Did you swim today?
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53 minutes ...0
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Kida_Adeylne wrote: »Master's practice. Different coach today, so different style of workout. Some were complaining that he didn't really give any tips - I got some, but only because my arm was hurting after he told me to keep my elbow up and I asked questions. Apparently still need to rotate more!
Every Coach/instructor seems to have radically different styles. I have had coach's who spent 1/2 there time in the water demonstrating strokes/techniques and others sit in a chair at the edge of the pool and just provide verbal guidance. That was my Swim Lesson's tonight.
1800 m / 60 minutes of drills and tips. It was a good cardio workout with ladder drills on crawl, breast and back. 25, 50, 75, 100, 100, 75, 50, 25. Not a lot of stroke improvement/guidance. Still The Proverbial Jelly Bean in the Jar.0 -
Juliet's right, there are as many different coaching styles as there are personalities. Some are very proactive, some wait to be asked. It's been my experience through quite a few coaches that, no matter their style, the vast majority will happily answer questions when asked & will watch closer when asked to check out a particular thing. The problem with that, particularly with newer swimmers, is that they may not know what to ask or be able to tell yet that something needs addressing......
Today's workout was all freestyle: 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 1500, 1000, 500, 250
Woke up this morning so tired that I actually sat on the edge of the bed trying to figure out what time it was, why my alarm went off & what I had to get up for. Once I remembered the why thoughts of the group here got me motivate to stand up & get about my day. I was still so much in a fog I had trouble following my normal morning routine, when I got to the gym & hit the water I was still very weary & had a lot of trouble warming up. The entire first half of my swim felt like a slog, but unlike Monday my form felt OK albeit a little weak. My set times were OK, pretty much on par with the norm, but my rest intervals were longer than I like. All of a sudden it all kicked in & the 2nd half of the workout felt great. I felt much stronger & felt like I was generating a lot of power. All in all, glad I went & I will go tomorrow & Friday since any exercise is probably out of the question over the weekend as I have work Saturday & Sunday......0 -
Mac, I think it's that kind of day. I didn't want to go today either, right up to getting out of the hot shower before my swim. Made it though, and very glad I did. 1840m in 1 hour, mostly drills.0
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Great swim, Kida - glad you made it in too......0
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Morning wake up swim: 2 miles @ 65 minutes0
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52 minutes today ...upping to 55 minute minimum tomorrow. Terribly jealous of the swim speeds of Juliet, Kida, Mac, and Bruce ...I'm still a wallowing whale ...maybe I'll count laps on the morrow, but I suspect I will have lost distance because I've incorporated breast stroke.0
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Soon you will transform yourself from a wallowing whale into a speedy dolphin!stephenrhinton wrote: »52 minutes today ...upping to 55 minute minimum tomorrow. Terribly jealous of the swim speeds of Juliet, Kida, Mac, and Bruce ...I'm still a wallowing whale ...maybe I'll count laps on the morrow, but I suspect I will have lost distance because I've incorporated breast stroke.
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stephenrhinton wrote: »52 minutes today ...upping to 55 minute minimum tomorrow. Terribly jealous of the swim speeds of Juliet, Kida, Mac, and Bruce ...I'm still a wallowing whale ...maybe I'll count laps on the morrow, but I suspect I will have lost distance because I've incorporated breast stroke.
You might surprise yourself! Your doing fantastic, and every day in the pool your getting better.0 -
Master's swim. LOTS of kicking sets offset by progressively shorter freestyle sets. I'll feel the kicking later.
Stephen - I've only been in this group a few days but you are an inspiration. Sticking with it is the key. The fact is that unless you are Michael Phelps, someone will always be faster and better than you are and even his day will come. 10 years of swimming and 2 years of Masters and I am regularly lapped by our faster swimmers. I mentally wave at them as they go by.
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Morning wake up swim: 2 miles @ 69 minutes0
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Kida_Adeylne wrote: »stephenrhinton wrote: »52 minutes today ...upping to 55 minute minimum tomorrow. Terribly jealous of the swim speeds of Juliet, Kida, Mac, and Bruce ...I'm still a wallowing whale ...maybe I'll count laps on the morrow, but I suspect I will have lost distance because I've incorporated breast stroke.
You might surprise yourself! Your doing fantastic, and every day in the pool your getting better.
