There are a variety of training plans and materials out there that attempt to guide you to train for a triathlon swim. However, a lot 
of them are vague and confusing, or just plain inadequate. “Swim for 30 minutes” isn’t really a good form of a swim workout, and neither is “Do 1800 meters”. When setting up your swim workouts for your sprint triathlon training plan, there are some specific things you need to keep in mind.
What I see as missing in most plans are two things:
1. Structured workouts
2. Dryland training
Let’s focus on the first one today, structured workouts. What are you missing?
If you are training on your own, you are most likely just swimming laps, or maybe adding a few sprints or some basic interval training. But, do you know for sure that any of that is helping your swim? It could all just be spinning wheels, so to speak.
First, make sure you are doing drills. I have a ton of drills in my products, and throughout triswimcoachonline.com. Start with the basics and get your balance in order. Don’t worry about overdoing drills, most people don’t do enough, so spending a little extra time improving your stroke will usually pay off.
Second, be sure to do some interval training. This will improve your endurance and get you going a little faster when you have to make intervals. But don’t overdo it here. This is just part of your swim workout, and it’s not everything. Some days, it may be better to give yourself rest intervals (i.e. 10×100′s with :30 rest in between) and do some lengths at 90 or 100% (i.e. last 25 at 90%).
Third, don’t forget to have fun! Do what you can to make your swim workouts enjoyable, rather than just grinding out yards. Doing a lot of distance swimming won’t help you if you are doing it mindlessly and because you think you “should” be doing it. Ideas for fun: do strokes besides freestyle. Kick with a board and chat with your friends. Put on some fins and do some underwater kicking. Do some “deck ups”. Drink a beer after every 500 yards you complete. (Joking! Although, that would make things interesting. ;) ).
Next time, we’ll get into some dryland workouts that can not only make things fun, but can take your swim to the next level- and allow you to cut down on endless laps.
Head over to http://triathlonsprinttraining.com for free info on training for a sprint triathlon!