpath on the side of the canal. I was sighting occasionally though to make sure I wasn’t
completely alone, because this is how it felt. Swam just under 1:06. But you’re not doing Roth for the first time, so you know what works best for you and if I remember correctly you’d prefer to swim with a group. Whereas I just went to the side of the canal to avoid people tapping my feet for an hour 
Edit: If the event is in a lake, then yeh, I was training OW swimming and sighting. I guess I’m lucky I can swim in a straight line to begin with!!
Sighting not an issue in Roth! But worth staying away from the centre line, and closer to the bank.
I did this at outlaw…then managed to swim past the turn bouy 
Popov’s slow swimming was deliberate practice as well, he did what Solar used to call “the musicians drill” swim well but at a fraction of the speed, or his 48spm stroke rate sessions. That doesn’t mean glide it means just move slower but still with continuous swimming. Add that sprinters traditionally did huge mileage and you cant sprint huge mileage (Mark Foster changed that to good effect and now its a lot more focused for a true sprinter). Learn from the pro’s but most people cant train like a pro so you do need to mix it up, and it needs to be far more individualised as we all have different targets, backgrounds and lives that mean we cant sleep all afternoon
Hmm…less time on TriTalk = more time sleeping
No, ive not done 4000m yet (please don’t shoot me down IMJ style)
Plan is to do 2000m swim then 30km run on Tuesday morning
Wednesday will be 4000m swim
Thursday 2000m swim
Friday 2000m swim
Saturday 5000m swim
I will try similar next week as well
Roth swim is hard to go wrong, there is a weak current, so swim near centre on way out and close to bank on return. Sighting ahead is actually tough in a dead straight canal, you need to sight left and right and maintain a steady distance to the bank / centre line. Swimming straight is really important, and something I am practicing
Looking at my swim on Sunday, it was a point to point, into the current (It is always at least 7s/100m slower in that direction), so 1:57 pace should be faster. Looking at my track, it is clear when I picked up feet, and when I lost them, I was please how straight I was swimming. one of the reasons why I didn’t sit on people’s feet the whole time is that the group I was with went too far left, I took a much straighter route. With so many people in the water in Roth, and such a narrow swim, it is easier to sit on people’s feet. However, I do have a dilema, I can start with the sub 9 group, and 99% will be much stronger swimmers than me, or I can start with the sub 10 hour group and hope to hold onto some swimmers, but come out behind the uber bikers.
Jaysus
15km swimming in one week 
My lats and arms would be killing me!!!
I did 11 last week. My 5000m may become 4000m and I may drop or shorten Thursday swim
In Canada, my sighting on the bouy was ‘bang on’ 
Whilst when I first started tri and needed to learn to finish the bike I only swam 2hrs a week, this build I’ve averaged 16km a week for the past 14 weeks (meaning most weeks were generally 20km), and credit it with improving my swim and general aerobic capacity, without the DOMS I get from running.
Now yes partly that was neccesity driven given I couldn’t run much, but I think I’d aim for similar in future given how it’s felt.
ETA:
That said, winter means I haven’t swam open water, or a long continuous swim for a few months before this week. It was something I mentally missed not having done a continuous swim, but I’d done ~4 sets of 5x1k with 30s rest so physically no different.
Alright, you. Pipe down 
Have you been to roll down and booked your slot yet, or what? 
I did go to roll-down to spectate (it was the free lunch/beer that did it for me), but not enough Peroni for me to walk forwards.
I don’t give a Castlemaine XXXX, did they call your name again and you didn’t go 
Sorry 
Whilst not meant as a brag, that’s one of my bits of advice I feel I’ve gained from this. One long aerobic swim once in a while (eg easier Mondays after hard long weekends) is useful.
And in the context of sub 9 or even sub-10 that probably wants to be somewhere around 4x1k/5x800 or a continuous OW swim even for normal swimmers.
Already on it, squire
Magic ingredient, isn’t it, the long swim?
In hindsight, I should’ve kept up the 4km pool set after I’d done it, but it hurt and I was mentally scarred and didn’t want to do it again
And that is why you swim a 49min Ironman and I swim a 1h10m Ironman (If I am lucky)
I’ve still got 17 weeks to Kona, will aim for much more time in the water. Realistically I can probably do 12km per week.