My reaction is the same as Kida's - you are doing fantastic. You've been consistently upping your times & you're getting ready to jump it up again. As for distance, of course breast stroke will have an impact on it, but so what? My I.M. workout days are 1,000 yards less than my all freestyle workout days, yet I finish around the same time. Although Swim Calculator shows me burning less calories it feels like I get a better burn because the other strokes tax me more. At the very least, it's probably more beneficial to me cardio-wise since I know my heart rate runs higher pushing through I.M.'s. As for the amount of time I swim, it's because I have built up to it over time - I've been back at very seriously & much more committed for a little over 2 years, swimming 4-5 days a week. Even before that for a few years I did it with a half-hearted commitment - I would go for a few months & stop for a few months without pushing myself to higher yardage or faster speeds. Don't concern yourself with what anybody else does, you're in this for you & the only comparisons you need are to yourself to guage your progress. I really enjoy reading your updates (as well as everybody else's) & watching the improvements - especially when you've pushed past a point you never thought you'd be at.......
Today was the I.M. workout: 250 free, 500 free, 1000 free, 5 x 200 I.M., 200 free, 3 x 200 I.M., 2 x 100 I.M., 1000 free, 500 free, 250 free. My rest intervals were longer than I would have liked, but my swimming felt pretty strong - strong enough that I'm starting to plan out my next bump up in the I.M. yardage. My ultimate goal is to do 10 x 200 I.M. When I started with the I.M.'s, I was able to do 5 x 200 I.M. & any others I did had to be 100's as that was all I could handle. The way I did my sets was 5 x 200 I.M., a 500 free to give my arms & shoulders a break & then 5 x 100 I.M. When I wanted to start upping my I.M. yardage I wanted to keep my overall yardage the same (when I had previously tried to do something similar I was doing as much yardage as my all freestyle days & it was starting to hurt my shoulders, so I backed off), so I would take 100 yards off that freestyle set in the middle & add it to an I.M. in the 2nd group so that I was doing 5 x 200 I.M., 400 free, 1 x 200 I.M. & 4 x 100 I.M. I'm now at the point of doing 8 x 200 I.M. in total, I don't think I want to do 9 of them & 1 x 100 I.M., so I'm thinking of adding the 9th but keeping the 2 x 100 for now. In order to keep the total yardage the same that eliminates the freestyle set in the middle but I don't think I'm ready to do all those I.M.'s in a row yet without a break, so I think I'll move the 500 free from the freestyle sets at the end into the middle of the I.M.'s. Once I feel strong enough after doing the 9 x 200 I.M.'s I'll make those 2 x 100 I.M.'s into a 200, giving me the 10 that I want & as I get stronger I'll push that 500 free further & further back until I can do the 10 in a row (starting with it splitting the I.M.'s into groups of 5 & 5, then 6 & 4, 7 & 3, etc. until I can do the 10 in a row). At least that's the way I'm leaning now, it seems to be the way that makes the most sense to me right now - but we'll see how it goes when I'm ready to incorporate the plan.....1 -
55 minutes, only 1425m ...frustrating swim. Not only am I slower than I was two weeks ago (I didn't do breast stroke today so I could compare apples to apples), but the other lane was doing some sort of aquafitness class so I felt like I was fighting the wave effect most of the time. When they wrapped up, the next class decided that was their cue to take over the pool (both lanes) a full 20 minutes before the start of the session. So then I had standing obstacles in my lane. Was it not clear by my swimming up and down that I was still using this lane?
Tomorrow is another day ...but I'm gonna go back to listening to my audiobook for a few days and not count laps ....0 -
Those classes definitely affect swim times. Next time the 2nd class takes over the lane you're using before they're due to start tell the lifeguard. If the lifeguard doesn't do anything go to the facility manager - you're paying to use the pool just like they are, the fact that they're a class doesn't give them the right to interfere with you when it's not their time to be in there.....0
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That's the greatest compliment I have had in a long time - calling me fast!!stephenrhinton wrote: »Terribly jealous of the swim speeds of Juliet, Kida, Mac, and Bruce ...I'm still a wallowing whale ...maybe I'll count laps on the morrow, but I suspect I will have lost distance because I've incorporated breast stroke.
As they swim by I look at there technique and try to compare it to my stroke and pick out what I can do to improve.mpeters1965 wrote: »Stephen - I've only been in this group a few days but you are an inspiration. Sticking with it is the key. The fact is that unless you are Michael Phelps, someone will always be faster and better than you are and even his day will come. 10 years of swimming and 2 years of Masters and I am regularly lapped by our faster swimmers. I mentally wave at them as they go by.
