Weekly Training Summary
Please click on "Distances to Achieve Prior to your Trip" (above right) to get weekly training distances for the months leading up to your trip. The table refers to the recommended one-off weekly distance to be achieved in the pool. Additional swimming training throughout the week is obviously recommended.
Keep Training Interesting
It’s important to keep training interesting. Therefore a few suggested ways to mix up your training are suggested.
Alternate the lengths that you swim into fast and slow. This will allow you to work on both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
If you don’t do already, try breathing to both sides as you train. This could well be beneficial when you come on the trip.
Swim against the clock! You will then be able to calculate your average swim speed and see if you are able to maintain your speed as the weekly distance increases.
If you are finding it hard to mentally focus on the longer swims then just break the swim into manageable chunks and have a drink at the end of each section.
Use swimming fins and hand paddles, though don’t rely on them!
Vary the location that you are swimming in. A new pool can invigorate training just when it seemed that trotting up and down the same lane was getting boring.
Get a swimming buddy. Just having somebody else in the pool can motivate you to keep going when the going gets tough.
GET OUTDOORS! After all, this is what our SwimTrek trips are all about, so why not train in open water for some of your sessions.
Correct Open Water Swimming Technique
There is a difference in technique when swimming in open water compared to swimming in a pool. The below examples will concentrate on front crawl (FC) and Breaststroke (BS) .
Body Position
To swim long distances, a streamlined body position will markedly reduce your effort over the entire swim. If one part of the body is out of line the drag will increase.
Drill: To optimise your streamlined position try pushing off the wall with your hands by your side, legs apart. Repeat this process by bringing your legs in and your arms in front, on the next drill. Alter body position (e.g. head, hands, feet, legs etc) to achieve the furthest glide. This is therefore your most streamlined position. This can then be incorporated into your current stroke.
Body Roll
(FC only) This is exaggerated in open water, due to the need to be able to breathe well above the horizontal in case of rough conditions and also the fact that a greater roll results in the larger back muscles being used to a greater degree rather than the smaller shoulder muscles.
Drill: Swimming in a streamlined position aim for an exaggerated body roll of up to 70° from the horizontal. This can be achieved by entering your hand in the water directly in front of your head. This will aid body roll. Start bringing the angle of roll down to approximately 45° by gradually bringing your hand entry in line with your shoulders. Remember to always roll from the hips!
Kick
(FC) Principally used to keep the legs up at the surface level to reduce drag. Therefore kicking should be as minimal as possible to achieve a horizontal position.
Drill: Again in a streamlined position, arms out in front, determine the least intensive kick pattern which keeps your legs in a horizontal position.
(BS) The leg kick provides the greatest contribution to propulsion and hence, unlike front crawl, is an integral part of open water breaststroke.
Drill: 3 leg kicks to 1 arm pull. Determine optimum leg position to achieve greatest distance.
Arm Pull
(FC) The arms contribute by far the most to front crawl propulsion. The two most important points are:
To keep your fingers to your elbow in a straight line. This will allow you to use your forearm, shoulder and back muscles.
Your elbow should always be higher than your fingertips. Again this will give you maximum leverage through the water.
(BS) Provides the secondary source of propulsion. Key points are:
Fully extend arms at end of recovery.
Elbows to bend to full 90˚ in propulsion phase.