How crazy am I for considering this?

Kida_Adeylne

So I've been trying to find a goal for my swimming for a while. When I joined my masters group, the coach asked me what my goals were and I was kinda '...be good at swimming?'

Anyway, there's a reasonably local open water swimming club that runs through the summer here, and every summer they run a 3.8km (Ironman swim distance) open water race, this year on August 8th. And... I think it'd be fun to shoot for.
But right now the furthest distance I've swum is 1km continuous in a 25m pool, and 2250m in one session (drills and short sets). My open water experience is negligible (I swam maybe .75km to an island in a lake up north once. My mother was not impressed by my attitude toward water safety).

I can put in 5-6 swims a week if I make it a priority (over running and computer time). I can make their club practice times to get open water swimming once they start at the end of May.

What do you think? Is it possible to get myself up to that distance in 4 months? Anyone done anything like this before?

stephenrhinton

I've been eyeing some triathalon's in my area too. But it is a long way off for me. My conclusion by looking at previous year results is I need to have a 30 minute mile before I give it serious thought.

3.8km is really quite a distance. But it is never the distance that intimidated me. I'm still large enough that I'm completely buoyant. I feel like I could keep going forever in the pool if I didn't have time and schedule pressures.

With 4 months prep? I think you can accomplish it!

Ms_J1

It's absolutely possible! In fact, distance will probably be the least of your concerns after you do a real open water practice. You'll probably discover that you can do the distance with no problem and that learning to sight is the real issue. I would focus on sighting skills in open water practices and not worry about distance because you'll get the distance anyway with the open water and pool practices. And don't forget - just because you've never swum 3.8k before doesn't mean you can't swim that distance now, even 4 months before the race. We rarely swim our open water race distances non-stop in practice unless they're short distances (like a mile). I'm training to swim a 12-mile race and if I had to work my way up to that distance by doing increasingly longer non-stop distance swim practices, my practices would last 3, 4, 5, and 6 hours and there's no way I'm swimming 3, 4, 5, 6 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. And I've only done one short (about 1.3 miles) open water event. Don't ask me how I'm going to pull off 12-miles. Even I don't know how I'm going to pull it off but I've seen others do it so I know I can do it too.

You'll do great! You're distance endurance will increase dramatically in a short period of time. It's not like building your running endurance, in my opinion.

Robertus

Excellent goal, Ms_J1. I am very impressed!

Robertus

Kida_Adelyne, you can surely do this distance. If I can, anyone can.

I went from 3 laps to 3 miles in less than 3 months, and then I went from 3 miles very noncontinuous to 3 miles continuous in less than a month, all while still being obese. Obese. I was not an athlete at the time. I was obese.

How, you ask? There are really only three very simple and progressive steps to making dramatic increases in endurance and distance:

1. First, Repetition. Find your current baseline level of maximum endurance, and repeat that distance at least 3x per work-out, and then gradually increase that distance and number of repetitions at whatever pace and timeline you are comfortable with.

2. Second, Distance and Rest. Whenever you decide you are ready, you go from repetition of your new baseline endurance intervals to one long continuous swim. For me it was going from 3 miles noncontinuous (8 x 600 yards plus 5 x 100 yards sprints/cool-down laps) to 3 miles continuous in less than a month.

3. Rest. Rest. Rest. When you make the jump to the 2nd step of noncontinuous distance swimming to continuous distance swimming, you absolutely must, must, must get the proper amount of rest before repeating this long distance. Fitness can only be achieved during generous amounts of rest after your killer work-outs. Don't worry about silly goals like exercising 6-7x/week. Don't worry about burning as many calories as you can. Your goal is NOT burning the maximum number of calories for quick short-term nonsustainable weight loss. Your goal is deriving the maximum amount of gains in fitness, strength, and endurance from your killer work-outs. The body can only build fitness, strength, and endurance when you give it enough protein, fat and PLENTY of maximal rest after your killer work-outs.

