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Swim Workouts for Triathletes: Practical Workouts to Build Speed, Strength, and Endurance
It's no most triathletes are weak swimmers. Improving your swim will make you a faster, more confident triathlete, and you'll enjoy your time in the water. Swim Workouts for Triathletes, 2nd Ed. will help you develop real swimming speed. This waterproof book of 75 swim workouts provides the structure, variety, and drills triathletes need to become more efficient and faster swimmers. Each workout is designed around a specific goal--endurance, speed, form, muscular endurance, or anaerobic endurance--making it easy to prepare for events of different distances and improve all-around swimming skill. Supplement your current training plan with these workouts or use one of the book's four swim training plans to prepare for triathlon's most popular swim distances. You'll improve your efficiency and feel for the water with illustrated technique drills. New 30-minute workouts help slower swimmers or those with limited pool time get up to speed. Swim Workouts for Triathletes means no more swimming in circles. Take this waterproof book to the pool with you, and you'll be swimming real workouts that will make you a faster swimmer and a better triathlete.
32 pages, Spiral-bound
First published May 2, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 25, 2018
I don't normally rate books like this, but this book is so indispensable that I felt obligated to review it. This book is absolutely worth the price, and it can be used as a supplement to a training plan or as a stand-alone swim plan.
Consider this: Triathlon coaches can cost anywhere between $50 and $200 a month for training plans. Obviously not everyone has that much money to burn on a monthly basis. That is why this book is helpful. This book brings the essential swim workouts that any professional coach would. It's waterproof pages and spiral setup come in handy for pool-side use. If one were looking to use this during the off-season for maintenance there are plenty workouts from which to choose. If one wanted to supplement this to an already existing training plan, there are quick-and-easy workouts to help. If one were looking to use this as a primary source of training, the book includes a workout calendar based on the distance which you are planning to race.
This book does not give advice as to how to swim better. If it did, the title would be different. However, this gives a financially-crunched (and time-crunched) athlete the same workout as something that could be found in a Master's Swim class. If one were to couple this with a local bike shop group ride and a local running shop group run, it could formulate into an economical training plan. Every distance is granted attention from the sprint distance up to the ultra distance.
The abbreviations are easy to understand with explanations for all of them, and the introduction lays out the procedure of the book.
If you're looking for a well-rounded book that cuts straight to the point, then take a chance with this book. It's portable, it's waterproof, and it's convenient for anyone looking to gear up for the swimming portion of a triathlon.
Consider this: Triathlon coaches can cost anywhere between $50 and $200 a month for training plans. Obviously not everyone has that much money to burn on a monthly basis. That is why this book is helpful. This book brings the essential swim workouts that any professional coach would. It's waterproof pages and spiral setup come in handy for pool-side use. If one were looking to use this during the off-season for maintenance there are plenty workouts from which to choose. If one wanted to supplement this to an already existing training plan, there are quick-and-easy workouts to help. If one were looking to use this as a primary source of training, the book includes a workout calendar based on the distance which you are planning to race.
This book does not give advice as to how to swim better. If it did, the title would be different. However, this gives a financially-crunched (and time-crunched) athlete the same workout as something that could be found in a Master's Swim class. If one were to couple this with a local bike shop group ride and a local running shop group run, it could formulate into an economical training plan. Every distance is granted attention from the sprint distance up to the ultra distance.
The abbreviations are easy to understand with explanations for all of them, and the introduction lays out the procedure of the book.
If you're looking for a well-rounded book that cuts straight to the point, then take a chance with this book. It's portable, it's waterproof, and it's convenient for anyone looking to gear up for the swimming portion of a triathlon.
November 20, 2016
The book stands like a table calendar which makes reading the swim sets easy in the pool. The pages are also waterproof. In terms of content, it's mostly similar to the advice given by my former coach.
January 22, 2022
This waterproof book that you take to the swimming pool has outstanding workouts, and several training plans. I love it! Time to get back in the pool...
June 22, 2013
This book took my swimming to the next level.
Many years ago, when I was a teenager I was a competitive swimmer. Then 20 years went by and I decided to start doing triathlons. Of course swimming was the "easiest" part, since I just had to get back in the water and get in shape, biking and running were more challenging. But then I realized that even though I was getting decent results in the swimming portion I was not as fast as I thought I could be.
