Triathlon Swimming Q&A: What can I do to improve swimming endurance?

February 22, 2010

Q: What can I do to improve my swimming endurance? On my high speed/quality sprint sets I always seem to get slower on the 3rd or 4th repeat, no matter what I do.

A: You might think that the cause of your getting slower on the 3rd or 4th is lack of endurance. It is probably not. Your body does funny things when swim sprinting all-out and resting for a medium period of time (rest between 1-3 minutes). It is enough time for oxygen to fully replenish in the muscles (regardless of fitness), but not enough time for the muscles to heal from micro-tears and wear. Each sprint hurts more because you are throwing the same oxygen at ever-increasingly damaged muscles. Eventually, you reach a point where all the oxygen in the world cannot make the muscles go at maximum. For most people, this occurs after 3 or 4 sprints in the pool.

The key is not to “smooth out” your sprint times, but to make the set faster as a whole. If you are used to starting out at 35 seconds on the first sprint, and 40 seconds on the sixth, a good goal to shoot for is 33 seconds on the first and 38 seconds on the sixth. If you try to average your sprint swim times out, you are forced to swim slow at the start, which is a waste of time. And, it buys you little as you just cramp up on the 3rd or 4th anyways. In other words, you get the same pain for less gain. The best way to do your sprint swimming sets is to do them as fast as possible, all the time. Measure your endurance abilities elsewhere.

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