The Plan

Now that the current Channel swimming season is all but over I look to next year and 'my' season.... I can't believe I am now properly in the lead up to my swim!

This has been a tough year as my life has been consumed with working at the Olympics. This combined with a young family has made training a little tricky. I have managed to maintain a good base, but my enthusiasm has waned somewhat. However, my fire has been well and truely stoked by the fact that I am into the last leg and the end is almost insight. Well I have finally arrived at the bottom of the mountain and just need to climb to the top now!

I have sought advice from various quarters, trying to determine what a training plan should look like for a successful swim. It has been surprisingly difficult to get this information as no one wants to commit to a winning strategy, as I guess there isn't one! After all, we are all different. Another piece of advice I have followed is not to 'waste' money on a coach.

So, I have taken all of this advice and combined it with wisdom from Penny Lee Dean's book Open Water Swimming and used it put my own plan together. Is it the right plan? Is going without a coach the right move?? Well I will be able to tell you in a little over 10 months time...

Below is the first 4 months of the plan, which takes me to the end of the year, as I started this in September, just didnt getting round to posting the info up then!

Firstly the overall plan for the period: 

I have used Swim Smooth’s CSS pace for testing and training against. If you are not aware of CSS, here is their explanation http://www.swimsmooth.com/training.html.

Below is my monthly test set:

CSS Test (3km)
FC 600
Pull 400
2 x 200
4 x 100
4 x 50
400 
200 
Cool Down - 200

Also, an explanation of the Red Mist session can be found here http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/07/red-mist-set.html.

For the long swims I use a wetronome to set my stroke rate to ensure that I maintain an even pace throughout.

This is a more detailed look at a typical training week,

The focus of the trainig is 2-fold:

1)Work on increasing my pace (see previous post 'The need for speed')
2)Work on increasing endurance and distance swims

I plan to swim in the open water as late into the year as possible, for the long swims, so that I maintain my tolerance to the cold water.

Here is my strength plan;

The aim is to do this 2/3 times per week:  You will note that I am not using weights in this plan, I am just using my own body weight to build endurance and strength. The reason is pretty simple, I need to build my training into my family life, spending hours in the pool and the gym is just not feasible!

I will try and post a monthly update on how the training is going and comment on what works and what doesn't.