Training - What Training?!

10s, 15s, 30s, 1min, 30s, 15s & straight back into it.

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Bingo … that’ll do. Ta

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That sounds good to me

Just do what I did.

25, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and back down.

Rest should just “round up” to the next 15s marker on the wall clock.
But take 30s-45s after the 300s and 400.

Also, harking back to what @Chriswim said on the sub9 thread, and what I’ve previously found, I’d disagree with @FatPom here :see_no_evil:
Yes, pool/swimming logistics are a PITA, but you’re not just “saving a few minutes”

You are swim training to be able to execute a nice, wet, warm-up. That’s all the swim really is for most of us.
If you can exit the water after 28/59 minutes (70.3/140.6) and you don’t feel like Leonardo Di Caprio in The Revenant, then you’ve won.
Swim training for triathletes really isn’t about swimming a quick time.

It’s about being able to execute the bike and run you have planned and are capable of.

Without a relaxed swim to start your day, you’re screwed for the rest of the day.

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Yeah I get that but it isn’t an ‘either or’ situation. I come out of the swim not feeling knackered anyway (unless I’m running up that bloody cliff at Tenby!)

There is a middle ground between family/time investment and a meaningful output. There is simply no point in spending a lot of extra hours with full time kids at home to deal with, trying to cut 5 mins form a swim when you will come out feeling the same.

I’ve swam much faster and much slower and just know through experience at lots of distances where my sweet spot is. If you’re swinging the lead in the swim, then yes more training is worthwhile and if you’re coming out absolutely knackered then I agree also.

There is a middle ground though where you can come out feeling ok and execute your bike power with massively dying. For me, it’s not worth the extra time for the minimal benefits, for you that’s obviously a different choice.

I never lose any sleep worrying about a triathlon swim. (might be a different story at the Lanza carnage :smile:)

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Good point!
I was utterly f00ked after the outlaw 2019 swim.
Had a nice relax before I stupidly attempted a sub3 marathon off no run training :see_no_evil::joy:

Outlaw 2021 I was fresh as a muthafreakin’ daisy :cherry_blossom:

Same for 2010-2012.

For me, it really really helps to swim as close to the hour as possible, so I can get in one of those fabled bike packs, as my bike is awful and I just “give up” after about 4-4.5 hours. If I’ve got someone in front to keep me on track, I find it super helpful.

Basically, I like to be running after 6.5hrs for a full or 3 hours for a half. Otherwise I lose all interest in the run and putting in any effort :see_no_evil::joy:

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Yeah you’re much faster than me. I think my mind set for the last couple of IMs has been with regards to swim, ‘do what you know works’.

There could be a bit of complacency there of course and just ‘churn out the usual’ but I’m in a different time of life and was never at the pointy end. TBH, that might be part of why I drifted away from tri and IM in that I’d lost the desire to improve, not sure.

I do know I can be away from the pool for well over a year and within 4-5 wks at two sessions a week be back to where I was, so I was probably leaving something on the table but then I was always 10kg overweight and never seemed to do anything about that either :joy:

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Yeah - totally get where you’re coming from, there, too.
Sometimes I enjoy swimming, sometimes I do not.
I find the more I do it, the more I enjoy it.
I do need to look into some headphones, though.
As boredom often hits me before fatigue.

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I absolutely hate swimming for swimming’s sake. I also hate the beach, I hate sand (even though I was in a beach volleyball team :smile:).
To me the sea (and water in general = ‘doing’). Surfing, body bashing any old activity really. (not SUP :wink:). and the swim outside of the sea is kind of doing.
I think I’m naturally inclined to OWS rather than the pool. When I was young I was in the local diving team, for me, a pool without diving boards is just a big bath. :grin:

Cheers mate. Been watching Loyd Purvis and sent him a question re cut offs, he reckons the first two are the hardest to make (in the dark of course) and after that it gets easier.

Stephen Cousins was saying how hard it is and he’s way way quicker than me. I suppose if I can’t make Plague in summer then I’d have buckley’s of making the Arc, so probably a good race to put those thoughts to bed.

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No carange anymore unfortunately, last one I did in 2019 was pretty civilised as people were used to the rolling starts from other races

All of my sessions have been something like;
Warmup - 8 x 200m - cool down
Warmup - pyramid 50m to 400m - cool down
Warmup - 4 x 400m - cool down

Warmup can be whateve gets you ready for the set. My favourite is 200m each / 2 x 100m moderate / 4 x 50m hard / 4 x 25m hard.

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Has the mass start gone then or just people lining up anyway?

It’s a very much watered down mass start, pros go 5 minutes before the rest and the first few rows go full gas but by the time you get to the 70 minute plus suggested time it’s more of the strong walk into the water with about 20m wide beach to set off from. Gets a bit hectic toward the first buoy but nothing like a proper washing machine start of the old days.

‘Luckily’ I’m an 80min swimmer :grin:

i remember seeing some clips of earlier years that looked just scary AF. Do you get lapped simmers carnage? It’s a 2 lapper isn’t it?

Me too, if you add 10 minute or more :slight_smile:

They’ve changed it to a one lap last year. I had some bloke called Frodeno come past me one year but he gve me plenty of space. To be fair people do as it’s such a wide stretch of water at the point any overtaking would happen

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Still laughing/furious at ‘doing the swim in 59mins’ and ‘not a quick time’ being used in the same sentence. **** the lot of you :smile:

Agree on the pyramid set though, I find it a good one to not get bored (although cos I’m slow I tend to do it as 50/100/150/200), a long run of 50s is great but can get boring/frustrating especially if your lane is busy and it’s hard to keep to your wall time.

Just back in from a lunch ride. Set off in sunshine, 20mins in it was torrential rain and wind. Got home, bike away, sun immediately back out and its roasting.

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100s on a short rest are decent sessions. Warm up. Then find a 100 pace that is comfortably hard. Do multiples (10-20) of them 10-20 second rest. Warm down.

My favourite fun set I used to do was a max speed session. 4x100, 4x50, 4x25. Long rests (used to go on 3 mins for the 100s and would be completing them in 1:18-:120). All done at maximum speed

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10x66 on 6 minute. ‘Devil set’. One of the most painful we used to do in swim days, but wouldn’t do it now.

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Curious that your steps yesterday were shorter than your steps today.