Swim Assessment and Testing Protocol

Many of us are often left wondering about how fast we should be swimming in the pool, how to measure progress and how that translates to Ironman racing. Keep in mind that we all have different amounts of swimming experience ranging from “just about none” to “I’ve been swimming for a few years now” and that these guidelines are designed to assist you in getting zoned in to your actual capabilities.

Step #1 - Swim Testing Protocol

The first step is to figure out what your current level of swimming is. One way to accurately assess this is to complete a 1,000 yard or meter time trial (depending on the pool that you swim in). Completing a 1,000 yard or meter time trial is a good starting point to assess Ironman swim fitness. If we use a shorter distance (say 100 or 200 yards) it more likely is testing our anaerobic/speed capabilities which often gives misleading results when translating this to Ironman swim fitness. Remember, Ironman swimming is about traveling 2.4 miles in the water AEROBICALLY to start off a really long race. We can technically choose a longer distance than 1,000 yards or meters but it is just not as practical since it is harder to count the laps, requires a lot of mental focus that sometimes strays on testing day, and requires a large amount of muscular efforts.

Prior to completing the time trial, you should warm-up. It seems that each of us requires a slightly different amount of time to warm up in any of the disciplines. Some can just get in and go and “hit it,” while others need some time to get the blood flowing. What is important is that you are warmed up, have done a few laps at expected time trial pace and that you ACCURATELY track your warm-up protocol for future testing. You will want to have your tests completed as consistently as possible to get the most accurate data out of the testing. A proper warm up could be as little as a few hundred yards or as much as a thousand yards. A warm up is not a 30 minute swim.

Attempt to complete these time trial tests when reasonably fresh in your training cycle. Completing a test when you are trashed, shelled and slogging through isn’t going to accurately measure your progress. So show up mentally and physically fresh and warm up the same way each time you test.

It is highly recommended that you take at least one split time during the test preferably at the mid-point of the time trial. Some athletes like hitting their watch as quickly as possible coming off the wall after each 250 while others only like to get a single split at the halfway point. Why is this important? It is important to get a split to assess how smoothly you are completing your time trial. What we don’t want in our testing OR OUR RACING is to come out of the gates “guns-a-blazing” going a hundred miles an hour only to fade late in the test or the race. We want to swim a smooth and consistent pace throughout the entire time trial with as little deviation in pace as possible.

What we are going to learn through our testing and training is how our perceived efforts while swimming often DO NOT correlate to our actual swim splits. We will have more on that later especially when assessing our Ironman swim race capabilities.

Case Study

Let’s go through an example to see how all of this comes together. Let’s pretend we have an athlete that is testing (let’s call him Paul), and after an adequate warm-up that was documented for future use, Paul completes the 1,000 meter time trial in 16:41 with an opening 500 of 8:22 and an ending 500 of 8:19. Open up the “SWIM PACE CHART IN METERS” from the website and under the 1,000 meters column, search down the column until we locate 16:41. We don’t see a 16:41 exactly but rather have to choose between 16:40 and 16:50. Since the 16:41 is a lot closer to 16:40, let’s use 16:40.

When you locate the line that contains 0:16:40 under the 1000 meters column move all the way over to the left to the 100m pace where you will see 0:01:40. That becomes your 100m T-pace (threshold pace) for workout purposes.

One other thing to note, the opening 500 meters was at 8:22 and the final 500 meters was at 8:19 which is almost a perfect even split. This demonstrated proper and consistent pacing during the test. What you will notice in the pool THAT SHOULD BE APPLIED TO YOUR RACE STRATEGY is how easy it is to hit certain paces early in the swim (within the first 500) versus how hard it is to hit certain paces late in the swim (that final half mile in an Ironman). It is imperative that the athlete constantly practice dialing in perceived efforts compared to actual swim splits throughout long swim sessions. The beginning of your long swim training sessions and the beginning of your Ironman swim race should feel EASY.

Swim Training Pace

We have now tested and assessed the athlete’s swim performance and have established a T-pace of 1:40 per 100 meters. Below are some “general” guidelines to help you assess if you are swimming too easy or too hard in your training sessions based on your real swim capabilities that were established by a consistent training protocol.