Somedays you feel like a pylon in the water and everyone is passing you, other days when it all comes together you are the speedster. Keep putting in the time and effort and you will be rewarded by constantly seeing improvements in technique/speed. When I started I would swim 25m drop into the corner of the lane and take a 1 lap breather ( everyone in the lane would cycle past me ) and then I would join in to the gap and repeat. Then upped it to 50m, 75m, 100m etc. Next thing I knew I was only stopping every 15 minutes for a water break. People would still catch up to me ( 2/4 length cycle ) and lap me at the turn but I would not have to stop for a breather, now its 8/12 length cycle before the Speedsters catch up to me.
One of my Local Inspirations is a 70+ lady who uses a cane to walk. She walks down the ramp and leaves the cane on the edge of the pool and turns into a Dolphin, the only people she doesn't lap are the Swim club, Life Guards and the triathletes. She modestly says that's what 65 years of swimming will do for you.stephenrhinton wrote: »55 minutes, only 1425m ...frustrating swim.
Tomorrow is another day ...but I'm gonna go back to listening to my audiobook for a few days and not count laps ....
Nothing wrong with that distance or Time Stephen.
Today was more Drills at my swim lessons 1200m 50 mins. 600m less than Tuesday and 225m less than Stephen!! Go Stephen
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stephenrhinton wrote: »55 minutes, only 1425m ...frustrating swim. Not only am I slower than I was two weeks ago (I didn't do breast stroke today so I could compare apples to apples), but the other lane was doing some sort of aquafitness class so I felt like I was fighting the wave effect most of the time. When they wrapped up, the next class decided that was their cue to take over the pool (both lanes) a full 20 minutes before the start of the session. So then I had standing obstacles in my lane. Was it not clear by my swimming up and down that I was still using this lane?
Tomorrow is another day ...but I'm gonna go back to listening to my audiobook for a few days and not count laps ....
Stephen, that is frustrating. Double check the lane availability with the lifeguard too. It will make him or her more aware. We have those fitness classes too, and as much as we hate waiting to begin until the last minute of lap swim, people are pretty courteous. I've also been that lap swimmer who makes them wait
Keep at it. You might not feel fast, but your distance is waaaaay beyond mine. I am not pushing myself as hard as you are. I could be making much better progress, but I'm not pushing at each swim the way I could. One of my main goals is to continue to progress (albeit slowly) and to enjoy it in the process. You're doing great. One of the biggest lessons I'm learning from swimming is to just work through those hard days the way you work through ANY hard thing or day. Because it makes the good days better
~Curly0 -
stephenrhinton wrote: »55 minutes, only 1425m ...fruswim. Not only am I slower than I was two weeks ago (I didn't do breast stroke today so I could compare apples to apples), but the other lane was doing some sort of aquafitness class so I felt like I was fighting the wave effect most of the time. When they wrapped up, the next class decided that was their cue to take over the pool (both lanes) a full 20 minutes before the start of the session. So then I had standing obstacles in my lane. Was it not clear by my swimming up and down that I was still using this lane?
Tomorrow is another day ...but I'm gonna go back to listening to my audiobook for a few days and not count laps ....
Not to worry mate. I would say concentrate on working on your technique for now. You may even get slower for awhile but it pays off.
Until the end of last year my swims were I.M swims everytime. At end of last year I decided I wanted to be a good and fast freestyler and I'm dedicating what's turning out to be the whole of this year to freestyle!
So I got a watch so I could time my swims to the second. I don't have access to a coach and I then picked up (and continue picking up) all the advice on this group. I did a lot of web browsing and videos on YouTube. I bought 2 books (Swim Speed, Taormina and Swim Smooth, Newsome). The books have been immensely helpful! I bought a third Taormina training pack later which I may begin to use later in the year.
I was a competent swimmer and had consistently been swimming 96 lengths mostly IM for sometime! But with all the reading I realized I had a lot to learn, unlearn and relearn. So I deliberately started taking up the new info I had and making changes to the freestyle stroke I had always known. Most times the changes were not comfortable. In some cases, they were downright awkward and unpleasant and made me feel less like a fish and more like a stiff robot in the water (eg the change to a high elbow catch). In some cases they made me slower at first. With one particular change I became 8 min slower overnight (MINUTES not seconds)! Boy was that disheartening. Imagine that: ive bought the books, im making the changes añd after all that, my reward was to swim SLOWER.
But as I kept at it, I'm now swimming faster than ever, and I'm still looking to further refine technique.
So my encouragement to you is take the time and diligence to zero in on technique and if it means you may swim slower for awhile that's OK. It eventually pays off big time!0 -
As they swim by I look at there technique and try to compare it to my stroke and pick out what I can do to improve.
