This is a more common excuse than "my dog ate my homework." Many swimmers (typically beginners more so than experienced swimmers) constantly wonder how they can swim 10,000 to 40,000 yards a week and not get any faster.
First off, let me say that gaining endurance in your swim ability and going from barely being able to make it across the pool to swimming a 500, to swimming a 1000, to swimming a mile, and so on is an outstanding accomplishment. I know many people that entered the sport of triathlon without the slightest swim ability and now they can swim a mile without stopping. Watching these swimmers' progress is amazing because it is easy to track. It is very easy to tell the difference from when they first start and can't put their face in the water to when they swim their first mile.
But once you have the distance down, it is time to worry about speed. Like anything, to get better/faster you have to practice above and beyond what you would do in a competition. This is how your body gets adapted to swimming fast. So to swim fast you have to...well...swim fast! What you do in practice directly correlates to how you will swim in a competition.
Here is a real-life example:
I have a high school 500 swimmer who was consistently swimming around 5:05-5:15 in meets with a PR of 5:05.70. He really wanted to get under that 5:00 mark. This would pretty much guarantee him a spot in the state meet. So the two weeks leading up to districts, we started doing intervals in practice that would give him some experience swimming at this speed. One of the sets I had him do were 10 x 50yds on a 35 second interval. During this set he had to hold 30 seconds or better for each 50. Another set I had him do was 5 x 100yds on a 1:05 interval. During this set he had to hold 1:00 per 100yds. Doing these sets not only gave him some experience swimming at this pace, but also gave him a huge boost of confidence that he could go under 5:00. At the district meet he went 4:55.82 (and chased a guy down in the final 50 yards to be district champion).
Once you start over-exerting yourself in your practice sets, faster times in meets will come. Also, once you get that goal you have been after you will have a lot more confidence leading to more time drops in the future. This 500 swimmer's confidence was definitely boosted as this week he swam a 500 in 5:14 in the middle of practice. That is a time he would have accepted in a meet earlier in the season.
Here are some sets I would highly recommend for getting faster:
Broken 200s (4 x 50 w/ 10" rest after each) - subtract 30" from your final time for your adjusted 200 time
4 x (75, 50, 25) - rest 20" after the 75, rest 10" after the 50. As the swim get shorter, increase your speed
4 x 100 descend - this means to increase your speed each 100. Each 100 should be 2-4 seconds faster than the previous one
There are many, many sets you can do to increase your speed in the pool. Just remember to push yourself. If you want to get faster, your practices should NEVER feel like a walk in the park!
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