Training

To swim one mile in a 25 metre pool you'll need to complete 64 lengths.

If you're new to swimming, or are looking to improve, find out if there are any adult swimming sessions in your pool, perhaps a triathlon club or ‘Masters’ training session. These sessions are often welcoming and a great way to progress quickly. Often they also have a swimming coach on the pool side to provide set sessions for you, which can help with your technique.

A swimming session should consist of a Warm up, Main Set, Contrast Set and Warm Down:

• Warm up: Gradually warm up your arms and lungs as you increase your pace over some short distances.
• Main Set:  Typically a target distance broken down into shorter distances with short recovery times to help you work on your pace. For example: the target may be 1000 metres, so a simple session would be to swim 10 x 100 metres with one-minute rest between each four lengths (in a 25m pool). This way you can swim faster for the duration of the 100 metres than you would be able to over a straight 1000m swim.
• Contrast Set: After a main session the contrast set throws in some drills with perhaps some kick or stroke work.
• Warm down:  A reverse of the Warm up, reduce your speed and think about technique.

At other times you may go into the pool to complete a long distance swim, for example, to swim one mile non stop and time yourself.

Open Water Swimming Skills

We've teamed up with swim improvement specialists Swim for Tri to compile a series of skills sessions to help you prepare for Swim Serpentine.

There are sessions for every level of ability, whether you're just getting started with open water swimming, or you're aiming to improve your swim time and technique.

Check out the skills sessions by clicking on the button below, and visit the Swim for Tri website for more information on their services.

More training plans