Awesome advice!0 -
I swam yesterday but didn't have access to a computer until this morning - 30 min 1250m ladder with 30 sec rest between: 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 200... etc.0
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Swam last night, but didn't post (I often don't post). All measurements in yards:
400 Warmup
6 X 50 on 1:05
5 X 50 on 1:00
4 X 50 on 0:55
3 X 50 on 0:50
2 X 50 on 0:45
1 X 50 on 0:40
4 X 100 kick w/20 sec rest between
4 X 100 on 1:20
250 cool down0 -
58 minutes ...worked on side breathing a bit ...best tip, think of the breath-in as a pause in the stroke, not as part of it. When it starts to feel natural, then you can start lessening the pause ...oh, and goggles, I don't think I could work on this at all without goggles0
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Great job, everybody!!!
Stephen - that's great progress, keep concentrating on the side breathing & it will feel natural very quickly.....
All freestyle today (in yards): 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 1500, 1000, 500, 2500 -
1800m Breast, Back and Crawl : Ladders with 45 seconds rest between.
50, 100, 150,150, 100, 50
Last 50 in each set was a sprint, or at least an attempted sprint.0 -
Swam last night, but didn't post (I often don't post). All measurements in yards:
400 Warmup
6 X 50 on 1:05
5 X 50 on 1:00
4 X 50 on 0:55
3 X 50 on 0:50
2 X 50 on 0:45
1 X 50 on 0:40
4 X 100 kick w/20 sec rest between
4 X 100 on 1:20
250 cool down
Fascinating El Bence. I may try this on one of my sprint days! It is a lot of fast lengths though. I don't think I could get through that many lengths at that speed, with increasingly shorter rest intervals, but it's a great challenge!
BTW still doing 50s in 27 seconds? (was going through some old threads) - whew - crazy pace!0 -
I have been out of the pool for over a week now. Very unusual!
I was taking a break, but my body is more sore now than it has been while I was swimming. Joints. Muscles.
Go figure...
Perhaps I'm picking up a bug of some sort!0 -
Morning wake up swim: 2 miles @ 66 minutes0
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57 minutes ...now that I'm working on side-breathing and getting my head down my crawl strokes 'feel' less powerful. Maybe just I'm pulling against less resistance?0
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6 length warm-up and then did 30 lengths/750m in 32minutes. 750m is the distance for the Sprint Triathlon in August so I need to log 5-10 times for the position ranking.
I then did another slow 30 lengths of various drills. ~1650 m total.
That's probably what it is, you have improved your streamline position in the water therefore it takes less energy. Stroke improvements will do that to you. Small changes and tweaks will definitely change how it feels. 57 minutes - great swim no matter what distance.stephenrhinton wrote: »57 minutes ...now that I'm working on side-breathing and getting my head down my crawl strokes 'feel' less powerful. Maybe just I'm pulling against less resistance?
On my crawl I have a habit of dropping my head a little to much when tracking the lane markers on the bottom of the pool which actually increases resistance since this takes me out of the optimal streamline body position, as the instructor said " you are creating a bow wave".
Stephen we all have to work with what ever limitations our body has. In my backstroke an old injury to my right shoulder/arm makes me bend it before it has entered the water causing me to constantly fade to the right due to the weaker stroke. So I only do Backstroke when my right side is against the lane rope that way I don't wander off into someone else's swim space. Would be a disaster in an open water situation as I would be making big circles.0 -
This is actually from a little over a week ago. Although, I have been swimming almost every day, I've only been doing kick sets since my wrist injury but I thought I would post one of my more challenging workouts in case anyone wanted to try it out.
Totsl Yards: 5000
Warm Up (350): 200 SPD*, 150 kick (free, fly, fly on back)
Main Set (4550)
1 x 650, 600, 550 (descend, :30RI)
1 x 500, 450, 400 (descend, :30RI)
1 x 350, 300, 250 (descend, :30RI)
1 x 200, 150, 100, 50 (build each 50 and descend, :20RI)**
Cool Down (100): 100 easy swim
* Strokes per distance. Stretch out on the reach, try to reduce your number of strokes per length.
* * On the descend, begin each distance with the same effort you ended the previous distance. The last 50 should be sprint effort. For example:
200 = 50 @ 70%, 50 @ 75%, 50 @ 80%, 50 @ 85%;
150 = 50 @ 85%, 50 @ 90%, 50 @ 95%;
100 = 50 @ 95%, 50 @ 100%;
50 = 100%0 -
3 miles continuous. Nothing complicated, just 3 miles. Thinking about practicing with the Masters team this week if I can get to the gym early enough. Haven't practiced as a member of a swim team in 41 years.0