Kida_Adeylne

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it, now! Now I have to figure out a solid plan for training (and rest. I need to be strict about rest, for sure). Might start with upping my basic workout to 3km or so (over a period of weeks) and every two weeks do a 'long swim' workout of a set length (Try for a 1.5km first, and up it as I go? Thinking I might want a lap counter... and to get to a 50m lane swim). Then I can focus more on open water skills when the club starts up.
Ah. Making a training plan is confusing (as is all the information I've looked up). Oh well, soldier on.

Macstraw

I don't think you're crazy at all, I am very impressed at the goal you've set for yourself & I have no doubt you'll be able to do it. You're well aware of the commitment it will take & you're willing to make the time for it. I would say you were crazy if you didn't plan for it. Re-read many times over the posts by Ms_J1& Robertus. Build yourself to it consistently & always keep in your mind what Ms_J1 said about being able to do it already, even if you've never done that distance before. I think your plan to start is a good one, be guided by how your body feels as you increase what you're doing. You're going to have some days where you're tired & your limbs feel heavy - that's normal - but overall you will start to feel a lot stronger when you swim. Also keep in mind that you will have a great resource at hand - the experience of the coaches & swimmers in the open water group. I would bet that they will happily help you with your training plan & give you plenty advice on how to train, when to start tapering down your workouts & what to expect......

PLEASE keep us posted on how it's going, I'm sure I'm not the only one curious about it....

AquaticQuests

Basic rule of thumb I read all over is "what you can swim in a week, you can swim in a day".

I picked that up when I was considering my first 5 km swim, and the rule has proven true for both my 5 km swim in Dec 2013 and 10 km swim in Dec 2014.
Going by that, if I'm going to swim 15 km in Dec this year, as I'm considering' I'll need to target covering a total of 15km per week in the run up, meaning my daily 2.5 km swims will eventually become 5 daily 3 km swims, which should be ok as I get faster and can hopefully cover the distance (3km) in an hour - I should be able to do that now actually but still pushing the speed!

So if you're going to swim 3.8 km you may want to consider ensuring that your total distance swum over each week consistently equals or surpasses that distance!
:-)

girlwithcurls2

Wow. I am impressed. I am impressed by the goals, the drive and the ambition of this group. Kida, be sure to keep us posted on your progress. I love how swim success is possible for any body (not anybody, "any... body")

Plus, when you tell us how you're doing, we'll all be cheering you on!
Ms_J1, that goes for you too!

fishgutzy

Once you about 1800 yards, adding distance gets easier.
Before long you'll be thinking 5km is short.

Kida_Adeylne

AquaticQuests wrote: »

Basic rule of thumb I read all over is "what you can swim in a week, you can swim in a day".

I picked that up when I was considering my first 5 km swim, and the rule has proven true for both my 5 km swim in Dec 2013 and 10 km swim in Dec 2014.
Going by that, if I'm going to swim 15 km in Dec this year, as I'm considering' I'll need to target covering a total of 15km per week in the run up, meaning my daily 2.5 km swims will eventually become 5 daily 3 km swims, which should be ok as I get faster and can hopefully cover the distance (3km) in an hour - I should be able to do that now actually but still pushing the speed!

So if you're going to swim 3.8 km you may want to consider ensuring that your total distance swum over each week consistently equals or surpasses that distance!
:-)

I've never heard that before, but it's incredibly comforting. I easily swam over 5k in the last four days, and I have been taking it light this week.

Kida_Adeylne

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I think I'm pretty set on doing it - as soon as I get paid I'm gonna sign up for it so I'm fully committed. Taking the day off from the pool, and hopefully will come up with a plan for the next month or so, which I will share and provide updates one.

I'm so excited!

Macstraw

AquaticQuests wrote: »

Basic rule of thumb I read all over is "what you can swim in a week, you can swim in a day".

I would beg to differ on this, I don't think I could do 30,500 yards (1,220 lengths) in a day.....

