4 WAYS TO IMMEDIATELY IMPROVE IRONMAN SWIM TRAINING
Triathlon
START
PULLING
PULL BUOY
These are essentially little floaties that go between your legs to keep your lower half floating above the water. This way you can isolate your arms and practice the stroke only with the upper body.
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KICK KICK
KICK KICK
GET A KICK BOARD
Jst as a buoy isolates the arms, a kickboard isolates the legs. In a matter of seconds you’ll realize just how much more work your arms do than your legs (in terms of forward propulsion).
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SWIM IN
INTERVALS
BREAK IT UP
An Ironman swim is ~3900 meters. It would be crazy to practice swimming 3900 meters over and over again. Swim training is done in sets. 50's, 100's, etc. Let's look at an example...
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SAMPLE SWIM SET
Warmup 1x200 swim 1x150 pull 1x100 kick 1x50 fast Set 12x50 1x200 pull 1x200 kick 6x75 Cooldown 3x100 swim 1x250 swim Total: 2,500
VARY YOUR
STROKE
CHANGE UP THE STROKE
Most of your training can/should be done with Freestyle/Crawl stroke. But don't forget to mix in back stroke, breast stroke, and (if you're daring) butterfly.
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WHY?
- Varied muscle use - Reduction of injury - Auxiliary strength - Reduction of training fatigue - Reduced boredom in training