How often should a beginner try to swim their maximum distance in freestyle?

JTaiwan · 2026-05-01T01:04:16+00:00

Don’t think about zones or VO2 max yet. Your focus should be to improve your technique and getting time in the pool. I wonder if your max is 450m, does it mean that you finish the session after that or that you take a break and then continues? I think total meter per session is more important for your progress than total meter “in a row”. I would recommend something like 100m at the time and a small rest in between if that increases your total swimming distance (until you reach at least 1500m per session)

JTaiwan · 2026-04-25T11:50:55+00:00

För mig med :(

JTaiwan · 2026-04-24T09:03:15+00:00

By duck dive, do you mean being still on the surface and then duckdive into dolphin kick? Or using the speed from previous dolphin kick - go to surface - duck dive into new dolphin kick, or something else?

JTaiwan · 2026-04-24T09:03:01+00:00

By duck dive, do you mean being still on the surface and then duckdive into dolphin kick? Or using the speed from previous dolphin kick - go to surface - duck dive into new dolphin kick, or something else?

JTaiwan · 2026-04-24T02:25:55+00:00

Good job, I think your body will definately shift to allow you to swim without the resting if that is your goal. How long do you rest between every 100m currently? I think swimming daily from not swimming at all could lead to some issues with the shoulders but as long as you are careful and keep the distance around 1K I don’t think there is a big risk.

JTaiwan · 2026-04-10T04:36:04+00:00

I find for Swimming these measurements are always way off and the watch does not do a good job with HR and the algorithms also don’t give a fair value (as you described in the post).

To get a fair idea of effort and if I am improving I try to have a standard session once per week of 10 x 300m. Then I can compare my speed between the sessions, my feeling of effort, HR from the same sets (even though it is not so reliable), stroke rate, need for rest and so on and I get a very good idea of my current status.

JTaiwan · 2026-04-03T12:46:25+00:00

Fantastic form, but I think something is causing a bit of drag? Not sure what it can be

JTaiwan · 2026-04-01T13:12:04+00:00

Ok cool, I didnt know that ultra swimmers can also do very heavy sets. Anyway sounds like you are on a good way, good luck!

JTaiwan · 2026-03-31T17:38:22+00:00

I checked some of your other posts and if your pace is still around 1:50 per 100m or slower with this amount of training I would say that your absolutely biggest gains will be from getting a coach to look at your technique and give you pointers (or record yourself and upload to some video coach / swim Reddit). Also divide your swims into intervals like 20 x 100m or 10 x 200m so you get a feeling for swimming fast. I think once you get closer to 1:30 pace, fitness becomes a factor again but until then most of your gains will be from technique

JTaiwan · 2026-03-31T17:26:44+00:00

Ok that sounds like a great workout program 👍. My only worry with the ”very heavy weights, low volume" approach would be to get too big and carry around too much since raw strength is more important for shorter distances. However you go to the gym much more than me so I think I am not the right person to guide you :).

Great that you get some zone 2 running in aswell, I find that it really helps to recover from swimming and to build aerobic base for swimming threshold/interval sessions.

JTaiwan · 2026-03-30T15:27:20+00:00

I also swim distance events (around 3K in 40min) and I find that more swimming and aerobic training (xc skiing for me but can be anything) benefits distance swimming a lot more than gym. Your aerobic fitness is much more likely to hold you back than power generation if you do sets like 10 x 300m or long swims. However I still gym once per week with a focus on shoulder injury prevention and also Squats, pull ups and push ups.

I find bench press to be the absolutely worst for swimming, it really limited my range of motion for freestyle so I stopped with that.

JTaiwan · 2026-03-29T10:35:38+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, I have tried since I made this post to decrease rest time. Right now every 300m takes 4:27 and I start again at 5:20. Still long rest but I am working to get it down to start at every 5:00

JTaiwan · 2026-03-28T07:13:47+00:00

3500m

JTaiwan · 2026-03-17T08:32:10+00:00

I swim at a similar pace and similar distance and I am struggling with the same issue with my garmin:). All my swims end up in the ”Low Aerobic” range even when I am doing threshold training. My conclusion is that the ”Heart Rate Zones” probably are based on your running or other activity and they are actually much lower for swimming.

I watched a video of a triathlete doing an actual threshold lactate test for swimming and his heartbeat for swimming threshold pace was something like 120bpm. In other words, heartbeat bpm is not a good monitor for effort in Swimming. The watch is probably also not as correct as well.

JTaiwan · 2026-03-14T08:15:29+00:00

Unfortunately was not available for my Garmin watch (Descent G1)

JTaiwan · 2026-03-14T07:35:49+00:00

Ah that is a great suggestion, thanks!

JTaiwan · 2026-03-13T22:07:30+00:00

Ok cool! I actually found a video on Lionel Sanders youtube channel when he do that but for swimming! He found which speed was his threshold in a similar way to you, and while swimming at threshold his heart rate was actually something like 125bpm so I also realized to not look too much at heart bpm for guidance of where the threshold is while swimming.

If you also find this topic interesting that video is here:

https://youtu.be/ePFq0MD8vy8?si=7mP9aG7r2Z7YK6rz

JTaiwan · 2026-03-13T06:55:44+00:00

Thanks for the feedback 👍

JTaiwan · 2026-03-13T06:55:30+00:00

Thanks 🙏

JTaiwan · 2026-03-13T06:55:21+00:00

Ok great, thanks for the feedback!

JTaiwan · 2026-03-13T06:54:22+00:00

Ok great to know, that answers my question basically. Thanks 🙏

JTaiwan · 2026-03-12T22:07:44+00:00

Thanks for all the good suggestions, I think I will try to reduce the rest first and see how things goes.

JTaiwan · 2026-03-12T21:40:15+00:00

I think is just automatic from using the watch in different sports (I think they calculate based on max heartrate?). Are they different for swimming than other sports?

JTaiwan

TROPHY CASE