Swim training help needed

Almost all of us "non-swimmers" have had this issue.  You get past it by swimming as often as you can (helps develop 'feel' for the water) and working on your form (hopefully with some outside assistance).

Here are some drills that helped me when I started out:

http://www.cruciblefitness.com/etips/swimming-drills.htm

It took me about 5-6 weeks of working on these at least 3x/wk before things 'clicked' one day and I felt like I could just keep swimming (slowly, of course).

Here is the last post I made on a similar issue.  The full post can be found here.  There is lots of great help in this post.  BT is awesome.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=105787&start=1

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Another Update:

So to recap.

2/10 - Week 1 -   250yrds - Started Swim Training
2/17 - Week 2 - 1150yrds - totally out of breadth after 50yrds
2/24 - Week 3 - 1450yrds - Maybe I can do a 100set, but still out of breadth
3/2   - Week 4 - 3300yrds - still can't do more than 100
3/7   - Post this thread - Not making any progress - Decide to hire a coach.
3/9   - Week 5 - 3300yrds
3/13 - 1st Swim Lesson - He killed me - It was very hard.  Out of breadth every 50 set
3/16 - Week 6 - 4850yrds - Still can't do more than 100
3/23 - Week 7 - 6400yrds - 2nd lesson with coach - starting to make some progress
3/29 - Swam 600 yrds without stopping.  Could have gone further
3/30 - Week 8 - 4950yrds - 3rd lesson (for now).  starting to click
3/31 - Swam 750 yrds without stopping.  Could have gone further

On Saturday morning I went for a swim and planned to try for 400 yds straight.  I did 600 and felt like I could have kept going but decided to stop and not let my form get out of control from being tired.  I continued swimming drills and 100/50 & 25 sets until reaching 1500 yards.

On Sunday, I went to the pool in the afternoon but was not hopeful that I would be able to swim due to the number of people at the pool in the afternoon.  I was right, it was packed like a busy resort pool on spring break week.  Instead I went for a swim in the lake and did about 200 yards and decided to save my energy for a good swim on Monday mornign.

This morning, I decided that I would warm up with a few 50's and then swim as far as I could.   I ended up doing 750 yards at about 2:30 per 100.  I could have kept going but I felt that I was loosing form and did not want to cement bad form.  I finished the swim with 1500 yards total.

WOW, it is finally comming together.  I am a little sore now and feel tired but good too.

After running out of money for more lessons, I am on my own now with just under 2 weeks till my 1st tri and 1/2 mile swim.  I am feeling pretty good about it now though.  I won't shatter any time barriers but I am reasonable confident I will be able to complete the swim with a few or less short breaks and not be totally spent once I get on the bike. 

Thanks everyone for all the advice and help.  BT is the best!!!

Also, thanks to Bill Floyd for his coaching.  http://www.trifloyd.com/

Looking at your logs it appears that you have 60 min of swimming in the last 3 weeks. I think that the fact that you can do a :37 50 yd swim says that you can be an efficient swimmer. I would say to increase your swim training time by 2 to 3 hrs a week and you'll increase your stamina to do a 1000 OWS without a problem.

Good luck!!

Thanks. My logs aren't totally accurate. I am still trying to get in the habit of logging, but I have been swim training longer than I have been logging the information.

Thanks. My logs aren't totally accurate. I am still trying to get in the habit of logging, but I have been swim training longer than I have been logging the information.

Thanks for all the advice. I have been breathing every 3rd stroke (bilatteral ?). I do not kick a lot. I was told that for tris I probably want to kick very little so I can save my legs for the bike and the run. (Don't know if this is good advice or not)

All of you have given me some good things to work on. I should have plenty to think about next time I enter the pool.

I'm in the process of learning bilateral breathing. 

What's worked for me is focusing on keeping my hips/butt up and letting my hips turn my body as I breath on each side. 

Basically, I focus on what my body does to breath on my primary side and try to transfer that to the other side.

 In the last 3 weeks I've gone from feeling like a drowning chicken (first day of bilateral breathing)  to feeling pretty good about my stroke. 

Have fun.

WOW!! Thanks for all the great advice!!! I went for my swim training today. The 3 main things I focused on (Thanks to the advice from you awesome BT members) was 1) Slowing down my pace..even slower than I was going when I thought I was slow. 2) Instead of bilateral breathing I took a breath every 2nd stroke and I changed the side I was breathing on every lap, 3) Trying to glide in the water and getting a full arm extension.

If you remember I said I have not been able to go over 200 yards at a time. Today I made it 1000 yards with stopping and without feeling overly tired. I was not able to freestyle the entire way. I had to add in a few breast strokes and a couple of lengths I turned on my back and just kicked, but I am so very thankful for all the advice. The sprint tri I have in a month has a 1000 yard swim. Now I know I can do it!! I need to keep working on technique and I want to be able to free style the entire time. After that, maybe I can add some speed (33 minutes for 1000 yards is not fast).

As much as I am looking forward to the tri, I was very nervous about the swim. Thanks to you guys I can now really focus on my training and not have to have a worry in the back of my mind if I can actually make the swim distance.

Thanks again!!

Excellent swimming!!! Congrats on the breakthrough! You will find that 1000 time gets faster each time you do it.  Keep the stroke long and relax!! Good luck in the tri!!

That is awesome.  I had similar gains in a short time period as well.  I would like to warn you though that jumping that much in distance so quickly could lead to an injury.  I did the same and ended up hurting both of my shoulders.  It may not happen to you but better safe than sorry. 

rzzqb8 - 2008-04-17 9:03 PM One more piece of advice...make sure you get in some open water swims before your tri. OWS is not the same as pool swims and you really need to get a feel for what to expect before you do the race. Its very easy to blow that off b/c its not as convenient as the pool and people assume its not that much different. Don't make that mistake! Also, I have found that the first 300-400 is the hardest when training. I'll get past 200 or so and then wonder how I'm ever going to make it the planned distance, but once I get over the hill and get into a good rhythm I feel alot better. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I talked to our coach today and he stated that we would swim the course at least twice before the tri. I was very glad about that because, as you stated, everyone has said OWS is a lot different. I am glad that this tri is a staggered start instead of everyone starting at one time.