Whether you are a beginner or an experienced triathlete, open water swimming is always a very complicated sport to tackle: technique, power, endurance, strategy and adaptability, and individuality: everything is there!
In the triathlete, we can generally distinguish two types of swimmer profiles: the “Perfectionist” who insists on achieving the perfect technique before starting to push the machine, and the “length eater” who finds his happiness by storing as much distance as possible. per week.
The Perfectionist
It is often an athlete who does not want to step out of his comfort zone. Adding 3-4 technical sessions in the week, avoiding “difficult” work can seem attractive and comforting because we maintain a large number of training sessions. We often meet the case of athletes hesitating to do quality sessions such as "RedMist" or "CSS / Threshold Development" because their technique is not yet perfect.
This type of approach is far from the most effective whether you are a beginner or an elite athlete.
There is no such thing as a perfect technique
If you are too perfectionist you simply push back the time when you will have to train in areas that are beyond your comfort and you risk reaching your best level too late in the season.
Work at the right speed:
Having a good technique is only useful if you know how to use it at a running pace: this requires an adaptation on the part of your body. It is not uncommon to see swimmers with a very good technique in “relax” mode, but who lose it at a race pace. Make sure you develop your technique and speed at the same time, it will save you months of work.
Beware of training:
If you are not a "natural" swimmer and have not practiced competitive swimming during your youth, you risk de-training quite quickly. In fact, in swimming, unlike cycling or running, the muscular effort is less because you are not carrying your weight, so you have to repeat and repeat the movements again to create a physiological effect and a physical adaptation. If you neglect the volume and intensity, you can be delusional on a few sets of 50 or 100m, but be prepared for certain disappointments in the first competitions or when the duration of intervals and training increases.
Don't forget your overall planning
If you are a triathlete you need to balance your training with two other sports. In Quebec, winter often forces us to reduce the volume and intensity of training in other sports. Swimming, on the other hand, offers ideal training conditions to maintain a base of endurance and work on your V02. Many of our swimmers have indeed set records in the spring races of 10 and 21k as they completed a focus in swimming and abandoned running compared to other years. So be careful if you abandon the intensity and endurance in swimming, you risk seeing your performance at the start of the season drop overall in the three sports.
The "length eater"
Add kilometers each week to your logs, add series of 100m, series of 400 and 500m, reach 10, 15, 20 see 30 km/week: this approach speaks to the athlete who likes the 'extreme' and 'Ultra side 'triathlon or who lack a little confidence or experience. And then it's always gratifying and heartwarming to watch the numbers add up.
Often this type of swimmer, at the end of our technical group sessions will have a question that burns his lips: "How many meters have we done today?" So the question he should be asking himself is, 'How did I feel today? What are the technical points that I have mastered well and that you still need to improve? '
These athletes generally see their level increase quite quickly at the start of the season, but then they reach a plateau. Their reaction is to add even more volume, and even more intensity until they reach an "overdose". They then relax the effort to focus on other sports, before eventually returning to their pet peeve in the next offseason.
Add a weekly technical session to your agenda
No, you don't waste time with technical sessions, whatever your level, from 3'00 to 1'10 per 100m (CSS range of swimmers in our Squad in Montreal) , it is simply necessary to know the objective of each educationalist and to focus on the good points. No, swimming with fins is not cheating and the Pull Buoy must be used intelligently and not systematically, using the excuse of a big day of training the day before: you are then hiding weaknesses in your technique which will slow down your progress.
In technical and educational sessions you have to think about the quality and not quantity: leave the Garmin at home.
Schedule your swims at the right time
From its technical aspect, swimming is a sport which requires a state of maximum freshness to benefit from a good training session. It is also a sport that we recover very quickly because there is no impact. So resist the temptation to place this sport at the last practice of your day. Ideally, especially if you want to focus on this sport, start these workouts early in the morning. Your body is then 100% ready to assimilate the work. If you do not have the choice of positioning your swim after a heavy bike or an intense run, you should consider canceling one of these two sessions. Indeed, you could benefit more by resting, by offering a little time to those around you rather than spending 1h30 more at the
The solution: a balanced and specific approach
It sounds simple and yet it is not the majority of athletes who follow the path of balanced training because it requires patience and consistency.
However, as we have seen previously, combining technical work with the development of your aerobic and muscular capacities is ideal. At all times you should therefore integrate at least one technical session per week and 2 to 3 endurance and threshold work sessions. Remember that you are training for triathlon: this requires specific training sessions with a technique suitable for open water and long-distance. In running you will never see a trail runner train the same way as a 100m sprinter, and yet how many triathletes do group training where the main objective is swimming pool competitions out of 50 at 400m?
Finally, there is no single type of swimming, each swimmer must develop his own style according to his physical characteristics and his objectives.
At Swim Smooth Montreal we offer 4 different types of sessions per week open to all ( details ) + individual video sessions to develop all the facets of your style: - Pure Technique - Intervals at the Threshold (CSS / Threshold) - Endurance + Technique - Progressive Endurance (RedMist) - Video Session 1-2-1 with technical correction
It is up to you or your coach to select the sessions that are most beneficial for you and while keeping an optimal balance.
Ultra-efficient, they are quite expensive but rest assured, it is not necessary to do it every week to improve your technique. A well-conducted session with video analysis and technical correction in the water will give you work to do on your own for several months. The most important aspect is that you will understand what is slowing you down and what process to put in place to correct it.
But don't get me wrong, this will not exempt you from spending time in the water, there is nothing magical, it will take several weeks of hard work to assimilate the technical changes. We are talking about 6 weeks to absorb a specific point. So be patient and don't forget to keep intensity and endurance in your training.
Learning to master swimming and joining a lifeguard course is a real challenge, especially when you approach it as an adult. A good mix of technique, intensity, and endurance is essential to progress effectively. Balancing your workouts is the fastest way to swim faster at your next competition
