Swimming is something I do not have a huge amount of talent for. I surfed for the best part of 8 years before I moved to London for University and that has undoubtedly set me up quite well in terms of muscle development but I have never had any swim lessons past the absolute basics, let alone been part of a swim squad. This complete lack of knowledge left me at a loss as to what my swim training should consist of. There is information out there, but I had no real idea as to how to put it together. This made itself obvious by my fairly average swim split of 28min at my first triathlon (London). I didn't really know what I needed to do to really improve until on the recommendation of another swimmer I had a look at the Swim Smooth plans.
There are 3 different levels of plans, the Swim Smooth website describes them as:
Level 1 is for swimmers who swim around 7:45 to 12:00 for 400m or faster swimmers returning to fitness after a long layoff. A typical session is around 2300m. Don't be put off if you're quite new to freestyle swimming, these plans are just what you need to improve your swimming - and motivate you too!* Level 2 is for swimmers around the 6:00 to 7:40 mark for 400m swam hard. Each session in the plan is 2500 to 3000m in length. This plan will direct you and challenge you - giving you the perfect mix of training and technique to get you into top shape for your triathlon season.* Level 3 is for strong swimmers who swim sub 6 minutes for 400m. Each session is 3000+m in length. As an advanced swimmer you may feel your need to swim further than this but these sessions are highly focused and avoid 'junk yardage'. Exactly what you need to keep you motivated and gap the field.
I opted for the level 2 plan as fitness tests for work showed that my base level of fitness had me splashing my way through 400m in 6min37 - not exactly what I was hoping for. Best will in the world this was going to give me a 1500m time of 26-27min, which is way off what I really needed to do if I had hopes of qualifying. I only got round to ordering the plan just before the Easter holidays began giving me just enough time to complete the 11 week plan before my first 'A' race of the year and my first chance to qualify at the Bedford Triathlon.
So, the plan began. 3 mornings a week I dragged my weary body to the local pool and did around 2700m of swimming. This was either a long swim (concentrating on endurance), a "fresh and fruity" set working on speed or a technique set. Some of the techniques and drills seemed very odd to me and I couldn't really see their purpose. Then, as I read some more articles about the Swim Smooth technique, I began to see what they were targeting and were hoping to improve. I knew I was beginning to actually swim and not just power (read splash) my way down the pool. I felt fluid and I felt as if the rhythm that was noticeably absent before was beginning to develop. However, I was not prepared for the result of my session #14 (4th week of the plan) which called for me to repeat the 400m and 200m time trials that I used to set my CSS* pace.
I needed to check my watch again.
5:57. 5min 57 secs. I couldn't believe it and a little squeak let everyone around me know I was pleased with the result. In just over 4 weeks of training I had gone for 6:3x to 5:57 for 400m
These improvements just kept coming. Understandably the improvements were smaller, but nevertheless, by the end of the 11week program, I was down to 5min36 for 400m. This improvement was reflected in my swim split at Bala where I came out the water at 23:0x (can't be specific, timing mat was on entry to transition).
For winter, I'm going to be moving up a level to level 3 plan and I hope to get down to close to 5min for 400m by the time I go to turkey and a 1500m split of 21:xx and I truly feel that following this plan will see me achieve this.
If your swimming is stuck in a rut and you can't even comprehend how to swim faster - then check out Swim Smooth. If you like the idea of structured sessions and not having to trawl Google results to piece together a patchwork session - then check out Swim Smooth. If you like nicely bound books full of techniques and words like "fresh" and "fruity" you can check out these guys too.
James
* estimated pace which is lactate threshold pace
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