Be Iron Fit Intermediate Plan Swims

Big fan of the Fink plans, have used them several times but IMO the swims are total crap, and NO they are not enough to prepare you especially if you are not a strong swimmer. (And why is a huge chunk of them always drills? SWIM!)

You're much better off joining a Masters squad, or getting workouts from swimplan.com, or trolling the BT plans and forums for suggested/favorite workouts.

I don't really come from a swimming background but would consider myself an ok swimmer.  I have done both the Masters program and tried swimplan and would say that I have gotten the best results from following Fink's plan.  This is my first IM so you are kind of worrying me that you think they are not enough to prepare me for the IM swim.  

I am 15 weeks in and have done the 3000Y continuous swim averaging 1:40/100Y at a 75-80% effort so I would think that with another 15 weeks I should be more than prepared to swim 4224 yards comfortably.  I guess it all depends on how aggressive you are approaching the swim portion - right?  

I'm with Yanti.  I used the plan with great success for B2B with regards to the bike and run but I thought the swim plan in that edition was a total bore and not much of a challenge.  Besides the BT workouts which I had several that I liked from the half and full plans when I was a silver member, I dug around:

http://ntcmastersswim.blogspot.com/

Some of the swims are to much IM type stuff but if you look around you'll find some good workouts and variety to keep your brain engaged.  Lots of options.

here's my 0.02.

I had NO (as in ZERO, absolutely no previous instruction) swim experience when I got into tris and did an IM my first year.  I learned to swim the freestyle by watching youtube.  I followed the intermediate swim plan and i did feel prepared for the distance (i did IMWI).  However, I also swam with masters once a week for about half the training period (I replaced one workout with the masters workout.  The masters workout was shorter total meters, but it was usually pretty set heavy and was usually a pretty demanding workout.) (I'm a TOTAL fan of masters.  If you can find one if your area: join.)

So... I think it depends...and everyone will take to it differently.    I'm currently training for IM #3 and and following the intermediate plan again as I feel it prepares me for the 2.4 miles.

Again, this is just my experience.  There are awesome people on here that know a TON more than I do...their advice is solid.  And if you feel like you need more - you can always add/tweek the fink swim workouts with workouts from other plans.

Good luck on your season!!

I found Fink's swim plans to be utterly boring.  There's not much variety and when you get more into the plan, it's hard to stay motivated doing the same swim workouts over and over again.  However, I did see a decrease in my swim times and I got pretty fast once I got to the 3,000 yards swims but then never got faster after that.

I've used the BT HIM to IM bridge plan and the swim workouts on that plan are just awesome.  They are more frequent and the distance goes well over 3,500 yards.  I want to say that the max swim is 5,000 and that only happens once.  There are a few 4,000 swims from what I remember, but not too many so it's never daunting.

I've used the swims from that BT plan plan for 2 IM's and felt 110% prepared for the IM swim.  I always feel very strong in the water when I use that plan which really helps with confidence when you're in the water with 2,000 other athletes.  I would totally use the swims from that BT plan and substitute them for Fink's IM swims when I do another IM.  It's definitely worth checking out!

Thank you for blog post...made my day!

I read the book when i was out choosing an IM plan and if I remember correctly he gives the workouts but he stresses that he prefers people join a masters group for swim preparation.

In my experience, if you already have decent swim fitness, the Fink plan should allow you to maintain that over the 30-week cycle, though you may not improve all that much from where you started. 

I did IMWI 2010 with a 1:14 swim (not great, but not horrid) using the BT Beginner IM plan.  This year, I honestly don't care if I swim any faster than 1:14 (well, okay, I care just a little).  I just want to bike and run faster - which is what drew me to Fink's plan.  Half-way though the plan, my LSD swims don't appear to be suffering.  My splits are in the 1:34-1:38/100y range (again, not great but not horrid).  However, my bike and especially my run are feeling great.  I guess I'll have a better idea about his plan's effectiveness in another 15 weeks.

Definitely this.

Let me put it this way: if you're not capable of an IM swim under the time limit going into the Fink just-finish or intermediate plans, I do not think it is enough to prepare.

It is enough to maintain.

Interesting thread.  I'm doing a Iron Fit plan right now, and thought the swims were a bit LONG up front, but also figured they would get longer as the plan proceded.  I just checked and sure enough, nothing over 3500.  That surprises me.

In general, I think that's fine.  In all the plans I have had before, there weren't THAT many swims over that.  BUT, there were always 2-3 that were in the 4k to 4.5k range.  I think I will add a few in there, personally.  I think it's important mentally (if not physically) to know how it feels to go 2.4 miles plus...  Good for confidence.

Just checked the BT IM plans.  Advanced has 5-6 over 4k, Intermediate has 8-10 over 4k, and Beginner has 5-6 as well, and some of those are even over 5k.

Good to know.  I can't seem to get much better anyway.  And I'm top 25%.  I can live with that.  5k swims are not the most fun.