Swimming: reality sucks

SWIM 1hr and 2150y, 2x [4x100 pacing practice, 200 pull]

This Evolve swim is probably the best thing I could do for swimming, but it's not enough! I need to kick my own ass a lot harder! I started this as a series of questions for Sam. But as I worked through it I realized I was answering my own questions, and that it didn't seem fair to ask her to answer questions and solve problems I haven't tried to fix myself yet. 

Over the weekend there was a thread on Slow Twitch about "frustration with swim, anyone just give up and work on fitness?". Very interesting read, sometimes intimidating, but it pointed out a lot of things I know but don't make use of -- especially my swim frequency and volume. 

For CDA12, I suffered all spring as one of the slowest swimmers at CHG's Masters 1-2x a week, logged hours and yards like never before, and didn't improve my speed at all. But I did gain lots of confidence in the water -- I knew I could swim for hours while getting run over by other swimmers. So after CDA I took a rather cynical view of swimming. I got frustrated and gave up.

I took a look this morning at the past few weeks: I'm swimming 2-3x a week, for 2-3 hours and about 5-6k yards! That's it! (I didn't have to look at the logs to know that, denial is powerful though). I don't need to ask "why don't I improve?", I already know the answer. My questions were how to do it without repeating what happened in 2012. 

I know I need to swim more, both volume and frequency. But I tend to tell myself "once I get sloppy, I might as well stop and quit practicing bad habits". Hence my  short 1hr swims. So my first question: How to balance quantity over quality? 

--From a cardiovascular standpoint I could swim for hours, but from a muscular endurance and specificity standpoint, I'm good for only 60 mins before I'm a swim wreck. 

--Should I just call it a day when I feel the slop and the muscles don't fire right, or redirect the workout to drills and get focused (that's what I do now, but am I drilling bad habits?).

Second question: how to increase both volume and frequency? Sam recommended 9K+/week as a minimum, the Slow Twitch thread even more. 

--What is the benefit of a two-a-day swim, say if I built up to the Monday morning Evolve swim then the YMCA masters that evening? 

--Or did a Monday afternoon swim in which I practice only the drills I learned that morning?

I'm again following my favorite iron training plan that includes new swim sets each week, with occasional repeats for benchmark testing. It's never boring -- short, mid, and long swims in the mix. But it peaks at only 2.5hrs/week of swimming. In 2012, I just repeated intervals. This year, I'll start with repeating drill sets, or adding 15 mins of drills to the Weds and Thurs swims. Then as I build up, I can start adding in more intervals.

Third question: where do I put extra workouts into the week? My week is already pretty full, but Fri-Sun is mostly swim free.  If I added 15 mins to each of the Weds and Thurs, that helps add time and yards without adding travel time. Other options:

--start doing the YMCA evening masters, 1hr starting at 7:30pm. YIKES! Bedtime!

--commit to the Friday swim, quit seeing it as a bonus

So here's my proposed plan, with a column for "Immediate Changes":

			Immediate	After a few weeks
	Current Swim	Other sports	Proposed Changes	Proposed Changes
Monday	1hr Evolve	aerobic bike	1hr Evolve, strength	1hr Evolve, YMCA masters
Tuesday		run speedwork; aerobic bike
Wednesday	1hr mid-length intervals	bike speedwork	as is +15 mins drills	as is + YMCA masters
Thursday	75min short, fast intervals	tempo group run	as is + 15 mins drills	75 mins + 15 mins drills
Friday	sometimes a make-up swim		bonus, drills only swim	bonus + strength
Saturday		long bike, brick run
Sunday		long run, aerobic bike
Totals	2-3hrs, 5-6k yards		4.5 hours, about 9k yards	6 hours, 12K yards