• For shorter aerobic sets that contain 100’s and 200’s with 5 to 20 second rest intervals, the athlete should be able to hit and maintain T-pace. Going back to the case study example, Paul should be seeking to hit 100’s and 200’s at a pace of 1:40 per 100 meters.
• For longer aerobic sets that contain 300’s, 500’s or longer, the athlete should be able to hit and maintain T-pace +5” (+ 5 seconds). Paul should be seeking to hit longer sets at a pace of 1:45 per 100 meters.
• For short speed sets that contain 50’s for example, the athlete should be seeking to hit sets that are faster than T-pace, perhaps T-pace – 5”. Paul should be seeking to hit shorter speed sets at a pace of 1:35 per 100 meters.

Typical Swim Training Errors<

The following are some are some of the most frequently committed mistakes of Ironman athletes that did not come from a swimming background;

1. If they are not participating in an organized swim practice like a masters class, the athlete doesn’t pay any attention to swim pacing guidelines. Rather, they just get in the pool and swim based on how they feel. At 5:30am, most of us feel like crap so we tend to swim like a zombie. If we swim after work, we tend to be really tired after a long day and we tend to swim like a zombie. TIP: Use the pace charts and hold yourself accountable to working in your sweet spot. Go to the website and print off the pace charts and have them laminated at Kinko’s or an office supply store. Bring the laminated pace charts with you to the pool during your training sessions. Be responsible for making progress in the pool. Most of us do not have unlimited time to swim during the week. Make effective use of your limited swim time by swimming at your most effective training paces.
2. If the athlete is participating in an organized swim practice like a masters class, they don’t pay attention to swimming at paces based on THEIR capabilities and fitness level. Rather, they tend to get in a particular lane and attempt to keep up with the others even if this means going anaerobic the entire workout. We tend to feel proud of ourselves when we are done with the workout (mostly because we are still alive) but we didn’t train ourselves properly to swim 2.4 miles aerobically. TIP: If you do enjoy swimming in a masters group, monitor your lap times and adjust your swim lanes accordingly. Don’t put yourself in a lane that is too easy and don’t put yourself in a lane that really is beyond your capabilities and is requiring you to swim anaerobically (unless that was the intended purpose of the workout). Note that most of us can only swim about three times a week and three anaerobic sessions per week is most likely not the ideal training protocol for most age-group athletes that do not come from a swimming background.
3. Similar to running and cycling, athletes tend to swim too fast during their aerobic sessions and too slow during sessions that are intended to work their upper limits. Basically, their easy days are too hard and their hard days are too easy. TIP: Know the purpose of the workout. It’s best to bring a workout to the pool with you along with a pace chart and swim at the appropriate paces. Learn to correlate your perceived efforts with your lap times. This is an acquired skill that is very hard to master. If the workout calls for speed, you need to make sure you are hitting your paces. If the workout calls for aerobic work, make sure you are swimming at a proper aerobic pace based on your actual testing.

Measuring/Benchmarking Progress

You should be re-testing yourself periodically perhaps as often as every 6 to 8 weeks. Be aware of the time of the year that it is. It is not possible to be at peak fitness year round. Keep in mind most of us are seeking improvement relating to an area of weakness (like our swim), so we should be testing ourselves and benchmarking the progress. Keep a record of all of your tests and your splits and ask yourself the following questions;

1. Did I improve?
2. If I didn’t improve, did I honestly follow a training plan and swim appropriate paces during that training phase? (Basically, are we fooling ourselves into thinking we actually did the work required to make improvement.)
3. If I didn’t improve and I did follow a plan and swim appropriate paces, is it possible that my limiter is technique based? Should I seek a private lesson with an instructor to get me past a plateau?
4. Did the plan contain enough training stimulus based on my fitness level? Was it too much volume where I didn’t get enough recovery or too little volume where I wasn’t pushing past established capabilities? Did the plan contain speedwork and how much or how little? What should be changed?

When we perform structured workouts with intended purposes and document our training practices, it serves as an excellent source of quantifiable feedback that is not based on subjective perception. As we accumulate questions on the best way to progress, these questions are the perfect platform to address with your coach or others in the Ironman community to move forward.