Kida_Adeylne

Macstraw wrote: »

AquaticQuests wrote: »

Basic rule of thumb I read all over is "what you can swim in a week, you can swim in a day".

I would beg to differ on this, I don't think I could do 30,500 yards (1,220 lengths) in a day.....

lol. But it's only 28km Mac! Maybe it's only a good rule of thumb for us that don't swim quite so much. (You know, now that you've added it up, I would like to point out you swim more in a week than I do in a month. I need to step up my game!)

AquaticQuests

Macstraw wrote: »

AquaticQuests wrote: »

Basic rule of thumb I read all over is "what you can swim in a week, you can swim in a day".

I would beg to differ on this, I don't think I could do 30,500 yards (1,220 lengths) in a day.....

LOL!
But have you tried? That's about 27km. I have a feeling if you took it easy with enough nutrition breaks, you could definitely do a 27km freestyle only swim.

I swim 2.5 km a day and I'm pretty sure even now if I put my mind to it, I could conquer 15km NEXT WEEK (or more realistically two weeks from now), but would rather the muscles grow into it to avoid unnecessary injury by rushing into it and prematurely overloading the muscles, especially my shoulders which I have overloaded in the past! 15km is just 12km short of your 27km

I believe you swim more than double the distance that I do daily, so if you cover 30k yards in a week, I'd say consider a 30k by Dec. It'd probably take you in excess of 12 hours so it's not something to do before you head off to mow the lawn! LOL!

Check out this link: http://marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/20/what-is-an-appropriate-weekly-mileage-for-completing-marathon-swims/p1

An interesting point made by one commentator and repeated often elsewhere is that high quality/ intensity swimming can sometimes compensate in place of yardage! I suspect this is partly MS_J1's approach, although she also does do some long swims too. For quality to compensate for quantity, I imagine it should really be HIGH quality/ intensity!

Barring injury and other intervening events out of my control, a 27km swim is probably in my future 2.5 years from now or earlier. 15km dec 2015. 20km dec 2016. 25km dec 2017.
Problem is we don't do open water swims here, so I struggle to see how I could keep motivated to do that many lengths in a pool, even with musical accompaniment!

Kida, I forgot to mention earlier,when I prepared for my longer swims, I came across a training schedule somewhere online which was basically: In alternating weeks before the swims, ensure in one week, you incorporate at least 2 swims each 50% of the targeted distance! Then the following week, at least one swim at 75% of the targeted distance, then following at least 2 swims at 50% distance....etc
If I find where I saw that, will link it. That was 1 and a half years back when 5 km seemed a near impossible task!

Another point a commentator made. In open water you may end up swimming a shorter or longer distance depending on currents and conditions. So it wouldn't hurt to train with 5 km in mind, just in case

Kida_Adeylne

AquaticQuests wrote: »

Another point a commentator made. In open water you may end up swimming a shorter or longer distance depending on currents and conditions. So it wouldn't hurt to train with 5 km in mind, just in case

Definitely want to train for more than the race distance. It's a really big lake, and a calm days is still gonna be pushing me toward shore, for certain.

I have made up a plan for the coming week, including running and my strength circuit, though I've identified one of each that could be jettisoned if I feel like I might be overdoing it. It's pretty much what I've been doing for the last two weeks, only I am including a pure endurance swim (shooting for 1500m continuous after a quick warm-up) on Friday, and I've planned out the other swim workouts (not allowing for showing up late to the pool and having to cut the swim short, which I do too often).

Planning what I'll do each swim is difficult - usually I'll do the same swim every day for a week or two, then change it up a bit. But I've read that training should include a variety of differently focused workouts (skill work, endurance, sprinting). So I've got a day when I'm working on sprints, a ladder, and then Masters practice (which will be technique work) in addition to Friday's endurance. And Sunday, when I am committed to swimming with an eight year old (water basketball is training, right?)