My personal formula for Potomac Swim training
by Cheryl Wagner

  1. Start out by increasing your weekly yardage by only 10% per week.
  2. Every fourth week, stay at the same place (don't increase) to give your body a break.
  3. Gradually work up to doing 2 (or 2.5) times the race distance (for example 26,000 yards) in your highest training week.
  4. During each training week, vary your workouts with lsd (long slow distance) on one day, tempo training (a little faster than lsd) on another day, sprint workout on one day, etc.
  5. Try to hit your peak yardage at least 3 weeks before the swim, so that you're ready to scale back (taper) to 50% of peak yardage the week before the swim.
  6. At least once or twice do a long (several hour) swim in the pool (or open water) to practice the tedium of being in the water and also practice eating and drinking whatever you plan to eat and drink in the Potomac Swim.