How To Structure Your Swimming Week

Most triathletes swim between 2 and 4 times per week. Here’s our suggestion of how to lay out your training week:

Swimming 2x week:
Session 1. Warmup. Technique Work. Then a long-ish endurance set or straight swim at steady pace. Include open water skills practise - sighting and drafting.
Session 2. Warmup. Technique Work. Faster swim set (we prefer sets with short recoveries – "CSS Swimming"). Warm down.

Swimming 3x week:
Session 1. Warmup. Extended technique work. Short sprint set with open water skills practise – sighting and drafting. Warm down.
Session 2. Warmup. Technique work. Long endurance set or straight swim at steady pace.
Session 3. Warmup. Technique work. Faster swim set (we prefer sets with short recoveries – "CSS Swimming"). Warm down

Swimming 4x week:
Session 1. Warmup. Extended technique work. Short sprint set. Warm down.
Session 2. Warmup. Technique work. Mixed open water skills and endurance set.
Session 3. Warmup. Technique work. Faster swim set (we prefer sets with short recoveries – "CSS Swimming"). Warm down.
Session 4. Continuous steady paced pool or open water swim.

Here’s why:
- You need technique work to improve.
- You need a mix of intensities to improve – make sure you do the long swims at a steady pace (think 6 out of 10 on a scale of effort).
- Open water skills are critical if you want to perform at your best in triathlon.

You can discuss this post on our forum in its dedicated thread: #tbd#

Related articles on our site:
www.swimsmooth.com/triathlon
www.swimsmooth.com/training

And of course our waterproof training plans hit the exact mix you need, with perfect weekly progression built in:
www.swimsmooth.com/trainingplans

Cheers,

Swim Smooth!