I did a few things, I started working on my form, trying to fine-tune details that were a off after many years out of the pool. I have always used intervals in my swim training, but I also started looking for a set of structured workouts I could follow. I got some from the US Master Swimming website, which has trainers handing out weekly workouts on their members section, but then I found this book and decided to give it a try. I have to say that the results were better than anything I could have expected. In a few months I have dropped my T-pace by close to 10 seconds and I feel fast in the water again. Also, swimming freestyle almost exclusively can get a little boring, but these workouts provide enough variety to keep things relatively fresh.
The workouts are organized by type. You get the following:
-20 Endurance Workouts (Aerobic work)
-6 Endurance Speed Workouts (Mostly aerobic with some speed at the end)
-6 Endurance Form Workouts (Aerobic with form drills at the beginning)
-6 Force Workouts (Working on strength i.e. using paddles)
-12 Muscular Endurance Workouts (Develop pacing)
-10 Muscular Endurance Distance Workouts (Race pace for Half Iron or Ironman)
-8 Anaerobic Endurance Workouts (Speed, speed, and speed!)
-6 30-Minute Workouts (For when you have less time)
-6 Open Water Workouts (Focus on skills needed for open-water racing)
You also get 2 Test to measure your T-pace before starting the program (one for those doing mostly Sprints, and one for those doing Olympic distance or longer). Each of the workouts has 2 variations, a beginner and an advanced. The difference between the two is the distance in some of the sets. Finally, there are training plans for Sprint, Olympic / Half Iron, and Ironman.
I am not going to comment on the waterproof pages, since it really never crossed my mind to take the book to the pool. I just type up the workout I am doing, including the intervals I need to hit based on my T-pace and take that piece of paper to the pool and stick it at the end of my lane. I have always done this and that is what works best for me.
This book is truly a gem, but in order to benefit from it, you need to be at a stage in your swimming at which you can swim approximately 1500-2000 per session without issues. If you are a triathlete that is completely new to swimming, you should first look at getting help with your form, and once you feel more comfortable with the discipline come back and get this book. It will take your swimming to the next level!
Many years ago, when I was a teenager I was a competitive swimmer. Then 20 years went by and I decided to start doing triathlons. Of course swimming was the "easiest" part, since I just had to get back in the water and get in shape, biking and running were more challenging. But then I realized that even though I was getting decent results in the swimming portion I was not as fast as I thought I could be.
I did a few things, I started working on my form, trying to fine-tune details that were a off after many years out of the pool. I have always used intervals in my swim training, but I also started looking for a set of structured workouts I could follow. I got some from the US Master Swimming website, which has trainers handing out weekly workouts on their members section, but then I found this book and decided to give it a try. I have to say that the results were better than anything I could have expected. In a few months I have dropped my T-pace by close to 10 seconds and I feel fast in the water again. Also, swimming freestyle almost exclusively can get a little boring, but these workouts provide enough variety to keep things relatively fresh.
The workouts are organized by type. You get the following:
-20 Endurance Workouts (Aerobic work)
-6 Endurance Speed Workouts (Mostly aerobic with some speed at the end)
-6 Endurance Form Workouts (Aerobic with form drills at the beginning)
-6 Force Workouts (Working on strength i.e. using paddles)
-12 Muscular Endurance Workouts (Develop pacing)
-10 Muscular Endurance Distance Workouts (Race pace for Half Iron or Ironman)
-8 Anaerobic Endurance Workouts (Speed, speed, and speed!)
-6 30-Minute Workouts (For when you have less time)
-6 Open Water Workouts (Focus on skills needed for open-water racing)
You also get 2 Test to measure your T-pace before starting the program (one for those doing mostly Sprints, and one for those doing Olympic distance or longer). Each of the workouts has 2 variations, a beginner and an advanced. The difference between the two is the distance in some of the sets. Finally, there are training plans for Sprint, Olympic / Half Iron, and Ironman.
I am not going to comment on the waterproof pages, since it really never crossed my mind to take the book to the pool. I just type up the workout I am doing, including the intervals I need to hit based on my T-pace and take that piece of paper to the pool and stick it at the end of my lane. I have always done this and that is what works best for me.
This book is truly a gem, but in order to benefit from it, you need to be at a stage in your swimming at which you can swim approximately 1500-2000 per session without issues. If you are a triathlete that is completely new to swimming, you should first look at getting help with your form, and once you feel more comfortable with the discipline come back and get this book. It will take your swimming to the next level!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews