congradulations on your second world championship!

When training for an xterra, how much time do you spend working on your swim. Is once a week for about 1.5hrs enough? I'm not a good swimmer and want to be more comfortable in the water but i spend most of my training days on the bike.

Thanks,
melissa.

Right now I am answering from 7000 feet in the backcountry while I am on a snowboarding trip! Taking some time off is a good idea, but keeping your mind on where you want to be helps to keep you on track even while you are taking a break from triathlon training. Because of how technical swimming is, that is the sport that I really have to pay attention to while I am in "offseason" mode.

I have to admit, before coming up here I was in the pool. I find I need to swim often, and usually about 3 times a week, preferably four. Today before hopping in a helicopter to go snowboard, I hit the gym and did a treadmill workout and a swim just to get me on track to take four days completely away from bikes, swim goggles and running shoes.

With three one hour swims a week with a good coach you can improve alot, especially coming from one. Swimming requires frequency, there is no way around that, so unfortunately, you need to try to get in a few more times.

Joining a swim group will help alot. You will get a lot out of working with a coach.

That being said, depending on how much time you have to spend, I would spend 60% of your time on your riding, and split the other 40% on swimming and running. So if you only have 10 hours per week to train, it will be less swimming than three hours, maybe only two. But three half hour swims will be better than two one hour swims. You lose your feel for the water after too much time out.

All the best!